Your Story Matters

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,...

All month long, I'm highlighting the stories of queer writers I've worked with 1:1 or inside my Write Yourself Out community, as well as the stories of other awesome queer humans.

Read Part 1 of...

All month long, I'm highlighting the coming-out stories of queer writers I've worked with 1:1 or inside my Write Yourself Out mentorship and community, as well as the stories of other awesome queer...

Recently, I had an interesting exchange with a writer friend of mine who lives in a progressive bubble in the Pacific Northwest.

She was remarking on how accepting everyone is now of the LGBTQ+...

I had two polar opposite experiences last week that convinced me that queer people need safe spaces to raise their voices and write their stories more than ever.

First, I read in the newspaper that...

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...

Today is National Coming Out Day, a day I didn't even know existed when I was living as a straight woman in a mixed-gender marriage.

Back then, I was oblivious to the struggles of LGBTQ+ folx and...

I'm in a conference room at my wife's workplace, Temple University, here to celebrate the investiture of the university's new president and go to the homecoming game.

Every so...

Beck came to me last spring with a vague idea about the story he wanted to write.

Snippets of experiences from my childhood living as a girl and moments of parallel in adulthood, as I re-experience...

"We had a protestor at our wedding," my wife tells anyone who will listen. "I consider it a queer badge of honor," she always says, with a smile.

Maybe she's right, but a year ago when I spotted a...