Ohhhh friends, buckle up, there is a lot this newsletter. I think this is the most a newsletter has ever had. And I have another piece coming out tomorrow! So it's not even that I'm using up all my writing news in one day/month! It's just that there has been a lot. Really a lot. I'm a little sheepish about handing you all this much, but also you signed up for the newsletter, so…here we are.

First up, one of my favorite stories I've ever written is in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, The Crow's Second Tale. I joke that this story about a young magician is autobiographical, because I have been telling stories to crows ever since I heard "Uncle John's Band" and got upset at the idea of a crow only knowing one story. So I literally do tell stories to whatever crows I meet, just in case; that part is true. The rest…well, you know I make things up for fun and profit, and I hope you enjoy this instance of it.

In the Nov/Dec issue of Analog, I have a story about how we are changed by our relationships--and how technology could change that: And Every Galatea Shaped Anew. This is a bittersweet story for me, because it's going to be my last in Analog for a while. Their editorial staff is great, but the new publishers are asking for things in contracts that are frankly abusive. Established authors like me can push back on this, and have, but they're not changing the contract generally, and that puts newer writers in a bad spot. I hate this. I've been selling stories to Analog since I was 25 years old. But solidarity is what we have right now. Here's hoping it can make a difference.

The big project for this year that I've mentioned before is The Vertigo Project. I led the seminar I designed for that for the first time last week, and it was really lovely--a good mix of writers and non-writers, doing guided writing sessions and sharing our words and experiences. I'm so glad to get to do this. The Vertigo Project also commissioned a bunch of new work from me, inspired by my experiences with vertigo, so I'll talk a little bit about what I did here.

There are five poems in this project. Club Planet Vertigo, Greetings From Innerspace, and The Nature of Nemesis draw on my speculative fiction interests, while On the Way Down and Preparation are more descriptively personal. The first of the stories is a flash piece, Advice for Wormhole Travelers, assisting you with the strange new worlds you may find yourself stepping into. Next we have She Wavers But She Does Not Weaken, with mermaids and acceptance in a shifting world. Finally the landscape turns beneath us in unexpected ways in The Torn Map.

I'm really proud of this work and proud to be able to be involved with the other amazing artists, researchers, and practitioners who have been part of it. While this is the extent of my new fiction and poetry for this project, we're figuring out whether there can be more events like the workshop, so stay tuned on that.

I've also turned in edits on the novella that I sold this fall, so that's a happy milestone. I really like the suggestions that my editor (Kat Howard! Read her work, she's also an author!) made for this piece. I feel that this is now not only a work that is stronger but also more itself, which is always the goal for an editorial relationship.

The writing life is basically the person spinning plates in a variety show, and I continue to run up and down the line, giving each plate another spin. But that's the system working as intended, that's how it is, all the way through the end of the year and then again in January. It's nice to take a moment at the end of the year to take stock of what I've been up to, because otherwise it's all too easy to move on to the next thing. That's still coming for me, with work coming out in December, but having The Vertigo Project launch is a big relief and a big joy, and frankly we could all use a little more of that right now.

Excelsior,

Marissa

Raspberry-Rose Compote

I have been telling people I'm in my compote era. It's just been a year when fresh and frozen fruit is getting spooned onto things at an alarming rate (cheesecake! Ice cream! Flourless chocolate cake! My mouth directly!). This basic approach has been working well for me with a variety of fruits and extra flavorings, with small adjustments based on how juicy and how sweet each individual fruit is.

If you're using frozen fruit here--and you can, you absolutely can!--it doesn't have to be thawed in advance, you can just pop it right into the pan and go on with your life.

3 c. raspberries

6 T sugar

2 T water (or liqueur if that's how you roll)

1 1/2 T corn starch combined with 1 1/2 T water to make a slurry

1 T rose jelly (or 3/4 t. rose extract, or 3/4 t. something else like orange blossom or vanilla if you don't have rose or don't care for it)

1 t. lemon zest (or orange zest if you're using orange blossom or vanilla)

Put the raspberries, sugar, and water into a medium saucepan and heat for 10-12 minutes. Fruit will start to release its juices. Stir in the slurry and cook another 1-2 minutes, or until it starts to thicken--you'll know, it'll look like compote (pie filling, it'll look like pie filling). Add rose jelly and lemon zest. Stir and chill.

Friends, it is emblematic of how this year has gone that I have been meaning to share this with you since it was fresh raspberry season, and other things keep coming up. Things keep coming up! Mostly in a good way! But oh gosh do they keep coming up! Hang in there through them.