Queer writer of speculative and YA fiction
So, this week I got a rejection on a story, a notice that I was wait-listed for a residency, and a job application rejected in, no lie, one hour. One hour! Now that’s efficiency. And getting wait-listed is at least not an outright rejection of my application, but unless someone wins the lottery and embarks …
I think the first time I heard the term "ghost rules” was when my friend Rebecca used it in a writing for children class in grad school. At the time, I was working on a middle-grade science fiction book (which I need to finish one of these days, but I’ve already got enough on the …
Continue reading "Rules of the road(runner), or Ghost (world) rules"
(Sorry, this is kind of a long one. If you want to skip the intro, click here. Also, my sailor mouth comes to the fore a bit in this one. If you don’t like the four-letter word that rhymes with spit, you may want to skip it entirely—but I think you’ll be missing out, if …
Sometimes I have crises of confidence. I know, right? "What a shock," you say. Even though online we present our best possible faces to the world, always doing interesting things or going to exciting places or shooting photos from just this right angle because that makes my nose look less crooked and the funny wrinkles …
Continue reading "Crises of confidence, or "who do you think you are?""
Literary agent Kristin Nelson sends out a monthly newsletter (I think it’s monthly—I should pay better attention!) with news about her agency, her writers, and tidbits about the writing industry in general. It’s really worthwhile and often entertaining; consider signing up for it here at her agency's website. Anyway, in her February newsletter, she talked …
So, I’m trying to grow my hair out. Oh, brother, I hear you say. What does this have to do with writing? Hang on, I’m getting there. Back in 2014, I finally let my hair get long enough to send it off to a charity that makes wigs for kids who are cancer patients. Granted, …
Continue reading "When patience is a virtue you have no time for"
Holy cow! This is my 1,000th post on this blog. (In interest of full disclosure, it’s probably the 1,002nd post, because there are two posts I wrote but never published, but we’ll just go with 1,000 because it’s a nice, round number.) Anyway, a thousand days of random mutterings and half-baked ideas over the course …
A while back I finished reading a book on writing, which I picked up when a friend referenced it in a post on Instagram. It’s a book that’s received loads of accolades and is often referred to in the same breath as Stephen King’s On Writing (which I haven’t read yet, but really want to). …
Continue reading "Why all writing advice books are bad—and good, too"
Normally (well, most of the time), on Wednesdays I have a list of stuff I’ve been reading that has caught my interest or made me feel generally a little less stabby, but this week I’ve been under the gun with a deadline (not a fun writing one, sorry; it’s been a freelance editing job, which …
One of the classes I was scheduled to teach at the community college this term is called social media for writers. As it happens, not enough people signed up for it, and I’ll admit, I was a kind of relieved, because I would have felt a little bit like a fraud. I deleted my Pinterest …