Things I've Read, October (!) 2015: Escaping the Fraud Police
Dear reader,
Let's begin with the fear. I fear that people won't want to read this after a long silence. I fear that I won't have admirable things to say. I fear that beginning with fear is a bad way to start an email newsletter.
I fear that people will think I'm a fraud.
Yesterday, I sat with two dear friends for lunch, and we kept circling back to this fear. One of these friends, Bec, runs her own graphic design studio, handcrafts bags, and successfully kickstarted a project that literally brings gratitude into the world. The other, Karen, is a mother of two—while also being marketing, publishing and chief writer for her own comics publishing company, while also running free workshops and talks to give back to the community. In other words, they're amazing. And yet: this fear.
Let's continue with the fear: where did this universal fear of being found out a fraud come from? Why do we expect our lived experience to match some arbitrary experiential bar that nobody else expects us to match?
I've been reading YA: Bellweather Rhapsody was a book about musical prodigies gathering for a convention, in a creaking old hotel with a murderous backdrop, and I loved its evocation of the power of music, as well as the villain, a perfectly pitched tyrannical music teacher. I also read Greenglass House which shared the rambly old house theme, but brought together with an adopted Chinese protagonist, and some genuinely enjoyable subplots. Additional points for bringing role playing games into the plot with genuine affection and nuance.
I've been reading The Depression Cure which, despite the admittedly questionable title, brought together some suspicions I'd had about depression together with research, and extreme practicality. It's a book that genuinely helped. Also in the self-help-but-actually-helps category was Growing Yourself Up, which I can't recommend highly enough. ( I reviewed it for Bible Society here)
I was delighted to hear that The Three-Body Problem won the Hugo Award, author Cixin Liu was the first Chinese writer to do so, and have the book queued up to go. The book was translated by Ken Liu whose short story "The Paper Menagerie" (pdf) was the first short story to win all three big fantasy/science-fiction awards. The story is very highly recommended, but maybe have a box of tissues nearby, in case you end up a blubbering mess, as I did.
I'm also proud to say I had a story called Buttons! accepted into the Lane of Unusual Traders project, as well as, on the Christian side, a co-written article in the debut volume of Vine Journal.
I once told Sophie that the best thing to do with fears about your writing is to bring them into the spotlight and so maybe that's the best way to begin. I don't have answers, but maybe it's enough—for now—to begin with the fear.
Yours,
Guan