MOST RECENT WORK:
Crucibles: How Formidable Rites of Passage Shape the World’s Most Elite Organizations was released on June 10, 2025 via Agate Publishing in hardcover, e-book, and audio-book formats. Retail links are provided below, beneath the book cover art and description.
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ABOUT THE BOOK: Crucibles: How Formidable Rites of Passage Shape the World’s Most Elite Organizations provides an in-depth examination of the ways that rites of passage have shaped the world’s most formidable organizations, from ancient Shaolin monks to modern NASA astronauts.
Crucibles explores the unique and sometimes hidden role that initiation rituals play in establishing elite groups from cultures around the world and across history. From the grueling physical trials of warrior castes to the intellectual challenges faced by members of secret societies, Crucibles delves deep into the tests such groups design and deploy to separate aspirants from members.
Why are people willing to endure such demanding trials? What do these crucible experiences reveal about human nature and commitment? How do these crucibles shape the organizations that require them, both for better and worse? With practical lessons for leaders in business, education, and beyond, Crucibles is an in-depth look into how elite groups form and thrive.
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PAST PROJECTS:
WINNER OF THE UNLEASH CREATIVES 2023 BOOK PRIZE
ABOUT THE BOOK: Ubulembu and Other Stories is a collection of seventeen curious tales exploring the existential nature of being, or not being, human. Sitting on an edgy cusp where historical fiction, magical realism, science fiction, and surrealism collide, this collection transports readers into worlds that may not quite exist, but could, and perhaps should. Crossing continents, spanning centuries, and leaping from the primordial ooze to the stars beyond the stars, Ubulembu and Other Stories offers readers a resonant travelogue from a trip unlike any other, vividly colored and extravagantly flavored, with unexpected delights and devilish detours lurking beyond each and every turn.
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ABOUT THE BOOK: Every gravestone in every graveyard can frame a story far more complex than the dates engraved upon it. It’s common for spouses to be memorialized together as a final affirmation of the commitments made in life, or for bereaved parents to be buried with children who tragically preceded them in death. Close proximity burials of seemingly unrelated figures can similarly reveal the tales of people who otherwise walked together in life, by choice or by chance. Side by Side in Eternity explores a dozen unique examples of such side-by-side burials over the course of U.S. history. It begins by describing each of the protagonists’ final chapters, before spooling out the tales and significance of their actual journeys to such interwoven endpoints. The evolution of funerary practices and observances in the United States is interspersed throughout, with a special focus on military honors and burials.
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ABOUT THE BOOK: Eponymous paints a darkly humorous, yet reality-rooted, portrait of frustrated musician (but successful music critic) Hutson Colcock “Collie” Hay III. This entertaining, engaging novel is crafted with a detailed understanding of the forces that drive and foibles that define the music industry on both a national and a local plane, focusing heavily on the regional element of the music-making experience, where the vast majority of contemporary musicians and writers spend their careers, far removed (literally and figuratively) from the bustling industry hubs of New York City, Los Angeles or Nashville. In so doing, Eponymous illuminates the reality that most regional musicians, critics and music-lovers alike experience, wrapping love, loathing and the dirty realities of rock and roll into a bracing, fast-paced whole.
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WORKS IN PROGRESS:
I am currently pitching two completed manuscripts (a poetry collection called Jefferson Water and Other Poems, and a collection of essays called Credidero: Exploring Belief in Unbelievable Times), and Admiral McNeal and I are working on our next collaborative project, Born and Made: How Leaders Emerge, Why Leadership Matters.
PERSONALIZED/SIGNED EDITIONS:
You may reach me via e-mail at jericwrites@gmail.com if you would prefer ordering any of these books from me directly, signed and personalized to your own preferences.