Writing

Inappropriate Happiness
A novel
April 2022

It’s April, 2008. The first iPhones are on the market, housing prices are exploding, and Beatrice McPhee—painter, recent art school graduate, and subprime mortgage owner—just ran into the world’s biggest jerk on a San Francisco train platform. This is no meet-cute; the jerk in question is Alex Kaufmann—cybercriminal, insomniac, and borderline sociopath. He’s about to hack the fourth-largest bank in California, a snap for him, if he hadn’t just pissed off Beatrice by cutting in front of her in line for the train. She will turn Alex’s life upside-down, much to the chagrin of his partner, Amelia Halcyon—ADA consultant, wheelchair user, and con artist—who has her own reasons for hacking the bank. She needs this job to go perfectly. Too bad the bank’s chief investment officer, Reverdy Harper, has moved everything into mortgage-backed securities . . . and his boss has no idea. Over the next two weeks, these four lives will intersect and entangle, and neither they, nor the entire housing market itself, will ever be the same.

Coming spring, 2022 from Adelaide Books.

The Accumulator
A novel
November, 2015

Jesse’s first novel, The Accumulator is the story of Max Roth, who just wants to smoke pot with his best friend Aaron, eat greasy french fries at the diner, and maybe even get his hands inside Esther Weinberg’s shirt again. Unfortunately, Max’s parents are college professors who share a strange obsession—and that obsession has just landed Max’s mother in a mental hospital. One way or another, Max will have to choose: between his parents, between their different versions of insanity, between staying permanently high or taking responsibility for his own life.

“Not Just a Clerk”
Radio commentary
The Perspectives Series, KQED-FM
April 26, 2013

“A Two-Minute Survival Guide to Raising Twins”
Radio commentary
The Perspectives Series, KQED-FM
November 18, 2010

“What Are You Writing For?”
Radio commentary
The Perspectives Series, KQED-FM
April 1, 2008

“The Real Problem With Cell Phones”
Radio commentary
The Perspectives Series, KQED-FM
August 14, 2007

“Oakland, the New San Francisco”
Radio commentary
The Perspectives Series, KQED-FM
April 11, 2007

“Marathons and Masochism”
Radio commentary
The Perspectives Series, KQED-FM
January 18, 2006

“Horror Movies and the Afterlife”
Radio commentary
The Perspectives Series, KQED-FM
April 12, 2005

“Lesbians On My Sidewalk”
Radio commentary
The Perspectives Series, KQED-FM
January 27, 2004

“Slavery and the Passive Voice”
Radio commentary
The Perspectives Series, KQED-FM
July 31, 2003

“The Subersive Qualities of Male Knitting”
Radio commentary
The Perspectives Series, KQED-FM
July 5, 2003