Blogs are dead; long live the blog! Welcome to a curated selection of my blog posts on writing, diversity, LGBTQ+ young adult, and my books, dating all the way back to 2008. If you enjoy my writing, please consider supporting it with a donation.
I’ve always believed that food is an integral part of world-building. It’s the fifth of my “Five Foundations of World-Building,” and I also included it in my post on world-building in realistic fiction. Food can be a useful shorthand for culture, and it can also be layered over the course of an entire novel to tell a more complicated story about power and identity.
Read MoreDiving into the ideas and inspirations behind my latest novel.
Read MoreIn 2009, I started posting an annual review on my blog, rounding up what I did in the previous year and what I’m looking forward to in the next.
Well. As you may have guessed, 2020 was not your average year.
Read MoreFrom 2011-2019, I counted up the number of LGBTQ+ YA novels published annually. I made a lot of pie charts. In this post you’ll find all of those stastistical analyses rounded up in one place.
Read MoreMany years ago I wrote a blog post called “Five Foundations of World-Building,” focused on fantasy and science fiction. Writing novels set in the real world still requires world-building, so I’m revisiting that “Five Foundations” post today and revising it to focus on realistic fiction.
Read MoreThe other day on twitter I saw someone tweet about their reluctance to read f/f (female/female) romance, even though they identified as a queer woman. They admitted that reading f/f could somehow feel too close for comfort; that reading m/m (male/male) romance was sometimes easier, and allowed them to relax more. Several people responded, a bit self-consciously, that they agreed.
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