Through the Nose
Did I need another hobby? Arguably not. I already have writing, reading, drawing, animating, gardening, and archery, and I’m going back to fencing. Plus I...
The Care and Feeding of Dream Homes
Many of you either follow me on social media or have at some point in the past. If that’s the case you already know that home decorating is an obsession of...
Whose Side is Your House On?
Happy Halloween from Minnesota! Thank goodness for polar fleece Halloween costumes. Though I will be sorely disappointed if we don’t get at least one...
What's in Your Name?
Hello everyone! I’m taking a bit of a break from my series on home security and automation and it’s use of biometric data (here's number 1 and 2 of that),...
That Most Intimate of Thrones
There’s a very famous couples counseling researcher named Dr John Gottman. You might have heard of him- he and his wife have published many books on marriage...
People Just Really Want to Say "Enhance"
Firstly, let me just say thank you to all of you who came and met me at CONvergance last month or who generously invite me into your inboxes every month....
Worldbuilding, Propaganda, and My Favorite Gardening Show
I’ve been thinking this week about narratives, and how propaganda is world building in this shared sandbox we call reality. There’s loads of propaganda out...
What Feeling Are You Most Afraid Of?
I started out thinking about this in terms of how I get to know characters I’m writing, only to realize that I imported it directly from something I was...
This Project is Over the Top, Even for Me
I’ve been online since the mid 90s, so you’d think that I’d be used to the wildness of the world wide web.And yet I’m sitting here, more of less shocked at...
Gods and Ink
I have several tattoos. There’s the question mark on my right wrist, which matches both the exclamation point on my left wrist and the corresponding marks on...
Of Flesh and Gundams
There’s this image that gets hinted around. It’s not always explicit; it’s more assumed. There’s a person. An “I” or a “you”. And the person is essentially...
Things I Stole From Dr Julian Bashir
It’s probably not a huge shocker to most people that I grew up on Star Trek. Just because my own writing has been more down to Earth doesn’t mean I don’t owe...
Nouns Are Out, Verbs Are In
To clarify about my subject line: no, I’m not going to rant about the evils of adverbs or something. I have no objection to any grammatical category. This is...
Spider-Goat is Real But is Not Marvel Affiliated
Please note that this month's letter contains discussion of spiders, but doesn't contain any images of spiders, just an image of our charming little prince...
On Family Secrets
Family secrets are such a mainstay of young adult stories. They have to be among my favorite clichés. Almost every family has them, in one form or another....
Lies I Tell Myself, Security Blankets, and Backstitch Drafting
Back in May, I wrote a post about my prewriting process- mostly because I wasn’t sure what else to write about that month. This month, I’m preparing to move...
Tinkering with Cyberpunk
I have something a bit different for you this month! I was incredibly surprised, in June, to be contacted for an interview! I'm not exactly a household name,...
Because Everyone Was Calling for YA Scifi About HIPAA!
I’ve joked on twitter many times that “I’m writing YA about medical data privacy practices. Haha you know the teens today just can’t get enough of HIPAA-...
The Bananabook Method
Well, this month’s newsletter was going to be about queer mentorship and going to the retirement party for my first openly queer teacher, from back in middle...
People Who Need People
I have one of those faces. Not the kind where people think they’ve seen you before. I’m very rarely been told I look like anyone. (I was once called a poor...