February Newsletter

Hello hello!! If you’re new to the newsletter, welcome! Below, you’ll find some updates, some recommendations, and some insight into my writing life. Always feel free to reach out on Instagram if you have any questions for me about writing or reading or translation or anything else!

These are snippets from my blog posts on Patreon. Feel free to explore those memberships at the link below:

Writing Life Updates

Novel Revising. I've started on the process of revising, which so far means just reading it and making little note margins. Mostly, I'm writing 'fix' or 'awkward' or 'what does this mean?' Occasionally I find some sentences I like, but mostly, I want to go through and make things better! It's a lot of work to stop myself from diving into edits, but I know reading it is the best first step. I'm reading it in book order now, but then I'll read it in 'timeline' order. This non-linear thing has sincerely made my life twice as difficult.

Recommendations

Books

• Beloved by Toni Morrison is always worth a reread. I've read it three times in my life, and I think I discover something new each time.

• Run: Book One by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin was NYPL's pick for their Teen Banned Book Club this month. I haven't read it yet, but all of the giveaway books I had got taken, which is a good sign!

Song

• "Will Anybody Ever Love Me?" by Sufjan Stevens is really beautiful and not as sad as you might think! I tend to love everything Sufjan Stevens does, though.

In Depth Review-Geek Love by Katherine Dunn

The premise of Geek Love by Katherine Dunn is that the owners of a carnival decide to breed their own freak show by subjecting the wife to various drugs and medicines while pregnant, with varying results. The story is told to us by Olympia, one of the more 'normal' freaks among her siblings, and jumps between her childhood in the carnival and her current adulthood out in the normal world.

The thing that I found so engaging about this book was how vividly the characters were rendered. I think with something like this, and the extreme characters it introduces, is that it could so easily tip over into the fantastical or speculative, but Dunn has managed to keep us fully grounded. The eccentricities of even the most minor characters are so perfectly explained and envisioned that it's easy to accept the reality of them. And while this is cliché to point out, the motivations and emotions experienced by Olympia and those around her perfectly mirror the kinds of things us 'norms' go through, even when you get into the cult. Aren't we all desperate to belong somewhere? Aren't we all looking to free ourselves from the expectations of society and be accepted fully as ourselves?

Behind the Scenes

The original seed for Forgotten Holler actually came from a writing exercise I got from Lincoln Michel (I don't think he invented it though, I'm pretty sure it's used by lots of folks). The concept is, you take a short story you like and break it down into very basic beats--for example, if a story starts with a woman named Melissa going on a blind date, your story beat would be 'protagonist is going on a date.' If you're ever stuck looking around for an idea, this is a great to get started! Break down your favorite short story and see where it takes you!

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Love and gratitude, friends. See you next month.