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Jeffrey Ricker

Queer writer of speculative and YA fiction

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Why rejection is good for the soul

writingDecember 25, 2014September 26, 2017

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 …

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The word Smith dba ’Nathan Burgoine

Reading, writingAugust 30, 2013

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 …

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Why I (almost) never throw away old drafts

writingNovember 22, 2010May 29, 2019

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 …

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What a truly wretched movie taught me about writing

writingNovember 15, 2010June 1, 2023

Back in 2010, I saw the most wretched movie I've ever seen in my life. Bold statement? I know. And I've seen some real stinkers before. Now, I usually have a policy of not talking smack about anyone's creative efforts because a) I know how much that can hurt and b) I know that even …

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