Jeffrey Ricker, Queer Writer of YA and SciFi

The release of the Kylie documentary and Nick Cave’s comment that pop music is a “joy machine” got me thinking about how much Kylie’s music has meant to me over the past twenty-five years and how inspiring she and her music have been to me. So, I wrote a little about it.

Happy birthday to Kathryn Janeway, born on this day in 2336!

“Unfortunately, I think not.”

Finished reading SUMMER OFFICIAL by @rebekahweatherspoon this week, and it was a damn delight. I remain in awe of her ability to shift gears between 🌶️ adult romance and breezy YA. This book and its grumpy/sunshine pairing was like a cookie from Ms. Lara’s bakery in the novel: the perfect combination of sweet and salty.

I hadn’t heard of the concept of “blue-booking” until I started playing a Star Trek RPG with some friends and fellow writers, but I kind of love it. It’s no secret that Star Trek is my favorite fictional universe, and getting to create and play a character, and then write some short fiction about them, is like candy. So, here’s a story about a kind of tough, definitely dramatic Betazoid security chief with issues galore, and the Kriosian leader of a mining community who are both low-key attracted to each other but maybe don’t entirely trust each other, either. (What? Of course I made it gay. Why do you ask?)

This song’s on heavy rotation this week. My spirit needs an infusion of hope, and there’s nothing better for that than music and Star Trek. 

*deep breath* I’m getting ready to revise a queer holiday romcom I wrote last year, which means I’m also rereading part two of Matt Bell’s really helpful book, REFUSE TO BE DONE, which covers the revision stage. Wish me luck!

So, @thelaurenshippen has inspired me and recently I started writing a dialogue between a beaten-down office worker with undirected rage and a messenger from hell who sounds like “a bargain bin cross between Joan Collins and Katharine Hepburn.” I have no idea if this will go anywhere, but it’s really fcking fun.

As if I needed another reason to feel depressed. I’m currently querying a queer YA novel and racking up one rejection after another. That’s the joy of being a writer. Rejection comes with the territory, and that’s okay! I totally get it. Now here’s the joy of being a queer writer. It’s entirely possible and likely that agents are passing on my work because it’s a bad fit for them, not their thing, not up to snuff in their opinion, or a host of other totally valid reasons. They may not think it’s that great! It may not be that great! And yet as a queer writer, there’s always that thought in the back of my head: Is it because I’m queer and so is the work? Chances are I’ll never know. But I’ll always wonder.