#10 - It's Mariah Carey Season, Guys, I Don't Make The Rules
AKA "my deadline is on december 1st and all you get is this panicked newsletter"
PROLOGUE
I hope you enjoyed the spooky season as much as I did, because I really, really did. My copy of Blood Debts by Terry J. Benton-Walker finally came in, so I’ve dived headlong into his witchy, Black New Orleans, and you’ll need to pry me from its pages. In the meantime, there’s never not a good time to be watching The Nanny, so I’ve been watching random episodes on HBOMax. Considering the holidays begin in November for me, The Nanny’s Hanukkah episodes count as a celebration.
Speaking of which, I hope you know that I put “All I Want for Christmas Is You” on as soon as it was November 1st, and I’ve been spending my work days listening to Christmas hits ever since. But whether you celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or Winter Solstice, I hope this holiday season is kind to you and that you are kind to others this holiday season. The world is on fire, and we could all use a little kindness.
Also, make sure you vote.
CHAPTER 1: POP CULTURE MOMENT OF THE MONTH
folklore and Red (Taylor’s Version) are still my top two Taylor Swift albums, but how good was Midnights, you guys? Currently, I’m living a “Lavender Haze”/“Labyrinth”/“Vigilante Shit” lifestyle, but I also love “Sweet Nothing”, “Snow on the Beach”, and “The Great War.” There’s something to love about every song, and I’m glad Miss Swift gave us not only a new album to write to but also TOUR DATES. A gift for me personally, obviously.
Considering how long I was on line just to register, the likelihood of me getting let alone being able to afford tickets is low, but I’m still going to try. I’ve only seen T. Swift in tour once, in her Reputation era, and it was an amazing show. I’d love to see what she brings to the stage for Eras, but, if you guys get to go and I don’t, I look forward to stalking your twitters and crying from FOMO.
In the meantime, I am revising to a soundtrack of Midnights and it feels so good. Well, no it doesn’t. But that’s for the next section…
CHAPTER 2: WHAT EVEN IS “GOOD WRITING” ANYWAY?
I am a writer on deadline! It sucks! First of all, here is your obligatory reminder to add my book, SO LET THEM BURN (2024), on Goodreads, so that one day I can afford to keep my cat in the luxurious life to which she has become accustomed. Second of all, deadline. AHHHHHHHHHH!
Some of you already know this, but I revised the manuscript that would become So Let Them Burn over thirty times before I queried it. Less of you know that I revised it a further two times with my agent and then a third time in an R&R for my editor before I got my book deal. You’d think I would be sick of this book by now, but I still love it every bit as much as I did when I first saw Zendaya at the Met Gala dressed as Joan of Arc.
The problem with revising a book, for me, is actually that my prose and craft has gotten better since the last time I saw this thing, which makes it a huge pain to open.
I appreciate every compliment I’ve ever gotten, every beta reader who has ever been kind, my agent, my editor… but I would be the last to say I’m a good writer. That’s so subjective. Your favorite writer is someone’s garbage writer. I’ve written lines that I’m proud of and lines that I’ve deleted in shame. And I work hard at my craft, to make it something I can look at and feel good about. That’s the one thing I’ll ever say: I feel good about my writing.
I’ve spent years finding my literary voice. I’ve read craft books and articles, discarded what didn’t work for me, studied writers whose books I admire, discarded what didn’t work for me, written countless unfinished manuscripts, discarded them because they didn’t work for me. At this point in my life, I consider “good writing” to be whatever writing touches you, speaks to you in some way. And when I’m writing, that’s what I want: to speak to a future reader and help them feel unalone. There are no rules to follow that can make that conversation perfect, no flawless prose that can make my writing objectively good. All I, all any writer can do, is their best. For themselves and for their audience.
But my writing has been this private thing that I’ve chosen when and where to share. By the time you read my debut novel in 2024, it will contain the best writing I could do in late 2022 to early 2023. And to 2024 me, it will be the WOOOOOOOOOORST. The version of my manuscript that I’m looking at right now was last written in September 2021. In that time, I’ve… well, I don’t want to say I’ve gotten better, but I write things differently in a way I currently like better. It’s hard to face that my writing has changed so much in a year, and it’s hard to deal with the fact that it’s going to have to go out into the world like this no matter how I feel about it in a couple of years. I am Struggling. (You should still add my book on Goodreads, though.)
But I’m not just writing for me any more. I’m writing for you, Dear Reader. I’m writing for the Jamaican teens who love magic and chosen ones, but never got to be one. I’m writing for the Black kids who are finally getting fantasy books that reflect their experiences. I’m writing for my inner child who devoured high fantasy and mentally soared on dragons. And I’m doing my best, for all of us.
I’m still gonna complain about revising, though. 🤪🤪🤪
CHAPTER 3: HAVE A LITTLE PODCAST, AS A TREAT
Have y’all heard of Slush? Slush: A Publishing Podcast is amazing because it demystifies different departments in publishing in easily digestible episodes featuring people who actually work in those departments. The host, Arik Hardin, talks to publishing professionals to break things down for people who are interested in a career in publishing or just want to know for their own curiosity what the difference between Editorial and Managing Editorial is.
CHAPTER 4: THE REC ROOM
Welcome back to the Rec Room, the new section of my newsletter that I am going to be using highlight books coming out each month I’m really excited about. I’ve already given up on only doing one. Don’t judge me.
SILVER IN THE MIST by Emily Victoria
Eight years ago, everything changed for asexual Devlin, and her mother became the head of spies, retreating into her position away from everyone… even her daughter. Joining the spy ranks herself, Dev sees her mother only when receiving assignments. With a dangerous new task of infiltrating the royal court of their neighbor country to steal their magic, Dev learns that not all that glitters is weak. And not all stories are true.
THE WICKED REMAIN by Laura Pohl
In this sequel to THE GRIMROSE GIRLS, Nani, Yuki, Ella, and Rory have discovered the truth about the curse that's left a trail of dead bodies at Grimrose. But the four still know nothing of its origins, or how to stop the cycle of doomed fates. And each girl harbors her own secret. Can the girls change their own fairy tale stories and break the curse? Or must one of them die to end it forever?
CHAPTER 5: LOOK AT MY CAT!!!
As you may know, I adopted a shelter cat in December 2021, who I named Sora Mittens. I’ve been sick for the past couple of weeks, and, as a result, Sora has been SO cuddly. I woke up in the middle of the night to find her hugging my leg, so I took this picture.
EPILOGUE
Thank you for subscribing and/or for sticking around! I hope you like rambles, shenanigans, and nonsense, because that’s truly all this is. I’ll see you in December, for a ho-ho-holiday edition of this, which will just be me doing all the same things, but with a Santa hat on. Be well!