OMG thank you @witchywonderer.bsky.social, that's an amazing article online.ucpress.edu/sfs/article/...

Catching up with @pqwrites.bsky.social and Coco, and gossiping about... I mean discussing publishing 🫢

I haven’t been able to write much this year, but one thing I’m proud of is working with my mom to translate/edit a book on Vipassana meditation by the Venerable Khippapañño Kim Trieu. It’s a great, practical guide grounded in Buddhist philosophy. Check it out! thichcathienvien.net/en/ebook-the...

Hey, Fire Heart is on Netgallery until October 11! www.netgalley.com/catalog/book...

The lone mooncake I was able to steal from my work pantry because nobody got budget to send me mooncakes for Mid Autumn Festival this year. 🥲

Me rocking my 4 Immortals of VN shirt with @nghivo.bsky.social, my literary hero & the 5th immortal to me! Thank you for being so gracious with my fanboying. Your writing helped me believe that my Viet-American ass has a chance to write & meeting you was a highlight of the Nebulas. 🙏

Had such a great time at the Nebulas in Pasadena last weekend. Thanks to all the cool, amazing people who let lil’ ol’ me hang out with them & congrats to all the finalists. You inspire me to keep pushing my own writing forward & I can’t wait to see you again. ♥️

Finally back in NYC! Huge congrats to all the Nebula winners! Beyond honored to have spent time with you all 🙏🏻 Special thanks to @pqwrites.bsky.social @aijiang.bsky.social @rachaelkjones.bsky.social and all the amazing writers who helped this introvert from feeling overwhelmed at her first con 💙

One of the most exciting things about going back to the U.S. for me is getting a chance to experience all the Cheetos innovation. New packaging?? Xxtra Flamin’ Hot?? Take my money!! 🤤

Back in California & jetlagged af for @sfwa.bsky.social’s #Nebulas2024! 💀 Lmk if you want to meet up! I’ll also be on one panel on Friday 6/7, 3-4pm: “The Rise of South & Southeast Asian SFF”, with @rajeevwriter.bsky.social & Avani Gadani, moderated by S.B. Divya. Hope to see some of you there!

“He taps its gleaming hull and the ship hurtles through the bedroom... dripping on rainy days, sizzling on the hot ones. Alberto calls it Offy.” Love this @diabolicalplots.com story by @renanbernardo.bsky.social about a child & their ship. A moving coming-of-age & beyond story full of love & life.

Pssst. Slay and Slay Again!, an anthology containing my first published story is now available for digital preorders at Amazon. If the ‘zon isn’t your thing, check out the quotes thread as more options become available. Official release date is July 31st!

This is ridiculous. This press is asking for "first right of refusal for adaptation rights (film, graphic novels, etc.) of the work for a period of 3 years from the signing date." THREE YEARS. Run, don't submit, don't sign this. Such a bad thing for writers. www.emberletterpress.com/submissions

“The ink traces its own black veins, ancient circuits across a new body, your body.” Tense and unsettling flash by @angelaliu.bsky.social in @uncannymagazine.bsky.social about making deadly supernatural deals. Love the gorgeous prose that viscerally seeps into you like the namesake cursed ink. ✍️

If you also feel existential anxiety, it's okay to put your phone down and do something nice instead. Your anxiety makes literally no difference in whatever happens. Your focus and dread is not a magic wand that will stop bad things from being worse if you just keep staring at bad things.

Get a whole-ass jug of this insane but surprisingly smooth 女儿红 (red daughter) drink at Magazine 63, the coolest speakeasy in Penang, to feel like a wandering wuxia warrior. ⚔️

“My son tells me that there’s a man in the house, someone he hears well after the lights are out…” A brilliant flash by @thomasha.bsky.social in @lightspeedmagazine.com about a strange haunting passed through generations. Loved its unnerving creepiness juxtaposed with parental tenderness.

“She could never turn down chasing a pretty, expensive thing.” This is a fun, fast-paced heist story with a sky-race thrown in, full of likable thieves resisting their better judgments. A charming @clarkesworldmagazine.com story by @reasie.bsky.social I really enjoyed. 💙

Visited Kek Lok Si, the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia. The Buddhist nerd in me finds it fascinating that though the temple’s name means supreme bliss in Hokkien and is a reference to the pure land of the buddha Amitabha, its defining feature is the giant statue of the bodhisattva Guanyin. 🤔

“Once there lived a princess who was a girl, a corpse, a slippery amphibial nymph.” What a gorgeously written & twisted anti-fairy tale by @emelkrishnan.bsky.social in Strange Horizons about a princess who’s not who she seems escaping her forced marriage in a shocking way. 🔥

Monkey King sightings in Penang. I’m only mildly surprised that a purely fictional (vs mythological) character gets whole ass temples/shrines devoted to him.

Accurate representation of my TBR: lots of wine and food, but never made it to chapter 2.

Discovered that there’s a shrine to the local Chinese tutelary deity (a sort of very local neighborhood god) in the back of Tanjong Pagar plaza. I lit incense & prayed for inspiration for my next story & for my enemies to always hit every red light on their way to work.

“You’re sending me thoughts and you’re insulting me? And…and yet you want me to clean your belly?” This line about sums up “Copper”, a short & charming @interzone.press story about a feisty robot talking to their human by @jendiagammon.bsky.social that left me smiling. Give it your consideration!

“The soups we sometimes salt with our tears are too bland for the guests’ tastes. Meals we top with our insomnia are not energizing enough.” Haunting @interzone.press story about a strange hotel that tugs at you familiarily until you realize w/ horror what it’s about. Classic @aijiang.bsky.social!

Yo! Congratulations Vajra! A well deserved win. Its an amazing shortlist and I'm proud to have even been on it with you, B. Pladek, Emma Törzs, and Juhani Karila. Wonderful indeed.

If you are a member of the CSFFA (Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association) nominations are open. There's lots of great work on the eligibility lists. Skin Thief: Stories is also eligible for best related work. :) You can toss a nom to your goth perhaps, if you so choose.

Sunday afternoon Riesling and Pringles tasting at @tanvisingh.bsky.social’s suggestion because I hold her opinions both literary and otherwise in such high esteem.

I feel so seen. 🥃

Surprisingly little-known fact: there’s a food court under the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple in Singapore that serves delicious, affordable vegetarian food. Only SGD$4 for this laksa that actually uses fresh coconut milk for the broth, unlike most vegetarian restaurants.

“There is always a social contract. Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you even get to read it.” Loved Signal\Tracer, a cyberpunk novella about a tired agent investigating election fraud in a virtual Singapore. The slick noir voice & contrast between decaying real & living virtual worlds is perfect. 🙌

“First you kids said there was this super virus sweeping the planet. Now you say there are evil doors everywhere.” Loved this story! Using a horror conceit (an evil door chasing the protagonist) to evoke/explore the fear & confusion of the pandemic hit me hard & is spec-fic at its best. 🙌

“But when all you had was a sword, every problem looked like a neck.” Ebony Gate by @juliavee.bsky.social & Ken Bebelle is a blast! “Asian female John Wick with dragon magic” doesn’t do justice to the rich, Asian-centered world & characters, & I LOVE magical SF! My Asian-American heart is smitten.😍

With the Nebula Awards nominations closing soon, a little reminder of my 2023 eligible work, if you enjoyed any of it! 🌠👾🙏

The Vietnamese character randomly busting out a bottle of Hennessy in @juliavee.bsky.social & Ken Bebelle’s Ebony Gate is one of the most realistic Viet-American depictions I have seen in SFF. 😂

The Saint of Bright Doors by @vajra.me is such a unique & great book about the son of a messiah he was raised to kill. I was sucked in by the complex & realistic post-colonial but still oppressive world, fleshed out characters finding their way in it, & really 🤯 use of the narrator’s POV. 🔥

Nebula noms are closing soon! If you're still reading, I'd love for you to consider "The Sound of Children Screaming," now a brand-new Stoker Award finalist! 💜 www.nightmare-magazine.com/fiction/the-...

“The words left his lips like rain… like the breaking of light, for how does one mend light that shatters?” Wonderful story by @somtoihezue.bsky.social & @penprince.bsky.social about a son leaving his people to solve supernatural murders in a high-tech city. One of many amazing Sauútiverse stories.

“I see a novice disregarding the wisdom of one of the most learned witches in history. I see the fine art of spellweaving shoved into a window box.” A short, charming flash piece about a novice witch trying to shortcut her way through an exam that left a smile on my face. Worth the quick read!

“[T]he joy of remembering Kethel is all that keeps Station’s nightmares from breaking through…” Amazing @clarkesworldmagazine.com story by @risawolf.bsky.social about a station testing travelers with its human partner while hiding a dark secret. Loved the protags’ relationship & dramatic reveal. 😱

Hey, if you are an early-path sff writer of East Asian or Southeast Asian heritage and looking for a mentor/someone to talk to, I am here.

The one thing I want to say about the Hugo emails is that Three-Body Problem is way more "critical" of China than Babel. 🤷‍♂️

Painted dragons at our team CNY activity. Yes I purposely made mine look like a devil and then imprisoned it in a cup for the next foolish mortal to free. 😈

“So when I found her drowning, I took her. I wish to the gods I hadn’t.” And to follow Valentine’s read this delicious story by @leahning.bsky.social in The Dark about a mother hunting her daughter’s killer from the monster’s POV. Gorgeous, dark prose that evokes the characters’ pain so well.

For the last few weeks I've been working with Chris Barkley @cmzhang42.bsky.social of @file770.bsky.social on a report about censorship in the 2023 Hugo Awards. Leaked emails and files indicate authors and works deemed “not eligible” for the awards were removed due to political considerations. 1/3

“Don’t waste your moments. They’re all there is, and only once.” For Valentine’s Day, please read this story by @nassos.bsky.social in @uncannymagazine.bsky.social about letting go of the past on a haunted generation ship, that captures so well the wistful longing of love and heartbreak. 💔

“Isn’t silence a sort of haunting?” Lovely coming-of-age story by @japrenticewrites.bsky.social in @bcsmagazine.bsky.social about a tree that transfers the memories of its people. Loved the juxtaposition of the 2 very different characters taking different lessons/paths after their big plot moment.

“When the Sea came to our village, she was an old woman.” Really enjoyed “The Day of the Sea” by @jenniferhudak.bsky.social in F&SF. The Sea comes to a village that struggles to adapt to the changes she brings. Thought-provoking exploration of what we can/can’t do when nature comes for us.

this cat is a young man in a 1930s film, gazing confidently towards his future, unaware that he is the protagonist and that the film will shortly happen to him

If you are an indie book store, particularly one in Toronto/Ontario or Canada and would like to carry copies of Skin Thief, you should let me know. I mean, people seem to like the book, and you can support a queer, Trini-Canadian, writer along with Neon Hemlock, a very small independent queer press.