Meet the author
Todd Steinberg.
Father. Texan. Always making something.
I write stories, run a teddy-bear business, and have spent years finding new ways to bring one very unusual idea to life.
Here’s the backstory
The backstory
A life with a creative streak.
A little analog. A little offbeat.
I’m a Texan who graduated high school in 1994, right as the world was about to go online. That moment sits at the heart of Don’t Tell My Wife I’m a Cult Leader: an old world colliding with a new one, with plenty of strange characters caught in between.
My creative influences run from Tarantino and the Coen Brothers to Mike Judge and The Simpsons. I’m drawn to offbeat people, uncomfortable laughs, and stories that can be funny without looking away from the difficult stuff.
A father, a maker, a familiar face.
I’m also a father and a husband. Writing is one part of my life, alongside family, running a small business, and finding ways to be useful to other people.
Creating has taken different forms over the years: children’s books, product designs, animated shorts, and now a graphic novel. The medium changes. The impulse to make something has always been there.
Yes, the teddy bears are real.
In 2003, I joined Plush in a Rush, the family business my dad and uncle had been building since the early ’90s. I helped take it online—photographing products and learning how to build an online store.
There’s a personal connection, too. I’ve kept Gump, a stuffed gnome from my childhood. He’s a reminder that a toy can mean much more to someone than its size or price suggests.
Meet Plush in a RushOne idea. A long road.
Before Floyd found the page.
This story has lived more than one life. Here are a few stops along the way.
- 2006
The television pitch
An early Cult Leader television pitch reached the New York Television Festival.
- 2011
The animated pilot
The project became an animated pilot, with a premiere at Dallas’s Kessler Theater and interviews alongside comic artist Matt Rox.
- The graphic novel
A world built together
Artist Jocelyn “Jo” Diaz and I brought Floyd’s world to the page. Our collaborations have also included product designs, animated shorts, and the children’s book series Stubz & Stiltz.
Enough about me.
You should meet Floyd.
Start with the first two chapters, or get a signed hardcover of Book 1.