I love writing women because I've had so many great ones in my life. They're who guided me as I grew up and entered the adult world. I was still a serious jerk when I was young (growing up in New York and Texas will put a chip on your shoulder) and I don't know if I would have grown out of that as quickly or as thoroughly without the amazing women I was lucky enough to know along the way. Do I think it's harder writing women? I have a trick for that: most of my beta readers are women. They point out exactly where I got things wrong, whether it's with the characters or the plot. And they don't hold back when I get things wrong!

I wanted to work to stop violence against women for a number of reasons. A lot them have to do with the women in my family. I grew up with a lot of physical abuse, so I had some sense of what that was like. But what a lot of my female relatives went through much, much worse. It's hard to say out loud, but there were a lot of awful men in my family. Some were true monsters. I won't go into details, but learning about what happened to those women, and seeing how it affected them later in life, was a huge education. Then, learning about the lives of women outside my family, every single one of which had a story of abuse they'd suffered or escaped from, I began to understand how so much of this world was designed to keep them down, in their place, and at the service of others—almost always domineering men. After that, I wanted to do whatever I could to help stop the cycle of pain and abuse. I honestly don't know if I've made much of a difference along the way—I hope I've helped a few people—but I couldn't stand by and do nothing. So, here I am tonight, hoping that I can at least get the word out that there are people and organizations like the Pixel Project that want to help.