Hello and Welcome
Welcome to Devotion, Desire, Depravity! I’ve long been tinkering with creating a general umbrella for all of my work, so this will function as a semi-formal banner for my fiction, craft advice, and essays.
So here we are! What’s going to happen? And who am I, really?
Okay, okay, about me.
Writing for about a decade now, started taking publishing seriously about a year ago. I’m a massage therapist and instructor, and an erstwhile: poet, singer/songwriter, producer, visual artist, opera singer, sex worker.
I like art that speaks, not merely entertains, and I take all of it too seriously—which actually means I give it the intellectual respect it deserves. A piece of art not only deserves criticism, it demands it—what’s good, why it’s good, what works, and what that says about us and society.
That drive to find meaning informs my art: characters aren’t dolls we move around on a game board, they are people with pasts, preferences, and hopes, like everyone else. To make them real on the page requires that we take their creation of self as seriously as our own. That’s not easy, but it is rewarding. That sense of responsibility extends to every genre, because everything that happens in a story is part of that story, and requires the same care and attention to detail, no matter the aesthetic wrapping.
Starfighter space combat isn’t much different than a first sexual encounter: they’re both high-stakes, (usually) involve two people trying to finish the other, bringing everything they have to that moment, knowing that something will be different by the time it’s over.
My goal is simple: share my work, hope people see it.
This is a place to share my thoughts on what art should be: honest, direct, fearless, unapologetically itself, and willing to engage genre on its own terms, rather than treating it like a punchline or burden in need of subversion.
My craft and fiction reflect that, I hope. Magic, kink, complicated histories, they all serve to enrich and enhance the story. They’re not afterthoughts! They directly affect the world in which our characters live, the decisions they make, what they choose to think is important.
We are many things, all existing at once. Art and its creation should reflect that.
Deeper than that, I hope that my writing reflects a “normalcy” for topics that usually aren’t afforded such grace: sex work, non-normative sex and romantic relationships, an agnostic and expansive approach to sexuality and gender, love that isn’t necessarily a good idea, but might feel right in the moment. I try to write in a way that doesn’t call attention to them—they are simply part of the fabric of life.
Art is a way to grapple with the world, to speak our beliefs into being. I hope what I share here gives you something to take the first step to that truth in your own journey.
FAQ
What are you doing?
Sharing my art and craft advice.
What kind of art?
Prose, mostly—flash fiction, short stories, novellas in installments, and serial novels.
How about genres? What are you doing there?
To start, I will be working in different genres.
An action-heavy sci-fi/superhero story set in a dystopian far future where gods are real but guns still shoot bullets. The main character is based on a picture of a dog and has the name of a Kurt Russell character with an eyepatch (not that one).
And: a queer romance. About a 19-year-old girl entering into a relationship with a woman 31 years her senior, while also dealing with her burgeoning attraction to her transgender roommate. It is an intimate, quiet story, taking place in 2006 Austin.
WOW! That’s a pretty wild contrast!
I’m aware, which is why each installment will be clearly marked and posted at different times, to make sure nobody gets confused.
You mentioned craft talk.
I did! I’ll be publishing an essay series on how to write better erotica using a four-element system of interlocking and progressively deeper aspects of story.
That’s amazing! Are you planning on opening subscriptions or anything in which I can contribute monetarily?
At this moment, no. In the future, I’m going to offer the usual avenues: Itch, Patreon, Ko-fi.
My promise is this: none of what’s offered on those sites will be strict reprints. All projects on those sites will either be brand-new, or expanded to justify paying for it.
So yeah. This is me. I hope you stick around. I’m excited to write and share my work with you.