Jeffrey Ricker (he/him)
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jeffreyricker.bsky.social
Jeffrey Ricker (he/him)
@jeffreyricker.bsky.social
3.5K followers 310 following 2.9K posts
#Queer writer of #YA and speculative fiction. Expect lots of Star Trek references. Failing to meet the demands of capitalism since 1969. Can I pet your dog? https://linktr.ee/rickerje and https://ko-fi.com/jeffreyricker
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jeffreyricker.bsky.social
2022. My novella “Roadside Assistance” was the kickoff story in Three Left Turns to Nowhere. If I had to describe Hopewell, Ontario, I’d say “Star’s Hollow meets Big Eden.” If you know, you know. #tbt #QueerYA #BookSky boldstrokesbooks.com/books/three-...
The cover of the book THREE LEFT TURNS TO NOWHERE overlays a map of Ontario. Superimposed are the words: "Welcome to Hopewell, Ontario. Come for the grilled cheese.* Stay for the magic. *Try it with the ketchup. Trust us."
November 27, 2025 at 6:02 PM
jeffreyricker.bsky.social
But wait, there’s more. (2/2)

And follow @weeknightwriters.bsky.social for loads of writerly wisdom. (Follow me for—well, um….🤷) #WriterSky #FirstDraftFall
Two: Start something new. When I find myself stuck on a scene or a chapter, instead of hitting my head against the wall repeatedly, I’ll shift gears and work on a different story, at least for a little while. Three: Just skip it. This is for when I can’t step away from a project (because deadlines, maybe). The scene I’ve been grappling with for ages? Maybe it’s not necessary. I skip ahead and when I come back to it, I often find I don’t need it. Four: Let it go, Elsa. If a project seems like it’s failing to launch, I’ll put it away... but I won’t throw it away. I may just not be ready to keep working on it now, or part of it may become something else later. Follow for more ideas of dubious value: www.jeffrey-ricker.com
November 27, 2025 at 3:49 PM
jeffreyricker.bsky.social
Recently, I made a carousel on this very topic—getting stuck/falling out of love with a project—because, well, reasons. (I was sick of what I was writing, OK?) I needed to tell myself some things to keep going. These would be those things. (1/2) #FirstDraftFall #WriterSky
Shit they don’t tell you: You’re going to get sick of your novel Or story, or comic, or whatever. Okay, maybe you’ve never reached a point in your creative endeavor where there mere thought of opening your Word file (or notebook, or FinalCutPro—do people still use that?—or pick up the paintbrush) makes you want to projectile vomit hot lava. (Sorry, it’s all I could think of.) If so... Good for you! Also? Shut up. Seriously, the rest of us envy you. We’re out here stuck with this godawful manuscript that we’ve been toiling away at for months/years/eons/what even is time anymore, and getting to the end of it seems like... a lot. What then? Well, I have a few thoughts. One: Maybe it’s time to take a break. Seriously. Close your* laptop and, I don’t know, go bake something. Talk to your husband. Fix that rattly thing in the car. Take a day or two or ten away from your project. It’ll still be there. * By “you,” of course, I mean “I.” I don’t know your life.
November 27, 2025 at 3:49 PM
jeffreyricker.bsky.social
These must have been quite the tomatoes, then.
A baking dish full of cherry tomatoes sprinkled with salt, pepper, garlic, and scattered basil leaves.
November 27, 2025 at 2:27 PM
jeffreyricker.bsky.social
Poor Jamie’s having the crappiest day of his life—and that’s before the winged horse shows up in his backyard.

Find out how much worse his day gets in The Unwanted. It’s kinda like Percy Jackson, but make it gay.

No, *really* gay.

#1LineWed #queerYA books2read.com/theunwanted
I was lucky I didn’t stab myself in the foot when I dropped the knife. A white horse, its head lowered to the ground as it searched for bits of grass to its liking, ambled slowly across the yard. When it heard the knife clatter, it looked up and stared right at me, blinked its glossy black eyes— —and shook its wings. Cover of THE UNWANTED by Jeffrey Ricker.
November 26, 2025 at 4:15 PM
jeffreyricker.bsky.social
Power has been restored.
White dude (oh hey that’s me) taking a selfie in a mirror. He’s wearing a Star Trek shirt and has purple hair.
November 22, 2025 at 9:47 PM
jeffreyricker.bsky.social
March 4, 2022. In hindsight, I should have bought it. #tbt
Close-up of my hand holding a candle in a metal tin. The name of the candle is “Fuck Off… I’m Reading.” The fragrance profile is bayberry, pine, and lemon rind. Which also kind of rhymes.
November 20, 2025 at 3:01 PM
jeffreyricker.bsky.social
I haven’t really felt like myself lately, because *flaps hands* reasons. Where Holly Golightly had Tiffany’s to deal with the mean reds, I have books. Specifically, this charming Christmas novella by @nathanburgoine.bsky.social. It was time for a reread. #BookSky

books2read.com/u/3RzMMj
The illustrated cover of Felix Navidad by 'Nathan Burgoine; two men stand in the cold snow and ice in front of a small cabin covered in icicles. The title has the word "Felix" written in script on a white card, crooked, and covering (but leaving legible) the word "Feliz" behind it, as though someone slapped the word "Felix" over the holiday greeting "Feliz Navidad."
November 20, 2025 at 12:31 PM
jeffreyricker.bsky.social
“Tea” was originally published in Foolish Hearts: New Gay Fiction. You can read the rest of it in the free e-book of stories you get when you sign up for my newsletter: jeffrey-ricker.kit.com

You like free, right? Of course you do.

#1LineWed
Mom was going to London, where she’d landed an embassy job and a two-bedroom flat with a tiny, green and light-filled kitchen where, one day during my summer vacation before graduate school, I found her crying over the dead boy I’d been sleeping with. Cover of the ebook THE TROUBLE WITH BILLY and Other Stories by Jeffrey Ricker.
November 19, 2025 at 3:06 PM
jeffreyricker.bsky.social
Them: “Does romance really need a—“
Me:
November 15, 2025 at 12:28 PM
jeffreyricker.bsky.social
November 3, 2024. Temple of Zeus, Olympia. In the abandoned sequel to The Unwanted, this is where the climax of the story took place. Every so often I pull out the manuscript and see if it’s worth salvaging. Someday, maybe. #tbt
Photo of the ruins of the Temple of Zeus, looking up the stone steps to the base of the temple and the remains of the columns that held up the roof. The temple was destroyed in two earthquakes, 522 and 551 A.D.
November 13, 2025 at 6:03 PM
jeffreyricker.bsky.social
Revisiting a classic for something I’m thinking of writing…. #WriterSky
A Kobo e-reader displays the cover of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
November 13, 2025 at 3:11 AM
jeffreyricker.bsky.social
From “The Monster Under My Bed,” originally published by Pidgeonholes—sadly, now defunct. But you can still read the rest of it in the free e-book you get when you sign up for my newsletter: jeffrey-ricker.kit.com

You like free, right? Of course you do.

#1LineWed
By the third time, I’d figured out the pattern. The monster under my bed was trying to save me. “What is it?” I whispered when it grabbed me this time, but the monster merely snuffled and held me there. I sat on the edge of the bed. “What am I supposed to do?”
November 12, 2025 at 2:30 PM
jeffreyricker.bsky.social
November 10, 2025 at 11:21 AM
jeffreyricker.bsky.social
November 10, 2025 at 3:25 AM
jeffreyricker.bsky.social
You know how they say never meet your heroes? Sometimes, they’re wrong. 🖖 ❤️ #tbt
Picture it, 2007. We’re at DragonCon, a science fiction convention in Atlanta, and here we have a picture of three people. I’m on the left, smiling and wearing a red Wonder Woman shirt and a con lanyard around my neck. On the right is my partner, Michael, who’s wearing a black short-sleeved button-down (because he dresses more like an adult than I do) and a con lanyard. And between us, smiling, wearing a scoop neck dark gray top, black jacket with beaded floral decoration, a white bracelet, turquoise ring, and three jade necklaces, is the late, incomparable actor and activist Nichelle Nichols, who (do I even need to tell you this?) originated the role of Uhura on Star Trek. To say I was over the moon at this moment is an understatement of stunning proportions.
October 30, 2025 at 1:45 PM
jeffreyricker.bsky.social
And you can read the rest of it in the free e-book of stories you get when you sign up for my newsletter. You like free, right? Of course you do. #QueerWriterSky jeffreyricker.kit.com
Book cover, with the title “The Trouble with Billy and Other Stories” and the author name Jeffrey Ricker (hey, that’s me) against a multicolor pastel background.
October 29, 2025 at 1:15 PM
jeffreyricker.bsky.social
From “Tea,” a short story in the anthology Foolish Hearts, from 2014. (Is there a happy ending, you ask? Have you met me? Of course not.) #1LineWed
At the pub, he said his name was Jeremy and told me about his parents (happily married), his major (music with an emphasis in vocal performance), and his boyfriend (he didn’t have one, a fact he conveyed with a direct, unwavering gaze that left me somewhere between uncomfortable and excited).
October 29, 2025 at 1:15 PM
jeffreyricker.bsky.social
Seriously tempted to drop literally everything and spend the rest of the week reading @drslayton.bsky.social's REDNECK REVENANT. But, y’know, work and stuff. (I got my copy from Books Are Awesome: bookshop.org/p/books/redn...) #QueerBookSky
Photo of the book REDNECK REVENANT by David R. Slayton, next to four custom art cards and a sticker that I received from pre-ordering the book at Books Are Awesome in Colorado.
October 28, 2025 at 12:51 AM
jeffreyricker.bsky.social
You know who introduced me to Star Trek? My mom. The author of that article can kindly
October 25, 2025 at 3:02 PM
jeffreyricker.bsky.social
@jmredmann.bsky.social Having a sazerac and thinking of you!
A cocktail glass on a table. The cocktail itself is a sazerac.
October 23, 2025 at 11:10 PM
jeffreyricker.bsky.social
So that happened.
October 23, 2025 at 10:50 PM
jeffreyricker.bsky.social
Maybe it’s bc I’m getting older, but I’ve been thinking about my friend Scott a lot lately. We used to say that when we got old, we’d end up in the same nursing home and say inappropriate things about the male nurses. I could always count on him to prod me out of my comfort zone. He is missed. #tbt
My late friend Scott, a white guy with dark hair and a beard, wearing a black T-shirt with a photo (that he took; he was a photographer) of a sexy guy on it. We were at a rooftop bar in Chicago on a sunny day, and he’s leaning back and smiling. I like to remember him like this.
October 23, 2025 at 6:15 PM
jeffreyricker.bsky.social
Amid all the other things I’ve been working on, yesterday I had the sudden urge to revisit a story where a guy who’s just dumped his lover gets an unexpected houseguest…. #1LineWed
Jerry briefly considered he might be having a stroke, but then the mountain lion said, “Look, I’m kind of desperate here. Help a guy out, will you?”
October 22, 2025 at 1:35 PM
jeffreyricker.bsky.social
Mike: “I look like a bumblebee.”
Me: “And there’s my caption.”
Photo of my main squeeze in a blue and yellow striped shirt, but if you squint, the blue is pretty dark, so I guess I can kind of see the bumblebee thing.
October 18, 2025 at 10:08 PM