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Jeffrey Ricker

Queer writer of speculative and YA fiction

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Category: writing

Q&A with Fiona Riley, author of MISS MATCH

writingMay 17, 2016November 8, 2019

Back in 2016, I interviewed Fiona Riley as she was releasing her debut novel, Miss Match. We met at the Saints & Sinners Literary Festival, a gathering of queer writers, editors, and readers in New Orleans that has been a wonderful venue for me to meet other folks in the same boat as me. Meeting …

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Don’t let this be the only thing you do

writingMay 2, 2016September 26, 2017

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 …

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Rules of the road(runner), or Ghost (world) rules

writingApril 25, 2016

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 …

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When should you give a shit?

writingApril 18, 2016

(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 …

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Crises of confidence, or "who do you think you are?"

writingApril 12, 2016

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 …

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You are more than your writing

writingMarch 28, 2016

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 …

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When patience is a virtue you have no time for

writingMarch 21, 2016

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, …

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A thousand? A thousand

writingMarch 16, 2016

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 …

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Why all writing advice books are bad—and good, too

writingMarch 14, 2016

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). …

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Wait, what happened to Wednesday?

writingMarch 3, 2016

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 …

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