Writing

Published by Cleis Press, July 2024.

Enjoy my sexy, fantastical, gay, erotic short story, “Blazing in the Endless Sky,” featuring a cowboy who gets more than expected during a night under the stars with a trans man.

Buy The Big Book of Quickies: 69 Erotic Stories.

Published by ATB Publishing, September 2019.

In “76. Awakening: The Mary-Sue Hack,” I discuss the Angel episode “Awakening” and Angel’s Mary-Sue dream world.

Buy Outside In Gains a Soul, 5% of sales are donated to Avert, a UK-based HIV/AIDS charity.

Published by Uncanny Magazine, January/February 2015.

Part of the draw of sci-fi, fantasy, superheroes, anime, and just really good stories has always been the desire to be someone else, live a more fantastical life, and go on a journey outside ourselves. In “The Future’s Been Here Since 1939: Female Fans, Cosplay, and Conventions,” I look at how cosplay brings that dream to life as one puts on a costume and pretends to have an aspect of or be that character.

Read the article and buy the magazine.

Published by Mad Norwegian Press, November 2012.

In “How the Cold War Killed the Fifth Doctor,” I look at season 21 of Doctor Who with the Fifth Doctor. Despite his celery-pinned lapel and whimsy, this incarnation of the Doctor suffers from being written during the Cold War and two superpowers with nuclear weapons pointed at each other. I explore how the storylines, and ultimately the Fifth Doctor’s death, reflect the real world political theater.

Nominated for a Hugo award. Buy Chicks Unravel Time

Nominated for a Hugo award. Buy Chicks Dig Comics

Published by Archive Six, October 2013.

Featuring “Goodbye Ghosts, No Means No,” a short piece of autobiographical fiction where I explore sexual and emotional abuse and the trauma that lasts longer than the sting of a teenage broken heart.

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Published by Archive Six, December 2014.

I contributed the autobiographical fiction piece, “The Chemistry of Buttermilk Pancakes,” which looks at my family’s history with food and my relationship with my now deceased grandmother. I also share my family’s recipe for delicious buttermilk pancakes.

Buy Self Care Zine: Food

Bi+ people discuss their pop culture role models.

Each Star Trek show holds a special meaning for many of us, but no one can ignore that Deep Space Nine, at its core, is a show about politics. Politics in space. Politics that involve shapeshifters and Tribbles. The events of end of the Occupation of Bajor and Bajor seeking Federation membership serve as catalysts for the entire show.

“Anyone can come to our event.” That’s what we tell ourselves – we the people who program and labor over our events. We don’t bar anyone from joining the fun, and the only barrier may (or may not) be a ticket price or alcohol-related restrictions around age. When we do price our events, we make sure they’re affordable for our demographic and right along with our competitors’ prices. But the real truth is that not everyone is actually welcomed to our events.

Communities are extraordinary assets for brands. They build loyalty, increase brand equity and reputation, and activate new members. n loyalty alone, devoted community members are worth up to 10 times as much as new ones.

MozCon’s dedication to the representation of women on stage officially kicked off in 2012. Before, it wasn’t that women didn’t speak or weren’t being asked to share their experiences and expertise. It was that, like many conferences out there, without an intentional discussion about gender during speaker selections, we missed the mark by miles.

Got an email asking about how we find main speakers for MozCon. I’m going to answer here instead to help quickly address this in the future. I love programming a conference and other events where we select the speakers vs events where we take pitches.

In crisis and tragedy, we turn to social media, so here’s how to make sure your brand responds appropriately and you stay sane.

Improve your presentation slide decks with these seven simple tips, including a downloadable checklist you can reference in future projects.

My journey as a community manager started with volunteering. As a small child, I spent a lot of time with my grandparents, who were Catholic and who had convictions around serving others in need.

SEO may be a male-dominated industry, but let’s step out of our biases and work hard to welcome women, and marketers of all stripes, into our community.

Need to change your social media accounts for a rebrand? Here’s how! And don’t worry, it’s not that scary.

When it comes to social media analytics, engagement is super important. But what does engagement actually mean? And are social media follower counts really important?

Conferences can be spendy when you add up ticket costs, travel, hotel, meals, and more. It’s important that you can justify a positive ROI when it comes to your budget. Find out the value and costs of your MozCon ticket.

In true technologist fashion, let’s dig a little into some data. In 2010, women earned 57 percent of all bachelor’s degrees, yet only received 18 percent of all computer and information science bachelor’s degrees — down from 37 percent in 1985.