Some Vital Formative Experiences All Cis Women Share (Which Trans Women Don't)
We are once again debating whether trans women are really women, becuase it's a day ending in shrieks and blood-spattered mirrors and cries of damnation....
Superhero TV Shows Are Way Better (And More Varied) Than People Give Them Credit
Last week, everybody on the internet was freaking out about this Variety article on superhero TV shows — purely because Harley Quinn producer Justin Halpern...
Here are the Things That I Love Right Now
So sorry I've been so slow about posting newsletters lately — I'm hoping to put out a bunch in the next week or so, and then keep cranking 'em out regularly....
How to Write a Space Opera That's Not Quite So Messed Up
Below is a somewhat revised version of a Twitter thread I posted a couple months ago. I was on a panel the other day and was citing some of the points I made...
Don't Let Genre Tropes Boss You Around
Ever had a story that you were dying to write, for years and years? And then you finally had an opportunity to write it, and... you couldn't make it work at...
We NEED a Squirrel Girl TV Show Immediately If Not Sooner!
Marvel has announced approximately five billion TV shows, including long-awaited live-action incarnations of Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk. But there's still one...
The Truth About Literary Fiction
The other day I tweeted something about literary fiction that caused some, er, spirited discussion. People started asking me to define "literary fiction,"...
What Samuel Johnson Can Teach Us About Separating Art from the Artist
In the fifth episode of the wonderful sitcom Rutherford Falls, Nathan and Regan help to judge people's projects in their local History Fair, and end up...
10 Hot Takes About Star Wars
It's Star Wars Day for another few hours! I know, I'm super late, and everybody else already shot a womp rat, or whatever you do to celebrate this holiday,...
Yes, You Are Trans Enough. Yes, Your Identity is Valid. No, You Shouldn't Police Other Trans People's Identities.
Lately I've been having, or witnessing, the same conversations again and again with fellow trans folk: people confess that they feel like imposters, or like...
To Survive a Year of Covid, Indie Booksellers Had To Reimagine What It Means To Be a Bookstore
Like many other booksellers, Margaret (not her real name) was forced to shut down her store a year ago. When she reopened, she mostly sold books online,...
The Horrible Endgame of the Legislative Attack on Trans Kids
Image: Ted Eytan/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0 I was privileged to be able to write about the horrendous new wave of legislation that aims to punish trans kids in...
Not Having An Answer Is An Answer
Back in 2019, in the before times, I was lucky enough to be guest of honor at Wiscon, the world’s first feminist science fiction convention, alongside the...
The Paradox of Breathing While Trans
Detail of the cover of Pinned Down by Pronouns, ed. T. Amato and M. Davies I didn’t transition gracefully — executing all the steps from boy-life to girl-...
"Literature's Most Famous Transsexual" Is a Rapist
Raquel Welch as Myra Breckinridge There aren’t any words for how much I loathe Myra Breckinridge. I first read Gore Vidal’s novel probably 15 years ago, and...
The Alt Ending of All the Birds in the Sky (Part 1)
Japanese cover art to All the Birds in the Sky, by artist Akane Malbeni. For years, I’ve been promising to reveal ALL about the alternate ending that I...
7 Wrong Lessons That Creators Learned from Game of Thrones
This is a picture of Game of Thrones, which belongs to HBO and stuff. Hard to believe we’re coming up on the tenth anniversary of Game of Thrones’ premiere...
I Used To Stand On a Stage and Tell Lies About Famous Authors
image: Litseen Today is the one-year anniversary of the last Writers With Drinks, which happened on Feb. 8, 2020. (Writers With Drinks is a live spoken word...
The Hottest New Trend in Brazilian Speculative Fiction
Sertãopunk book cover art by Jorge Ribas One thing I love about science fiction and fantasy is that we’re always adding new subgenres to the mix, as writers...
I wrote a book that I hope nobody reads
Lately, I keep having the same conversation with other trans artists and activists who were around in the early 2000s. I always tell them that their work...
