Queer writer of weird things
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 …
Continue reading "Finding writing inspiration… at a leather convention?"
As a writer and someone who writes about writing (insert obligatory “dancing about architecture”-type comment here), there are two things that I tend to worry about more often than all the other things I worry about: repetition and focus. This applies to my fiction writing as well as whatever half-baked principles and ideas about writing …
Continue reading "What the things I repeat tell me about my focus"
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 …
Continue reading "Want to get published more? Embrace rejection — an update"
[TL/DR: social media delights in distracting you and wasting your time. Minutes/hours spent tweeting or posting are minutes/hours not spent writing. Is that how you want to be spending your time? Also, commenting on a trending hashtag brings out the crazies like you wouldn’t believe. Don’t feed them, whatever you do. Their appetite is bottomless.] …
I'll be honest. I had a little freakout this week. I don't even know if anyone but me noticed it, since so much of my life happens within the confines of my skull. (For this fact, the rest of the world should probably be happy.) Suffice it to say, on my lunch hour when I …
When I was planning a workshop at the community college on creating characters, it got me thinking: What makes our favorite characters our favorite characters? It’s never quite the same thing every time, is it? If you follow me on any social media, it’ll be no surprise to you that I am a big fan …
My friend ’Nathan came across this post on the website of a literary agency about a topic that's somewhat close to my heart. If I'm honest, it's probably closer to my spleen. As I've discussed before, I have a love/hate relationship with social media. But, dialogue is always a goal of mine with writing, and …
Continue reading "Stop worrying about your brand. You are not cereal."
I didn’t want this to be one of those “so I left Facebook, look at how above it all I am” post. So I asked myself: “Self,” I asked, “what does ditching a social media profile have to do with anything?” It goes back to grad school. Back in 2014, when I was getting my …
Happy New Year! That’s less of a declaration and more an expression of hope, as in “wow, I hope 2017 will be happy.” Because 2016 was a bit of a Dumpster fire, wasn’t it? Between a horrific election cycle and the way the year killed off so many actors, musicians, and artists, by Dec. 31 …
Continue reading "Goal for 2017: Actively seek rejection. (Yes, really.)"
Wow, what a week. I normally try not to get political when I write these newsletters (although it could be argued that, as a writer of fiction primarily with a queer bent, my work is inherently political). I like to have a focus, and that’s usually on the things I write, the things I teach …