May 2024 - bugs in the system
May 2024 - bugs in the system
Taking a look at the old stuff
Hi Everyone,
Have you ever stumbled upon something you made years ago and are surprised how much you liked it?
I keep stumbling upon the image I drew above, and I still really like it. I drew it more than a decade ago now using markers. Every time I see it, I think I should do more ‘bugs in the circuits’ style drawings.
It’s not writing, but seeing it makes me wonder about some of my older stories. You see, I deliberately don’t re-read them—and I have more than what are listed at the bottom of this email. I have several fully completed novels that no one but me have ever laid eyes on, I have binders of partial stories and even some of short fiction. There could be some good stuff in there, but I’m sure some with make me cringe. Someday, I need to work up the resolve to take a look.
Something Awesome
These sculptures by Spencer Hansen are charming, alien and fantastic.
What I’ve been reading
I just finished The First Binding by R.R. Virdi—it is a very long book and it is excellent. It’s fantasy with a Silk Road vibe and different from anything I’ve read before. I won’t spoil anything because I highly recommend it (and I’m already looking forward to when the next one comes out—this fall, I think).
Since I’m planning on watching this in the near future:
I just started The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (translated by Ken Liu)—because if I don’t read the book first, I probably won’t. I’ll have more to say on it in a future newsletter.
In non-fiction, I’m working through Never Say You Can’t Survive by Charlie Jane Anders, which is my kind of writing book. She’s giving good advice on writing topics, but nothing is dogmatic—I’m not a fan of writing books that say anything along the lines of ‘you must do a certain thing to be able to call yourself a writer.’
Cheers,
Jeannette
Check out my friend’s new release:
As the Second American Civil War wanes, Mary the Exoputian awaits her chance to contact the Folbulae—a highly advanced species of extraterrestrial, only to be hunted down by the dictator of the Sovereign States of America, Vladimir Booth.
With rising tides and thawing tundra, the Exoputians—a new species of human genetically created to live in Space and communicate with the Folbulae, land in the Republic of Texas following a missile strike on their space station. Mary and the other Exoputians learn of the lies their progenitor taught them, training the space-bred crew to use their novel communication to cure the planet they’d never set foot on. As Mary and the others road trip through racially segregated America, they encounter multiple attempts on their lives to follow through with their once-mission of saving the planet from the climate crisis.
Discover with Mary what’s worth saving on a planet prepared to destroy her entire species.
Get your copy here.
And don’t forget to fill up your e-reader with these:
My Books:
Hope is the Thing With Feathers - direct or from the shops
Encoded Orbits
Fractured Orbits - direct or from the shops
The Alien Algorithm - direct or from the shops
Subject 34 - direct or from the shops
Settler Chronicles
Day 115 on an Alien World - direct or from the shops
Far Side of the Moon - direct or from the shops
Abandoned Ships, Hijacked Minds - direct or from the shops
The Alien Artifact - direct or from the shops
And if you aren’t already a subscriber, what’s stopping you (especially if you have read this far)?