Matériel Missives 19 / Is this thing on?
👋🏼 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 holding yourself with gentleness. I'm noticing in myself a desire to resurrect this newsletter with more frequent and less polished updates, so today's missive is an experiment in doing that.
What's happening with the book?
I wrote six drafts of The Subtle Art of Empire and queried it (i.e. sent cold emails to literary agents) at various stages of that process. In my last newsletter, I wrote that I'd be ready to talk again after I'd sent forty queries out, and...
Hey! I did it. With not a bad response rate, either, by publishing world standards. (For context, a "positive reply" is an agent responding to my query package and asking to read more by requesting either the full manuscript or the partial manuscript.)
One of those positive replies was a full manuscript request followed by an invitation to "revise and resubmit" (i.e. a rejection-as-is, but with an offer to reconsider the manuscript if certain changes are made), so then I wrote a seventh draft. I still have a few agents reading my full manuscript of Draft 7, including that person, and I'm optimistic about getting an offer of representation soon. 🤞🏼
My first-ever published short story is out
I have a story out in the latest issue of OFIC Magazine! “Where Flowers Take Root,” co-written with Ansel Xiu, is:
a queer f/f fantasy adventure romance
a hopeful, indulgent little story about finding homes in each other
“fantasy, mixing poisons for great justice, toxic kingdoms, sneaky note-passing, exploring the city at night, nosegays & nose gays (you’ll see), masquerade balls and hidden identities and perilous escapes oh my”
A digital copy of the issue is $8 USD, and you can get yours here.
I'm working on a new project
Inspired by an especially cool tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) experience, I have since early 2021 been working on what I initially thought was one novel, but is now three, in an original science fantasy setting. The trilogy explores the immediate aftermath of a catastrophic failure of magic and the characters who attempt to restore community, belonging, and balance. Tentatively entitled The Blighted Earth, The Space Beyond, and The Time Triumphant, each novel focuses on the characters/institutions of a world whose magic is divided into the domains of Earth, Space, and Time.
I expect this is an undertaking that will take me several more years, and I don't have much more to tell yet. But I did want to share a few concepts that I made using an AI-generated art tool:
A city in the desert, thriving beyond the uncrossable Blight and its constant dust storms, fostering its own autonomous way of life
The Continental Academy of History and Horology, the world's preeminent institution of Time magic
The Academy's famous Coriolis Pendulum
Shout-out to Helifroggers Dueling Club
I've been so fortunate to be in regular community with a wonderful writing group of Bay Area BIPOC femmes and nonbinary folks during the pandemic. I wanted to plug some stories that I had the privilege to read before publishing:
"Life in the City" in Solarpunk Magazine by Endria Isa Richardson
"Untitled" in ANMLY by Upasana
as well as other work that is not publicly available (yet) but is no less amazing—shout-out to Ansel, Victoria, and Victoria
Check out the work of these awesome writers/humans!
In case you missed it
I still occasionally write book reviews on my blog, including my recent re-read of the entire Animorphs series by K. A. Applegate
For about six months I had the inimitable pleasure of a tiny snail companion who taught me so much about slowing down
I just relocated to Oakland after living in San Francisco for a decade and have been working full-time in mental healthcare for the last few months
Till next time!