Liner Notes #22: Road Trip
I’ve had to apologize a lot lately: Sorry, I can’t make my deadline. Sorry, I can’t take this gig on. Sorry to be such a bother; sorry, I can’t help; sorry, it’s my fault you were late. And now, sorry I didn’t get this newsletter out in time to promote the Traveling SFF Festival from last week and the week before.
My friend Yume Kitasei (https://www.yumekitasei.com/) decided to put together a traveling festival to help promote books and pulled a bunch of us in to make it happen. That’s the boring pitch—Yume’s pitch was “We’re authors on a road trip!” and that one works way better. That’s where I’ve been this last week, traveling across New England with JR Dawson, Emily Jane, Elaine U. Cho, and Yume, hitting a ton of bookstores and putting on four panels, bringing the festival to you instead of having you come to us.
We all had a good time! I wish I could have gotten this newsletter out earlier in case some of you live in Northampton, Norwich (Vermont), Boston, or New Haven. Unfortunately, it was not to be, but we do all have signed copies of our books at those bookstores (I’ll drop a link to the festival’s page on Yume’s website at the end). We met a lot of book people, connected with wonderful readers, and really cemented friendships during our weeklong trip. It was like a bookish FFXV except our cars were nowhere as slick as the Regalia! Also, it lacked chocobos. And magic. And Ignis’s gourmet camp cooking.
I’ll try to post some pics on the Instagram or something—at one point, we drove through the end of a rainbow—but I have come to realize that I am exceptionally bad at taking pictures when the moment happens, then posting about it later. More like half the time I remember I have a camera, and then the pictures disappear into the void of my gallery and I forget I even have photos to start with. Elaine, as it turns out, is also a shutterbug who shoots film, and I’m excited to see what photos appear when she develops them.
I did have some thoughts I wanted to write about in the nearly two months it’s been since the last newsletter, but so much has happened in my personal life that those thoughts have long taken wing and migrated to a better brain. And honestly, the thoughts were downers anyway. We have so much to be down about that I don’t want to contribute to it.
In the last mailing letter, I think I talked briefly about the future of my writing and what I might do with it. And now there are several pieces of media out that I think do a much better job of conveying the kind of story I was interested in, which means I get to heave a huge sigh of relief and cross those projects off my list. (Check out Dispatch, a comedic superhero visual-novel-meets-tactical-game, Tasha Suri’s The Isle in the Silver Sea, and Alix Harrow’s The Everlasting.) Syren? Done. Fated lovers? Also done, but maybe less done as I still have the itch to write Varan, Ilena, and Rissine (or Sephe, Aniris, and Kayede in a later life). I think that’s something for the newsletter or a secret AO3 account. During the trip, Yume joked that I’d get “discovered” by an agent through my original stuff on AO3. That’d be so funny. If it happens, you’ll be the first to know.
Once Key & Vale 2 is done and my option is sent out, I’ll probably turn my eyes back toward romance. I do think the mascot romance idea is funny as hell. I also think I owe myself a chance to write CAULKED AND LOADED (rivals-to-lovers M/M romance between two contractors, set in Houston) just because the title is so hilarious. And maybe one day I’ll get to RED ENVELOPE HUSBAND or RAINBOW ROAD TRIP.
Of all these projects, only the fated lovers has a playlist, which is a little womp-womp because that means it’s got the most potential to turn into a book (I think it has more songs on it than The Book of Tony). Still! On the topic of playlists! I kept saying I’d put Bitter Medicine’s playlist on my blog and I swear I will eventually. I have an opportunity, now that The Memory Hunters is out, to drop a big chunk of that playlist in the mailing letter. (Big thanks to JR Dawson and Elaine U. Cho for praising my playlist-building skills.)
A lot of people build playlists for book vibes, but I like the idea of narrating story with music and setting the tableau for the story through the music. I think up my playlists more as a music director than anything else. Selection does kind of mess up the algorithm because I’m not selecting for whether I like a song—I have a Taylor Swift song on Tony’s playlist and I don’t even like her—I’m selecting for how well the song fits the scene and the overall aesthetic of the book. For Bitter Medicine, it used to be that you could listen to the playlist and each song would correspond with a chapter. That’s not the case anymore as I’ve shifted things around or plain deleted them because I couldn’t handle listening to them anymore. The Memory Hunters playlist is similar.
It’s a long playlist. Enough dithering from me. Also, sorry if you’ve seen some of these songs already from the BlueSky thread I posted a while back. Some of these are also in the reference list in the back of the book, so double sorry about that. There I go, apologizing again.
THE MEMORY HUNTERS PLAYLIST
Opening image: “99,” Elliot Moss https://youtu.be/GlZ5WdXswEQ?si=4rHS9HDuhT-Hil2q
“Darlin Corey,” Amythyst Kiah https://youtu.be/0YRL-MvAluY?si=0C6589RQxSIBMFbp
“Orion’s Waltz,” Milkdrive https://youtu.be/6drrZyEIc1o?si=xOVK567q3grAKlQv
“Ali Shan De Gu Niang—Chinese Mountain Song” (Acoustic Cover), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKKkOwv1hAU
“Ami Je Rikshawala—An Indo Taiwanese Cover,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4-ZZtVY-XA
“Jag Ghumeya—A Simple Cover with Taiwan Yueqin.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8kyVBpnyiw
“Snowden’s Jig (Genuine Negro Jig),” Carolina Chocolate Drops https://youtu.be/u1Cg9DIONVk?si=HZj4aUjFthnGgpOa
“Myth,” Amythyst Kiah https://youtu.be/LT7COXjJYRA?si=-XalRt5vuXYItSr4
“Little Sparrow,” Leyla McCalla https://youtu.be/JB9zXoOBpOI?si=c8ybnVfI4RFQAuwb
“Georgia Drumbeat,” Dom Flemons https://youtu.be/rpEnRw8b-S0?si=F-39NbR91MZkgyFk
“In the Woods Somewhere,” Hozier https://youtu.be/zJdTRF5d94k?si=WY7_YNojV1dFFHPp
“Tenebrae: 1.,” Osvaldo Golijov, Kronos Quartet https://youtu.be/63vkjZgFTK8?si=8LnBVa2KJmg3geQ3
“Tenebrae: 2.,” Osvaldo Golijov, Kronos Quartet https://youtu.be/kZhro4uKyg8?si=mZGla4_o-IH6BFoq
Diving music: “Nani—Live,” Osvaldo Golijov, Nora Fischer https://youtu.be/XMhsdhbIBCI?si=YUUoLN-tOZO2pN9E
“Wild Rose of the Mountain,” Butch Baldassari & David Schnaufer https://youtu.be/lLX-aZoi890?si=XQA1uHcoCPNtLFoQ
“Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us,” Robert Plant, Alison Krauss https://youtu.be/dl0e7rFUVEw?si=6QuxYCECb_XBZyOt
“I Wonder As I Wander,” David Schnaufer https://youtu.be/e06In-g-eoM?si=DzjH8VgbvEs1L20G
“If I Could Talk to a Younger Me,” Bela Fleck, Abigail Washburn https://youtu.be/D0icxjcyCpw?si=oOiNdlI-JqiQGzkl
Vale’s fight song: “Nobody’s Fault but Mine,” Led Zeppelin https://youtu.be/9_kqkZTZYrg?si=--saxGHQbMVonO4f
Train ride to Jesdon: “Long Journey Home,” The Bedquilt Ramblers, Ben Babbitt https://youtu.be/lLd1zBgXX7c?si=Wf_SZmGGQXPPD_-a
Ending credits: “Pillar of Na,” Saintseneca https://youtu.be/CowqWKS5TlM?si=3fqGDB_Lm6sqvnKY
Non-affiliated music begins here. “Julie,” Rhiannon Giddens https://youtu.be/zu5ZYXi6EiE?si=8zaxrWMQziqsHzi8
“Lay This Body Down,” Sam Lee, Bernard Butler https://youtu.be/LBmVRZE1lRo?si=MR0dhDhKtQaTZkUp
“Saint Elizabeth,” Kaia Kater https://youtu.be/2MhUu0JPsbc?si=Ue9jCrVhFZ_g_tJY
“Magnolia Blues,” Adia Victoria https://youtu.be/sVlQPpQ3xlY?si=u0WA9dVCTxGSOJ-P
Diving music: “Waves,” Carolina Eyck, Eversines https://youtu.be/n6KP3jSZAes?si=JV5gWFepyNC5Rgvm
“Barley,” Birds of Chicago https://youtu.be/BXzCdlmo31w?si=ICh7_wxeN7nNBnoy
“Juvenescence,” Yasmin Williams https://youtu.be/QXrrsXVB2zw?si=aPbXjy772Mc1Gr16
“Ghost Dance,” DBH https://youtu.be/JcMvy99Qr8k?si=q4BfC1r7S_SDF7Aa
“Waterbound,” Dirk Powell https://youtu.be/kVQv5YVLKkM?si=sUKOD5g9gitX34Sr
“Wolf Like Me ft. Shovels & Rope,” Lera Lynn, Shovels & Rope https://youtu.be/Lmyd9LTkpfk?si=dVPY_7bMKseoRncw
“Home,” Billy Strings https://youtu.be/2kGBYIILs58?si=JbMhnvJcOxSH96PX
“Lest We Forget (blood),” Esperanza Spalding https://youtu.be/i21b35DtbIQ?si=KCKlU8AuOrpsLL7P
“Keep Your Silver Shined,” Samantha Rise https://youtu.be/w45DfVDU7D8?si=jnq-8rCAc_r-3Sd6
“Indian Summer,” Carling & Will https://youtu.be/CMEj4wxogGg?si=V6UmpAI0juwNyvQP
“Arcadiana, Op. 12: VI. O Albion,” Thomas Adès, Signum Quartet https://youtu.be/EXWZLCYDJUg?si=yUgWOP4O5oR6b5Vb
As for what I’ve been listening to, not that much lately. Been too busy. I did get out to the Avatar live show, which was fun and emotional during Uncle Iroh’s “Leaves from the Vine (Little Soldier Boy)”. I also finally saw the Polyrhythmics live and crossed off one of the items on the musical bucket list! And then I somehow lucked into another Khruangbin show, which sends me back up to DC in a couple of weeks. My show lucks is pretty good, not gonna lie. Vulfpeck and Yebba, y’all can come do a show in ATL any time. ANY TIME, you hear?
That’s it from me. See you on the B-side.
Books you should read:
Yume Kitasei
The Deep Sky (murder mystery on a spaceship)
The Stardust Grail (heists………in space!)
Saltcrop (two sisters sailing across the sea to find their lost third sister, plus anti-Big Agri vibes, dystopia, and mushrooms)
Emily Jane
On Earth as It Is on Television (what if the aliens were real, showed up for one day over the major cities and then left, and the cats are all acting weird?)
Here Beside the Rising Tide (30 years ago, a pair of best friends goes swimming in the ocean, but one disappears; now, the missing one reappears, still ten years old, and proclaiming himself the only one who can save the world from sea monsters)
American Werewolves (venture capitalist werewolves meet the one person they can’t overcome: a tired, pissed-off millennial with nothing left to lose)
Mr. Yay (preorder this!)
Elaine U. Cho
Ocean’s Godori (space opera set in a Korean-dominated solar system that gave me HUGE Space Sweepers vibes)
Teo’s Durumi (sequel to Godori, you’ll want to pick up both because the ending of Godori propels you straight into Durumi)
JR Dawson
The First Bright Thing (circus of magic-users called Sparks try to survive in a post-WWI world but of course there is a rival circus)
The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World (what if Lake Michigan is the River Styx, there’s a hidden lighthouse on Chicago’s shore, and the ferryman is actually a ferrywoman who one night discovers a living woman on her boat?)