Blogs

Educating the Ignorant on the Majesty of Ursula, Sea Witch and Gay Icon

Growing up, I thought Disney’s The Little Mermaid was about Ursula. I thought the movie, though oddly focused on that emaciated red-headed hoarder*, was actually a film about a business-savvy octopus lady’s dream of political conquest, and the unfair regulations she was forced to overcome. **

*(This isn’t thin shaming so much as it is a response to Ariel’s most famous frame, in which she is grotesquely disproportionate. This is compared to the rest of the movie, where the animators did not render her a bobble head).

Read moreEducating the Ignorant on the Majesty of Ursula, Sea Witch and Gay Icon

Useless Magic

So a while ago I was brainstorming useless magic powers with a friend (this has since turned into a discussion topic between multiple friends of mine, a trend of which is as simultaneously enchanting as it is distressing). I thought I’d make a list of my favorites here, you know, because I’m compulsive and delusional and think this will add value to the internet. Feel free to leave a suggestion or six!

Read moreUseless Magic

Ryan vs. New York City: A Story of Trash, Bingo, and Self-Assuredness

(No, I’m not in the photo. I’m taking the photo. Stop creepin’)

I spent the past few days in New York and I wasn’t in complete agony!

Now, before I go further, I want to reject the notion that I blindly despise NYC because I went to school in Boston. Honestly, I’m shocked you’d even go and make that assumption. It really makes me questions how comfortable I am talking with you. What other prejudices are you projecting onto me? You, my reader, are probably a very paranoid and miserable person.

Read moreRyan vs. New York City: A Story of Trash, Bingo, and Self-Assuredness

Ryan vs. The Driveway: A Story of Love and Underdog Triumph

I feel like the best way I can describe the weather of Connecticut right now is that it is essentially behaving like I behave on a bad date: abysmally, in the hopes of scaring off company without actually having to put in the effort of articulating a dismissal. It’s almost as though Connecticut (and yeah I guess these other states up here) is actively trying to confront humanity over the long-ago idiocy that spurred us to colonize this far north.

Read moreRyan vs. The Driveway: A Story of Love and Underdog Triumph

Beta Reading

Sometime last month I sent a preliminary draft of KMDC to a writer friend who has literally witnessed this project from the very beginning. And about a week ago I sent off the beta draft of KMDC to a few trusted ladies up in Boston. My parents currently have copies loaded on their kindles, and, to complete my Arsenal of Critique, I’ve enlisted another novelist in a trade of manuscripts. (the lovely J.M. Johnson, who you should follow on Twitter. Also, check our her blog).

Read moreBeta Reading

My Two Favorite Men

You know how it’s a bit of a trope for the sad, single girl/gay to flop down next to their best friend (usually the main character with a love interest half-developed by now) and say, “I’ve got a date tonight with my two favorite men! Ben…and Jerry!” And we all laugh at the simmering hilarity that is self-indulgent, sugary melancholy?

Read moreMy Two Favorite Men

Here at the Bottom

When I write, I generally keep a scene outline at the bottom of my document. As I figure things out and make edits, this outline tends to accumulate into a chapter outline, then a section outline, then eventually a book outline. It looms beneath my cursor like some sort of stupid, static dirigible, feeding me hints as I encroach on its content, and bumping itself down obediently as I progress.

Read moreHere at the Bottom

On Resolutions

There’s something sickly about resolutions. I think it has to do with the way they’re made; either uttered furtively or pronounced with great enthusiasm (but always as a shamed self-reprimand), and they’re always precipitated by something arbitrary. I mean that as: it isn’t your weight, or how you feel about your size, but the time of year that drums up your resolution. It isn’t your generally aloof nature, or your family’s naturally sparse dynamic, but the death of a cousin that makes you resolve to stay in touch.

Read moreOn Resolutions