essays
Nothing on this web site has been written by, or with the help of, any LLM chatbot (“AI”).
My most thoughtful nonfiction pieces — the ones I take substantial time to craft — are currently going into Nine Lives, an irregular longform newsletter that I started in January 2023. The name is a nod to Alastair Reid’s poem “Curiosity”, and also the webjournal that I wrote in the late 1990s. If you want to be alerted when I post a new longform essay, subscribe to Nine Lives.
Well that explains a lot …
Between 2019 and 2022 I wrote a number of essays relating to my epiphany, at age 49½, that I was an undiagnosed Autistic.
Re-Cognition
The ‘Deep Compensation’ of Social Calculus
Some autistic brains do a lot of heavy lifting behind the scenes
I Thought I Was a Virtuoso Reader of People
How could my most extraordinary skill also be my greatest weakness?
Learning I’m Autistic Has Transformed My Middle-Aged Life
I thought it was too late for change, but I was wrong
Generic Inspirational Messages Are Harmful
And avoiding ‘labels’ will handicap your kid’s chances of success
Mexico Is Inhospitable to My Autistic Self
If I’d understood my own disabilities, I might not have made the move
Don’t sign on the dotted line
In 2023, my unscientific canvassing of author friends suggested that for short fiction sales (which are unagented) most authors simply sign whatever contract the publisher offers them. This is not great! So I wrote an article for SFWA with some practical advice about “Negotiating Your Short Fiction Contracts”.
Tying an unconventional knot
My partner Jak and I had been in a polyamorous relationship for more than twelve years when we decided to get legally married at last. We wrote our own vows, which I later released online into the public domain: “Jak and Karawynn’s Wedding Vows”.
… and a grab bag
Assorted other longform essays dating from 2018 to 2020:
We Should Care More about Campaign Finance
Science shows that principles are no match for money