On hold for a bit while I start a new play.

This isn’t fiction. A man I consider a queer elder lost his husband a few years ago. These guys were kind of my “gay dads,” older gay men who were part of my coming out, men who were kind and encouraging and were safe harbors while I navigated my identity. The one who died own […]

My heart is in the coffin, there. Buried with her. I can hear it beating. There’s nothing left in my chest. A hollow space. She emptied it when she emptied the apartment, robbed it of her things, she packed them in boxes and in the rush to finish, packed up my bloody heart. Stole it […]

Blue’s first friend was a young girl named Kya. They first met at Blue’s fifth birthday party, which was held in a small park a few blocks from Blue’s home. Her parents had rented a bouncy house, and since the bouncy house was larger than the small square of grass that passed as their backyard, […]

“But I want to go. I insist.” She slammed her fists down on the heavy wooden table, but it didn’t make the booming, authoritative sound she hoped it would make. “You can’t go into the caves, no matter how much you bang about,” the old explorer said. “It ain’t no place fit for a child. … Continue reading 11.7.19

Talking to ghosts feels like remembering. You don’t use your voice any: it’s all in your head. And even though it’s happening now, it doesn’t feel like it’s happening now. It feels like it’s something from a long time ago, something you can pick up the edges of, but not the whole thing. Not all … Continue reading 11.6.19

Little black dots. It looked like a splattering of tiny ink spots on the ceiling above them. There was a cluster of dots, maybe ten or twelve, slightly to their left, then a trail of dots, another seven or so, inching across the ceiling to their right. Like ants, they thought. A line of little … Continue reading 11.5.19

We would carry the bodies together. Joe would take them at the head, because he knew I didn’t like to see their eyes. He was kind that way. I didn’t like the feeling of them looking at me as we slid them into the fire, judging me, as though I was some kind of monster. … Continue reading 11.4.19

You can’t add to a person once they’re dead. When they’re dead, they’re finished. All the things they’re ever gonna do and all the things they’re ever gonna be are written in stone. They don’t get a stitch more of anything. They’re whole. So when a person dies without knowing they’re gonna die, they die … Continue reading 11.3.19

He pulled the curtain shut when he heard the women’s voices. “Malcolm!” Gravia sounded drunk. “Malcolm, there’s a body -“ “Lower your voice, you cow.” Lenka’s voice was wobbly, too, but she was at least still clear enough to think. Malcolm stepped out of the wagon and saw them. Still in their performance clothes, they […]

There were no ghosts where there should be ghosts. That worried her. “Maybe you’re wrong about a rip in the Veil,” Brea said. “I’m not wrong,” Chels said. “I’m never wrong. There’s a rip and it’s here and there should be ghosts.” She remembered the last time a rip site was cold. They’re typically vibrating […]

The doorbell rang. “It’s after eight. They’re supposed to stop trick-or-treating at eight.” Randy grabbed the bowl and lurched off the couch. “Are we really going to police a kid in a costume who shows up at 8:04?” Luke grabbed the remote. “Want me to pause it?” “I’ve seen Halloween a million times. No.” Randy […]

The boots were back. They sat at the mud room door as they always had, as he’d always placed them as soon as he’d come home, as he would have this day if he hadn’t been dead a month. They were back, and this frightened her. She’d taken the boots and his coats and his […]

He pushed the book aside and looked more closely at the markings on the table. He’d seen them somewhere before. He ran his finger over the circular carving, rough and uneven. Inside, what looked like a rudimentary tree, less a picture and more a gesture. What would pass for the idea of a tree. He’d […]

He situated himself in the center of the room. He didn’t trust the walls. Keep moving. He slapped himself hard across the face. It was impossible to keep his eyes open. He hadn’t slept in three days. Keep moving. North wall. West wall. South wall east wall. He’d turn to face them, wait a second […]

The Veil was ripped in the most inconvenient of places. “We can come back after they’re closed.” Reggie said. “Doesn’t Jamila work here? We can text her and -” “She got fired.” Chels sighed. “Why? This is the easiest job on the roster.” “Boring. The most boring job on the roster. And Jamila once contained […]

“I don’t care.” Chels stretched the word out like taffy. It would irritate her mother. That was part of the pleasure of it. “Well you should care.” Disapproving tone. Check. “It’s your future, Chelsea Marie. And you treat it like -” “I treat it like it’s my future. Like it’s mine. Not yours.” The college […]

“If you don’t plan on buying nothing…” Mare let the sentence trail off. Gaddy had been staring at the wall of candy for a few minutes. Her clothes were a mess. It looked like she’d been rolling around in the dirt and grass all morning, stains streaking in all directions across her shirt and jeans. […]

It hurt, in the center of her chest, but it didn’t feel like a heart attack. That would feel like an alarm, she figured, something that kind of radiated out, came in waves. This wasn’t like that. This felt like pushing, right in the middle of her, big fat hands giving her a shove. Only […]

I didn’t hear her. I wasn’t even around her. I was upstairs, had the door closed. The walls are thick in this house. Nothing gets through. And she wasn’t screaming. I would have heard screaming. But I was upstairs, and it was quiet. If I had heard something – anything – I’d have helped her. […]

I’ve been thinking about the closet lately. I haven’t been “in the closet” for over two decades. I came out as gay when I was 18, and I’ve lived my adult life on the freer side of the closet door. And for most of that time, I’ve preached the gospel of being “out and proud” […]

It doesn’t matter how much you love a story/franchise/film/novel/whatever. It doesn’t matter how much it’s changed your life. It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve read/watched/absorbed/obsessed over it. The creator doesn’t owe you s*#t. They made it. They know more about it than you do. They made it. They aren’t required to shape it to … Continue reading Creators don’t owe you s*#t. →

Feedback sucks. Yeah, it’s great and all. It helps you refine and improve your work. But it’s also kind of a nightmare. Everyone has opinions. Sometimes they’re contradictory. Sometimes they don’t make sense. Sometimes they make you wanna quit writing and become an accountant. Feedback can be a storm of noise and ideas that seriously … Continue reading Surviving the Suck of Feedback →

A few weeks ago, I was presenting some programming ideas in a meeting, and I was sharing an idea that a colleague came up with. “And for this part of the day – and this idea wasn’t mine. It was P.’s idea. And it’s really good — we’ll…” Simple, right? After that meeting, P. pulled […]

This weekend, I attended the Borderlands Press Horror Writers Boot Camp. It was a hell of a weekend, and it really kicked my ass. I loved it. Our final assignment was to complete a short piece of fiction overnight, proving we learned something. Here’s what I wrote. Thought it would be fun to share.  It […]

* Spoilers below, if you haven’t watched it yet. After playing through all of the various endings of “Bandersnatch,” some thoughts about why this interactive film works: 1. Choice is what the whole story’s about. Yes, it’s about video games in the 80s. Yes, it’s about a broken family dynamic. Yes, it’s maybe about the […]

After a very successful run of 18 Victoria last year, Root and Branch Productions has decided to give another of my plays the UK treatment. The company will be producing In the Bones this summer. I’m really happy to be working with them ...

My short story “Diorama” is part of the return issue of Shotgun Strange Stories. You can check it out here: http://www.deadlightshorrorfiction.com/shop/

900 bucks to rent a giant sprawling estate for the whole summer. It’s too good to be true, of course. It’s a horror movie, after all. And the house in BURNT OFFERINGS puts its summer inhabitants through hell. A family, led by Karen Black and Oliver Reed, rent a decaying mansion for the summer. They […]

A movie that really leans into the horror-comedy hybrid, TERRORVISION is a campy monster romp with a killer opening theme song. A suburban family who’s a wild collection of extreme 80s spoof stereotypes gets a satellite dish. While the thing’s getting installed, a weird electrical bolt from outer space hits the dish and infects the […]