When I was a girl, I’d often have a nightmare in which I was somewhere with religiously diverse friends — when I was younger, usually Guides, and school friends as I got older. There’d be food. Someone would offer me a plate, and I’d accept unthinkingly. And then, somewhere after…
We all know “the look.” We’ve seen it more times than we can count: the mingled disgust, anger, and horror. The step back and double take that says “You don’t belong here.” Get out. Pervert. Freak. For those of us who are gender non-conforming*, transgender or trans*, gender non-binary, genderfluid,…
Public libraries rock. This is a fact of life. Because I was fortunate to be born into a life of relative privilege, they rock for a whole bunch of reasons I’ve been lucky enough not to need to know. They offer free heat and light and air conditioning, free water,…
So you’ve decided to write a novel! Or a play! Or a screenplay! Or a short story! Or a fanfic with OCs! Congratulations! But unless you are like artsy, and I mean, super-duper artsy, your characters will need names. What to do? Every writer knows that names are important. They’re…