Category: Blog

That feeling when you’ve spent months tossing balls in the air—in the form of subplots & character arcs—and now they’re all coming down, but they keep hitting the ground in the wrong order and bouncing away so you have to chase after them, and it’s supposed to LOOK ELEGANT.

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I’ve written 200 short stories & a half dozen novels… but I’ve only written a novel longer than 80k once before, and tying up all the threads of a piece this large into neat little bows, without getting them tangled up in each other, seems to be a skill all of its own… Continue reading “Trying to Finish My Longest Novel Yet”

From my novel-in-progress: “But daggers aren’t sharp when they’re inside out.”

I think this is going to be my favorite sentence from this book. Continue reading “Close to the End”

The Spy Who Dumped Me (2018) is not quite a good movie… but I feel like if it got a sequel, that movie would be awesome.‬

‪Forget the goofy origin story. Just let Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon be awesome, off-the-wall, best friend spies.‬

That feeling when you need to insert a semi-random number into the sci-fi you’re writing, and so you look up a list of prime numbers and then bizarrely get stuck on staring at them and imagining the different emotional connotations that each of them might hold if you pick it.

I was driving my car, and there were warning signs put up on the road…‬

‪then pieces of wreckage…‬

‪then a yellow school bus on its side…‬ Continue reading “Surreal Experience”

Star Trek: Picard starts today!‬

‪I’m excited & nervous. It feels like going to a family reunion w/aunts & uncles you used to be close to, but haven’t heard from in decades.‬

‪Will the connection still be there? Will you still like each other? Or will the changes just be too much?‬ Continue reading “When Star Trek Lurched Back to Life”

I like being asleep. Being awake is okay.‬

‪But going to sleep and waking up? Both terrible.‬

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Test for replicants, I mean, writers:‬

‪“There’s an unfinished novel, in the desert, on its back. But you aren’t finishing it. Why aren’t you finishing it???”‬

“A cupcake’s never as funny the second time.”‬
‪—The Comeback, S1E12‬

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I just finished watching the first season of The Comeback, and OH MY GOD WHAT A JOURNEY.

I would fight for Valerie Cherish. I want all good things for her. Continue reading “The Highest Stakes”

In the last year, I’ve stepped down from chairing the Cóyotl Awards, editing ROAR, and attending my weekly critique group.

Leaving these things behind has made room for new things in my life. But that’s still a lot of change, and it’s always sad to say goodbye.

That feeling when you don’t have enough spoons to figure out how to get more spoons.‬

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So, I’m re-watching Star Trek: Voyager, and…‬

‪Janeway: Forest cat who’s spent her life acting like one of the dogs‬ Continue reading “Watching Voyager to Get By”