Queer writer of weird things
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 …
Some days, I feel more than a little guilty if I'm not spending every spare minute possible working on my book. Which is not to say that I do spend every spare minute working on it, just that whenever I do something other than write (which is often), I feel as if I'm somehow betraying …
I’m not going to lie, 47 sometimes feels pretty old. Joints are creaky, I can’t jump as high or run as fast as I used to, and eating a whole pizza in one sitting is far behind me. (I probably shouldn’t have been doing that in the first place, but yes, there was a time …
This is a post about pirates. No, not pirates of the "arr matey" and "shiver me timbers" and walking the plank variety. These are the digital kind. I'll explain. It probably seems pretty egocentric of me to have a Google alert set up for my name, right? Not so fast, though. First of all, I …
I'm always impressed by artists in one medium who can excel in another medium as well. This recording by Philip Glass (Spotify link) has got me thinking about playing the piano again. I'm not sure why I'm drawn to this so particularly. I'm pretty sure it's in a minor key, and I've always felt more …
I’ve been thinking a lot about revision lately, mainly because I’m in the middle of a big one. When I do my revising, I always start with a hard copy. This is probably old-fashioned—really, I’m not a Luddite; no, I mean it, stop laughing—but it serves a purpose, I’ve discovered. First, I think it allows …
I worry about repeating myself. Like, a lot. If you ask anyone who knows me (especially my partner, the poor guy), you’ll know that when someone starts to tell me a story I’ve already heard, I start nodding, sometimes in a bit of annoyance (I’m an awful person) and will quickly rattle off the end …
Continue reading "Why do I repeat myself? Because I need the practice."
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the writing advice I give. Specifically, I’ve been wondering, Why the hell would anyone want to listen to advice from me? I mean, what do I know? During my social media sabbatical, I read a book of advice on revising the first five pages of your manuscript. It’s …
Continue reading "All writing advice is suspect—even my own"
Hello. Happy to see me? You know, if I were in any way organized, I would have planned better for my return to social media after taking a month off. Did I take that time to assemble a backlog of blog posts full of the thrilling insights—no, wait—full of the Thrilling! Insights! that I accumulated while …
Continue reading "A month off social media showed me I need to focus"