SHARK! Where? BC! What...?

A 16-foot female Great White shark named ‘Kara’ has been tracked winding its way through British Columbia waters (cue JAWS theme). Cover the pool! Drain the bathtub! Call the kids in!

In honour and awe of her large arrival, I offer a video I recorded for writers and non-writers about the magic of JAWS and the miracle of resilience.

Full disclosure, I was a shark fanatic in the '70s. Childhood fanaticism is a pure joy, hard to find in adulthood. Anyone else fanatical about stuff when you were a kid?

Click on the photo:

A Marketing Whiz I am not... but...

I’ve never self-marketed a book before, or anything else. I’ve never launched a book in 2026 before, either. I’m more adept at watching the world with concern, second-guessing myself, and throwing ideas to the wind.

But amid all the weird sales graphs, ads, algorithm noise, and small mysteries of a book launch, something lovely and unexpected happened. As sales for My Last Friends on Earth picked up, readers have been finding my earlier novel Understanding Ken again—and picking it up.

Bonus! (another bonus - this is an update (April 209) - My Last Friends On Earth went #1 Bestseller in eBooks on Amazon. That was a surprise.

If you came for three kids fighting an empire in the future—and enjoyed the ride—there’s another kid, about 150 years earlier, dealing with divorce, confusion, and growing up in the 1970s.

Two different stories. Same real questions.

How do you fight for what’s right—without becoming the hate you're fighting?

How do you forgive yourself for mistakes?

How do you keep joy while figuring things out?

Those questions feel very real for me these days.

If you’ve read either of these books, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

More to come, god-willing

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The Launch is On: My Last Friends on Earth

I’m writing to share a moment. After years of work, my new YA sci-fi/fantasy novel My Last Friends on Earth is finished. And I'm still in love with it. In fact, the love got deeper recently in the fine-tuning. Maximizing moments. Elevating themes through action. It was thrilling.

Some of you know my creative work from novels (Understanding Ken), documentaries (Facing Ali, Spirit Unforgettable), or my music.

My creativity has always reflected and reshaped what I believe, what I’m trying to understand, or what I still hope is possible. The energy and spirit of this book feels like the truest reflection of those ideas, hopes, and dreams—for our kids, for us, for the future—minus the dystopian setting.

My Last Friends on Earth is a story about what it means to fight back—even against impossible odds and terrible enemies—without losing your soul. I wanted it big-themed and big-hearted.

Three young fugitives—a fifteen-year-old raised in a data lab, a sixteen-year-old warrior, and a nine-year-old genius—discover that friendship, unlikely allies, a little courage, kindness, and uncovering the hidden truth of human history may be their only hope against a ruthless, invading empire. I mean who hasn't felt that?

The writing journey itself was a battle—compared to, say, Understanding Ken. But it had a familiar pattern with the writing process: the more I rewrote, the clearer and more real the characters’ voices became, until any time I was close to giving up, they’d wake me in the night yelling, “Shut up and rewrite, idiot! We’re risking our lives here!”

They were loud.

With the launch approaching, I’ll be posting short updates—behind-the-scenes moments, early looks, and the official launch link.

I’ll definitely need support with the launch—to fight the algorithm. Can we conquer (tame?) that beast? Together? God knows.

Either way, thank you so much for being part of this journey to come. It means a lot to me—and even more to the kids in the story.

For the record, they’re still on the run. I think I’ve lost my mind.

With gratitude,

Pete