Is a cover reveal uncovering or covering?
Thanks to Book Riot for hosting and Kimberly Glyer for the cover design.
https://bookriot.com/2020/04/14/cover-reveal-on-fragile-waves-by-e-lily-yu/
Preorder at Indiebound: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781645660095
Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/books/on-fragile-waves/9781645660095
B&N: https://bookshop.org/books/on-fragile-waves/9781645660095
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1645660095
28.iii.40
"I remember talking with Paul Mourset...about the American ambassador in Paris at the time. ...an arrogant bounder. He was a millionaire, of course (apparently that's necessary in such a position), and spoke no French nor any other language, and did countless things like referring to Frenchmen as frogs in the presence of other Frenchmen or announcing publicly that French apples weren't fit to eat and sending ostentatiously to Oregon for large shipments of American apples."
2.xi.38 (Nov 2, 1938):
"The truth is that it is and will be much pleasanter for me to read book after book of silly 'mysteries than to make myself work. Of course, if I were a real writer, predestined, dedicated, I'd work in the face of everything.... But as it is now, I feel almost hysterical at the thought of concentrating on one thing. I am never left without interruption (here are the self-justifications!) for more than fifteen or twenty minutes..."
Last night I finished Stay Me, Oh Comfort Me, compiled from the journals of MFK Fisher right before she wrote the masterpiece that is How to Cook a Wolf (1942), in which, between the ages of 25 and 33, she divorces, remarries, watches Hitler take Paris, and cares for her second husband as he loses his leg and then his life. These are an extraordinary picture of the artist in embryo: doubt, resignation, careful observation.
I'm in conversation with Karen Joy Fowler for Grass Roots Books (Corvallis) tonight at 7pm PST, then with Ted Chiang for Third Place Books (Seattle) on Friday. Third Place Books has signed copies; Grass Roots has signed bookplates; you can get books faster there than via Amazon.
Also I may have talked Karen Joy Fowler into sharing a little of her historical novel coming out in 2022 tonight.
2.5 hours until conversation with Ken Liu, online but hosted by University Bookstore:
Brief essay on the art of asking for help, and also an events schedule for February. I'll be speaking with Ted Chiang, Ken Liu, Karen Joy Fowler, Matt Bell, and Sam J. Miller at various fine purveyors of books, virtually.
https://paperairplane.substack.com/p/the-time-to-ask-for-help
2 Hours Of Squid To Relax/Study/Work To, or Krill Waves Radio, from the Monterey Bay Aquarium
My first ever book launch for my first novel will be February 2, online, hosted by University Book Store in Seattle. Time TBA. Spokane's Auntie's Bookstore the day after, I think. Then a few lovely places that would have been murder to travel to, though I wish I could. Bookstores are lovely, lovely places (and loci of arcane power, drawing scruffy, slinking writers, artists, and the wonderworkers called librarians).
I'll also be at Boskone, and that is one HECK of a schedule. More when final.
Going to spend the next few days dismembering a 14-lb turkey, dreaming up story ideas for the Seattle Opera project I'm on, finishing line edits on the novel, editing a novelette, and trying to record a good take of Valse Rustique without featuring neighborhood leaf blowers.
I am simultaneously delighted with and horrified by my life choices.
New life goal: wear a big hat with floofy feathers that requires a hatpin
Quiet little essay to start November:
Starred review of On Fragile Waves from Eileen Gonzalez for Foreword Reviews, the first official review I've ever received.
"A masterful and poetic novel."
https://votefwd.org lets you adopt and write letters to voters encouraging them to vote and talking about why voting is important to you. Deadline for send is October 17 and you'll need a printer (also citizenship).
Essay for October: "On Do-Nothing Good People and 'Good Faith' "
https://paperairplane.substack.com/p/on-do-nothing-good-people-and-good