I’ve never been a really physical person. I considered myself in fairly decent shape, but I’m coming to realize a few things.

1. That was a filthy lie.
2. A lot of my good health was because I was walking to and from my day job. Not to mention downtown on most of my off days. I no longer live close enough to downtown to do that.
3. I’m thirty-fucking-two, and my metabolism is slowing down.
4. There’s a litany of health issues plaguing the women of my family. Like, heart issues and diabetes. I’m not trying to go out like that.
5. I’m starting to breath heavy when I walk upstairs.

Guess who has two thumbs and doesn’t like the way this story is shaking out?

So I decided I needed to do something about it. Actually, I decided I need to do a lot of things about it. My diet is shitty, and I don’t exercise beyond a fifteen-minute yoga session in the morning. I’m fully aware that I’m going to have to fix both of these issues if I’m going to get my body to a place I’m happy about it again.

Don’t worry, I’m not turning this into a healthy living blog. I’m not going to start posting pictures of my body to show my progress and shame other people. I’m certainly not writing this to shame anyone. I’m writing this because there are some things I know to be true, and this is one of them.

Writers have a reputation for not taking care of ourselves. And we need to cut that shit out. Part of that is dispelling the image of an overweight writer sitting at a desk, consuming inappropriate amounts of black coffee and red wine.

I’ve decided to take up running. Why? It’s cheap, easy to get started on, and Natalie Goldberg runs. And this time of year, when sugary coffees and Santa shaped cookies abound, there’s nothing I’m going to do about my diet. My hope is that on January first when everyone’s talking about how they’re going to get some new shoes and pick up running, I’ll already have thirty days of a habit built. That’s my only goal right now, thirty days of trying.

And that is going to be the cornerstone of my success. I found a simple, start running plan on Pinterest, and it’s easy to follow. It includes rest days, and it takes no more than fifteen to twenty minutes out of my day. I have not bought a lot of expensive workout stuff, my old leggings and a pair of Sketchers slip-ons work fine for me. If I stick with it, I’ll buy new shoes. That itself might be enough to encourage me to stay with this.

I think it’s important to note that I’m not doing this to look better. I love my body, and I don’t think being fatter than I used to be is going to change that. I didn’t take off my clothes to take a shower and feel sick when looking at myself. I hate hearing those stories, you know? Of people starving themselves, killing themselves, because they were disgusted by their own bodies. This is the greatest gift I have in this world, a healthy body. So I should act like it.

If there’s something you don’t like about your life, and you want to make a chance, you might be thinking of making a New Years Resolution. Many people are this time of year. Let me give you some advice.

If you didn’t do it in 2018, nothing magical is going to happen on January first.

If you get new shoes and make big plans to take up running in the new year, you will most likely be left with a pair of expensive shoes and your same old habits.

Do you want to make a change? Make a plan and start today. Do you want to start running? Find the sneakers you know you already own and go for a walk after work. Tomorrow, go for a walk and run for a few minutes in the middle. Find a walking to running challenge. Start slow, make it something achievable, and start today.

The exact same advice applies to any goal, including writing. If you passed on Nanowrimo, and you’re planning on starting your novel in January, start today. Take fifteen minutes, sit down and start free writing. Get some thoughts on paper.

Don’t wait, start today.

Make it accessible.

Do it for the right reasons. Do it because you love yourself and you’re worth it.

You do those three things, and you can do literally anything.

So, what are you starting today?

Station 86 is shocked when a Khloe assassin begins killing members of the all powerful council. Officer Sennett Montgomery and Councilman Godfrey Anders swear to find the assassin after Godfrey’s wife is falsely accused. But the killer, and the council itself, are not what they seem. Neither, as it turns out, is Sennett’s daughter.

Get it free now, and enter the world of Station 86

I think black flats are a fairly standard piece of a woman’s closet. At least, I need a pair. Or, you know, two.

In the past, I’ve just gotten some cheap flats from a certain unnamed box store and wore them until they looked crappy. That didn’t take long. They also weren’t exactly what I’d call comfortable, or supportive. I couldn’t really walk around a lot in them, or my back would start hurting. But I figure, hell, they’re cheap right? And for most of my life, cheap was what I could afford.

Recently, this company came to my attention called Tori Burch. They make these flats that are iconic. They’re also almost $230.00 for a pair of bloody black flats!

Here’s the thing, though, I’m probably going to save up and get me a pair. And do you know why?

Because sometimes you’ve got to do an upgrade. Sometimes you’ve got to stop making do with the cheapest you can afford and invest in something real and of quality.

Okay, I’m not telling you all this to sell you on these flats. I’m telling you this because I had a mental shift that was similar to my transition from cheap flats to Tori Bush flats.

I realized that I, like my shoes, need an upgrade.

And since we’re nearing the start of 2019, it’s a good time to figure out what needs an upgrade.

I need to upgrade my internal voice, and that’s really where we need to start. Too often I find myself shortchanging myself. I get tired and lazy and start settling for what’s cheap, fast and easy. In many, many ways. Before I can fully fix that behavior, I need to start by understanding that I’m worth the effort. I need to put the effort into taking care of me before I take care of others because if I don’t I can’t take care of others.

I need to upgrade my skin care. And I’m honestly a little embarrassed that I’m still working on this. I’m thirty-two now, and I need to start taking good care of my skin. I mean drinking enough water, using a gentle cleanser, and finding a moisturizer that works with my hella oily skin. I’ve started using rose water as a primer and setting spray. It’s doing some great things for my skin. I also started, gasp, using an under-eye cream to get rid of my bags and decrease wrinkles. Yes, I understand that I’m going to age. I’d like to age gracefully. I’d also like to at least look like I slept last night.

I need to upgrade my money mindset. For instance, I just learned this year that there was a difference between a 401K and a retirement plan. I’m learning tons about investing, and how it’s not as unreachable as I thought it was. I’m also learning that I need a savings plan. Can you believe I don’t have a savings account? I’ve got to fix that.

I need to upgrade my attitude towards my writing. I’ve gotten into sort of a rut with my writing, and I’m finding that a lot of business decisions I’ve made in the past are just not working for me anymore. If they ever worked at all. So I’m going to be making some major changes in my writing career in 2019, doing some scary things that I’ve been hesitating to do. More on that soon.

I need to upgrade my faith in myself, finally. I have kind of a track record of quitting on things that I’ve found hard. I’ve not taken good care of my health, not done the difficult things when the easier thing was an option. I want to know that I can do difficult things, and have faith that I can do more than I believe that I can.

So what about you. What’s your Tori Bush level upgrade in your life? Let us know in the comments below!

What better time of the year could there be for a Christmas story? Enjoy twelve little Christmas tales, ranging from heart felt to horrifying. Meet a young man who recieves a surprise Christmas gift, a little boy who gets an unexpected visit from Santa, and a young woman spending Christmas Eve in a new coat.

Get it here now!

Nanowrimo is done now for another year. Lots of writers, like myself, are freaking exhausted this week because we just spent a month writing 50,000 words. My final word count was 50,016, which is actually not as much as some other writers I was buddies with. It’s okay, I’m not judging myself by other people.

Much.

This was the first time in three years that I’ve participated, and I was honestly a little unsure I was going to be able to do it.

Because it’s been so long since I’ve participated, I wanted to give you an overview of my experience. It wasn’t all great, but I’m absolutely glad I did it.

Here’s why.

What sucked hard

I rushed another project last month. To be specific, I rushed the end of another novel I was writing. It was supposed to be a novella. Actually, it started out as a short story and sort of blossomed from there. That’s the way of things, I suppose. But I’m not happy with the ending, and it’s going to need some major rewriting. I’m not really happy about how I left that.

Literally, nothing else got done this month. I did the bare minimum housework. I cooked the easiest things possible on my days to cook. My social media has been super lacking. I stopped doing Amazon ads altogether. I have the edits for Missing Stitches, and I’ve not worked on them nearly as much as I should have. I don’t think I sent out a single newsletter this month. I completely failed to do anything decent for Black Friday or Cyber Monday. I’ve let everything go in the pursuit of those 50,000 words. I’ll definitely be doing a lot more planning next year in October to get ready.

There were some days when I really had to push myself more than I’m comfortable with. Generally, I don’t spend hours writing in the evenings after I get home. But I spent a lot of nights doing that, only to go to bed late and get up early to write some more. That’s a schedule that I don’t intend to keep long term.

I scheduled a vacation and that was stupid! Honestly, the biggest problem I had with Nanowrimo this year was that I didn’t decide I was going to do it until about halfway through October. That meant that I was in no way prepared for this, and had already planned a four-day vacation to Erie! That meant that I needed to write way more every day than the normal 1,667 words.

My brain’s a little burned out right now. Again, I didn’t plan on doing this, which I think led to every one of my problems. If I had been smart, I would have written all my November blog posts in October, stocked up on oven meals, done a thorough cleaning job so I just needed to maintain, and not written a rough draft in September and October!

What was awesome

In an ideal month, I would have written 220 pages. Instead, I wrote 358 pages. And, I do mean, ideal. That’s based on me writing ten pages a day, taking one day off a week and not counting the days I was on vacation. To be honest, that probably wouldn’t have happened. There are plenty of days when I don’t get ten pages in, and I don’t usually play catch up. So I got significantly more done this month than I would have otherwise.

I was really excited to do this, and I’ve really wanted to do this for years now. I’ve missed doing Nano. And getting to do it this year was really great.

I met a lot of cool new writers, both online and in person. I can never have enough writing friends.

I free wrote a lot this month. Which is one of the reasons I approve of word counts like this. When I’m focusing on getting words on the page, I’m not thinking as much about what those words are. That sounds bad until you realize that’s exactly what freewriting is. It’s all about writing without ego, writing without forethought. Just, you know, writing. And when you’ve got pages and pages to do, you free write almost by necessity.

Normally my daily goal is ten pages when I’m writing a rough draft. Ten pages seem like nothing now. Like, after writing almost two thousand words a day, ten pages sounds like a freaking breeze. (Not having to stop and count words every five pages is also a delightful prospect.)

Finally, the real reason why I did Nanowrimo. I feel freaking fantastic because I accomplished something amazing! Something that people try every year and fail to do. Something that I can be really proud of. Yes, I’ve had books published, that’s not the point. The point is that we should always be striving to succeed in new things. We should always be setting new challenges for ourselves because we should always want to be better. But also, because it feels amazing to achieve new goals.

So what do you think? Did you participate this year? How did it go for you? Let us know in the comments below.

What better time of the year could there be for a Christmas story? Enjoy twelve little Christmas tales, ranging from heart felt to horrifying. Meet a young man who recieves a surprise Christmas gift, a little boy who gets an unexpected visit from Santa, and a young woman spending Christmas Eve in a new coat.

Get it here now.

Been awhile since we talked about shootings. It hasn’t been a while since we had one, but it has been a while since we talked about it.

Seems like, since Pittsburgh was a recent target, I’d go ahead and bring it up again. Because that’s my city, and I’m pissed off.

Full disclosure, I don’t live within the city of Pittsburgh. I live in a little town about an hour away. But even so, it is my city. It’s my home.

And it’s better than this. Every single day it’s full of love, tolerance, and acceptance. Unless you’re a Patriots fan. But this shooting cut deep. It hurt. We’re stronger than hate, but it still hurt deeply.

I don’t want to hear one person saying thoughts and prayers for the families of those affected. Not a single one. Those families don’t need our thoughts, and they don’t need our prayers. They need action. As do the families of the people killed in California. And the people in Florida.

Now’s a good time, too. We’ve got a whole lot of new politicians, and the election’s over.

So, here’s a link to your new local representatives. Feel free to email them, or call them, and ask them what they’re doing about gun violence. Most people agree that universal background checks are a great place to start. Do you agree? Do they? If not, what’s their plan?

Because thoughts and prayers aren’t enough anymore. We need action from the people who represent us. Don’t forget, they work for us. And this situation isn’t working for us. At least, it’s not working for me.

How about you?

It’s that time again. Time to start getting Christmas gifts for the people you love. Or maybe just like.

Writers and readers aren’t too hard to shop for. I’m lying, we’re horribly to shop for. The problem is that every reader has a list of books in our heads that we want to read, and it doesn’t always match what we’ve got posted on Goodreads. And then, there’s the fact that people are broke. I mean, hella broke.

Every year I like to help by sharing a list of gifts to give writers and readers that include both things that cost money dollars and things that cost nothing but your time and creativity. I’ll try not to duplicate anything on a previous list. Here are links to the other years I’ve done this.

2015, 2016, 2017

I’ve tried to stick with meaningful gifts that will matter. Because honestly, what’s the point of giving someone a gift if it doesn’t mean something?

For writers

Things that cost nothing but time and love

Do some maintenance on their computer, if they’re not so inclined. Writers are completely dependent on our computers, but not all of us are great with our computers. Some of us don’t know how to do things like clear our cache, update our antivirus or run simple necessary updates. If you have a writer like that in your life, help them. Hell, if you have a person in your life like that, help them. This is a good gift for anyone who’s bad with computers from anyone who’s good with computers.

Help them with a smart device. This is kind of the same thing. I need my tablet as much as my computer, and many other writers are the same. But people who know how to take care of a computer don’t have a clue about taking care of a tablet. Fun fact, they also need antivirus software!

Fix something broken in their house. Or, find someone who is handy to do it. For instance, if you’re handy with a sewing needle and you know they’ve got a stack of sewing waiting, do it for them. If their sink’s been leaking for a week, grab some plumber putty and see what you can do. As a quick side note to this, only do this if you’re actually good at fixing the thing in question. Please don’t break anyone’s sink and then say I told you to do it. Please.

If you’re artistic, make some fan art for their books. I have a great drawing of Sultiana a friend made for me, and I just love it.

Download some writing podcasts for them, so they don’t have to find them themselves. I love podcasts, but I forever forget to download them before I go somewhere that doesn’t have wifi. If someone would just download a bunch of episodes of Ditch Diggers, that would be great.

Things that cost money dollars

The Bullet Journal Method, by Ryder Carroll. Every writer should be bullet journaling. Actually, everyone should be bullet journaling.

Wild Mind, by Natalie Goldberg. Such an inspiring book.

Writing Down the Bones. Actually, make sure they don’t have this book first.

A subscription to Grammarly premium or Evernote. These are both services that I use myself, but I use the free version. The premium version of both is well worth it. (This is not sponsored, I just like both of these companies.)

A lovely fountain pen for their book signings. Bonus points if they haven’t had a signing yet, because it proves that you know that the signings are coming.

Make a collage of their bookish sm posts. I mean any time they’ve taken pictures of their books, or at a signing or event.

Get them a poster of their book cover. If they don’t have a book out yet, then put some thought into what their cover should look like. Then, have that made.

For readers

Things that cost nothing but time and love

Some homemade bookmarks are always appreciated. These don’t have to be crappy paper things. There are a bunch of different ways to make some nice origami bookmarks. Or, if you’ve got some string and beads, you can make a fancy one.

Set up a reading nook if you live together. This can be as easy as moving a comfy chair and a table in a corner with good lighting and maybe a plant.

Start a walking book club date. Most readers don’t get enough exercise. But if bribed with a promise of talking about their favorite book, they will probably consent to go for a walk.

Have a book date. Personally, I’d say this should take place at a coffee shop. Go somewhere quiet, and bring a book. Sit together and read for a while.

Help make their home more hygge friendly. Have you heard about hygge? It’s this wonderful theory that life should be comfortable. Help them set up some candles, fill the house with blankets. Have a fire and help them make a warm dinner at home.

Things that cost money dollars

Go on a trip with them to a second-hand bookstore. Second-hand stores are so much better than new bookstores. Not that I don’t love new bookstores, I just like second-hand bookstores better.

A copy of your favorite book, either now or as a child. This is maybe the most intimate gift I can imagine getting. A person’s favorite book tells you a lot about them. By sharing your favorite book with your favorite reader will mean so much.

Get them a new bookshelf. Trust me, they need one.

Build a warm drink basket. Coffee, tea, hot chocolate, these are all good ideas. This is also a good clutter-free gift.

Make a collage from their favorite book pictures from the past year on social media. I know many readers love posting pictures of their favorite books, them with books, them in bookstores. Track down a bunch of those pictures, and make them into a collage.

So now I want to hear from you. What’s the best gift you’ve ever gotten or received? Let us know in the comments below.

Twelve little Christmas stories, ranging from heartfelt to horrifying. Meet a young woman on the streets on Christmas Eve, a woman handing out Christmas cookies, and a little boy getting an unexpected visit from Santa.

Get it on Amazon or Smashwords

Merry Christmas!

It’s finally the Christmas season, and I’m spending the day writing my Christmas cards and baking things.

I’m also celebrating the launch of my last book of 2018, Twelve Little Christmas Stories.

Twelve Little Christmas Tales includes a blend of terror and treat, magic and maniacal. In it, you will find a woman who receives an unwanted group of carolers, a young witch looking after her little brother, and a girl who gets a new coat on Christmas Eve that leads her to an amazing discovery.

Also, for Woven fans, there’s a story about Lenore’s friend Emily and her little boy Todd.

Do you love Station 86? Ever wonder how Sennett and Godfrey spend Christmas on the station? In this book, you will find Sennett’s first Christmas without her mom.

Get it now on Amazon or Smashwords.

I hope your holidays are full of wonder, joy, and family. And I hope you take some time to relax with a cup of something hot and wonderful and a great story.

I also want to let you know that the entire Station 86 series will be on sale this weekend. Seeming is free, it’s always free. But You Can’t Trust The AI and Virus will both be 99 cents until Monday on both Amazon and Smashwords. And the paperback will be on sale for just $5.00. You know, if you’re looking for a good Christmas gift.

If you get a chance, hit me up on social media and share a picture of you reading next to your holiday decorations. I’d love to see what you’re all reading this time of year.

Alright, so we all know I’m a huge nerd, right? Like super huge. Okay, so now that we’ve got that settled, what I’m about to say next shouldn’t shock anyone.

So, I was on the official Harry Potter website a few months ago, and I decided to take the quiz to see what my Hogwarts House is. I guess that the only surprising thing is that I hadn’t done this before. But, I digress.

I guess I’ve always assumed that I would be in Ravenclaw. I mean, I’m smart. I love books. I’m logical. My favorite color is blue. Ravens are awesome. Why wouldn’t I be in Ravenclaw?

In fairness, I guess we all think we’d be in Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. Some people, angsty people, will say they think they’d been in Slytherin.

No one, fucking no one ever says they want to be in Hufflepuff. Guess what house I’m in, according to the official website?

Now, my husband (who is in Ravenclaw) reminded me that these questions were really random, don’t really tell me anything about my personality, and don’t really mean anything. Also, this is all fiction and doesn’t say anything about me at all.

I let that soothe me for a little. Then, I started really thinking about the virtues of the Hufflepuff house.

They’re loyal.

They’re hard workers.

They’re dedicated.

They’re tenacious.

And I realized, that sounds like me. As much as I’d love to say I’m someone who’s forever reading about some fascinating point of history, or learning a language or things like that, I’m just not. I’ve tried to be. I do love learning. But when it comes to my own inclinations, I’d rather be getting shit done. I prefer if I’m going to spend time learning, if it’s learning something I can actually use.

I tried to learn code, but I don’t use code. I tried to learn German, but I don’t have a need to speak German.

I can learn all sorts of things if it’s to help my writing. I’ve been learning all sorts of science because it’ll help my writing. I’ve been learning about marketing for years now. I bet if I started to learn Spanish, I’d do it. Because I can see a use for that.

So maybe, instead of fighting against my nature, I should accept that I’m never going to be the sort of person who learns just for the sake of learning. That’s an admirable trait, but it’s not me.

I am loyal. I am determined. When I want something, I sink my teeth in and I never give up. I learn, and I learn quickly, anything I can put to use. I will be the one putting in the long hours, the hard work, and I’ll prevail.

I am Hufflepuff, hear me roar. My tiny, squeaky, mighty roar.

What better time of the year could there be for a Christmas story? Enjoy twelve little Christmas tales, ranging from heart felt to horrifying. Meet a young man who recieves a surprise Christmas gift, a little boy who gets an unexpected visit from Santa, and a young woman spending Christmas Eve in a new coat.

Pre-order it here now!

My husband loves The Office. I’m lukewarm on it, to be honest. It’s good, but it’s not my favorite. Even so, there are some scenes that just strike me. They’re hilarious, or meaningful, or just really, absolutely true.

One such scene takes place in an episode where two characters, Phyllis and Angela, are planning an office party to celebrate the launch of the new Dunder Mifflin website. Angela is going through sort of a thing, which isn’t uncommon. And she’s taking it out on Phyllis, also not uncommon. She’s being stupidly unreasonable with her. Now, I despise Phyllis and I think she deserves terrible things. But not from Angela.

At one point, Angela has given her a list of difficult, time-consuming, nearly impossible things to accomplish in roughly half an hour. Phyllis, who’s been researching conflict resolution online, shows up with the different tasks written on sticky notes, one on each finger.

“You can pick one of these,” she says. “It’s unreasonable to ask me to do all of it.”

I don’t actually remember Angela’s response, but I know what it drove Phyllis to do. She balled up all the stickie notes and threw them in Angela’s face.

And I immediately reacted to that, because that’s me. Both sides of it, that’s me. I’m Angela, setting unrealistic expectations for myself. And, more and more, I’m Phyllis, coming back and saying, “You can pick one of these.”

This is part of my struggling against my too much gene. I feel constantly that I need to do all of the things at once. Even though I know that’s dumb. Even though I know it’s damaging to my physical well-being. Even though I know it’s damaging to my emotional wellbeing, and it makes me ignore my husband and pets.

I do this, even though I know it means I end up putting out less than great stories when I should be putting out better and better material.

It’s really hard not to because there are so many things I want to do. This is what led me to writing two novels in a row. This is what makes me think it’s a good idea to write a novel in November, during Thanksgiving, when I’ve already scheduled a three-day vacation. This is why I’ve got five novels currently going in a circle of drafts around my desk. (2019 goals, finish all five.) This is why I’ve already got a list of short stories waiting to be written as soon as I’m done with this novel. I do too much, I do way too much because I want all the shiny things. I want all the books, all the short stories. I want a novella with Tor, and to be featured in three magazines a month in addition to putting out my own novels. I want it all, and to have a spotless house. And to have a beautiful crocheted afghan, and read two novels a month, and start running. And get involved in charity work, and start putting videos on Youtube.

But, fortunately, I’m not doing this as much anymore. I’m finding that inner Phyllis to combat my inner Angela. And I’m saying to myself, “You can pick one of these.” At least, just one at a time.

What better time of the year could there be for a Christmas story? Enjoy twelve little Christmas tales, ranging from heart felt to horrifying. Meet a young man who recieves a surprise Christmas gift, a little boy who gets an unexpected visit from Santa, and a young woman spending Christmas Eve in a new coat.

Pre-order Twelve Little Christmas Stories today.

Here are some things you probably know about me. I’m a white straight woman. Christian, too. And while it’s kind of a weird version (Unitarian), it’s still part of the religion that pretty much designed the calendar here in America.

My characters don’t look like me. In Woven, two of the main characters are men, and one is a black woman. In fact, in book two half the cast are black. In Station 86, white people are the minority. Sennett is a black woman, and Godfrey is a culturally ambiguous man. I also include homosexual characters, atheists and polytheists.

I don’t write people who don’t look like me to pander. I don’t do it because I’m trying to be PC.

I do this because writing just straight white girls is boring. I’m a straight white girl, I don’t want to write about myself all the time. Also, there’s enough of us in stories.

I also do this because I grew up seeing some of the coolest, most badass characters in shows I loved as women of color. I saw women in general very well represented in science fiction, to be honest. In fantasy, too. Sure, I can go on about movies that don’t pass the Bechdel test and I have. But good fiction has never had that problem because they wrote real characters who were real people and didn’t rely on shitty old-fashioned stereotypes.

I do this as well because I wanted to see more of people I don’t think we see often enough. What I didn’t see much of was men who were actual people instead of just meathead heroes. I didn’t see a lot of gay people who were reflective of the gay people I knew in real life. I didn’t see a lot of other religions in anything, literally everything. Seriously, why aren’t there more Hanukkah movies? It’s a cool holiday, why don’t we have movies, damn it?

I do it mostly because I want to write real worlds with real characters. And the reality is that more than just white people exist.

All that being said, writing for a gender, race or creed that isn’t my own takes some consideration. I grew up in a very specific way, and have a very specific life experience. So it behooves me to keep that in mind when I’m writing characters that have very different life experiences than me. Here’s what I do.

Do some research

I mean, you really should be researching any character you write. Unless you’re making up an entirely new culture. Which, by the way, is stupid hard. So, if you have questions, ask.

Fun fact, I didn’t grow up with a lot of black people around. I live in Western PA, it’s pretty vanilla. So when my life expanded and I started making friends who didn’t look like me, they had a good time making fun of me for understanding little to nothing about their worlds, but wanting desperately not to offend them. I’ve spent a lot of my time around minorities just trying to not accidentally make an ass out of myself.

That should tell you that I’m not really going to seek out a person who happens to be a member of the minority in question and ask them a bunch of awkward questions. I don’t like ordering pizza, let alone sitting down with someone I don’t know that well and asking them to explain to me how their culture differs from mine. Fortunately, the internet exists. So if you don’t know, find out!

Don’t assume you know what you’re talking about

And by the way, if you didn’t grow up as part of a certain demographic, please don’t assume that you know. You probably don’t. At least, it’s better to assume you don’t know. The worst that can happen there is that you’ll find out you were actually right. The worst thing that can happen if you make an assumption is that you’ll reinforce a harmful stereotype. We’ve got enough of that.

Understand that you’re telling a story that’s not yours

I can tell a story about the Vietnam war, or about the Holocaust. I can do tons of research, which I have, listen to people who lived through those events, which I have, and still not understand what it was to live that life. I need to understand that if I write those stories, they don’t belong to me. So I need to represent the people who really lived through it honestly.

I can also do a ton of research about another faith or demographic, but not know what it was like to grow up living in that world. I don’t know what it was like to have racial slurs thrown in my face, or have to listen to the constant war on Christmas bullshit while having the Christian faith enforced at every turn. I have blended into every crowd I’ve ever been in, and I don’t know what it’s like to stand out just because of how I look. I don’t wear a hijab, or have to make sure that the food I’m eating doesn’t include anything I’m forbidden to eat. These stories don’t belong to me. I need to remember that.

Understand that there’s a whole world of experiences in any demographic

Something that was brought up to me when I was listening to a great episode of Writing Excuses is that you can’t just listen to the story of one person and assume you know the entire culture. That’s dumb as hell if you think about it. I mean, should we all assume that just because I like American Horror Story, Starbucks, and Neil Gaiman that means all white American women like those things? (Yeah, most of us do like Starbucks. It’s damn delicious, leave me alone.) So if you’re going to ask questions about a faith or another culture, please seek out multiple voices. I can’t just read Mya Angelou and assume she speaks for all black women. Though, if you haven’t read I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, do it right now. That book is a work of art, encompassing a life that mirrored and contrasted my own. Read it.

Write a person first

Finally, and I know this is something I’ve said a thousand times, but I’ll say it over and over again until every writer get it. Write a person first. Don’t feel like you have to write a character that represents all gay people, all Muslim people, all black people. Write a full person with likes, dislikes, hopes, and dreams. Write a man who loves memes, dark coffee and cats, who happens to be black. Write a woman who paints and has collected a sea shell from every ocean she’s visited, and she’s visited a lot. She just happens to be from the Middle East.

Honestly, a lot of this just comes down to understanding that there are people who live a very different life than yours. Almost all of them, actually. And your characters should reflect that none of us walks in the same world we do. We all have our pasts, our pains, our scares on our hearts. Write your characters with that understanding firmly in place.

Please, whatever you do, don’t write another cookie cutter character that just shows another stereotype. That’s the last thing your story, or the world needs.

What better time of the year could there be for a Christmas story? Enjoy twelve little Christmas tales, ranging from heart felt to horrifying. Meet a young man who recieves a surprise Christmas gift, a little boy who gets an unexpected visit from Santa, and a young woman spending Christmas Eve in a new coat.

Pre-order it today.