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”

“Faribault famous”

August 2nd, 2023 I did a neat thing last week and it’s out today: the Faribault Daily News published a feature on me + my life + my work! You can check it out on their website at faribault dot com and of course I have some behind-the-scenes tea for you! – Pam and IContinue reading ““Faribault famous””

Cold World: Building a house you can live in as is, with doors and stairways to expand up, down, or sideways

June 30th, 2023 Everything about Cold World was, for me, too big to contain in one story — whether I ever decide to write any of those other stories or not. I knew that I wanted to tell a complete, specific tale: this chapter of Calef’s life as he explores the power of understanding, throughContinue reading “Cold World: Building a house you can live in as is, with doors and stairways to expand up, down, or sideways”

Untitled

June 25th, 2023 Seeing people so unabashedly, recklessly happy has filled my insides. I would love to do something weird and thank everyone who went to Twin Cities Pride and Taylor Swift this weekend. Through the magic of being human, your joy has been a highlight of my summer; you are all a Bomb PopContinue reading “Untitled”

Cold World: Faith & Spirituality

June 16th, 2023 “It’s not that I don’t believe in anything. I just haven’t found the thing that makes sense to me yet.” That’s how I usually answer the question of whether I’m religious or believe in God. The formal term is agnostic; I learned that the difference between being agnostic or atheist is thatContinue reading “Cold World: Faith & Spirituality”

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”

Football is Life (and Death)

May 30th, 2023 I’m posting this absolute thirst trap to talk about my two favorite shows right now which, like this photo, are about soccer and not about soccer at all. Yellowjackets and Ted Lasso couldn’t be more different on paper, but they share more than their European football connection; they compliment one another, andContinue reading “Football is Life (and Death)”

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”

tragic/miracle

May 1st, 2023 Normal people wake up in their normal beds on the morning of their birthday and they post the cutest pic they can find of themselves on the internet to announce that they are a year older, a whole three-hundred-and-sixty-five-days wiser. I stayed up until midnight to post this photo of me I’veContinue reading “tragic/miracle”

Final Thoughts On Us, and Them

April 28th, 2023 Enough talk of failure. There was some victory, too. As we end another month of retrospect and introspect, I want to talk about the triumphs from the year I released Them and Us. I made a list: 1. It only took me one book to realize I can do anything. By that,Continue reading “Final Thoughts On Us, and Them”