This week I thought I’d do a practical advice column for my writer friends. It’s been a while since I did one of these, and being fresh off of not one but two Pride events, with a third to come next weekend, it seemed like a great time to offer a primer on how to … Read more
I’m not doing it right. I mean, that must be what it is. I’ve been at this writing thing in a serious way for almost ten years. Along the way, I’ve had some successes – a few Rainbow Awards, some high-flying (of short-lived) rankings on Amazon, and I have a couple bookshelves full of copies … Read more
I’ve avoided writing this particular column for months, in part because generative AI is such a hot button topic at the moment, and partly because I needed to work through my own thoughts and feelings on the matter. And maybe because I suspected it would be one long-ass article. I’ve been feeling this weird sense … Read more
Last week, I asked my readers what they wanted me to talk about in this column, and got a wide variety of responses. I’m going to take them all seriously, even the first one: “More dogs and puppies.” Very well. Funkel Blue Sen, this one’s for you. I grew up in a “dog house” – … Read more
Everyone I know is hurting. There are still flashes of beauty and love and triumph all around me, even moments of great joy. But the whiff of depression, the sense of things having moved beyond our control, hangs over everything like a sulfurous smog. Many of our friends and family are facing health issues right … Read more
Today I thought I’d take you behind the scenes, to give you a sort of how the sausage is made look at my writing. Writing styles are constantly changing. Take a look back at the classics you read in high school – would any of those be published (without drastic revisions) today? Even the way … Read more
Warning: heavy-handed metaphor ahead. Nine and a half months ago, I had an accident that could have snapped my neck. My bike tires slipped on something on the pavement and sent me flying fifteen feet though the air to slam into the concrete sidewalk. As bad as it was – my orthopedic surgeon said the … Read more
Four years ago, we had a good thing going her in SacTown. Our local LGBTQ+ writer’s group – the Queer Sacramento Authors’ Collective – was almost fifty folks strong. We were doing readings at the Lavender Library four times a year, meeting in person for lunch every other month, and had an ambitious plan to … Read more
One of the most loathed questions among my writer friends, and the one asked by almost every interviewer, is “Where do you get your inspiration from?” This question comes in many forms: The honest-to-God short answer is that no one f@cking knows. Writer’s brains are a little like those mazes the white coated lab scientists … Read more