#12 - It's 2023 And This Newsletter Is Longer Than It Should Be
AKA "happy new year, ya filthy animals"
PROLOGUE
Happy New Year! It’s 2023, which means that, at some unspecified point around this time next year, my debut novel, SO LET THEM BURN, will be on shelves! Available for purchase and library order! Out in the world! For people to own! AHHHHH!
Instead of resolutions, I like to start my years off with words to live by for the next 365 days. For 2022, it was “closed mouths don’t get fed” — or go ahead and ask for what you want, Kamilah, because if you never ask, the answer will always be no. For 2023, I’ve decided to go with “Just do the damn thing”.
As an insecure, anxious procrastinator, a lot of my life is defined by the things I didn’t have the courage to do — and so many good things have come from me just sucking it up and taking a chance. I moved out into my first apartment. I adopted a cat. I entered #PitMad. I sent my first query letter. I went to National Book Festival. I crashed into a lot of people’s DMs. I became besties with an insanely hot person even though I thought she hated me at first (are you happy, Joelle?). And, yes, not every impulsive choice resulted in good things, but they resulted in different things. In change, of some kind, that pushed me forward when I was feeling stagnant.
So, in light of that, the energy I want to have this year is to do the things that scare me, the things that are uncertain, the things I want to put off, the things I might regret. I can’t control what might happen, but I can control me, and I want to look back on 2023 as a person satisfied with my ability to try.
Wish me luck!
CHAPTER 1: POP CULTURE MOMENT OF THE MONTH
I’m not even going to try and add commentary to this. It speaks for itself.
CHAPTER 2: A THOUGHT ON ORIGINAL WRITING
One of the earliest books I can remember working on was about a young witch who teams up with a dog demon she finds attached to a tree by an arrow — after she convinces him not to kill her first, of course — to take down her enemies. Those of you with taste will recognize this as more or less the plot of the anime Inuyasha. The first book I ever finished, from first word to THE END, in my late 20s, was about a group of orphan assassins in a fantasy version of Venice, who have to work together to stop an even more dangerous villain with similar skills. If this sounds like the general plot of The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, you would be right. Both of these anecdotes illustrate the topic I want to tackle today, which is originality and how to make a story feel like yours.
As a Black writer, there were two defining things to be on the subject of originality. The first was growing up in a world where all of my favorite stories — fantasy books with magic and dragons and fae and witches — starred white characters having the kind of adventures I could only dream of. The second was seeing Black authors break into mainstream popularity and, no matter how much I loved their books, finding one or two star reviews that accused them of doing “nothing new” in the genre. “I picked this up because it was West African inspired, but it’s just Avatar: The Last Airbender.” “I picked this up because of its diverse cast, but Six of Crows did it better.” “I was so excited to read this book, but A Darker Shade of Magic, A Court of Thorns and Roses, Shadow & Bone, The Cruel Prince!”
If you’re a BIPOC author, it seems that no matter what you want to write, a white author has already done it — and, in the eyes of readers, done it better. You’re an inferior copy at best, or a vile thief at worst. That fear— that if we don’t do something great then we shouldn’t do anything at all — seems to be universal as far as I can tell from my conversations with other writer friends, and not all of them BIPOC. And it’s a valid concern, especially for authors of color. After all, publishing craves uniformity while punishing us for it. “We already have a book about that” or “We already have a book from a person of your entire ethnicity” are frequent rejections that writers have to deal with, putting further pressure on us to somehow do what no one has ever done before just to have a chance.
Even without the external and internal pressure, there’s also the simple fact that many of us dream of breaking the wheel, changing the game, writing The Novel that everyone compares every subsequent novel to. I mean, who wants to be mediocre and derivative when they could be original and great?
But that pressure to be great is so toxic, don’t you think? It’s a subjective word. Look up any book you think is great, original, amazing, and it will have a ton of one star reviews claiming just the opposite. Some of the most unique books I’ve ever read barely have any reviews at all. It’s impossible to predict what is “great” or what will be “great” when our own doubts are screaming at us that, whatever great is, we’re not achieving it. And I can’t help but think of how many stories the world has missed out on because the notgoodenough was too loud, the why don’t I write like that, the my story is boring/stupid, the shit, this WIP is exactly like xyz/unwanted.
How many of my favorite books came this close to never existing? How many of my favorite authors came this close to giving up?
I know how many times I’ve almost given up, and the answer is A LOT. So, when those doubts are screaming, when publishing is gatekeeping, when nothing I write seems right, I try to live by something I read in a fanfiction once: “Anything is unique if it’s the first time you’ve done it, because it’s never been done by you before.” If you give a circle of writers the same prompt, say horror story, you’ll get tales as different as Frankenstein and The Vampyre. Heck, I found out that four of my friends also have WIPs inspired by a certain building, and not a single one of our plots is the same.
When I look back at that girl who didn’t yet have her own voice and her own viewpoint, I give her grace to make her mistakes and learn through imitation. But I think those derivative stories were motivated by fear. Fear that what I liked wouldn’t be what other people liked. Fear that my ideas weren’t good enough to stand on their own. Fear of that elusive greatness I felt so far from grabbing. Since then, I’ve learned a lot about my voice and writing, and one of the biggest lessons is this: I don’t need to revolutionize the genre with every line or every story. Fantasy has always been my shelter in a storm, and, as a writer, all I want is to be let inside.
And the other important lesson is this: It wasn’t until I mined my own interests (dragons! sapphics!) and viewpoint (colonialism is bad! Jamaica is amazing!) that I found My Story. And that story is going to be my debut novel, a blessing I never could have imagined even five years ago.
It’s probably not unique. It’s definitely not going to be everyone’s idea of great. But it’s my story, told my way, and no one else could have written it like I did. And the same is true for you.
CHAPTER 3: THE REC ROOM
Welcome to the Rec Room, the section of my newsletter that I use to highlight books coming out each month I’m really excited about. For January, we have…
BRIGHTER THAN THE MOON by David Valdes
Shy foster kid Jonas and self-assured vlogger Shani met online, and so far, that's where their relationship has stayed. Shani is eager to finally meet up, but Jonas isn't confident Shani will like the real him… if he's even sure who that is. Jonas knows he's trapped himself in a lie with Shani, but Shani, who's been burned before, may not give him a chance. Instead, she talks her best friend Ash into playing spy and finding out the truth. When Ash falls for Jonas, too, he keeps that news from Shani, and soon they're all keeping secrets. Will it matter that their hearts are in the right place?
A RUINOUS FATE by Kaylie Smith
Calliope Rosewood’s fate is directly tied to Witch’s Dice—powerful artifacts that have blessed witches with limitless magic but also set them on a path toward destruction. Calla deserted her coven four years ago and has been in hiding with her two best friends since, but she is only three Rolls away from becoming the last Blood Warrior and starting the Final War that will decimate her people and eradicate their magic. After a betrayal from her ex leads her one step closer to fulfilling that age-old prophecy, Calla is desperate to do whatever it takes to reset her fate… even if that means journeying into the deadly Neverending Forest with said ex and his enticing, yet enigmatic older brother to find the one being who can help her forge her own path.
BEGIN AGAIN by Emma Lord
As usual, Andie Rose has a plan: Transfer from community college to the hyper competitive Blue Ridge State, major in psychology, and maintain her lifelong goal of becoming an iconic self-help figure despite the nerves that have recently thrown her for a loop. But the moment Andie arrives, the rest of her plans go off the rails. When she starts to find the power of her voice as the anonymous Squire on the school’s legendary pirate radio station — the same one her mom founded, years before she passed away — Andie learns that not all the best laid plans are necessarily the right ones.
THE FRAUD SQUAD by Kyla Zhao (Adult)
For as long as she can remember, Samantha Song has dreamed of writing for a high-society magazine, but living vicariously through her wealthy coworker and friend, Anya Chen, is the closest she’ll get to her ideal life. Until she meets Timothy Kingston: the disillusioned son of one of Singapore’s elite families—and Samantha’s one chance at infiltrating the high-society world to which she desperately wants to belong. To Samantha’s surprise, Timothy and Anya both agree to help her make a name for herself on Singapore’s socialite scene. But the deeper Samantha wades into this fraud, the more she fears being exposed—especially with a mysterious gossip columnist on the prowl for dirt—forcing her to reconcile her pretense with who she really is before she loses it all.
CHAPTER 4: LOOK AT MY CAT!!!
As you may know, I adopted a shelter cat in December 2021, who I named Sora Mittens. She was born and raised in the shelter, and she was newly adopted before the holidays in 2021 so I didn’t dare displace her from the apartment she was still getting used to. So 2022 was the first year I brought Sora with me to my parents’ house for a proper family Christmas and, suffice to say, everyone had a great time spoiling her — especially my sister, who got her this window hammock.
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. It’s a new year, which means a new beginning. In the words of Leigh Bardugo, BAYMTGO (Begin As You Mean to Go On), and, as always, I’m beginning with love. Later, gators!
love this, K!! thank you for writing!!