After two years of proposal-writing, back-and-forth with agents, and fighting with my audio equipment, I'm finally letting the cat out of the bag (because I can't go five minutes without making a cat joke): I've signed an option agreement to adapt Kristina Meister's novel Cinderella Boy into a musical! The novel is a beautiful, uplifting retelling of the Cinderella fairytale featuring a non-binary high schooler named Dex, and I'll be interpreting the story with a score inspired by some of the best queer and allied pop artists topping the charts today.

But now the really hard work starts... The next ten months are going to be a mad sprint to the finish line of a complete draft, which will be presented at a staged reading this fall.

In the interim, I'm also thrilled to launch a new podcast, Before the Ball, available now or very soon wherever you subscribe to your podcasts. It's a behind-the-scenes look at the process of writing a brand-new musical, all the roadblocks and "aha!" moments, along with all the demos I'll be creating and interviews with some of the artists who are helping me bring this to life.

Before you check out the podcast, though, I encourage you to check out the novel first. The podcast is going to be dissecting the characters and plot in analytical detail, but that's not how I want you to encounter Dex's story. I want you to fall in love with this novel the same way I did. If you have a few bucks, I always prefer to support artists directly. You can purchase the ebook straight from the publisher (or queer from the publisher EYYYYY). If not, the novel is still available for free on Tapas, which you can download from Google Play or the App Store.

I also want you to be a part of this process! If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please reach out on the contact page, and I'll do my best to respond in the next episode of the podcast.

I'm just a writer; theater, especially a new musical, never happens alone. If you like what you hear and want to support me, the most helpful thing you can do is tell your friends. Share the demos, share the podcast, sing the songs yourself... If you want to see more positive trans and non-binary representation on stage, like I do, one way to help make that happen is to become part of and contribute to the life of new queer work, so I invite you to come along on this adventure with me, both Before the Ball and someday on the big stage!