Fathomfolk is swimming out

Dear lovely newsletter readers, 

I’ve had to change newsletter provider again as I simply was not gelling with Mailerlite, so hopefully third time is the charm. Here we are at Beehiiv now. Apologies for all the confusion and hope this does not end up in your spam filters! This post is quite reflective but there’s a giveaway for newsletter subscribers near the end so please do enter if it interests you.

Debut dread

I’d like to take a moment to talk about self-care in the run up to debuting. The time between getting an offer on my book and actually seeing it in shops was about a year and a half. Both the longest and shortest time of my life. In many ways, it’s a culmination of a lifetime of dreams, so a year or two more makes no difference really, does it? In reality the wait was excruciating. As a debut it feels like the door has suddenly been opened but the party started hours ago, everyone is already drunk and talking about something you have no clue about and you just have to nod along and pretend, before leaving, sometimes none the wiser. For long periods of time, there’s no contact and to the author it looks like nothing is happening, even though that is far from the truth. Then suddenly it’s a flurry of activity: edits, cover sketches, promo, always at the time you were planning to have a break from it all. A real contrast to the 9-5 that most of us are probably used to.

In particular, the countdown to publication date was the worst. I was catastrophising everything from an actual apocalypse, to the pages of the book being completely blank. Reader, of course this too shall pass. The imposter syndrome, the urge to read all the bad reviews, is most definitely there. Be kind to your local nervous wreck of a debuting author if you know one. Gently guide them away from Goodreads and their phones, expose them to some Vitamin D and amuse them with non-writing news to remind them that yes, the world exists out of this sphere.

And then it was publication week…

For all of my above comments, once the actual day arrived it was a joyous whirlwind experience! My book launch was hosted by the marvellous House of Books and Friends in Manchester, in a historical building with stunning carved wood panelling and pillars. I promptly covered in gaudy streamers and paper dragons. My heart was full at seeing so many people from different parts of my life: family, writers, speech and language therapists, board gamers, readers, a bunch of gynae professionals, all were welcome and I for one loved every minute of it. I only wish I had more time to celebrate with everyone. One minute I was worrying about where to dangle paper koi, the next, the bookseller was asking us (nicely) to clear out.  

Then onwards to London where I saw my first copy of Fathomfolk in a random bookshop at St Pancras. It was face out and everything! I signed a mountain of them at Goldsboro and Forbidden Planet HQ before my event in the evening with Tasha Suri, A.Y. Chao and Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson. The following week I was up to my hometown of Glasgow for another event with Hannah Kaner and L.R. Lam hosted by the marvellous Neil Williamson. All three events sold out in the end, with Glasgow being particularly exciting when the booksellers told me they had sequestered all copies of the book from other city centre branches for fear of running out.

There have been lots of ticks on my bucket list so far: first face out book, first shelf talker, first shop window, first sold out event(s)! But when people ask me what my favourite thing has been so far, I have to say it’s the community. I said this at the book launch. Writing is perceived as a solitary activity in some log cabin with a typewriter and a bottle of whisky. And a lot of it is (except whisky, I’m a terrible Scot and don’t drink the stuff). But the community is what keeps me going. Going up and down the country, I was both delighted and surprised by the number of people, some writers I’ve known for decades, some whom I’ve only got to know recently, who chose to spend their evening with me, listening to me (and the other excellent authors) talk about our work.

 Book two is currently awaiting my editor’s feedback and I’m tinkering away on my next project in-between events and interviews. It’s oddly disconcerting not to have a looming deadline right now and I almost don’t know what to do with myself.

 A moment to reflect (CW grief)

A few people have commented on the seal I’ve been using to stamp alongside signing my name. The seal is my Chinese name 陳詠真 in ancient seal script with a wee dragon at the end, hand carved from soapstone by my late father-in-law. I’ve been using it partly because it’s lovely to have something extra on there, something that reminds me of my cultural heritage as part of the Chinese diaspora, but partly to remind me specifically of my father-in-law and my father, both of whom passed away between me getting a book deal but before the book was published. Writing has always been a dream of mine, once a pipe dream, now a reality. No matter where this journey takes me, I want to remember to that I achieved that dream; that they were proud of me and I should remember to be proud of myself too.

Giveaway Time!

I’d like to give back to this particular community, the people who have chosen to sign up to my sporadic and quite random newsletter. Thank you for accepting my ramblings straight into your inbox. I am offering an exclusive giveaway of Fathomfolk related goodies for newsletter subscribers only. This is similar to the one offered on my social media but with different snacks! All you need to do is enter your email address on this form so I know you are interested. That’s it. No pre-requisites, no extra promo requests. You are already here and I am immensely grateful for that! I will close the form on Wednesday 3rd April and randomly draw a winner that week.

Upcoming Events

• York Literary Festival – Folklore and Fantastic Fiction Tues 26^th March, With RJ Barker  

• London – Asian Myths and Folklore Thu 11^th April, with June CL Tan and Mina Ikemoto Ghosh

• Cymera 31^st May – 2^nd June, schedule TBC

• Worldcon Glasgow 8^th-12^th August, schedule TBC

• Other events TBA, keep an eye on my social media posts.

Book recommendations

As if you don’t have enough of these, a while back I was asked to make a Bookshop.org page and promptly forgot about it. So here you are, a list of books I love, books I’m excited by, books that inspired Fathomfolk and just generally BOOKS! I do get a small amount of money if you buy through my shop page but don’t feel obliged, it’s just nice to have handy lists for when people ask for recommendations. I will continue to add to these over time.