Queer writer of weird things
I’ve been doing a lot more writing lately. I have to credit that in part to a two-week writing challenge I did recently, 1,000 words of summer, an idea by author Jami Attenberg. The challenge: write at least a thousand words a day for two weeks. There were a couple days I fell short. Most …
I feel as if I've been talking about this novel for years. I started writing it before grad school, where I ended up finishing it as my thesis submission. Since I completed that draft, I've worked on at least three other novels with varying degrees of (un)success. Every time, I've come back to this one. …
Continue reading "Read an excerpt from ‘Harvest,’ my novel in progress"
There’s something uniquely wonderful about spending a week surrounded by people who “get” a) being queer and b) being a writer without my having to explain myself.
Four years is not such a long time when you think about it. On the other hand, in such a short time a lot can happen. Leaders change, geniuses die, Kate Bush stubbornly does not come out with a new album. Did you know that in the last four years you've traveled 3.76 billion kilometers …
Continue reading "Don’t measure success using someone else’s yardstick"
I had lunch recently with a friend of mine, Karen. In addition to mutual appreciation of many things (wine is high up on the list), we also have a deep and abiding love of pasta, grilled cheese sandwiches of infinite variety, and pizza. So, as we caught up over a plate of spaghetti and a …
For the past couple years, I’ve tried to come up with one word or phrase that could capture my focus for the coming year. In 2016, it was “completion.” I wanted to complete the draft of the novel I was working on. And I did that, although in 2017 I ended up setting it aside …
At the beginning of 2017, I set a goal for the year of actively seeking rejection. What this meant was that I would send out my short fiction to contests and magazines, apply for fellowships and residencies, and otherwise just get my work out into the world so that other people might possibly read it. …
Continue reading "My year of embracing rejection, year-end roundup"
There’s a moment in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (the best of the Star Trek films, if you ask me) when Spock offers Admiral Kirk command of the Enterprise. Spock has captained the ship as a teacher of cadets on a training cruise. If they're going into combat, though, Kirk should take command. …
They (that ambiguous, omnipresent “they”) always say that you learn more from your failures than you do from your successes. Unfortunately, it’s true. Equally unfortunate for me, I just got reminded of that recently. I've been talking a lot about the as-yet-unnamed sequel to The Unwanted over the past three years. Recently, I came to a …
Continue reading "Five Things I Learned by Failing at This Novel"
If you’re a writer, you will most likely think, in some variation at one time or another: Well, this is not really very good at all. I have no idea what I’m doing. What is this story/essay/script/poem even about? I shouldn’t be wasting my time. No one’s going to read this. Why did I ever …