#1 - Someone, Help, What Does One Actually Put In The First Newsletter?
AKA "how does one use a thousand words to say nothing at all?"
PROLOGUE
In the words of my new favorite artist Maisie Peters, you signed up for this. Welcome to Don’t Threaten Me with a Good Time, my newsletter about… well… anything. Whether you subscribed on purpose, or this newsletter is a hopefully pleasant surprise, strap in and bear with me as I ✨ find my voice ✨.
It’s February, which is one of my favorite months of the year. It’s short, it’s sweet (because of Galentine’s Day, Valentine’s Day, and Candy Christmas), it’s Black History Month, and it’s also the anniversary of the birth of my agent, Emily Forney. (Shockingly, that acknowledgement of Emily Forney Day was not added under duress — or was it?) Whether you’re boo’d up, happily single, or somewhere in between, candy is marked down everywhere the day after Valentine’s Day, so go get you those pink KitKats and heart-shaped Reese’s.
In the meantime, I’m trying to get through my TBR in 2022, and I’m starting with Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco. Have you been on her Instagram lately? I’m loving the vibes of this world of sexy demons and sisterly bonds. While I’m too unfocused to start any new shows, and thus just re-watching Spongebob Squarepants Seasons 1-3 for the hundredth time, Kingdom of the Wicked and Maisie Peters’s album have been keeping my creativity alive.
At least until Assassin’s Creed 2 comes out for the Switch on February 17. Then I will be playing that nonstop and calling it “book research”. But that’s a story for next month’s newsletter…
CHAPTER 1: POP CULTURE MOMENT OF THE MONTH
Word on the street is that TOMDAYA BOUGHT A HOUSE TOGETHER. First of all, Tomdaya is the portmanteau for Tom Holland and Zendaya. Second of all, for those who don’t know, the novel that got me my agent was based on Zendaya’s Met Gala 2018 outfit so I want nothing but health and success for her for all the health and success she has unknowingly brought me.
SAINT OF ASHES was actually the first story I shared outside of my friend group, the first story I wrote my own background into, the first story with a primarily Black cast. It started with me seeing Zendaya’s outfit and going, “Wait, what if Joan of Arc had been Black?” and following the thread of my questions from there — and adding dragons, because I love dragons. Every time I doubted myself, or thought I couldn’t finish, I would look back at any picture of Zendaya standing majestically on that red carpet at the Met Gala, and I would tell myself I owed it to myself to write a story worthy of that power pose.
And I did. Or, well, I hope I did.
After all of that, I basically go feral for every scrap of news about Tom and Zendaya, who seem to be very good friends and an adorable couple. In that weird parasocial way where you don’t really know a celebrity but their work has meant so much to you that you generally want them to be happy? That’s me with Zendaya. My pie-in-the-sky author dream is for Zendaya to hold my book in her hands one day, so hearing that she and her boyfriend (might have?) bought a house together wiped every other pop culture moment that happened this month from my mind. It’s the month of love, and Tomdaya is serving!
P.S. No, I still have not seen Spider-Man: No Way Home. Yes, I am as upset about it as you are.
CHAPTER 2: I’M AN AMM MENTOR??
The announcement went live on Friday, but I just want to praise my wonderful Author Mentor Match Round 9 mentee again. Ana Davis wrote a Macbeth retelling that had me from the first two paragraphs and never let me go. She’s got a Twitter now and you should follow her so when she inevitably starts cursing me for how hard I’m making her work on her edits, you can support her. :D
I did a thread about what it was like to not get into AMMR8 as a mentee, but seeing it happen from the other side allowed me some closure on that part of my life. Being a mentor is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I received about 88 submissions in total that I somehow had to narrow down to one, well aware that, because of me, 87 people would feel the way that I did last year. It was a lot of pressure and anxiety. I was terrified of making a “wrong” choice, like being a mentor was a test I was going to fail. And it was strange to be reminded again and again that as a mentor in this program, I had a certain amount of power over people. Over writers, that, in my mind, were doing ME a favor by sending me their works. It was confusing and humbling and rewarding and eye-opening.
And it led me to Ana, whose story I could praise all day long and who is already a dream to work with. But part of me is still that lost writer who opened the R8 list and didn’t see her name. Part of me is heavy with guilt that I did that to 87 writers. Part of me always will be lost and guilty. And maybe that’s okay.
CHAPTER 3: LOOK AT MY CAT!!!
I can’t imagine who hasn’t heard by this point, but I adopted a shelter cat in December 2020. She’s a two year old (three in March!) Black American Shorthair cat, her name is Sora Mittens, and I love her like she is my own child. (Note: I named her after Sora from Kingdom Hearts, not Sora from Digimon, but both Soras are very cool.) Anyway, this month she’s learned that she can half-climb up the side of my chair and bother me at my desk, and I need you all to look at her.
EPILOGUE
So, what can you expect from this newsletter going forward? I have absolutely no idea. But it will arrive in your inbox once a month with something in it, I can promise you that much. Something for the readers. Something for the writers. Something for the broken, the beaten, and the damned. Until next time!