Liner Notes #5: Mixtape
Alt text: An image in light pink and blue with a picture of a cassette tape. On the tape is the text "Liner Notes" and "Mixtape no. 5." On either side of the tape are the names of the victims of the Club Q shooting: Daniel Aston, Kelly Loving, Derrick Rump, Raymond Green Vance, Ashley Paugh
Welcome to Liner Notes #5.
I wanted first to start with the Club Q shooting. I won't take long; there's been grief enough. I think there's a lot that's already been said about how the far right demonizes LGBTQIA+ people and minorities. Especially vulnerable is anyone sitting in an intersection of being queer and of color. I really don't know what else to do but push back as much as I can against what they're saying about LGBTQIA+ people being groomers or pedophiles. The signal is coming from inside the conservative house, but they're never going to admit it.
We need to fight book bans and conservative interest groups by showing up to support libraries and school boards. We have to put our bodies in front of our friends, our families, and anyone who needs that protection. We should take fierce joy any time and place we can. The people at Club Q were brave. So were those at Pulse. Every drag queen story hour and brunch is populated by brave people (and drag queens are among the toughest of the brave; it doesn't surprise me the shooter got stomped by a queen). Every time we proclaim ourselves and live our lives and love who we love and grow old, that's us being brave, even if we're afraid. Defiant joy and fighting back are at the heart of pride.
November is National Novel Writing Month, fondly known as NaNoWriMo, where writers set a goal to write fifty thousand words between November 1 and November 30. I didn't get the time to participate last year, as I was deep in edits of books that are not mine. I was disappointed but reasoned I could do NaNo at any time. Well, I didn't do it at any time. In fact, the whole year went by without me writing a single word of the proposed NaNo book. So at the end of October, let's say the 30th, I started planning out the project, currently named Syren.
I'd actually started concepting Syren many years ago, around the same time as Key and Vale. I have in my old notes things like "cattle egrets" and "begonia ferox" and "phaius," but in that same batch of notes are superhero names: Motif. Mediocre. Doubt. And, of course, Syren. My husband and I had hashed out an entire three-arc series in traditional superhero fashion, but that was literal years ago, so by the time I got to it, I'd already forgotten a great deal. Well, in the spirit of NaNoWriMo and my process for it, I decided I'd just vomit out the 50k and figure things out later.
NaNo for me is crucible but less serious. An idea generator. A blank wall at which I throw stuff that I hope sticks. I have the barest idea of who these characters are and what world they live in, so I spend the entire time improvising. This is not my first NaNo, nor my second, or even my third. I looked at my history. I've done six of these things now. I hit 50k on November 13, just when I was getting my legs under me in the story. But I'm the kind of person to get to 50,001 and leave, so that's what I did.
Anyway, for those of you who have not heard of this concept, Syren is about a very normal twenty-eight-year-old man named Sydney Mulberry, who has been as middle-of-the-road mediocre as one can imagine for his entire small life. His goals include making sure his mother, who is a cancer survivor and suffers from chronic illness, gets the healthcare she needs, and hanging out with his roommate and best friend, Robin. He doesn't even need a partner; he's pretty uninterested in all that. Syd wants enough out of life, and that's it.
One day, people begin showing up to see him at work. Perplexed, he tries to ignore it, but then his regular barista doesn't recognize him at his local coffee shop. Suddenly, people are having reactions to him: they can't look at him; they try to touch him; someone attempts to punch him. He causes a car accident on the highway, which results in a manhunt for a rogue super. Who is the rogue super? Oh. It's Syd.
He has the power, it seems, of being the hottest person in the room. How hot? Cannot-function hot. A 15 out of 10, which is a huge upgrade for someone who was at best a strong 5. Sydney Mulberry has the power of incredible beauty, and the superhero association wants him to fight crime with the face that could launch ten thousand ships. The problem with that, unfortunately, is Syd doesn't want to be a superhero.
As is usually the case with my NaNo projects, Syren will languish for several years before I turn my attention back to it. I never use the drafts from NaNo; when I come back, it'll be a full rewrite. Next on the docket for the actual factual writing is RED ENVELOPE HUSBAND, the NaNo of which I wrote in 2019. It'll be 2023 before I start putting real words down on it. So I guess we'll see Syren in 2026!
BITTER MEDICINE's release is about three and a half months away, which feels like a very long time but is actually not that long. I'll be launching the book in person at Charis Books and More in Decatur, but there's a simulcast happening on EventBrite. Which means you all can watch me fumble around and talk about a book I put out to pasture years ago! Here's the link to register for the virtual event:
https://www.charisbooksandmore.com/event/bitter-medicine-mia-tsai-conversation-ld-lewis
I'm planning to have various pies on launch day given that it's Pi Day, plus a custom tea blend and book-themed candles. I'll also be going on book tour after that, so if you're in Savannah, St. Simons, Augusta, Charleston, Chapel Hill, or Pittsburgh, come see me! Especially Pittsburgh folks. I'm super excited to head back up there, even if the driving is going to suck. If you have suggestions or requests for book tour stops, I'm all ears.
I realized I've been remiss in mentioning stuff about BITTER MEDICINE, so: I got a Publisher's Weekly starred review! I'm in some most anticipated lists here and here! The reviews have been pretty good so far on NetGalley and Goodreads, which goes a long way to maintaining my unbothered attitude about reviews. I do read every single one of them.
I like to close out the mailing letter with music I've been listening to, and this edition is no different. It's been Paramore, Paramore, and more Paramore for the last couple weeks as I went to the Paramore show at the Tabernacle last Tuesday (I had to do my homework! And then I had to bathe in my favorite tracks after the show!). It was fabulous. Hayley sounds in real life exactly the way she does on recordings. She sang "Decode," which means I can die satisfied now. Big shoutout to Vince, who told me about musician's earbuds this past summer at the Dalcroze workshop. I purchased two pairs, and my husband and I had a lovely evening rocking out to Paramore while also not taking permanent auditory damage.
I spent some days after in silence because silence is as important as noise to me. My eldest and I like to talk about music and what they like to listen to; after I introduced them to Thank You Scientist and Shubh Saran, I went a bit further with a band called the Dear Hunter. They're nominally a prog rock band, though I think their music is better described as prog stadium with a dramatic musical theater bent. They released a new album earlier this year called Antimai, which is, like most of their other albums, a concept album about, um, I think a city built in concentric circles? At any rate, Antimai sees the Dear Hunter experimenting more with funk and R&B. Casey Crescenzo's vocals keep getting better with each subsequent album. Overall, it's an enjoyable listen, and I'll be running it front to back several more times so I can pick up the details I missed the first couple of times. Here's a link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElsKO56ZYck
In other music news, I saw that the jazz duo DOMi and JD Beck got some Grammy nods for their debut album, Not Tight. It's been such a journey for these two Gen Z wunderkinder. They're both out of Berklee and had been getting buzz before Anderson .Paak picked them up for his fledgling label. About damn time. Their skills are extraordinary. You'll find yourself wondering what plane of existence they occupy as they play, because their ability to create, synthesize, and shift immediately from one section to another is unbelievable. Catch their live videos. Here's their tribute to MF Doom (and ugh, that groove):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYKwotHRdHo
Until next time. See you on the B side.