FIGHT!

August 21st, 2023 I look like an idiot. I haven’t been on my usual bullshit lately, writing about my messy emotions or mental health, or about politics or the climate or philosophy or grief or sobriety. It’s not that I don’t think about these things anymore; they’re all I think about, the things that keepContinue reading “FIGHT!”

The Weirdos, Part II: The Sketch

August 11th, 2023 I love Abigail “Axis” Coire — aka The Sketch, though she’s never referred to by that name in Volume I — so much, for so many reasons, but one of the strongest is her complexity. The irony of this is not lost on me, because she began as a single question: “Wouldn’tContinue reading “The Weirdos, Part II: The Sketch”

Cold World: Loss & Grief

June 14th, 2023 Cold World was the first time I explored the loss of my mom in fiction. I do it here, on the internet, all the time. Your responses to that type of writing has ranged from “this is exactly how I feel, thank you for writing this” to “this makes me very uncomfortable,”Continue reading “Cold World: Loss & Grief”

Platform of Pain

May 19th, 2023 If you would have told me when I was a kid that I would eventually build my life on hurt, I would have told you that you say really weird things to kids. But you would have been right. I was having a recorded conversation with a friend earlier this week (forContinue reading “Platform of Pain”

Static Interlude

April 26th, 2023 I’ve been distant. (Don’t act like you noticed. We can only hold 150 people in our heads and I’m not one of them.) Usually when I sit down and type one of these I have a central idea or general theme or, you know, a point. That is not what this is.Continue reading “Static Interlude”

Us: How do I love failure? Let me count the ways

April 17th, 2023 I’ve mentioned several times that the story of my book, Us, is the story of failure; but today, I want to count the ways. Because I’m an eternal optimist, however, failure is always only half of a story. The other half is a lesson, an annoying ray of sunshine as a bookendContinue reading “Us: How do I love failure? Let me count the ways”

String Theory

February 15th, 2023 I often have to repeat to myself that the world isn’t more tragic; we are just made more aware of all the tragedies. And tragedy becomes a kind of string we wear around our finger. I have extended family who are going through a personal tragedy right now, losing their father, myContinue reading “String Theory”

All the Wrong and Dark Things

January 31st, 2023 Today is the last day of Origins month, and I sincerely want to thank anybody who’s been reading. A better explanation of why I’m doing this (and why I do anything on the internet at all) is coming tomorrow, the first day of a new month, and a new topic. Going throughContinue reading “All the Wrong and Dark Things”

The Language of Darkness

November 25th, 2022 There’s something you feel when someone ends their own life that feels either unnatural or completely understandable. It’s something I’ve explored a lot, in essays like these, and in fictional characters like Liam, in the book Push, and Axis in The Weirdos. I had the realization that I had said unnatural orContinue reading “The Language of Darkness”

I’m Becoming This

November 7th, 2022 “I don’t know if I’m strong; I think I’m just numb.” – Khloe Kardashian Today — and this week, and this year, and the past handful of years — I wonder how many of us have been embodying this Khloe Kardashian quote. I don’t know the difference between strong and numb someContinue reading “I’m Becoming This”