Starting something new

Today is a good day to begin again.

My birthday month is January which makes it especially reflective for me. A good time for taking stock of the year behind and the year ahead. And as I get older, it’s also moderately existential. How am I spending my time and my energy? Am I prioritizing my goals and my dreams? Am I living the life I want to live?

This year, for the first time in my 30-something life, it snowed on my birthday and it snowed all day. Even though I have a January birthday and I grew up in New England, this has never happened. We also haven’t seen any real snow in Baltimore in two years, making this snowfall a special kind of blessing. The snow was gentle and insulating like a blanket. It whispered as it fell, shushing everything and turning the world into a blank white page. The snowstorm felt like a birthday gift from the universe. It said, “Begin again. Begin where you are. Begin now.”

And then I came inside from my snow walk and took a nap.

birthday snow and new mittens

Here I am, beginning the year with a re-commitment to my writing life. My goal for 2024 is to write. A lot. To get unstuck. To practice generative writing. To encourage active processing of the themes and narratives I’m chewing on.

This substack is an exercise in consistency, accountability, and community. I plan to write each week on Sunday and share my process with you.

And for anyone who knows me well, you know I’m also an enormous admirer of the writer, Ursula K. Le Guin, and her immaculate world-building. I’ve named this substack as a nod to her, a creative ancestor of mine who inspires me on the daily.

What I’m writing

I’m working on a novel. At least, I think it’s a novel. I’ve been marinating on it since 2019 and writing it since this summer. I’m re-setting my morning writing routine with the help of the Ungodly Hour Writing Club, conveniently based in the East Coast time zone (unlike the Morning Writing Club, which may be helpful for West Coast folks). Trying to find a balance between writing and morning movement with Range, my other most-mornings ritual.

One thing that felt helpful that I learned from Rebecca Makkai’s Novelist Toolkit (an online course offered from StoryStudio Chicago) was to draw a character web. I did this yesterday and could see, all in one page, who my current characters are and where there are gaps, especially in the role of antagonists. I’ve felt a little stuck in “where do I take this story next” because I don’t have it mapped out fully and the story is still embryonic in its development, but this exercise helped me recognize some of the structural barriers to next steps.

Looking ahead, I’m setting up markers for myself to keep my writing practice consistent. I’ll be participating in the Spring Mini 1000 from March 2-7, organized by Jami Attenberg of Craft Talk who just launched a book! It wraps right before a writing residency I have from March 8-10. More on that soon.

What I read

Finished The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang. This is grim-dark fantasy (very grim, very dark) at its best with a strong thread of Chinese war history woven through the characters and plot. I don’t know much about Chinese history, so found myself googling a lot of the characters and plot themes to better understand their real-life proxy. This is good on audiobook.

Last Night in Nuuk by Niviaq Korneliussen was a raw, compulsive read of a book from a bold voice, set in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland. Reminded me a bit of Trainspotting. Queerness, coming of age, coming out, lots of drinking and sex and post-colonial trauma. But also quite beautiful and circular in its storytelling structure.

What I’m reading

I picked up two books in the last week that read as though they were written to be read together. They’re about human and environmental apocalypse, endings, beginnings, colonizing space, queerness, and being human.

I started Scatter, Adapt, and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction by Annalee Newitz, a science reporter and sci-fi fiction writer. I read their sci-fi robot novel, Autonomous, a couple of years ago and enjoyed being in their brain. This one has been on my to-read list for awhile and after reading the introduction, instantly regretted not choosing it as a book club pick. Human survival against the odds! Colonizing space! This would have led to a spicy debate, the thing and good book club needs. This is good on audiobook.

The Stone Gods by Jeanette Winterson is about a dying earth and the humans (and one robot) sent to a late Paleozoic planet to destroy the megafauna and colonize it for future civilization. It’s a bit uncanny to read about queer robot love from Winterson after reading about queer robot love in Newitz’s Autonomous and reading more of her work now. I found this treasure at Gay is the Word bookshop in London 5 minutes before they closed! This is my second Winterson; I read Written on the Body right after college. I don’t know what’s taken me so long to read more of her work. She’s dark, relevant, and very, very funny. I’ve bookmarked Night Side of the River, published last year, for spooky season reading.

Also started Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq. After finishing Last Night in Nuuk, I want to plow through the other Inuit and Arctic indigenous texts on my shelves.

Other helpful things

• We’re all watching True Detective: Night Country, right?? I’m curious to know more behind the Alaskan and indigenous consulting that went into the writing, anyone read anything on this? Anna Lambe is already getting more work, lfg!

• Got my latest issue of Inuit Art Quarterly in the mail :)

• These slippers have been keeping my feet warm during 5:30 am writing sessions.

That’s it, for now! Thanks for being here.