P H Lee 🪬

was reminded the other day of one of my favorite gross bug stories: web.archive.org/web/20160307...

some stories express something true about the world. some stories explore a new idea, or answer a complex question. some stories are simply beautiful arrangements of language.

and some stories are the equivalent of saying "look at this gross bug!" while shoving it in the reader's face.

it is so pretty.

so good.

if you're doing nebula nominations, please consider Blue Prince, a genuinely very well written and thoughtful game.

FLASH MESSAGE BEGINS

YOU MUST READ WHAT WE ARE SEEKING BY @lateonsetgirl.bsky.social

FLASH MESSAGE ENDS

me, trying to describe this WIP to a friend: "it has a lot of horrifying violence and a small amount of horrifying sex."

A closing thought for the day: MSWLs are a way to get a feel for an agent and their taste, but at the end of the day, you should just query. If you want to know if I'll like your project, that's what querying is for. :)

But also check out my excellent colleagues! One of them may be a better fit.

@clairejiawen.bsky.social everyone

The Last Flesh Figure Skaters The first time I saw you, you laced up your skates, adjusted your knee mods, and I was just another unremarkable face as you fluttered to the ice. My mother snapped at me to watch you, but it was like...

got figure skating on the brain, and fuck this story is good: www.khoreomag.com/fiction/the-...

bsky's been doing that to me. they show up about 10 minutes later.

i am impressed you figured it out from my description!

a poorly designed user interface fails to hide crimes against humanity

a bunch of idiots fail to stop an evil clown from ending the world

a whale takes her revenge against monumental architecture

also obligatory note that a mswl is not a promise, just because something checks the boxes doesn't mean you'll get an offer, and likewise it can be worth sending something outside of the lines if it's good / you think they'll like it / it's similar to other authors they represent.

lauren is great to work with.

2 days left on this sale!

it's a good book!

ime most people who say that they "don't want conflict" just want their conflict packaged in a specific way.

G-d help me but I do actually have a story that touches on the question "what would Karl Marx have thought if YHWH had caused to pass before his eyes a vision of the state policy of the USSR and the PRC"

they're so good!!!! literally left me breathless multiple times.

historical fantasy is really on a tear recently, tbh.

So I feel (both as a reader & author) like discoverability of new books is down lately, especially for the midlist. Please tell me some recently published (past year-ish) SFF books you loved that are midlist/overlooked/deserve more hype! (And please share your recs/this list!)

My recs in reply!

When They Burned the Butterfly by Wen-yi Lee

The Secret Market of the Dead by Giovanni De Feo

(*) the culture and politics around the decision to use Taiyu rather than Mandarin for this is well beyond my ability to explain in the context of microblogging. suffice it to say: it sure was a _choice_.

Apologies for the sports analogy but, faced with 4th and Long, 花樣小年小女 decided not to run it, nor to punt, but to grab the ball, punch the referee in the face, and run out of the stadium.

it's not in the rules of the game. it's probably a crime. but damn if it isn't at least _a choice_.

It has been 20 years and I am still mad about this ending.

But I have to admit that it has a degree of integrity that phoned-in endings like Games of Thrones and Battlestar Galactica lack.

If you have been waiting all show for the leads to kiss (and if you haven't been, why are you even watching?) It's _infuriating_!

And there is absolutely no reason to do this! The show is based on a manga! The manga had a real ending!

much of the run-time is the actors (mostly of the comedically annoying side-characters) speaking directly to the camera, addressing the audience, making fun of the idea that there was ever going to be resolution, telling stupid puns in Taiyu (*), challenging the viewer to children's games, &c

but the last episode (of the drama, not the manga) is _insane_

The in-setting plot is that both the leads decide to confess their feelings to each other, but ridiculous events keep interrupting, and in the end they both give up on it and continue along ambiguously.

But that's only half of it.