FAQ

I am a young queer person and I’m having a personal emergency. I don’t have anyone else to talk to. Can you help me?

While I appreciate your trust and faith in me, I’m not a qualified service provider. If you are in crisis, please call The Trevor Project’s free hotline at 866.488.7386.

I would like you to come speak (or read) at my school-GSA-house party-community center-conference-bookstore.

That is not an impossible dream at all. I have been a guest lecturer at several universities and presented on gender and sexuality at bookstores, libraries, music venues, and activist community centers across the country. I’ve also appeared on Bumbershoot music festival’s literary stage and at a number of writing conferences. I’ve collaborated with activists, artists, authors, city council members, and nonprofit organizations to curate art exhibits, readings, concerts, film screenings, LGBTQIA events, interviews and ethnographic research, as well as public discussions about youth empowerment and equitable access to space in cities. I promoted both of my books on bicoastal tours. Hit me up.

When are you coming to my home town?

That depends. What kind of dance parties do you have on tap? I’m currently based in New York City, but I make frequent trips to the Pacific Northwest, New England, and elsewhere. Any scheduled appearances are listed on the Updates page.

I heard you edit books too!

Yup. My editorial business, Footnote Editorial, specializes in developmental editing for literary fiction and young adult novels. I am a good fit for short story collections, speculative and dystopian novels, multicultural family sagas, magical realism, coming-of-age, new adult, LGBTQIA books, or any novel that treats place like a main character. I also enjoy editing long-form journalism, essay collections, and cultural studies, with an emphasis on gender studies and queer issues. Query me!

Why aren’t you in-house? Isn’t that where the REAL action is?

Yes and no. Alongside editing, in-house editors and publishers spend much of their time engaged in the business of books, from negotiating contracts with agents to attending marketing meetings with the sales and design teams. Their versatility is commendable, but I prefer to focus solely on assisting my authors in improving their manuscripts. I used to say my vocation was making books to amplify diverse voices, art, and stories. But “amplify” is now a buzzword, so I guess I’m just a professionally intersectional bookworm.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

What does that mean in practical terms? What do you DO?

Freelance developmental editing is a grab bag of strange intellectual excitements. On a good day, I might storyboard part of a queer young adult rom-com before lunch, hold a zoom meeting to dream up an economic system for a planet in a speculative novel, then mark up the pacing and character development in the margins of a literary fiction manuscript all afternoon. Put simply: My job rules.

I am a literary and/or film agent currently building my list. You’re already repped, though, right?

Actually, no. Given my agency background, I pitched my first two nonfiction books myself, but the next one is a coming-of-age novel and will need the guiding hand of a pro. 😉 Please reach out!

Tell me a random fun fact.

In the 1830s, ketchup was sold as a medicine for indigestion and jaundice.

I meant a fact about you.

Oh! I hold an IMDb credit for cinematography on a documentary about a band whose tour took place entirely in bathrooms.

What is your go-to karaoke song?

“I Hate Myself For Loving You” by Joan Jett. But I never sing just one karaoke song. I sing karaoke *sets.*

I have a question to ask you about the relationship between Piña Bausch’s work and Andrew Wyeth’s paintings.

I know, right? The use of white space is oddly similar. (I’m not a particularly private person, and I like letters. Please feel free to write to me.)