hello, is this thing on?
October 2022
Aloha kākou and e komo mai! This is my newsletter! I’m still experimenting with what I want this newsletter to look like, but for now we’re sticking 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)
We’ll see how this goes, and thank you for reading along with me! 🤙
HOWZIT? 🤙
I broke my reading slump with WRATH GODDESS SING by Maya Deane! It was highly recommended to me by friends, and I read it with my genre book club. The prose was lush and vibrant, and I could hear Achilles’ voice throughout. I could feel the weight of history, and the ever-present awe and fear of the power of the tumultuous gods. In reading it, I could tell how much blood, sweat, and tears Deane poured into this book. The throughline of gender, femininity, and womanhood and what it means to be both a warrior and a woman was thought-provoking, even for someone who doesn’t experience their gender in the same way. Overall, it was a great book to get me back into reading again.
I’ve been obsessed with A Court of Fey and Flowers since my sister-in-law showed it to me and my wife a few weeks ago. It is so funny, and so in-tune with the regency tropes I swoon for. Fleeting glances, unglovéd hand touches, secret, unchaperoned rendezvous… the rituals, they’re intricate. The jokes never miss, and the emotional heart of the series—love, and how it can bloom within the constraints of society, in the face of duty, be lost and found again—is truly touching.
Who will I be today? 🏹 🩺
Purity Ring is a longtime favorite of mine. I had tickets to see them in May of 2020 (😭) and couldn’t attend the rescheduled show. But one day! I will see them live! For now I’m keeping Womb on repeat as I start pulling together inspirations for my next project. This kind of lyrical, lush, haunting vibe is definitely what I’m going for. My favorite off this album is rubyinsides, and it’s got some nice imagery and themes for a potential playlist. I’m sure I’ll be sharing more related music in the coming months!
WRITER KINE STUFF ✍️
Heist lesbians, or as it is now properly known, HAMMAJANG LUCK, is out of my hands and into my agent’s! I am OFFICIALLY on sub!!! Now I can transition from waiting for agents to waiting for editors! Which also means I am now free to move onto my next fixation: sci-fantasy death knights.
It all started when my friends and I cajoled my wife into playing World of Warcraft with us. A friend mentioned my wife would like playing a blood-specced death knight, and they innocently asked me what a death knight was. Thirty minutes of explaining the plot of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos (2002) later, we were both deep in our death knight feelings.
What really gets me is the concept of a paladin being corrupted into something blasphemous and obscene. A holy warrior, steadfast in their belief, being severed from their god and doomed to live as an abomination in their undeath. A paragon of justice, forced to commit atrocities against their god while a thrall of the very being they swore to destroy.
The angst potential!!!
Drafting this next book (heretofore known as: nihilesbians) is also my NaNoWriMo project! I’m not going for the full 50k because I know myself and my limits, but I have a soft goal of 30k of my first draft. The true goal is to get back into the habit of writing before work, when my brain is freshest. I haven’t been doing that since I spent a lot of last month poking at heist lesbians to get it ready for sub, and now I want to switch my attention fully to nihilesbians. Wish me luck!
RESEARCH FIND 🔍
Did you know that the International Space Station builds up static electricity on its hull? As the ISS cruises through the ionosphere it collects a negative charge, not unlike rubbing a balloon on your head or shuffling across the carpet. The problem, though, is that the electricity can arc between the surface of the space station to an astronaut on a spacewalk—and the charge can build up to 260 volts! The solution? Ejecting plasma into space to discharge the electricity so it doesn’t build up on the hull and zap an astronaut.
Cool, eh?
THIS MONTH’S GRINDZ 🍽️
I made a nostalgic favorite this month: shoyu chicken.
My family had weekly potlucks on Sundays after church, where all the aunties and uncles and cousins came together. The aunties and uncles would watch HBO (The Sopranos and Sex and the City are the ones I remember most) while the older cousins kept the younger cousins away from the TV. I remember that someone always made a huge tray of shoyu chicken, big enough to feed all of us. I learned how to make it a few years ago, and because it’s so easy and tasty it’s one of our favorites.
Ingredients
1-2 pounds chicken thighs
2 cups chicken broth
¾ cup shoyu
½ cup packed light brown sugar
4 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
1 2-inch piece ginger, sliced longways
4 tablespoons cornstarch dissolved in 4 tablespoons water
green onions for garnish
Instructions
Combine all ingredients except cornstarch and green onions in a large pot and bring to a boil over high heat.
Reduce to low and simmer, covered, until chicken is tender, about 30 minutes.
Remove chicken and set aside.
Strain the sauce and bring to a boil. Remix cornstarch if it has settled into clumps. Thicken sauce with the cornstarch slurry. This will probably leave leftovers, but you can repurpose the sauce for a stir fry tomorrow!
Glaze over the chicken and garnish with slices of green onion.
Adapted from this recipe!
POPOKI PICS 🐈
Everybody say aloha to Steve and Olive! Steve and Olive are nine-year-old and six-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.
SHOOTS! 🤙
Lots of stuff happening this October! Next month I’ll be sharing the obligatory “how I met my agent” story, plus some tips for pitching on Twitter. Until then, a hui hou!