deals, meals, and cover reveals!
Aloha kākou and E KALA MAI for the absence! Lots and lots happening in life and work and writing! Hoping to be more regular with these emails, but for now let’s start with:
What I’m currently reading/watching/listening to
What’s up with my writing (news and updates)
What I’ve been researching (and all the weird things I learn as an SF writer)
What I’ve been cooking (and if I succeeded or failed)
What my cats are up to (cat happenings)
HOWZIT? 🤙
I’ve been so burnt out the last few months, that I really needed something light and fun to escape into from the stress. D’Vaughn And Kris Plan A Wedding was PERFECT for this—the platonic ideal of a summer beach read. I love reality TV, and I’m a sucker for a reality TV facilitated meet cute. With fun, loveable characters and a feel-good ending, it was just what I needed for my convalescence.
One thing about me, I’m a huge D&D nerd. I started playing in college, and I started DMing not long after. It’s been almost a decade of D&D shenanigans! My sister-in-law got me into Dimension 20, and I’ve been watching it almost every day for the last two months while completing A Secret Project. Never Stop Blowing Up is one of my favorites, combining all my favorite action movie tropes with a hilarious system that I can’t wait to get my hands on. Maybe a campaign set in the world of Hammajang Luck?
Recently I was introduced to Music League, and I am completely obsessed now. I love sharing music with my friends (even if it’s just a different Nine Inch Nails song every week). One song that scored me a lot of points was Bad Friend by Rina Sawayama, a queer Japanese artist. It reminds me of Edie, and their early days with Angel. Good stuff!
WRITER KINE STUFF ✍️
Oh my god where do I start. Chronologically? Let’s go chronologically.
The first piece of news is that Hammajang Luck is coming to North America!!!
In the original auction in December of 2022, it ended up being a showdown between Gollancz and Harper Voyager. Now, they’re teaming up to bring the heist lesbians to both the UK and North America! I’m so excited to be working with David Pomerico, and so excited to bring the heist lesbians back home to the US!
And of course! The cover reveals!!! They’re both so different, but they both truly capture the spirit of Hammajang Luck. The UK cover was illustrated by Jordan Wolfe and designed by Rachael Lancaster, and features Hawaiian tattoo designs (kākau) with slick sci-fi aesthetics. It was super important to me to have an artist trained in Hawaiian tattooing to be involved, and I think Jordan did an incredible job translating traditional tattoo motifs to tell the story. And Rachael’s amazing design brought it all together into a truly breathtaking cover. I am SO pleased with it!!!
The North American cover was illustrated by Janelle Barone, designed by Owen Corrigan, and features a tattoo design by my own uncle, Carl Ciriako Jr.! I was immediately drawn to Janelle’s beautiful line work and vibrant colors in her illustrations, and when I saw the first sketches I immediately thought, “That’s Kepler!!! That’s Edie!!!” In the midst of cover design, my uncle sent a tattoo he specially designed for the cover. It tells the story of our family, and seeing it in my inbox moved me to tears. Owen put together all the elements into such a fun and lively cover, I’m so so so happy with how it turned out!!!
Those are the big updates that have been announced, but we’ve still got exciting things cooking! Stay tuned for more news as the release date approaches (AHHHHH)!
RESEARCH FIND 🔍
I’ve been busy drafting my next book, currently dubbed 2 heist 2 lesbians. Internally I’ve been comping it to NEUROMANCER meets FAST & THE FURIOUS, so I’ve been doing a lot of research on cars and racing, and how that might look far in the future.
Turns out, most electric vehicles use automatic clutches to shift gears, omitting the cool clutches you see in racing movies. They don’t afford the same fine control, though, which in a racing scenario is of utmost importance. So I’m bending the rules a little in my book, where the flyers used in races are hacked and modded, allowing for customization and optimization. Racers access the electric engines of their flyers directly, so I get to keep the cool sequences of shifting gears and throwing e-brakes and drifting and other such nonsense.
Cool, yeah?
THIS MONTH’S GRINDZ 🍽️
This month I made pork adobo! It’s a staple in Hawaiʻi, though I admit I didn’t eat much of it growing up. I’m trying to get more in touch with my Filipino side, and I’m starting small with some Filipino recipes. The adobo turned out really good, despite me accidentally quadrupling the amount of shoyu while attempting to double the recipe, haha!
Find the recipe here: https://www.kawalingpinoy.com/pork-adobo/
POPOKI PICS 🐈
Everybody say aloha to Steve and Olive! Steve and Olive are eleven-year-old and eight-year-old brown tabbies, respectively. I met Steve when I met my wife, and Olive we adopted to be Steve’s emotional support animal (he gets anxious when he’s alone). Steve loves to snuggle and eat trash, and Olive loves sitting in laps and committing acts of violence.
It’s been hot lately, and so there’s been a lot of melting on the floor. Soon it’ll cool off though, and it’ll be back to cuddling in the blankies.
SHOOTS! 🤙
That’s all for now! Thank you again for your patience in waiting for this newsletter! And thank you all for your support in this publishing journey—I’m so excited for everything to come!!!
Until next time! A hui hou!