Song of the Month:
Bloodline (Alex Warren and Jelly Roll)
This song makes me want to DANCE in my office.
What I've been doing:
This is technically a sequel to last month's story, but you don't need to have read that one to understand this one.
This is a second-person tale about a creature made of living energy fighting for freedom from the scientists who want to keep them caged. Their power is so immense, they combust and destroy almost everything they touch-- how can they find their place in the world, and how can they keep their freedom?
June is when it gets HOT in Nashville. We've had heat warnings just about every day, bookended with severe thunderstorm threats and UV warnings with high humidity. Summer is here, and all the kids are out of school.
It really does seem like we're letting the kids out of the frying pan and into the fire, because it's perfect heatstroke weather. As long as the parents keep them hydrated and supplied with squirt guns, I guess they'll be fine, but you never know. I don't like having to navigate crowds of the little buggers at the pool, but I remind myself that they deserve this time. I was a kid once, and the crowds at the YMCA pool make up part of those pleasant memories. I hope this generation of kids gets some happy memories, too.
There used to be an ice cream truck that rumbled through my neighborhood now and then, but I haven't heard it this year. It's sad, because the ice cream man was SUPER nice and there are a lot of little tykes in my neck of the woods. I know the ice cream truck industry must have suffered from COVID, but they're just nice to have around. Plenty of my friends would drop everything to grab a Drumstick if they had the chance.
This would be me.
By the end of this month, I hope to have the developmental edits done with Blood Families, and then I can move on to the next big steps like copy editing and cover design. Once this book reaches a point where it's not constantly changing, I'll have more to share and more to market to everyone. All I can say for certain right now is that it's an adult fantasy vampire story about classism, murder, and government conspiracy.
I'm also excited to write my first openly gay main character. Sexuality is not a common theme in my writing, so it's going to be new for me. I'm asexual, and unless I state otherwise, a lot of my characters reflect that. Another major character will also be asexual, and it will be a relief to see some representation for that, because asexuality tends to be overlooked. It's not just for marketing that I want to make the MC gay; I'm not the most experienced with romance, but it lends itself to a beautiful kind of storytelling, and I want to see that beauty in my work. I'm going to coordinate with sensitivity readers and get feedback, too. I want to give this story the best kind of representation I can give it; the LGBTQA community deserves the respect.
This is the ace pride flag, by the way. Happy Pride!
In other news, I want to support and have good rapport with other creative types. My sister is moving close to me, mostly to get out of Los Angeles.
Need I say more?
She handled COVID out there, then riots, smog, and gigantic prices for a few more years. The wildfires earlier this year was the breaking point. But she's been strong, and is a wonderful creator herself. She's writing and illustrating for games, and her name is on the recently-released Date Everything. It may be a tough time to be a creative in this day and age, but a key part of the creative spirit is that it never dies.
I love it when the title is also the instructions.
What I've been reading:
I've been chipping away at this one for literal years.
1Q84
If you're at all familiar with Haruki Murakami's work, you might have an idea of what this one is like; if not, strap in. The tagline is about a woman who finds herself in an alternate reality of 1984 Japan, where bizarre changes to reality start to warp her life and the lives of the people around her.
But that is only the barest glance at the tip of the iceberg. This woman is also an assassin who kills abusive men, and then we get introduced to another protagonist, a teacher and author who also gets drawn into a weird new world full of cults and tiny humans and lots of weird, complex emotions. Take a moment to think about how bizarre things get in a setting where the baseline for normality is a woman who murders men without leaving a mark, thinks she's a hero, and has an unflinching affinity for older men. And her name is Japanese "green peas."
What I love about Murakami's writing and stories are how dreamlike they feel. Each one, including 1Q84, has a bizarrely relaxing quality to them, even as they meander on about the details and thoughts of each character in every moment they live in. This also makes the characters deeply relatable, and each moment intimately tangible. 1Q84 has two protagonists that I feel like I've known most of my life, and I'm always curious to know what strangeness will happen next.
That all being said, 1Q84 can be hard to recommend, for two main reasons.
First, Murakami is achingly verbose. This book is over a thousand pages long, and the plot wouldn't miss much if it was half that length. If you want a story that's going to engage you and keep its momentum going, this is not the one for you. He doesn't write narratives as much as he writes experiences to linger in.
Second, Murakami is really horny. Several of his books get very erotic in very uncomfortable ways, and 1Q84 is one of them. Themes like incest, child sexuality, and other things you can't talk about on TV are very common. I really don't know what Murakami is trying to convey with these themes; it just makes me wonder, "why is this here?" Maybe that's a shortcoming on my part.
If that's all stuff you can stomach, his books offer brilliant escapism.
What's to Come
At the risk of falling victim to "shiny new idea syndrome," I want to keep working on Shards of the Machine God. I plan to write at least one more story for the newsletter, setting up a foundation for the new story and see what readers think of it. Coming up with new story ideas can be a little isolating without good rapport and feedback, so I want to test the waters with this new story while it's still in its early stages. I'm making more of an effort to see other authors in my own community, and just yesterday (at time of writing) I got some good feedback on The Storm. Without giving too much away, I plan for the next story to be called The Demon. The Angel, the Storm, and the Demon, forming a little triumvirate, something I can easily share and distribute for feedback.
The last thing I want to do is abandon Blood Families, and I'll be doing all I can to have a book cover or something to share with you all. I just want to create more, because what I really love to do is CREATE. Trying to make this a key part of my career and income is important to me, because having a job I love is a life goal of mine. Even if it's only part of my income-- if I can do this in addition to a job I can stomach, I'll be very happy.
I've been busy and I will continue to be, especially since I've been doing some job searching, but I want to keep delivering for the people who read my newsletters and want to keep up with me. Thanks for reading!
Most people don't get enough water during the day. Don't be most people.
We went to Nashville on a family vacation earlier this month! Loved the General Jackson riverboat dinner cruise!