Jeffrey Ricker (he/him)
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jeffreyricker.bsky.social
Jeffrey Ricker (he/him)
@jeffreyricker.bsky.social
3.5K followers 300 following 2.7K 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
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
jeffreyricker.bsky.social
The best thing about going into a bookstore is seeing your friends on the shelf—in this case, @clarakiyoko.bsky.social at Powell’s in Portland. #BookSky
A photo of a bookshelf at Powell’s City of Books with SONGS FOR GHOSTS by Clara Kumagai facing out. Facing out! 🎉
October 16, 2025 at 8:28 PM
jeffreyricker.bsky.social
In “Shepherd,” a couple rents a cabin by the shore for the summer, where Joe can hopefully get the rest and recovery he needs. And then one day, a dog comes to visit. #1LineWed
Joe heard the whistle of a bird, a frantic, three-note song that repeated. It was a whippoorwill. Joe read once that those birds could hear the sound of a soul departing the earth, and since then, their song had left him cold.
October 15, 2025 at 2:00 PM
jeffreyricker.bsky.social
We saw you from across the bar and we really dig your vibe.
Michael Burnham and Booker, very likely the sexiest couple in Star Trek ever, are pictured in civilian clothing in what I believe is Booker’s 32nd-century starship.
October 13, 2025 at 2:39 AM
jeffreyricker.bsky.social
We saw you from across the bar and we really dig your vibe.
Seven of Nine and the Borg Queen from the Star Trek: Voyager episode “Dark Frontier.”
October 11, 2025 at 1:10 AM
jeffreyricker.bsky.social
“You know, we as gay people, we get to choose our family.”
Group photo of the crew of the Federation starship Voyager standing on the bridge of the ship in a promo image for Star Trek: Voyager.
October 10, 2025 at 6:30 PM
jeffreyricker.bsky.social
But it’s certainly a fun thing (although not, perhaps, for the blockee).
October 10, 2025 at 3:10 PM
jeffreyricker.bsky.social
In hindsight, I really should have bought this notebook in 2018 for times like now. #tbt
Cover of a notebook with print that reads: I'M SO FREAKING FREAKED OUT: A journal in which I can furiously scribble the heavily detailed, multi-layered evidence for how freaking freaked out I freaking am, because it's all pulsing through my brain like the television news treatment of a minor natural disaster with myself as the self-appointed "expert" tasked with obsessively reporting irresponsible conjecture and repeating images of destruction as I cannibalize my own thought process and descend into an unrecoverable tailspin of idiotic mental babble until I've taken several deep breaths, called a few friends, and written it all down, at which point I just might feel a little better until the next freaking time I freaking freak out again.
October 9, 2025 at 2:05 PM
jeffreyricker.bsky.social
I mean, this is accurate on some level, although I’m not dumb enough to go in the basement.
The Dumb One
October 9, 2025 at 2:02 PM
jeffreyricker.bsky.social
Picture it: New Hampshire, 1987. My college roommate and I are walking along a back road at night and a dark shadow crosses our path in the distance. Did we keep walking? #1LineWed
He stops me again. “You didn’t actually go into the cemetery, did you?” “Yes, I actually went into the cemetery.” Dead people have never bothered me. It’s the living who scare me more.
October 8, 2025 at 6:15 PM
jeffreyricker.bsky.social
Think Percy Jackson, but gay.

No, gayer than that.

books2read.com/theunwanted
Cover of the YA novel The Unwanted by Jeffrey Ricker. A shirtless youth is shown from waist up holding a bow and arrow he’s preparing to fire. Behind him is a decorative medallion similar to a Greek soldier’s shield, showing a sword-wielding soldier holding a shield with a scorpion motif on it.
October 4, 2025 at 1:57 PM
jeffreyricker.bsky.social
The shirt is gone, the hair is gone, that house is gone (well, it isn’t ours, at any rate), and that wineglass is probably gone (I am clumsy and drop a lot of things). If I ever say I’m planning to grow my hair again, please slap me. #TBT
Me wearing a striped button-down shirt, with longer hair, holding a glass of red wine and raising an eyebrow.
October 2, 2025 at 3:00 PM