Jet lag is a small price to pay for a creative jolt
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.
Category: writing
Don’t measure success using someone else’s yardstick
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 …
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A Breakthrough Over Lunch
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 …
My Goal for 2018: Focus
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 …
My year of embracing rejection, year-end roundup
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. …
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What if your first best destiny isn’t what you do for a living?
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, …
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Five Things I Learned by Failing at This Novel
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 …
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What to do when writing is a struggle
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 …
Finding writing inspiration… at a leather convention?
You never know when inspiration is going to cross your path. In my case, I never would have expected inspiration for my young adult writing to arrive at a leather convention. Let me back up. Recently, we went to Chicago to visit my friend Scott. He’s a photographer and a good friend I originally got …
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Want to get published more? Embrace rejection — an update
I got the nicest rejection letter recently. No, I’m totally serious. I wanted to write them back and say thank you; thank you for rejecting my work! Are they going to publish it? No. Did I win any sort of consolation prize (like, you know, money)? No. Is my name going to be on some …
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