Your Story Matters

Picture this:

May 2024, a lovely home overlooking a field on the outskirts of Lancaster, PA.

A book club of seven women discussing The Only Way Through Is Out, with me, the author, in attendance.

I...

As the publication date for The Only Way Through Is Out approached, excitement—and fear—bubbled up inside me:

Would anyone want to read another coming-out-later-in-life story?

Maybe this was just no...

What are mentor texts?

Mentor texts are a great tool for writers. Simply put, mentor texts are books writers can study as models to develop good writing skills and craft.

Here's the good news, write...

Last weekend, I had the great pleasure of seeing—and hearing!—Adele in concert during her Las Vegas residency.

I had some issues with Las Vegas itself, but that's a story for another day.

The show w...

Monday morning I sent the final draft of THE ONLY WAY THROUGH IS OUT to my editors at the University of Wisconsin Press!

And ever since, I've been sitting with all the feels.

I'm thrilled. Terrified...

Maybe you’ve heard it’s impossible to get a book deal for a memoir if you aren’t a celebrity or you don’t have millions of followers on TikTok.

You’re not a celebrity (yet) and you don’t have million...

"We're really excited about your book," the thirty-something editor said to me. "Because we want to publish the plurality of the queer experience."

Maybe that was her nice way of saying that there ar...

When I ask my book coaching clients WHY they want to write their story, they typically say something like:

"I want to write the book I wish I had when I was going through X."

I get that.

When I was...

In 1978, I was a high school senior and an exchange student living in Knutsford England, and I wrote a personal essay for my hometown paper about my study abroad experience.

My first byline!

But it ...

My friend Byron is a Southern gentleman with a wicked sense of humor and an equally wicked sense of style.

Like he would wear a made-to-order seersucker tuxedo to a black tie wedding.

And in that ve...