it's been a minute
👋 howdy!
Welcome to the revived edition of hot yuzu tea, now hosted on Ghost.io. 😊
I'm a little awkward because it's been so long since I sent out a newsletter, but I figured now would be a good time to start sending out missives again.
Since April 2021, I:
- got a new job
- attended my first residency (KHN Center for the Arts)
- moved to a new city
- went through the sff awards cycle with my story collection
- did a tremendous amount of repair on my brain (I've discussed this with friends, and I think a lot of the struggle was coming out of a post-covid era and not knowing how to exist in the world anymore)
- attended a dream writers' conference
- taught at the Clarion Writers Workshop (!!!)
- got an agent—I'm extremely excited to be partnering with Kayla Lightner of Ayesha Pande Literary
- and, most shockingly to me, actually finished a novel draft
That's right. The novel draft happened. It was an insane amount of wrestling from start to finish, and it required almost all the brainpower I could spare after the usual deductions from dayjob and life. But I got through it—even if, until the end, I genuinely doubted I ever would.
I remember so many moments struggling through the novel where I thought I can't believe it's this hard! I talked about it with friends, scrounged around for advice, took copious notes that showed me the inside of my own brain. I got a lot of useful input. But a theme that came up constantly was you just have to do it yourself to figure it out.
I am sadly here to say that this was in fact true. So much of the learning came from simply, raggedly, doggedly, doing it.
That said: there were things I learned, and it was always my intention that if I ever did get to the end, I'd share as many things as I could with y'all. Which is why I'm back! I hope to send out a monthly newsletter (more if I feel like it?) that will hopefully provide useful insights for anyone struggling through a novel draft. It'll still contain my usual thoughts on publishing, craft, writing careers etc. And my own writing news, if I have any. As a teaser: next year I have a new novelette coming out—my first bit of new writing since 2021. (When I say I gave the novel all my available brainpower, I really do mean it.)
I also want to include reader questions in the newsletter. You can always email me directly, or if you'd prefer to be anonymous, send a query here.
What of the novel? Well—I don't want to say too much about it right now. I'm a bit superstitious like that. Let's just say it's going along its journey, and I would appreciate all good vibes and wishes into the new year, that it ends up on the best path to eventually reaching you guys. You'll be the first to hear if anything does happen.
End-of-year reflections have been a very useful tool for me over the last decade. It helps me articulate what I've learned and experienced, because life is so often a blur. It also forces me to clarify my intentions for the next year, so that I can focus on accomplishing a handful of meaningful things.
Here are some questions I plan to noodle on over the next few days:
- Where am I with my writing today? Where do I want to be a year from today?
- How would I rate my satisfaction with my writing practice/output/systems this year (from 1 to 10)? What would a 10 look like?
- What's working in my writing practice? What isn't?
- What am I most proud of?
- What are two writing-related goals I want to achieve next year? What must I do (or stop doing) to meet those goals?
Feel free to apply it to your own creative practices. It works for general categories like health, professional career, finances, etc too.
Some quick hits to round out the year:
- Favorite book: In Memoriam by Alice Winn
- Favorite song: Suzanne by Raye
- Favorite k-pop song: Butterflies by Hearts2Hearts
- Favorite new k-pop group: XLOV
- Coolest thing I saw: the Goshogowara Tachineputa floats
- Prettiest thing I saw: the Seceda ridgeline in the Dolomites
- Favorite exhibit: John Singer Sargent at the Met
- Favorite game: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (but honestly this was a shockingly good year for games; I loved Blue Prince, Hades 2, and Metaphor: ReFantazio)
My next newsletter will be about writing finances, specifically the $$ I've made from my short story collection. Look out for that in a few weeks. In the meantime you can peruse the newly migrated archives.
Here's to a peaceful and energizing start to 2026! 🪴
Thanks as always for reading! If you liked this post, feel free to share it with others, or sign up if you haven’t yet.
Also: If you're no longer interested in receiving this newsletter, please do unsubscribe. I'd hate for anyone to stay on because they're embarrassed to unsubscribe, or afraid I'd be offended. Seriously, I won't be mad or hurt if you do. I'm well aware of inbox fatigue and I know it's been a while since you granted me your email. But if you're happy to stay, of course I'm glad to have you!