Queer writer of weird things
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"
Sometimes as a writer I’m my own worst enemy. As I’ve mentioned, I’ve been struggling with the second draft of my young-adult fantasy novel, the sequel to The Unwanted (which you can totally still buy, by the way!). I’ve been working on it for about three years now, but of course if you added up all the …
Remember choose-your-own-adventure stories? I used to love those books—the ones where you’d be reading along and you’d get to a decision point: if character A decides to open the box, turn to page Y. If Character A decides to drop-kick the box upside Character B’s head, turn to page Z. You can only choose to …
Continue reading "Choose Your Own Adventure—but maybe not EVERY adventure (at the same time)"
(Psst. I have an e-mail newsletter. You should totally sign up for it. I might surprise you with stuff you don't get to see here, or anywhere, for that matter. Okay, on with the story....) This past week I was sitting in a coffee shop, as I am wont to do—and there’s a phrase that doesn’t …