Queer writer of weird things
You know, some really cool things have happened for me this year so far: I had a story published by Little Fiction, another piece by Aftertastes, I taught a short fiction and a social media class at the community college, and I had a residency at the Vermont Studio Center. And now I'm back in …
Continue reading "How to deal with failure (or at least feeling like a failure)"
As you all may recall, I had an essay in the anthology A Family by Any Other Name, published by TouchWood Editions (it was my first Canadian publication!). The anthology, edited by Bruce Gillespie, has won a silver medal in the LGBT non-fiction category in the 2015 Independent Publisher Book Awards. And—and!—the other award winners …
Continue reading "A Silver IPPY Medal for A Family by Any Other Name!"
My friend and colleague Sierra Skye Gemma recently had a fantastic piece published in The Globe and Mail. (For those who are south of 49, that's like the equivalent of The New York Times in Canada.) Titled "My Sexual Education," it's both a tough read as well as an affirming and positive one. (And the …
I'm gonna get a little soapbox-y here. So all that froth you see is not me foaming at the mouth. Read on without fear of contacting rabies.... I was reading something on social media (I forget where, but it was probably while I was supposed to be doing something else, like oh, I don't know, …
(Or "I Solemnly Swear That I Am up to No Good") Whoa! Time flies when you're having fun. It it's it time's fun when you're having flies? Either way, time flies regardless, ago you might as well have fun. Anyway, speaking of fun! Careful readers (all three of you; good morning! Can you tell I …
Continue reading "A Trip to Tubby & Coo's Mid-City Book Shop in New Orleans"
It's nice to see The Unwanted get a little end-of-2014 love from readers. Hilcia over at Impressions of A Reader puts The Unwanted among her favorites of last year, a list which also includes The Bears of Winter, where you'll find my story "Snowblind." Her list also includes Jess Faraday's The Affair of the Porcelain Dog and Turnbull House, both of which …
Continue reading "Best-of 2014? Me? (Or rather, my book)? Aw, shucks."
I got another rejection notice yesterday. It was for a story I wrote during grad school, in my fiction workshop with Linda Svendsen, about a couple in the St. Louis suburbs dealing with a wayward armadillo. (I think I've written about that story here before, but anyway.) There was an article in the Missouri Botanical …
Have you heard of Dear Teen Me? It's a website where authors write letters giving their younger selves the advice they wished they'd had at the time. It even became a book that has letters from more than 70 writers. If you could talk to your younger self, would you? I'm not sure; the person …
Continue reading "Meanwhile, over at Dear Teen Me… hey, that's me!"
Enough of tooting my own horn. I'm going to sing someone else's praises for a while. I met ’Nathan Smith (who publishes under the name ’Nathan Burgoine) in May of 2009 when Michael and I went to the Saints & Sinners Literary Festival in New Orleans. I knew a little about him already at that …
Back in 2003, I was taking a fiction writing workshop, and it was my turn to submit something for class. And I had nothing. Nothing, that is, except a bunch of old drafts and half-finished stories I'd written years ago. In a handful of cases, I had finished the stories, and so I reached for …
Continue reading "Why I (almost) never throw away old drafts"