One of the resources and tools i used in my search for a literary agent was the website QueryTracker.net. They're a database of literary agents, through which you can search for agents and publishers who might be interested in representing/publishing your work. You can search on variables like geographical location, genres/types of writing represented, and so forth, and also research who represents whom. (Got a favorite author but don't know who their agent is? QueryTracker i

I’m a fairly flagrant and unrepentant oenophile. So, when i was deep in revisions on the manuscript of The Decadence Papers, one of the motivational tactics i used was Carrot-On-a-Stick, except instead of a carrot, it was a bottle of wine. See, every week i attend a wine tasting at a local bottle shop [1], at which they pour five wines, and if you buy anything on the tasting roster that day, you get a 10% discount. Back when i first started my revisions, they poured a wine

I was talking to a friend the other night about the writing of The Decadence Papers, how it came about in the first place and what my motivations were and are WRT it as a piece of literature, and i thought perhaps i might share some of that here in the blog as a backstory post. See, when i first wrote the first draft of it, i really only wanted to see if i COULD write a novel. I’d written short stories and essays, but nothing long-form. A friend of mine, Trystan L. Bass, ha

This image was taken in 1999 by my friend Sue Travers, in the DJ booth of Boston's oldest established permanent floating goth club, Ceremony (Sue ran the door and gave me a ride to the club pretty much every night). I spun there from 1997 til 2003 [1], and i can't actually even list the venue because in the time i DJed at and promoted for the club, we went through four different venues, and i haven't the foggiest which one this might have been [2]. So, the point of this post

All these mindbendingly fabulous photos on my site were taken by the lovely and talented Ryan A. S. Jones, of Rytography. I first met Ryan when he took an Intro to Costume Production class as an undergraduate at UNC-Chapel Hill, where i work as a graduate professor. I knew even then, as soon as i saw his photography, that Ryan had a truly great talent at capturing image and mood with his camera. At the time, i was writing my parasol textbook, Sticks in Petticoats, and i asked

It may sound strange, but the whole reason i even went back and revised the manuscript of The Decadence Papers for potential publication was due to the death of Lou Reed. On October 27, 2013, i first learned that Lou Reed had died from Facebook. I was stunned, not only by his death but also by how affected i was by it. I felt completely submerged in some strange cold sea. I didn't know him, not remotely, but my god, i spun his music every week in nightclubs for more than a de