2025 Writing Log, Part 39
Oct. 4th, 2025 08:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynling- My first post for Final Fantasy VI Celebration 2025 is on Tumblr (here). “A Dark and Stormy Night” is a 600-word piece of flash fiction about the opening of the game as narrated from the perspective of Wedge, who comes to terms with the realization that he’s been sent on a suicide mission.
- I’m back to work on Chapter 20 on The Demon King, an original fantasy novel. My plan for the fall semester (when I have very little time or energy) was to write a paragraph a day. That didn’t work so well last week, so now I’m aiming for a sentence a day. Which is fine actually! It doesn’t matter how slowly I write this thing as long as it gets done. If nothing else, it’s a pleasure to check in with these characters every morning.
- I wrote two original pieces of flash fiction for my Ruins zine. The first, “Invasive Species,” is about East Asian wisteria gradually traveling down the postapocalyptic East Coast until it meets North American wisteria, at which point the two crosspollinate to form a hybrid that starts spreading westward. The second, “Pillars,” is about the quality of the silence in an abandoned dentist’s office under a highway overpass.
- I saw a post on Instagram from Bloodletter Magazine (here) announcing a flash fiction contest on the theme of “liminality,” so I edited the “Dreamcore Limited” story I wrote for my Ruins zine down to 250 words, created a set of graphics, and posted it as a submission (here). I tried not to think about this too hard, and I really enjoyed the process. I should make more of these, maybe.
- Paper copies of my In Praise of Moss zine have been selling quicker than I can afford to print them, so I pitched the zine to Microcosm Press. This is a long shot, but fingers crossed.
- I queried my novel An Unfound Door with two agents this week. I don’t like this, but I’m doing my best to keep going. If nothing else, I maintain that it’s a very good novel.
- My most recent review for Comics Beat is about Witchcraft, a graphic novel by Sole Otero, an internationally famous Argentinian comic artist whose style has developed in a cool and unique way during the past decade. Witchcraft is a massive book, but it’s an incredible page turner, and I feel very honored to be able to write about it. My review is on the website (here).
- This week’s post on my book review blog (here) is about Udon: Unknown Dog of Nobody, a short story that follows three sisters and their adopted dog into adulthood. The author, Haneko Takayama, writes interesting ecofiction about domestic animals, and I’ve been waiting for her work to be translated for years. Her writing tends to be on the literary side of the spectrum, but this novella is soft and sweet and accessible, and it’s a very nice introduction to the author.
- I finally finished a project I’ve been working on for the past month, a slideshow for a seminar presentation I’m scheduled to give in a few weeks to a group of local Philadelphia K-12 teachers on the general topic of manga. It’s a massive beast of a PowerPoint that required a ton of thought and care, and I’m glad it’s finally squared away. This coming week I’ll try to make a summary handout that will hopefully be useful as a quick and accessible reference.
- I drew Sonia from Tears of the Kingdom and posted the illustration on Tumblr (here). There are many, many mistakes in this piece! But that’s okay. This was way outside my comfort zone, and I think I did a decent job, all things considered.
I’ve been doing a fair bit of exhaustion management this week. Like: “I know you want to do X and Y and Z, but it’s okay if you only do X.” Here’s another thing I keep saying to myself: “You’re tired and the world is terrible, but it’s cool that you’re making art anyway.”
How incredible that all of us are still making art. Much love to everyone reading this. 🧡
- I’m back to work on Chapter 20 on The Demon King, an original fantasy novel. My plan for the fall semester (when I have very little time or energy) was to write a paragraph a day. That didn’t work so well last week, so now I’m aiming for a sentence a day. Which is fine actually! It doesn’t matter how slowly I write this thing as long as it gets done. If nothing else, it’s a pleasure to check in with these characters every morning.
- I wrote two original pieces of flash fiction for my Ruins zine. The first, “Invasive Species,” is about East Asian wisteria gradually traveling down the postapocalyptic East Coast until it meets North American wisteria, at which point the two crosspollinate to form a hybrid that starts spreading westward. The second, “Pillars,” is about the quality of the silence in an abandoned dentist’s office under a highway overpass.
- I saw a post on Instagram from Bloodletter Magazine (here) announcing a flash fiction contest on the theme of “liminality,” so I edited the “Dreamcore Limited” story I wrote for my Ruins zine down to 250 words, created a set of graphics, and posted it as a submission (here). I tried not to think about this too hard, and I really enjoyed the process. I should make more of these, maybe.
- Paper copies of my In Praise of Moss zine have been selling quicker than I can afford to print them, so I pitched the zine to Microcosm Press. This is a long shot, but fingers crossed.
- I queried my novel An Unfound Door with two agents this week. I don’t like this, but I’m doing my best to keep going. If nothing else, I maintain that it’s a very good novel.
- My most recent review for Comics Beat is about Witchcraft, a graphic novel by Sole Otero, an internationally famous Argentinian comic artist whose style has developed in a cool and unique way during the past decade. Witchcraft is a massive book, but it’s an incredible page turner, and I feel very honored to be able to write about it. My review is on the website (here).
- This week’s post on my book review blog (here) is about Udon: Unknown Dog of Nobody, a short story that follows three sisters and their adopted dog into adulthood. The author, Haneko Takayama, writes interesting ecofiction about domestic animals, and I’ve been waiting for her work to be translated for years. Her writing tends to be on the literary side of the spectrum, but this novella is soft and sweet and accessible, and it’s a very nice introduction to the author.
- I finally finished a project I’ve been working on for the past month, a slideshow for a seminar presentation I’m scheduled to give in a few weeks to a group of local Philadelphia K-12 teachers on the general topic of manga. It’s a massive beast of a PowerPoint that required a ton of thought and care, and I’m glad it’s finally squared away. This coming week I’ll try to make a summary handout that will hopefully be useful as a quick and accessible reference.
- I drew Sonia from Tears of the Kingdom and posted the illustration on Tumblr (here). There are many, many mistakes in this piece! But that’s okay. This was way outside my comfort zone, and I think I did a decent job, all things considered.
I’ve been doing a fair bit of exhaustion management this week. Like: “I know you want to do X and Y and Z, but it’s okay if you only do X.” Here’s another thing I keep saying to myself: “You’re tired and the world is terrible, but it’s cool that you’re making art anyway.”
How incredible that all of us are still making art. Much love to everyone reading this. 🧡
