Today I’d like to talk about politics. To take a long view of politics. Specifically, the politics of one city: Longview, Texas. And even more specifically, of one particular political act in Longview, Texas. What’s so special about Longview, Texas? Well, for one...

In 1996, I decided I wanted to have a career in Hollywood. Exactly how and when … that part was a little fuzzy.

The world of a child is not innocent, or naïve, or simplistic, or anything like an adult’s dumbed-down Disneyfied version of life. A child’s life and perspective is weighty with terror, wonder, bewilderment, yearning, and near-infinite depth of feeling.

One of my favorite speeches: The commander of U.S. Special Operations Command explains why changing the world starts with making your bed in the morning.

Last Wednesday was my birthday, and the universe gave me a present.

Chapter 4 of Among Heroes tells the story of Brandon’s and John Zinn’s friendship, their entrepreneurial struggles, and how it was John’s example that pulled Brandon through the most difficult time of his life — a few years after John’s death in Jordan in 2010.

Getting to know Matt affected me in two ways: First, it made me realize a dedication to serving that I hadn’t known was in me. He also made me want to up my game.

Dave was the embodiment of the expression larger than life. Everything he did, he took to a level beyond what anyone else would think possible. He was more hilarious, more outrageous, more audacious. As his mom, Maggie, put it, “Dave lived more in his twenty-nine and a half years than others could live in a hundred.”

It’s no accident that my next book comes out the day after Memorial Day, because it is a tribute to the memories of eight heroes. But it’s more than that.

Exactly four weeks from today my next book comes out. Writing it has been one of the most emotional journeys I’ve ever taken.