celebrating one year on substack!
plus life updates, book updates, short story updates, and more!
hi everyone!!
hope you’re all doing well and taking care of yourselves. i’ve been waiting a bit to send out this letter because today marks one year since i sent out my first newsletter on substack (which is also the day i finished the first draft of my novel)!
to start with novel thoughts—i can’t believe it’s already been a year since then (but also can’t believe it’s only been a year) and i’m so excited for what will come next. in the past year, i worked a lot on my plot and characters, finished a second draft, and have begun planning the third. i’ve also worked a lot to begin to establish myself as an author, and done a lot of research into the publishing world. lately i’ve been taking a break from my big project to focus on writing short stories, which has only made me more excited to fully come back and start that third draft. whatever happens to this story in its finished state, i absolutely love it, and i’ve loved working on it, and all the things i’ve learned from working on it for so long. i’m looking forward to spending another year (and maybe another after that) working on this story!
now for one year on substack! i love writing on here—i think it’s so so so fun. i love having an outlet for my thoughts, and an “official” spot for me to exist as a writer. i love having a place to post original works. i love getting to just jot down some thoughts like this in a blog post and send it out to you to read! i’m very excited to hopefully spend many more years with you all here on substack.
in between novel edits and grad school work i’m still trying to send out short stories at least once a month to literary journals/anthologies/etc! since my last letter, i sent out three short stories and three poems! the poems went to my university’s literary magazine, and i should hear back about whether they got accepted by the end of the semester. one of the short stories was already rejected (“blame the sun”, which i posted here last month!) but i’m still waiting to hear back about the other two. i’m also working on a short story about futuristic librarians (very relevant to my personal life, funnily enough) and revisiting an old pirate-themed one.
in other news, grad school has kept me very very busy. i’ve been learning a lot about information, human behavior, and also how to code websites (a useful skill, but an incredibly infuriating one for someone like me whose brain simply doesn’t work like that). i’ve created information models, a website about queer poets, and even a fully edited podcast episode for my classes. i’ve definitely been enjoying being a student again, though the workload sometimes takes up all my time (and energy) and i don’t often have as much time to write as i used to.
i also love getting to live independently again, and getting to live in such a walkable/public transit-friendly area! i try to explore new places, try new restaurants, visit museums, and whatever else i can find as often as possible. so far i’ve gone to my university’s art museum, my university’s geology museum, the city’s oktoberfest, and a few more things, some on my own and some with friends!!
since my last letter, i also got my first tattoo (the big dipper, on my arm!), saw the northern lights in person, had an over the garden wall screening party with my friends, and finally got officially diagnosed with anxiety!
some songs i’ve been listening to recently:
you belong to me - patsy cline
send me photographs and souvenirs
just remember when a dream appears
you belong to me
red wine & wilde - bastille
we get high, so histories repeat (stay the night)
parallel dimensions in these midnight hours wе seek
but back to this one-sided love of ours
the giver - chappell roan
i know the boys may need a map
but i can close my eyes
and have you wrapped around my fingers like that
wild heart - towa bird
you're a bullet in my chest
gravel in my throat and
sweetness on my tongue
books i’ve read recently:
first, back in mid-september, i read somewhere beyond the sea by tj klune! i’d been looking forward to this book for about a year now, as it is a sequel to one of my favorites, the house in the cerulean sea, and was not disappointed! this book maintained the sweetness and warmth that kept me coming back to house in the cerulean sea while keeping an engaging plot. the messaging of this book was very clear, and i really appreciated the care with which it was written. i loved the needle drops, and also loved the intense loathing towards jk rowling because fuck her! trans lives matter! anyway, it was very heartwarming to get to read about these characters again, and though it wasn’t quite as good as the first, i really enjoyed it.
next i read a classic sci-fi novel, the left hand of darkness by ursula k. le guin. admittedly i struggled a bit through the heavy sci-fi jargon in the first few chapters, but by the end i was thoroughly engaged and then absolutely devastated. though i won’t spoil the ending (and i encourage you all to go out and read this book yourselves!) i think my thoughts can be summed up by the fact that i finished this book at 1 am and then cried. also it goes without saying but this book is insanely progressive for the time it was written and does crazy things with gender and sexuality that i will be thinking about for the rest of my life. everyone go read this book.
after that i read wrath of the triple goddess by rick riordan, the second book in the new percy jackson series! i’m more reading this series out of nostalgia than anything else, but genuinely enjoyed this latest book! i honestly think it was better than the first in this new sequel series. i liked how contained the story was, the fun halloween theme, and how entertaining and engaging the plot was, even though these books are much more low-stakes than the original series. all in all it was a fun and silly read! i look forward to the third & final book in the series.
next, i read this ravenous fate by hayley dennings. as i’m currently very in the mood for vampires, and am always in the mood for lesbians, i went into this with an open mind and did my very best to like it. there were a few things i liked! the author took the attitudes of the time period regarding race and sexuality very seriously, which i appreciated. the characters were diverse and for the most part well-fleshed-out. unfortunately this book was once again a case of me reading a YA book when i should know better. as the book went on, the two love interests became increasingly on-again off-again to the point where it felt like all they did was disagree fight make up and repeat. as this story was marketed as enemies to lovers, there were multiple points where i thought oh! okay! they’ve done it, and they’re finally on the same page, and they’re not going to fight anymore. only for one of them to betray the other, they fought, and then made up two pages later (i really need to stop reading YA). the constant back and forth in the relationship really ruined the last half of the book for me, as i felt i couldn’t concentrate on the plot because i was too busy trying to keep track of if the main characters hated each other or not. anyway i really wanted to like this book, and i wish i had!! the representation was very well-done, but the plot and character choices were just not appealing to me.
last, i read memnoch the devil by anne rice! this is the fifth vampire chronicles book i read and it definitely made some… interesting choices! i won’t go into too much detail, but i will say, the entire plot aside, i enjoyed seeing some of my favorite characters from the series again, and had a lot of fun using tabs to mark certain lines/scenes as i was reading on a copy i owned, not a library copy! anyway, i’m taking a short break before the next one (the vampire armand!), which i am really looking forward to.
currently, i’m reading a sweet sting of salt by rose sutherland! i just started a few days ago, but this is a lesbian book about selkies, so you guys can probably guess how much i’m already enjoying myself. i’m also rereading under the whispering door by tj klune.
on a more serious note, these past few weeks have been difficult. it’s incredibly disappointing to see this country choose racism and misogyny and homophobia/transphobia over and over again, and it can be hard to cope with. i’ve been struggling to comprehend what my future may look like now as a woman and a lesbian, and what the lives of other marginalized groups in this country will look like. i hope you’re all taking care of yourselves and your loved ones however you can.
thank you for reading, and see you soon,
becca ❤️
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