I’ve watched the organized online hatred of women grow. At first, I was unaware of the hate groups in the fever swamps of 4Chan–then I believed they were just a few crackpots. Then Gamergate happened, and I realized those groups had metastasized into an electronic mob. It was about that time I started to experience it personally–increasingly virulent misogyny directed… Read More

Still true. Although, given I’ve started an entirely new penname (romance) since then, I’d add that publishing allows you to be someone else too.

There are some people who are proud of their ability to tell the “brutal truth.” But Truth isn’t brutal or kind–people are those things. So maybe the truth isn’t brutal–you are. Is that hard to hear? That’s because it’s not kind. The Truth: we have a veneer of social nicety that stands in for our better selves. Politeness is a… Read More

It’s the stock and trade for writers, so I’ve spent a lot of time studying it–what it is, how it works in the brain, how to tap into it, enhance it, access it (even when your emotional state says WAT? NO!). This isn’t just for my own work, but the future work of my children–as I was telling my two… Read More

As someone else pointed out, it’s the nature of dog whistles to fly under the radar of normal people. It’s Secret Code for Racists. And our President is using it. (For bonus points, he’s using terminology that originated with the Nazis within 24 hours of a swastika-burning Neo-Nazi party in Georgia.) If you support Trump, you cannot say “I don’t… Read More