Queer writer of weird things
There's a piece of paper that I've taped to my computer monitor. It has one word on it: Why? Bear with me, it'll become clear in a second. I'm not a big fan of year-in-review letters or blog posts, but I can see some value in looking back over the past year (or the past …
I'm a runner. I started running when I was fifteen and except for a recurring back injury, I haven't stopped since. So my friend Jane Campbell's essay at Hazlitt on running, pain, and persevering when you just want to end it (spoilers: it's about more than just running) was a breathtakingly awesome read. Meanwhile, over …
Continue reading "What I've been reading: talented friends, memoir, and social media"
I think the question I get asked most often as a writer is “where do you get your ideas?” And my answer to that is always “Costco. They sell them in bulk.” Here’s the question I ask other writers most often, especially after I read one of their recently published stories: how did you hear …
So, the Powerball jackpot got me thinking a lot about writing this week. For those who aren't familiar, a) you must pay attention to the news even less than I do (which is not much), and b) the jackpot is now up to $1.3 billion. Wow, that's a lot. Even if four people got tickets with …
Happy New Year! I don’t like making resolutions, but I do like setting goals. (I love making lists, and a list of goals is better than a list of resolutions to me. I have better luck saying “I’m going to do X” instead of “I’m NOT going to do Y.”) One of my goals for …
I had worked on the sequel to The Unwanted for a long time when I set it aside. Before I decided to give it a rest, I printed it out and made a bunch of edits. After I entered those in the file, I printed it out again to reread. (Most of my creative writing …
Continue reading "When your story says you’re doing it wrong, trust it"
So, I ran a 15K race this past Sunday. I almost didn't. My ankle has been bothering me for a while (that's a story for another time, though, and it would be a boring one anyway). For the past few months the most that I've run at one go has been 10K, and that's been …
As a bit of a follow-up to my last post, my friend 'Nathan makes an excellent point: The best gift you can give a writer this holiday is word of mouth. That can be writing a review, like 'Nathan recommends here (and that is such a good thing to do!). Or maybe you want to …
Continue reading "Thowback Thursday(ish) – No Wrapping Required"
I’ve been thinking a lot about fear lately. Actually, fear is frequently top of mind for me most days. Does that mean I'm a coward? Maybe, I don't know. What does this have to do with writing, though? Surprisingly, a lot. Fear is the thing that keeps me from doing a lot of things. Hitting …
I decided to spend the second half of summer in the Pacific Northwest to escape the heat and humidity in the Midwest. (My long-suffering but more-patient-than-I-am partner knows that I wilt in the summer; I joke that ice queens don't like the heat.) This has turned out to be a bit of a miscalculation on …
Continue reading "What I'm working on (besides not melting) and submission call roundup"