Where the Hope Comes From

Every time Pride Month rolls around, I find myself thinking about—long-time readers, prepare to be unsurprised—the whole non-inheritability of queer culture thing all over again. The sheer volume of "I don't even know what I don't know" that comes to most queerlings when they realize they're different, but by virtue of the people around them, …

The Shoulder Check Problem

A couple of days ago, there was a discussion that sort of flashed past my timeline. An author of gay romance who is also a gay man was expressing the frustration over a sentiment in an m/m group that was posted—“women write the best m/m”—and how unwelcoming it can feel to gay men writing gay …

Romance Writers of America

Dear board members and president; I cannot put in strong enough terms the level of disappointment (and outright frustration and anger) I feel at the decision to censure Courtney Milan for her ongoing efforts and discourse to attempt to change the direction of the RWA and romance writing in general toward a more inclusive, representative …

When They Don’t Get It

This week, I was super lucky and was asked to step in at the last minute to talk to a local writing group about queerness, as a replacement. Now, before anything else, I want to say it was a really good overall experience, it went about as well as I ever expect it to, and …

State of the ‘Nathan

Hello! I know, I know. This blog has basically been nothing but flash fics and short story reviews for a while now—not that there's anything wrong with that—but today I have actual updates on writing type news, and not only that but it's not one bit of news but two to share with y'all, and …

Judging for Yourself

Both the Lammies and the RITAs have announced their finalist lists for the year. Now, before anything else, I want to make sure I begin with a simple declarative here: there are some really great things that are happening on both lists. And there's some buts. I don't know how coherent I'm going to be …