So, how’s the agent search going? I’m glad you asked! It depends on how you measure progress. Have I gotten an agent to express interest? No. If that’s the yardstick we’re using, then yeah, it’s been a failure. Fortunately, that’s not the yardstick I’m using. While I can do as much as possible to make sure my query letter and writing sample are as polished as they can be, I cannot reach through the ether and plant a suggestion in an agent’s head compelling them to write me back or ask for...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Happy October! This is the month where I finally feel like I start to come alive after the endless slog that is summer in the Midwest. Let’s hope the temperatures keep falling. My stuff Subscribers to this newsletter used to receive a free ebook of stories I’d previously published titled Lies I Tell Myself. Now, new subscribers get an ebook of different stories, The Trouble with Billy (shoot me an email if you never got one! I’ll be happy to send it your way). But if you want to see what you...
2 months ago • 3 min read
Happy September! Thank heavens August’s over! When September rolls around, it puts me in mind of Earth, Wind and Fire: It also makes me hopeful for cooler temperatures, since I have loathed every minute of the summer. One of my friends who was from the South Pacific and loved the heat liked to say, “Tropical fruits don’t like the cold.” My response? “Ice queens hate the heat.” But enough about that. September means the fall semester is in full swing at the university where I teach, and so my...
3 months ago • 2 min read
Welcome to August! This is the month of the year that most resembles my writing process: full of long, empty stretches where it seems like nothing is happening. I know I’ve written about this before, how it can look from the outside as if a writer is just being stagnant, but that’s usually when things are happening under the hood/behind the scenes. Last month, for instance, I finally (finally) finished a draft of a short story I started writing years ago. I queried another agent and...
4 months ago • 2 min read
Imposter syndrome, the gift you never wanted that keeps on giving anyway I’m still having trouble committing to my next big writing project, and the more time I spend in this in-between stage, the more that gap is filling in with self-doubt. It’s not a new experience for me: Self-doubt and I are on a first-name basis. It’s the voice in my head that tells me I’m wasting my time, I’m too old, and I may as well stop now before I make a(n even bigger) fool of myself. I call him Kevin. I tell him...
5 months ago • 1 min read
It’s Pride and I’m Furious (Warning: There may be more swearing than usual in this month’s letter.) Welcome to June! We’re almost halfway through the year, and this month we celebrate the summer solstice, and it’s also LGBTQ+ Pride month, which— Well. The world is a different place than it was a year ago, isn’t it? Whatever veil of civility kept people from showing their asses has pretty much been shredded. Granted, those people were never on our side in the first place, they just didn’t want...
6 months ago • 1 min read
I have a story coming out on May 7 at Voyage YA by Uncharted, titled “Grand Canyon.” It was inspired by two things: the first, my friend Matt in college, who wrote a story about the Grand Canyon disappearing. It left me wondering, where did it go? This story suggests an answer. A messy answer. Photo by Omer Nezih Gerek, unsplash.co It’s also inspired by a song, “Grand Canyon,” by Tracey Thorn, who’s one half of the band Everything by the Girl, one of my all-time favorites. “Grand Canyon” was...
7 months ago • 3 min read
Read “The Visitor” at Wattpad Back in 2009, a queer speculative literary magazine, Collective Fallout, published my story “The Visitor.” It started out as a NaNoWriMo novel—and the less said about that “contest” the better. The story’s about the narrator’s vacation fling with his friend’s neighbor who may or may not be from another planet. I like to think that my writing has grown since then, but I still am fond of the story, even if many of the details have become hazy even to me. The...
8 months ago • 3 min read
(I’ve moved things around a little this month. Pardon the dust!) The Unwanted Turns 11: This March marks the 11th anniversary of my first YA novel, The Unwanted. (Well, my first published YA novel, at least. There are a few others in the metaphorical drawer.) Since then I’ve published a YA novella and am currently working on another YA novel, which is currently being knocked into shape by a freelance editor friend of mine. While you’re waiting on that one, go check out my first one if you’ve...
9 months ago • 2 min read
