Auf Wiedersehen, Deutschland
In my last post, I was about to leave for Germany to do some research for my novel. I had two precious days in Leipzig, my protagonist’s hometown. The city is less than two hours by train from Berlin. About…
Category: Diversity
So You’re Not Racist, What Next?
In this day and age, as a female “person of color” living in a first-world country, I have many opportunities to indulge in the love of Western progressives. Nonetheless, I invite you to look at the big picture, to stop…
An Interview with Stephanie Gayle, Author of Idyll Hands
Stephanie Gayle is a writing machine. Her third book in four years, Idyll Hands, hits the stands in early September. It is the most recent in her celebrated Thomas Lynch mystery series, following Idyll Threats and Idyll Fears. The Strand…
Beyond the Closet: Writing Gay Characters
As an out writer in a large writing community, I sometimes get questions from fellow writers about writing gay characters. Typically, there’s some low-level anxiety about “getting it right.” I love these questions. It means that the writer has or is…
How to Tell if Your Writing Deserves Praise – A Cosmo Quiz
Not too long ago, my good friend Julie Carrick Dalton sent me this comic from Chuck Draws Things:
It’s Not the End of the World: Rethinking How We Tell Stories About Climate Change
Apocalyptic stories of rising sea levels and choking dust storms come to mind when most people think about climate fiction, the emerging genre often referred to as cli-fi. Dystopian anarchy where nations battle over water resources appear in books and…