Lit agent search using Publishers Marketplace

My advice piece for fellow writers on how to find and build a list of prospective literary agents landed on the front page of the California Writers Club quarterly newsletter. Click below to read it. Founded in 1909, California Writers Club is one of the nation’s oldest professional clubs for writers. With 22 branches throughout theContinue reading “Lit agent search using Publishers Marketplace”

At AWP22: Moderating a Panel and Reading

#AWP22 was a swirl of activities as the literary world is emerging from the downtime of the pandemic. What a difference from the last live AWP convention, March 2020 in San Antonio, the so-called #AWPocalypse of 2020 – a conference on the edge of a world shutting down, which I wrote about for the CaliforniaContinue reading “At AWP22: Moderating a Panel and Reading”

Guide for foster/adoptive parents on #1 adoption site

Glad to share my research into foster/adoption policies and history on Adoption.com, the world’s largest adoption website and adoptive parent platform. I hope it will make a useful guide for prospective foster/adoptive parents. Wish I’d known all of this going into the fost/adopt process years ago! When considering adopting kids from foster care, prospective parentsContinue reading “Guide for foster/adoptive parents on #1 adoption site”

“Raising Them to Be Strong” Featured in Bay Windows

Bay Windows, Boston-based LGBTQ newspaper and news site, appoached me asking to reprint “Raising Them to Be Strong: A Gay Dad’s Reflections on Parenting Daughters,” my Father’s Day article published earlier this year by Family Equality, the nationwide gay family advocacy organization. I gladly said yes and am delighted to see it both on theContinue reading ““Raising Them to Be Strong” Featured in Bay Windows”

“Raising Them to Be Strong” | Father’s Day Post on Family Equality.org

Happy Father’s Day 2021! It’s been a deeply fulfilling, spiritually transformative journey for my husband and me. Our story, featured today on FamilyEquality.org, the nationwide LGBTQ family advocacy organization, recounts the joys and challenges of two men raising daughters since babyhood. So how do we do it?

Reading a New Story Live at AWP21

Read “The Grass Eater,” my new personal essay as part of a live virtual reading organized by the AWP Creative Writing Caucus at the virtual AWP 2021 on March 4. At the center of the story is a devilish 7-year-old who wrecks his mother’s seaside honeymoon. The setting is the Republic of Georgia; the timeContinue reading “Reading a New Story Live at AWP21”

“The iPad Wars” in City Tales 2020, a YouTube storytelling show

This was a new performance format for me to learn – I’d taped myself reading the essay “The iPad Wars” for City Tales, the annual storytelling reading by LACC students and faculty, and sent it to the organizers for post-production. The show went live on YouTube June 4. Previously published in The Citadel, “The iPadContinue reading ““The iPad Wars” in City Tales 2020, a YouTube storytelling show”

“Christmas Dreidels” in The Citadel 2020

“Christmas Dreidels” explores one gay couple’s experience of building an adoptive family built on the richness of Jewish and African American heritages, one in which widely diverse cultural, racial, and religious backgrounds add up to a new, organic whole.

Mujerista Theology, or Finding Sacredness amidst Poverty and Oppression

This post is part of Blessing the Sea 4. Is search for the sacred a class privilege? Or to put it differently, are the opportunities to touch the divine – beyond the formal religious settings open to the masses, like synagogues, churches, or mosques – luxuries afforded only to those who can afford them, andContinue reading “Mujerista Theology, or Finding Sacredness amidst Poverty and Oppression”

Spirit and Spunk of a Merchant’s Wife

This book review is part of Blessing the Sea 4 newsletter. Gluckel of Hameln’s memoir has many layers. Written in simple, vivid language for her children over 300 years ago, it makes a surprisingly fast and lively read. There are anecdotes galore – funny, heartwarming, or bizarre, like when she and her mother give birthContinue reading “Spirit and Spunk of a Merchant’s Wife”