these deathless shores is out!

Hello!

I think this is the shortest interval I’ve ever had between newsletters (one month). Please clap.

Anyway.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about arrivals.

This was kickstarted—or perhaps just given shape—by Turning to Story’s episode on the arrival fallacy (shout-out to Emily Miner for the rec!), which gently probes the ways we convince ourselves that if we just got that starred review / award nomination / spot on the New York Times bestseller list / Netflix deal / etc. we would have made it. It was an interesting exercise in examining my own fallacies, both the ones I have now and the ones I used to hold, and reflecting on how far I’ve come.

But I’ve also been thinking about Bach.

In high school, I had a violin teacher (if you’re reading this, hi Scott!) who took my relative lack of intuition around non-verbal music and, well, made me put it into words. Naming the emotions I meant to evoke in each chord, the shift of mood brought by the development section, the heart-squeeze that came with a shift up the D-string.

And something I was always working on was arriving.

Picking out which part of the phrase—or the movement as a whole—was its crux, its emotional core. The part where the listener would go oh, here we go. All the music was already there—on the page, and in my head—but articulating the main push, translating it into sound and feeling, that was a choice.

As you probably know by now, if you’re reading this newsletter, the process of publishing (not to mention writing) a book is usually very, very long. I received the initial email that These Deathless Shores was going to acquisition in the fall of 2022; since then, there have been moments of aching wonder and shrieking holyshitwhatjusthappened and giggling and kicking my little feet, but also ones that made me feel—[clears throat, switches to British accent] in ways I’m not at liberty to say. (Unless I get a seven-figure book deal and a penthouse apartment in London, in which case I might be persuaded.) It has been a series of arrivals already, with hopefully more to come, and so this one feels, on my side, just like a slightly more weighted thing on a, uh, somewhat lumpy weighted blanket.

How are you celebrating? people have asked me on various occasions, like I don’t already treat ice cream like a food group, and my single wrung-out brain cell asks, tearfully, more ice cream? but sometimes that just causes unpleasant digestive consequences and/or malnutrition. Or…more books? except I’m freshly traumatized from a) moving and b) the USPS losing three of my boxes of books, one of which had my first edition double-signed copy of This is How You Lose the Time War, and my wallet is giving me a hard side-eye again.

Which is to say: I’m not exactly familiar with, or good at, choosing to arrive. Maybe this newsletter is part of it, the way some linguistic utterances, by being spoken, make something true (mumblemumble Ted Chiang Arrival? ba dum tss?). Maybe it’s a nap, even though I’ve taken so, so many naps these past few years (I am so sleepy fr). Maybe it really is more ice cream this time.

Anyway, These Deathless Shores is out now!

Upcoming events &c.:

• Thursday, July 11, 5:30 p.m. EST—These Deathless Shores meet and greet / signing, Yu and Me Bookstore, New York, NY

  • Now includes a short reading!

• Saturday–Sunday, July 13–14—ReaderCon, Boston, MA

  • To clarify, I’m not on any panels, just chillin. I can watch you do karaoke though.

• Thursday, July 16—Reddit r/fantasy AMA, Virtual

• Saturday, September 7, around 7 p.m. EST—Charm City Spec reading, Bird in Hand Cafe, Baltimore, MD

Read/watched/listened

• The Dark We Know by Wen-yi Lee—I’m kind of obsessed with this book actually. feral prose + exvangelical angst + the grief of growing up + a devastating loneliness and healing from it. chewing glass that there isn’t more Tumblr content, even though it, yknow, doesn’t come out until August (preorder here)

• The Water Outlaws by S. L. Huang—I’ve been kind of daunted by the idea of ancient Chinese retellings, but this was SO MUCH FUN. also make kǒu pì happen. yes my inner child is twelve.

• Chappell Roan Tonight Show performance—now there’s an arrival

• The Scarlet Opera’s new EP drops on 7/12. I am ready to be destroyed

Finally, check out this proof that humans have been making Frog for thousands of years, courtesy of the Ackland Art Museum:

Also this Whole Unit, ibid:

Thanks so much for reading! See you in five months (kidding…unless 👀👉👈)