Queer writer of speculative and YA fiction
I got another rejection notice yesterday. It was for a story I wrote during grad school, in my fiction workshop with Linda Svendsen, about a couple in the St. Louis suburbs dealing with a wayward armadillo. (I think I've written about that story here before, but anyway.) There was an article in the Missouri Botanical …
Have you heard of Dear Teen Me? It's a website where authors write letters giving their younger selves the advice they wished they'd had at the time. It even became a book that has letters from more than 70 writers. If you could talk to your younger self, would you? I'm not sure; the person …
Continue reading "Meanwhile, over at Dear Teen Me… hey, that's me!"
Enough of tooting my own horn. I'm going to sing someone else's praises for a while. I met ’Nathan Smith (who publishes under the name ’Nathan Burgoine) in May of 2009 when Michael and I went to the Saints & Sinners Literary Festival in New Orleans. I knew a little about him already at that …
Back in 2003, I was taking a fiction writing workshop, and it was my turn to submit something for class. And I had nothing. Nothing, that is, except a bunch of old drafts and half-finished stories I'd written years ago. In a handful of cases, I had finished the stories, and so I reached for …
Continue reading "Why I (almost) never throw away old drafts"
Back in 2010, I saw the most wretched movie I've ever seen in my life. Bold statement? I know. And I've seen some real stinkers before. Now, I usually have a policy of not talking smack about anyone's creative efforts because a) I know how much that can hurt and b) I know that even …
Continue reading "What a truly wretched movie taught me about writing"