Published in Forge·PinnedMember-onlyPrepare for the Ultimate Gaslighting*You are not crazy, my friends. — *Gaslighting, if you don’t know the word, is defined as manipulation into doubting your own sanity; as in, Carl made Mary think she was crazy, even though she clearly caught him cheating. He gaslit her. Pretty soon, as the country begins to figure out how we “open back up” and…Crisis9 min readCrisis9 min read
1 day agoMember-only25 Questions to Ask (and Answer) about Your Story’s HeroI haven’t done many screenwriting posts lately, but I am working on a project that has me wrestling with very fine details about my hero, so I’m sharing wide. The hero of your story — be it a screenplay, a book, even an essay — is, of course, our main…Screenwriting4 min readScreenwriting4 min read
1 day agoMember-onlyReport from a RelationshipAll it takes is one person being hot and one being cold. At any and every living moment of the day and night, one needs a blanket and the other needs the window open. I’ve learned that and more since November 2020, when I met my boyfriend. It was —…Love4 min readLove4 min read
1 day agoMember-onlyBreaking News: What Shooting?Sorry, Nashville, please step aside. We know six people died while in school just days ago, including three children, but the big kahuna is back to pull the focus of every camera in the nation. And to continue to suck the life out of it. After all, it’s breaking news…Gun Violence3 min readGun Violence3 min read
Mar 1Member-onlyThese Three Simple Words Can Calm Your Racing MindLife Tips from a Movie Set — I just wrapped a short film for The New Yorker, and I am thrilled to be sharing it with you and with the world in a few months. Last week found me on set back to work directing after a painful three-year hiatus, which started out as “The Great Pause”…Society4 min readSociety4 min read
Feb 28Member-onlyThe $47 (!) Manhattan Pizza — And Why We Refused to Eat ItI will never pay $47 for a pizza. You have to be out of your mind to pay $47 for a pizza. You have to be not only utterly starving but utterly stupid. You have to be either dying from hunger or desperate to prove a point on a first…Economy3 min readEconomy3 min read
Feb 28Member-onlyThe Pure Insanity of Banning DragDrag is art. A beautiful art. I learned this at 42 when Covid rendered me immovable in bed for six weeks. In January 2021, I wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon, so I had a lot of time on my hands. So I started watching RuPaul’s Drag Race from the beginning…Society3 min readSociety3 min read
Feb 8Member-onlyTen Things We Learned at the State of the Union AddressIn no particular order, here are ten takeaways from tonight’s SOTU. Joe Biden is having none of your bullshit, Big Pharma and Big Tech — though he did limit his attack to specific examples and policies like insulin prices and social-media exploitation of children, which are pretty low-hanging fruit. He…Politics3 min readPolitics3 min read
Jan 31Member-onlyA Human Wrote This, not ChatGPTThat’s me. Not the best picture. But that’s the thing about humans: we are imperfect. This post will be equally imperfect. Because a human wrote it. As the world meets its AI future with the public introduction of ChatGPT, we are seeing the frightening power of robots and algorithms, which…AI4 min readAI4 min read
Jan 31Member-onlyWe Think Prices are High in the US? Reporting from Southern Europe…Hello, friends and readers. Thanks to the internet, I am working from six hours in the future this week, celebrating a very belated Christmas here in Montenegro with our European family. If you follow my work at all, you know I enjoy writing whenever we are here. It’s such a…Travel5 min readTravel5 min read
