New-ish ideas and other writing

I sent out the last newsletter a couple days after my birthday, but unlike I’ve been doing for the past couple years, I didn’t make a birthday post. It just wasn’t something I wanted to do this year. Maybe it’s because I’ve finally reached some better sense of stability, or maybe it’s because all that stability is threatened to be thrown off by the state of the world, which my heart aches for.

Some updates: I have another poem published in Knee Brace Press! This one is all about what I’m doing PT for right now, so it feels especially relevant. We’ll see if I need that MRI after all, or if it’s all muscular (the leading theory).

Secondly, I’ve made a return to The Sound of Our Collision with Lucy Dacus’s “Troublemaker Doppleganger,” a song I think is actually pretty queer! That’s been released to everyone here. If you want to get them early and other perks, become a paying Patreon! Writing is basically my second job and it isn’t pulling the weight I need right now in the summer.

Shiny new ideas

I have a new writing idea! Well, technically, it isn’t very new. It’s a general concept I’ve been wanting to write about since at least college, and some of the images in it come from even earlier. I even made a Scrivener doc for it in 2021. I think it’ll end up being YA, but it’s still a new genre for me—more of a speculative thriller? Severance was one of the main inspirations that helped me crack the code and that holds up. Oh, and of course it will be sapphic.

My biggest issue is how to plot. I have never been particularly good at plot, and I resent taking time to plan much before jumping into writing. But I think doing something of a bare bones generative draft will be a good starting point?

I placed a call out on social media and a Discord community for recommendations for me to read and explore this genre. Here are some books I’ve compiled:

• The Wicker King by K. Ancrum (We owned this so I already read it. It wasn’t quite the vein of what I want to do, but it made me think about structure.)

• The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami (Got this from the library and started it! It’s much more overt than what I want to do and it’s freaking me out a bit!)

• Best of All Worlds by Kenneth Oppel

• This Moth Saw Brightness by A.A. Vacharat

• Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind by Molly McGhee

• Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung

If you have any suggestions, leave a comment!

Good reads/links

• “Gaza is starving”

• Adopt a Station - support your local public media and those that need it most!

• “Regulating AI isn’t enough. Let’s dismantle the logic that put it in schools.”

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