point of view

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POINT OF VIEW: The Monster at the End of This Book

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The Monster at the End of This Book

Note: I got up this morning, having just finished writing the first draft of Down the River, and thought abut writing a column about The Monster at the End of This Book. Then a little part of my brain tickled me and said “didn’t you do this before?” Turns out I had, and this says exactly what I wanted to say. So I am resharing this column from 2021, with a slight update for my latest novel completion. Enjoy! When I was a kid, I had a few favorite picture books. At the top of the list was The Wump … Read more

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Point of View: Finding the Theme

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book magic - deposit photos - theme

Every story begins with something. Sometimes it’s an especially vivid image of a character that you want to write. Sometimes it’s a shiny plot object, the big idea that you want your whole story to revolve around. And sometimes it’s a theme. No matter where you start, the theme is an important part of your story. You are asking readers to buy into your view of the world, and that viewpoint should be about something. The tricky part is figuring out what that something is. For me, the theme is usually not apparent to me until I get partway or … Read more

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Point of View: Here We Go Again

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road trip - deposit photos

My husband Mark is an angel. I came into 2025 at a low point. I’d been searching for a job for fourteen months, and although I’d had a number of great interviews, the answer was a “no” every single time. Things worsened over the next few months, and two jobs I thought I had a great shot at faded away without even an interview. And then a few potentially really good things happened. I can’t share two of them yet – don’t want to scare them away. But suddenly my writer path has grown brighter after ten years in the … Read more

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Point of View: I’m Happiest When I’m Writing?

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unhappy writer - deposit photos

We writers are a strange and contradictory breed. Take the act of writing itself. When we’re not writing regularly, we can be sullen, morose, unhappy creatures. And yet, when we are writing… my husband would say “how can you tell the difference?” The actual act of writing can be exalting, even thrilling, as the strength of our ideas and our connection with our characters carries us forward like an unrelenting wave. But even then, we surf at our own peril. Because every wave eventually crashes. More often than not, writing is a long, boring grind. My writer brain has to … Read more

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Point of View: On the Downhill Run

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downhill skiing - deposit photos

Over the last decade that I’ve been a serious writer (defined as someone who loses sleep at least three nights a week because their writer brain won’t shut up), I’ve become accustomed to the various stages of my writing projects. There’s the initial honeymoon phase, where I’m convinced I have a fantastic idea and nothing is going to stop me from writing this amazing book that everyone will be clamoring to read. Then there’s the coasting phase, when everything is running smoothly. Sure, it’s not as exciting as it was at the get-go, but the story is unfolding nicely, and … Read more

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Point of View: The Real Meaning of Pride

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I spent the weekend with some dear friends of mine… six of the other authors in our Queer Sacramento Authors Collective group. It was Sacramento Pride weekend, and it was a bit crazy, especially on Saturday morning. On the same day, there were three hge events planned in Downtown: the first day of the Sac Pride Festival, the No Kings Rally one block away at the Capitol, and the UC Davis graduation two blocks away at the King’s basketball stadium. Parking was at a premium, and we arrived four hours before the opening time to make sure we snagged a … Read more

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Point of View: Writing With My Mouth

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mouth - deposit photos

I don’t have enough time to write. To be fair, this is a perennial problem. Most recently, it’s been related to the many hours I poured into the Sacramento Book Festival which happened a week and a half ago, and also to the other weekend events during Pride Season that I attend, and where I manage a table for our local Queer Sacramento Authors Collective group. So I’ve been scrounging for more writng time. A few days a week, I walk over to meet Mark at the Starbucks on the Sacramento State campus. These solo walks take 15-20 minutes, and … Read more

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Point of View: What I Learned At the Book Festival

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Sacramento Book Festival

Well, it’s over. The Second Annual (and first full) Sacramento Book Festival has been consigned to the history books. And oh what a festival it was. We were hoping for great weather – the average temperature in Sacramento on May 31st is 87 degrees, so we had good reason to think it would be comfortable shirtsleeves weather. Instead, we got the hottest May 31st in the city in 100 years. Because of course we did. And still, despite the heat, they came. People crammed into the charming (but a little small) Shepard Garden and Arts Center – over 5,000 of … Read more

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Point of View: What I Learned (So Far) From Building a Book Festival

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construction - deposit photos

Last spring, I was invited to be a part of a new book festival in Sacramento. It was a modest effort – about 20 authors under 10×10 canopies, tacked onto the end of a local farmer’s market. It was a success – we all sold a decent number of books, and some folks came 200 miles for the event. A month or two later, we decided to do it all again, but for real this time, and launched ourselves into a nine-month odyssey that comes to fruition this coming weekend. So I thought I’d share some of the things I’ve … Read more

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Point of View: Adrift

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river - deposit photos

And the river flowsI am never gonna get it back againAnd the river flowsI am never gonna take it back again… “Take Me Back”, by Erasure Sometimes a song speaks to you in an unexpected way, and the music unlocks something you’ve been feeling for a long time, but couldn’t quite name. Our world is in a state of flux, where everything we thought we knew is being questioned, threatened, and overturned. Most of us just want to go back to the way things used to be, when we were standing on what we thought was solid ground. As I … Read more