• Blackout Don't Panic

Hamilton and In the Heights AKA I love LMM so fucking much.

So. I just read this book. I DNF'd it. It filled me with rage. Hint: if you're writing trans characters, do me a favor: don't make it out like we're lucky to find someone who deigns to have sex with us. Likewise, don't approach our bodies with a sense of fascination that would seem out of place in a book with only cis bodies. Because FUCK YOU. Ahem. So I was going to write about that. Because RAGE. So much rage. And this is a popular book that was recommended to me. It's got four stars on Goodreads. And it's

October 17th, 2016|Categories: blog|Tags: , , |
  • Books

*happy sigh*

I love snaring a new reader! (Also, if you haven't picked up Fast Connection by Santino Hassell and Megan Erickson yet, what on earth are you waiting for? [View the story "How I want every story to end..." on Storify] Featured image of mouthwatering books is "Books" by Shawn Nystrand on Flickr, used under Creative Commons license 2.0.

July 11th, 2016|Categories: blog|Tags: , |

Make Art That Feels Like Excellent Sex.

Years ago I saw an interview with Billie Joe Armstrong, who said he wanted to write songs that felt like great sex. I knew, immediately, what he meant (despite never having had sex of any kind at that point in my life, now that I think about it). I am obsessed with this song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-M1AtrxztU Obsessed. I will listen to it three times in a row. (That video...is not great. The Pentatonix version has a pretty adorable video that's kind of a playful homage to the rather awful original.) That song lights up the circuits in my brain that feel

March 28th, 2016|Categories: blog|Tags: , , |

Feed me!

I'll talk a little more about how my pre-writing process has changed in the last year in this week's Ramble (I recorded one last week, but that shit went on for twelve minutes so I didn't post it...), but right now I need recommendations for websites, books, and perhaps especially movies. The topics? Well, well, well. Let me first amuse myself with a metaphor. I have writing projects scheduled from now until summer, 2016. God, isn't that fabulous? Let's work on sucking people into The Scientific Method, people, because maybe five of those books are SMU stories. Having said that, for the

March 22nd, 2015|Categories: blog|Tags: , |

Things I love: Pat Conroy

Oh how I love Pat Conroy. Let me count the ways! So there's a kind of scene I like. Love. Want to crawl inside and burrow into. It's gotta have emotional intensity, it's gotta have a hint of revelation, a hint of risk, a hint of exposure. You know that line, that cliche, about heartstrings? This is nervestrings, maybe. The kind of scene I like tugs on some part of you that makes you jump like you've been zapped, a little jolt of electricity that makes you reread that line, that monologue, that word, leaning in, crowding the book in

March 19th, 2015|Categories: blog|Tags: , |

You Should Be Reading: Harper Fox

I'm going to tell a little story before I review Harper Fox's Scrap Metal for you. It'll be relevant, maybe, or maybe the whole post will be a series of seemingly random asides. You can skip the whole thing if you want, but whatever else you do, you really should read Scrap Metal. I'm patiently biding my time before allowing myself to start reading it again. That link goes to her site, but...this link will take you to Amazon (US). I assume it's available elsewhere as well, but you might have to hunt for it. So. Here's the story. I'm Irish. No. I'm Irish-American.

January 27th, 2015|Categories: blog|Tags: , |

Break Your Nature.

Podcasts. I love podcasts. I'm listening to Aisha Tyler, episode 142, with Sara Gilbert. Let me pause here for a moment to say this: I love Sara Gilbert. For good reasons--like, I love her acting, and she's charming as hell on "The Talk"--and also for very dumb bone-deep reasons, like Darlene Conner was totally my first crush and finding out that your first crush (or the actor who played her) is queer is just stupidly validating. I'm not saying that's right, I'm saying it happens to be true. For me. Anyway. I like Aisha Tyler's Girl on Guy podcast because she's

June 11th, 2014|Categories: blog|Tags: , , |

How Fanfiction Ruined Harry Potter

I can't read Harry Potter anymore. I mean the canon. The Rowling books. I can't do it. I loved them, the first time I read them, when only the first two had been published. I loved waiting for the next book. (I'm a delayed-gratification kid, no question. The British TV show Cracker has an excellent psychological assessment of people based on how they eat sweets, and I'm definitely a roll the lolly around and suck it sweets-eater. I didn't mean that as dirty as it sounded.) So while waiting for the new book, I read the fanfiction. I refer, frequently,

March 3rd, 2014|Categories: blog|Tags: |