Hello!

I had an entire mini essay outlined for today before I remembered that I'm supposed to focus on reading! You, readers!

I discussed my plans for the next (and hopefully final) round of feedback on my manuscript in the last newsletter. I'm pleased to report that I'm on pace to finish my current edits on schedule, which means that the manuscript will be ready for another round of reading around mid-July. It also means that I can officially share the link to sign up for what I'm calling the Open Beta.

For this round I encourage any and all readers to consider signing up! There are, however, a couple of caveats and/or things to consider. I included these last time, but I want to repeat them here for emphasis:

• First: The draft you'll read will not be "final". I'll make tweaks based on this round of feedback. If I'm lucky enough to get an agent and publisher, I'll almost certainly be asked to change even more. If you'd prefer to only read the final, polished product at the end of the process, I'd recommend holding off for now.
• Second: This round of reading is not meant to be intensive and in-depth like the first one. I'll still welcome any and all feedback, of course, but this time I'm interested in general impressions based on a typical, casual reading experience—so maybe a few notes here and there (if that!) and a short call or email at the end to share your thoughts.
• Third: I'm asking for a not insignificant amount of your time! The version of the manuscript you'll receive will take the average person 10-12 hours to read, and you can probably tack on another 30-60 minutes for writing or talking through your feedback.

Lastly, I want to clarify that while this is meant to be a more casual reading experience, it would still really help me if folks are able to finish reading in a window of roughly six weeks. My hope is to begin querying agents in September, so having feedback by the end of August would be ideal. If you'd like to read and that isn't possible, for whatever reason, I'd encourage you to fill out the form and we can work something out.

If you're interested, please click the link—and if you have any questions, comments, or concerns, don't hesitate to reach out. I'm excited to share the story with more people—thank you, as always, for your support!

☕ Project Curses

As I said in the introduction, my targeted edits (i.e., Draft 3.1) are moving along swimmingly. This phase essentially entails going down a giant checklist (seriously; I put way too much on there) and making sure that everything that should be present in the story is both accounted for and consistent throughout. It's a bit tedious—this is probably the least creative part of my creative process—but it's also satisfying to see it all click into place. I'm about 60% through Draft 3.1 and on track to start Draft 3.2 by my target date of 7/6. (An aside: I've gotten so much better at making reasonable/feasible timelines. Go me!).

I'd be remiss not to include the link to the Open Beta form one more time. Thanks again for your consideration!

📚 Reading

​The Secret History by Donna Tartt | Following the recent-ish dark academia resurgence that swept across the internet (and the zeitgeist!), Tartt's 1992 what-if-rich-kids-did-a-Greek-tragedy campus novel surged in popularity. I'm a bit late to the party, but after reading it I can see why it caused such a stir for a second time, more than 30 years after its original publication: it is, in many ways, the pinnacle of that aesthetic. An idyllic, secluded university; an intelligent, often pretentious, morally ambiguous narrator; a mystery-in-reverse composed of shocking and unsettling events; class commentary and social climbing; constant literary allusions; a deep yearning to uncover something deeper and more real from life, the universe, everything. All of this is carried along by Tartt's beautiful prose and impressive command of style. It is, put simply, a very subtly unsettling and very good book. It's not perfect—I have plenty of nitpicks, and I'm inclined to be hard on it because it's so well written—but regardless, it's a story that will be moldering and sprouting in the back of my brain for a long, long time.

🎧 Listening

​

"The Wave" by Jungle | We live in fraught times, when AI and tech billionaires and industry compression increasingly make us fear what the future will look like for art and artists, and that, frankly, sucks—but when I see an example of humans making art that is unquestionably, incredibly, vibrantly human, it gives me hope in spite of that fear. This is that. I've shared Jungle's music here before, which is fantastic in and of itself—but their videos are what really set them apart. The music, choreography, costuming, set design, direction, cinematography, storytelling, and so much more are all in perfect step, coming together to make something that makes me smile for the sheer pleasure of seeing that it exists. It's a little Gesamtkunstwerk—a piece of art that contains all other art forms—and I think the world is a bit brighter for it. This is the first video out from their new album, which will release in August. If you, like me, can't wait until then for more, you can watch their last album-as-a-motion-picture, Volcano, any time!

As most of you know, I'm pretty rigorous about tracking data on my writing. There are a bunch of reasons for this, but mostly it's that watching number go up make brain feel good.

Part of what I track is the time I spend writing, which I have, for years, done using the stopwatch app on my phone. Recently, I changed that, which is why today's Show & Tell is a focus timer app called Exocus. Featuring count up, count down, and pomodoro timers, it lets you create projects and evolve planets as you spend time focusing on those projects—until, little by little, you fill a solar system. The planets start off looking like a hunk of rock, and eventually terraform into something like this:

In the same way that seeing number go up makes my brain feel good, seeing this little pixelated ball (which is animated, in the app!) become more detailed and colorful gives me some extra motivation to sit down, get started, and lock in. Now, obviously not everything needs to be gamified—but it can be nice when you want it. If this seems like something that would make your brain feel good, I highly recommend checking it out. There are lots of use cases aside from writing (e.g., tracking work projects; locking down your phone while you study, read, or engage in a creative activity).

If this isn't quite your vibe, I also really enjoy Focus Friend, which does the same thing—but instead of evolving planets you decorate a house for your little bean friend.

Hope you enjoy—talk next time!

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