I’m an asshole. But we’ll get back to that in a minute. I won four Rainbow Awards on Saturday night. I should have been over the moon, right? But here’s the thing. Every one of them was a second place finish. In 2017, I won a bunch of them too. Also ALL second place wins. … Read more
Sometimes life doesn’t work out like you hoped. Such was the case for me this year with Pitch Wars, the mentoring contest I entered a couple months back. I was so excited going in. I found some awesome mentors to pitch to, including one team that had a member right here in Sacramento – perfect, … Read more
I’ve started doing covers for my own releases, and thought it would be fun to share a bit of the process with you – in this case, for my trans-elf San Francisco climate change story Cailleadhama. The first step (and often one of the most time-intensive ones) is to find an image that suits the … Read more
The first time I read one of my works aloud, I was scared shitless. That’s not entirely true. The first time was a breeze. It was the second time that almost killed me. The first time was at RainbowCon circa 2015. I was scheduled to read in a huge meeting room with at least a … Read more
So I had a BookBub for “The Stark Divide” last week. BookBub, for those who don’t know, is a daily email service that sends out specials (usually free or 99¢) to a huge list of potential readers/buyers. When you get one, it can mean a big, if temporary, boost in sales. How big? Potentially a … Read more
I am a big believer of listening to what the universe is telling me. I didn’t like what I heard this last month. I entered the Pitch Wars contest, confident that I had an amazing manuscript, one that would make heads turn. I chose my four potential mentors carefully, even finding one team who was … Read more
When I was in high school, I loved my art classes. I took pottery and jewelry, and learned to paint, sketch and use charcoals. I helped paint a mural at our school – well, I painted the white frame on a “poloroid” photo, anyhow. And I even won an award for a piece of jewelry … Read more
So we’re on the plane, somewhere over Western New Mexico or possibly Eastern Arizona. It’s a rough, dry, hardscrabble landscape, carved out of the history of a few billion years of changing climate and calamity and times of flood and drought. We’re returning home from GRL – Gay Romance Literature for the uninitiated – a … Read more
Twenty-four years ago this month, I sent out my first novel – “On a Shoreless Sea” – to ten New York sci fi publishers. And twenty-three years ago, also this month, my nascent writing career came to an abrubt end. I knew I wanted to be a writer when I was nine years old and … Read more
I’m not a good waiter. Two weeks ago, I submitted my latest novel, “Dropnauts,” to an online contest called Pitch Wars. Pitch Wars is a chance to snag a mentor with publishing experience, who will spend the next three months with you reworking your novel, and in the end, it will be posted to the … Read more