Archive • Missives from the Maze • Buttondown

Matériel Missives 19 / Is this thing on?

July 4, 2022

👋🏼 Hi! It's me, Amy. You might have forgotten that you signed up for my newsletter. That's ok. Wherever you are, I hope you're getting enough rest and...

Matériel Missives 18 / New year (x3), new book (x1.5)

January 21, 2020

The last time I updated this list, I thought I was finished writing my novel. Spoiler alert: I wasn't. In October 2017, I had wrapped up the fourth draft of...

Matériel Missives 16 / Breaking ground on Draft 4

April 19, 2017

This email contains spoilers throughout. I've come a long way from the mortified, chewing-on-my-fingernails feeling I first got when sharing my work. Getting...

Matériel Missives 15 / Approaching Draft 3 beta!

January 23, 2017

Have you read The Name of the Wind or its sequel, The Wise Man's Fear? I recently re-read both, and one thing that I admire about Patrick Rothfuss is his...

Matériel Missives 14 / Heart

December 22, 2016

One reason my missives have been so rare these last few months is I was overwhelmed with election-related news and then election-related shock. I will...

Matériel Missives 13 / A rose by any other name

December 6, 2016

And then it was December. ICYMI (hello, new subscribers!): three chapters of my book are available for download. Check out The Seam, Aldus Swann, and...

Matériel Missives 12 / Preview "Aldus Swann"

November 5, 2016

Another overdue missive! My Halloween costume ate up a lot of what would otherwise have been book-time, but it was nice to have an after-hours activity that...

Matériel Missives 11 / Holes

October 1, 2016

Exciting times: I've just wrapped the final chapter of the book! Current word count: 96,964. I'm super excited about the climactic scene and its emotional...

Matériel Missives 10 / Preview "Hemera Maicas"

September 17, 2016

I apologize for the delay since my last update. Thank you for making room in your inbox for me! Partially, I was embarrassed that the segment I've reported...

Matériel Missives 9 / Oh, we're halfway there (plus NEW ART!)

August 13, 2016

In January I said, "I will decline all social activities in favor of writing my book, and I will pay my S.O. for every day past the end of the month I don't...

Matériel Missives 8 / Monstresses

July 30, 2016

I went to my local comic book store to see Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda speak about their collaboration, Monstress. Monstress is the story of a young girl, a...

Matériel Missives 7 / True north

July 17, 2016

Rewriting section 50-75% of the novel has proven to be more difficult than rewriting the 0-50%. During this section, the party finds themselves in a new...

Matériel Missives 6 / "So you're writing a book?"

June 27, 2016

It appears word's gotten around that I'm doing this Thing, and so now I am starting to be questioned about doing the Thing, which gets awkward when I haven't...

Matériel Missives 5 / Preview "The Seam"

June 6, 2016

You'll be the prince and I'll be the princess It's a love story, baby just say yes There's a reason I'm quoting T-Swift--other than why would you ever not be...

Matériel Missives 4 / Silent protagonist

May 29, 2016

In the deathly quiet of this newsletter's absence (ahem), there have been strange and wondrous things afoot. One. As per a suggestion from Bryan, I'm...

Matériel Missives 3 / Might just break the chain

May 12, 2016

Guys. Guys, I am so excited. The last two weekends have been majorly productive, with my plot finally reaching Awful Disaster #1: Shit Gets Cray. I feel the...

Matériel Missives 2 / Back in black

May 1, 2016

Sierra is great, but I wanted her to be more capable, figure things out more. I felt like a lot of stuff was just kind of given to her but she really seems...

Matériel Missives 1 / Crawling up and out

April 21, 2016

The main difference between the alpha draft I circulated in May 2015 and the beta draft of February 2016: last summer, everyone agreed what the problems...