I completed the first draft of my short story for Voices On FIYAH! While I didn’t meet my goal of 5000 words, I got pretty close at 4500. Now I just need to let the draft sit and come back to it later. I also want to do some research on Chinese immigrants in the (late?) 1800s and Mexican immigrants during the Bracero Program. …of course, I am now desperately reading anything that’s not Takaki’s Strangers From a Different Shore, lol.

Now that I’m done with writing commitments, I’m hoping to get back into some blog posts. Definitely looking forward to relaxing and write whatever I want (or not write at all for a little!). In the meanwhile, here are my faves from November!

Books

Hexarchate Stories by Yoon Ha Lee (Machineries of Empire #3.5)

So I love “Gloves” for the kinky smut, but the ending. T_T

BUT! GLASS CANNON, friends. GLASS CANNON. As I said in my Goodreads review, Lee somehow reached into my id and gave me hella shit I enjoy: hilarity, Cheris and Jedao sniping at each other and trying to outfox each other but they know each other too well, gut wrenching moments (the Dhanneth convo, oof), tentacular monster boyfriend, Jedao being all smart and scornful of Mikodez, Cheris hand-feeding Jedao not once but TWICE, and the *spoiler* trope that proves Cheris and Jedao aren’t through with each other yet. I will read Cheris & Jedao antics forever, and need a sequel please.

Figure Skating

Gabrielle Papadakis & Guillaume Cizeron’s 2019/20 Free Dance to Find You

Apologies for the video quality, but NBC is locking down all of the official footage. I know it’s hokey to call this ice dance so dance-like but it is. It’s mesmerizing every time I watch it.

Music

Celeste’s Strange (Live)

Haunting. And Wrabel’s lyrics are mesmerizing in their simplicity.

Sister’s Love Me Right

This has me in my feels. I even made it my November monthly spread in my Passion Planner.