Fandom Has Made Me a Bigger (and Better) Fan

December 10, 2024

So I guess there’s some kind of holiday situation going on, and people are buying presents and stuff? In which case, I just wanted to point out that you can...

Superheroes Will Never Again Be As Good as the Arrowverse

December 1, 2024

Quick housekeeping before we get started… first, I have a few bound galleys of my new novel for adults, Lessons in Magic and Disaster, which comes out August...

Does An Unreliable Narrator Need To Be an Asshole?

November 27, 2024

Narrators! You can't rely on them these days. They always let you down, even the ones who have five stars on Yelp. One time, I hired a narrator to move a...

Can You Write a Book That Speaks to This Terrible Time?

November 21, 2024

Nah. You can't ever write a book that speaks to a particular moment in history. Sorry. This is mostly due to the timescales of writing and publishing. No...

5 Words That Might Help You Deal With What's Coming

November 11, 2024

(Hey, before I get started, please please pre-order my novel Lessons in Magic and Disaster. It’s about queer families and surviving in spite of right-wing...

"It's Not About Making the Word Count, But Making the Work Count"

November 4, 2024

Hey, thanks for reading my newsletter! There’s no paywall, and I have no plans to monetize it in the future, but if you would like to support me financially,...

They Ran For President. What Did They Learn?

October 29, 2024

First of all, in case you missed it: I have a new novel for grown-ups coming out in August 2025! Lessons in Magic and Disaster is about a young trans woman...

I'm So Sick of the Death of Superman

October 21, 2024

Hey, did you know that I have a new novel for adults coming out in August 2025? It’s true! Lessons in Magic and Disaster is my first grown-up novel since...

Please be a book hipster!

October 15, 2024

This is a free newsletter! If you would like to support me — and give your future self a gift of a lovely read — please do pre-order my upcoming adult novel...

Why Are Toxic "Superfans" Such a Nightmare for Hollywood?

October 7, 2024

ICYMI I have a novel coming out next August called Lessons in Magic and Disaster, about a young witch who teaches her mother how to be a witch. Along the...

San Francisco's Next Election Is a Referendum on Billionaires

September 30, 2024

Before we get started, hi! This is a free newsletter, but I really appreciate your support as a trans author and organizer. I have a new novel coming out in...

They Can't Get Rid Of Us — Our Parties Are Too Good

September 25, 2024

Hey, this is a free newsletter — but if you would like to support me, please pre-order my novel Lessons in Magic and Disaster (August 2025). A young trans...

Where do genres come from?

September 17, 2024

We spend a lot of time discussing how genres work, where to draw the lines between genres, and which tropes and motifs are essential to a particular genre....

I'm Obsessed With This Cute Time Travel Show

September 12, 2024

One thing I appreciate about Netflix is the wealth of Brazilian TV shows and movies — this was super useful when I was learning Brazilian Portuguese. But...

One More Vital Reason Why Community Gives Me Hope

September 3, 2024

A week or so ago, I was the closing speaker at the final XOXO Fest in Portland, which was a huge honor. I was asked to come talk about reasons to have hope...

Here's Why You Suck At Predicting the Future

August 27, 2024

This past weekend, I was super honored to give the closing talk at XOXO, a wonderful festival in Portland OR that was happening for the very last time. I was...

10 Literary Books That Made Me a Better Science Fiction Writer

August 21, 2024

I love literary fiction, whether it’s grand pomo experiments or a totally grounded personal stories about one family. I’ve been reading literary writing my...

Why I Go To Conventions

August 13, 2024

While I was at Worldcon last weekend, Emily Wilson (writer for New Scientist and author of the Sumerians trilogy) asked me why I go to conventions. This...

Another Way To Think About "Conflict" and "Stakes" In Your Fiction

August 6, 2024

Last week, I was an instructor at the Lambda Literary Workshop, and it was an utter privilege to get to work with some brilliant writers whose bravely...

I Love It When a Plan Doesn't Come Together

July 30, 2024

This is going to be a short newsletter. I’m afraid things are going to be a bit spotty for the next couple weeks: I'm an instructor at the Lambda Literary...

A Grab Bag of Mini Rants!

July 23, 2024

Sorry, I just got back from a ton of travel and don’t have the spoons to write a proper newsletter today. Plus it’s my birthday! But here are a bunch of...

Bluestockings Is Reinventing the Radical Bookstore. You Can Help!

July 15, 2024

I’ve written before about why bookstores are more than just excellent places to discover your new favorite author. They’re also community spaces and key...

Weirdest and Best James Brown Cover Versions

July 11, 2024

Sorry I haven’t put out a newsletter yet this week! I’m traveling on the East Coast (going to Readercon this weekend) and haven’t had time to write anything...

We Should All Be Archivists

July 2, 2024

Lately, I keep obsessing about two seemingly opposing but interrelated trends: 1) The past decade has seen an incredible bounty of art and self-expression...

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About My Breasts

June 24, 2024

Tom Rulkens/Flickr (CC) The other day, a man in a car pulled over and rolled down his window, waving to get my attention. I stopped walking because I figured...

Let Authors Read Their Work!

June 17, 2024

One thing that bums me out is my sense that people don't seem to want to listen to authors reading their work in public as much as they used to. (This is a...

What It Means To Be Optimistic About the Future

June 11, 2024

For a few years, before the pandemic, I got asked the same question at every convention, book festival and conference: “Do you feel optimistic about the...

11 Hot Takes About Doctor Who

June 3, 2024

Doctor Who is so, so alive. The world’s oldest and arguably greatest science fiction (and occasionally fantasy) series is firing on all cylinders this year,...

"There's No Way You Can Talk Back to a Gun": On Psychological Warfare

May 28, 2024

For the past few years, my partner Annalee Newitz has been learning all about the history and theory of psychological warfare. The result is a stunning book,...

Three Science Fiction Stories That Reveal the Truth About Meritocracy

May 21, 2024

Meritocracy is our modern religion. It's a just-so story for the just-world fallacy. We want to believe that wealthy, powerful people deserve all the power...

Shakespeare's King Lear Had a Happy Ending for 140 Years

May 13, 2024

First, some quick announcements: The latest episode of Our Opinions Are Correct is about America’s proud tradition of psychological warfare. Promises...

Don't Believe the Hype about Young People and "Peer Pressure"

April 30, 2024

Lately I’ve been thinking about Blind Tom. (Who am I kidding? I’m always thinking about Blind Tom.) I learned about Blind Tom from my mother, who’s a...

What Women Want: Mel Gibson's Creepiest Movie?

April 23, 2024

First of all, some housekeeping... Voting is now open for the Hugo Awards, which includes the Lodestar Award for young adult fiction. For the third year in a...

Some Like It Even Hotter: An Incomplete Guide to Gender-Flipping Comedies!

April 16, 2024

I used to have an obsession with films where the main character changes gender, for reasons which might be kinda obvious. There's a huge and somewhat bizarre...

Star Trek: Discovery Is My Favorite 21st Century Star Trek

April 9, 2024

Hey, before we get started — this is the day! The paperback of Promises Stronger Than Darkness is out today! The legendary Captain Argentian, the galaxy's...

The Incredibly Risky Scheme that Bill Gates Keeps Pushing

April 2, 2024

Climate change keeps getting worse: 2023 was the hottest year on record, and it's not even close. Despite increasing investments in clean energy and other...

Writing Trans Stories For Fun (and Liberation)

March 25, 2024

The Trans Rights Readathon is going on right now. Roughly a thousand people are reading trans stories and celebrating trans narratives, while raising money...

Prestige Creates a Permission Structure for Experimentation

March 19, 2024

I absolutely loved the novel Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace when I read it back in the day. I devoured it, forcing myself to read all of those bloody...

I Stopped Loving Captain Kirk

March 13, 2024

I used to look up to Captain Kirk, Star Trek's fearless leader, when I was a kid. When I was seven or eight, I had a homemade Starfleet captain shirt, which...

My Favorite Comedy Films of the 2020s (So Far)

March 7, 2024

Last week, I told y'all about one of my favorite comedy TV shows, Extraordinary. (The second season is out now on Hulu, or on Disney+ outside the USA!) And I...

The Funniest TV Show You're (Probably) Not Watching

February 27, 2024

One of the frustrating things about loving television is the extent to which a small number of shows seem to suck up all of the attention — and if you love...

Bonnie Raitt's Career Ended In 1986

February 20, 2024

Bonnie Raitt's career ended back in 1986. Her long-time record company Warner Bros. had sat on her album Nine Lives for a few years, refusing to release it....

How To Build Your Online "Brand" Without Burning Out

February 13, 2024

Recently, there's been a lot of talk about people, especially writers and other creative people, needing to have a "personal brand" on social media. This...

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish Is The Best Superhero Movie Ever

February 6, 2024

No, seriously. I am going to fire up this hot take — and I might even convince you that I'm right. So I finally watched Puss in Boots: the Last Wish, because...

Here's What Bugs Me About Comics

January 30, 2024

I love comics so much — some of my earliest memories involve visiting the Million Year Picnic and New England Comics, and gazing in wonder at all the...

10 Space TV Shows That Don't Get Enough Love

January 24, 2024

Everybody talks about Star Trek, the various Star Wars TV shows, and Battlestar Galactica. But space is way, way bigger than that — space is, in fact, pretty...

Reboot Star Wars!

January 15, 2024

Just a heads up! The trade paperback collection of New Mutants: Lethal Legion (by Enid Balám, Elisabetta D'Amico and me) comes out tomorrow! It's a silly,...

The Difference Between Deceptively Simple and Deceptively Complex

January 10, 2024

Hey everyone! I'm afraid I don't have time to write a brand new newsletter this week. My mom has been visiting from out of town, and I'm under a bunch of...

Doctor Who's Unsung MVP, Best TV Shows of 2023... and Some Rants!

January 3, 2024

Before we get started, a shameless plug! New Mutants: Lethal Legion, the collected edition of the miniseries I wrote last year, is coming out January 14....

The Real Reason Why We Want To Punish the Unhoused

December 27, 2023

As 2023 ends, more and more people are being left with no place to go. Wars, atrocities and natural disasters are creating incomprehensibly vast numbers of...