In this time of chaos On this day of reckoning I take a pause I take a breath I take the time to think To remember To set my intentions To manifest through action To love And to hope.
Category: Musings
What My Mother Taught Me About Writing
Back in June, I wrote a post about the various things my father taught me about writing (and creative work in general). Mom turned 96 this month, and I thought it would be appropriate to do the same for her. She only ever said one thing about my writing, and writing in general. But boy…
What My Father Taught Me About Writing
My father, Sidney Jessel Cohen, died in 2019, at the age 86, after 16 years of mild cognitive impairment, dementia, and finally Alzheimer’s. It’s been almost 5 years. 4 Father’s Days. Like me, Dad was a perfectionist. Unlike me, he was very neat and tidy. His desk and filing system were always organized with precision,…
“I Thought People Like That [Unalived] Themselves”
Back in the bad old days of the early 20th century, queer fiction had to have an unhappy ending in order to get published. Much like the Hays Code required movie villains to get their comeuppance, there was an unspoken rule that homosexual characters needed to come to an unhappy end – and if they…
The Dreaded Message Novel
People don’t like messages in fiction, for some reason. They think they’re preachy and didactic. I disagree. I’ve always been fond of message-driven fiction. Some of it can be preachy and didactic, sure. But I’m thinking of stories where the messages are far subtler. Kurt Vonnegut’s Deadeye Dick, for example, showed 12-year-old me that a…
On Being an Older Writer
I’ll be 56 this February. Wow. I’m used to being the oldest one in the room. I hang out on a few Discord servers, and for some reason there are a lot of younger people on Discord. Maybe because it started out as a gaming platform? I’m not sure. It definitely reminds me of IRC…