Hi!
I can’t believe September is passing by so quickly! I had to force myself to sit down and write this letter before October hit already. Needless to say, I’ve been super, super busy. But let’s not get into that. For now, let me give you an update on my writing life and of course, - the new that’s been brewing!
Writing - wise, September has been great - I finished the two short stories I had in mind. (If I remember correctly, I talked about them in my previous letter) The first one - about the old man I briefly spoke of and the second one about, let’s say, chickens!
Both have a speculative inclination but the purpose of which is to reveal character and states of existence - of individuals, societies and humanity in general. This has been the defining characteristics of all of my short fiction so far, and hopefully will be in the future too.
September also gave me two short - story ideas. As of now these are just vague impressions and scenes in my head (because I’m a panster), but I will sit down to write them and re-start that same old, same old tussle I have with writing. Let’s see how that goes!
I also decided to pause submitting to litmags for a while - big decision, and a hard one. But every once in a while, I feel doing that is necessary for me to get back to the core - the writing. Constantly submitting can be very distracting and takes away a lot of my precious writing time! I also got two (or were there more?) personal rejections this month from previous submissions. Yes, it hurt, but haven’t I been hurt before?
I did get one publication though! I’m a fan of the weird, the trivial and the anti-literary, (yes, in the tradition of the good, the bad, and the ugly). COOP Zine: Chickens of our Poetry is one of my favorite zines because (guess what?) they publish poetry on “the noble chicken” in their words. My poem is titled, CLUCK CLUCK FLAP FLAP AND OFF YOU FLY. I wrote it after a conversation I had with my mother - she was telling me about the chickens nani (my mother’s mother) used to keep. She told me they used to get out of the coop during the day to graze, feed and walk around, but would be back in the coop before dusk BY THEMSELVES!! And I thought, “How stupid! Why would they do that?!” In this poem, I urge those long-dead chickens to escape the coop - to be lionhearted.
This is how it goes:
bird with feathered wings, why do you not fly?
why live among egg-thieves and slaughterers?
the coop is not your home — grandma will eat you
you stupid feathered bird! the portal’s wide open -
look! those rabbits are jumping the fence on four legs
right now! wings have more advantages, bird, you gotta see.
and ya’all should have names, i mean, what’s the harm in it?
listen — maybe pioneer a Free Birds association?
or something else less lame — like absolutely nothing at all.
come on, flap and cluck and do your usual but
also break a rule. hear my grandma say
that’s one lionhearted chicken outside my coop.
You can also read it on the COOP Zine here. The fun thing is that you can also download the printable version of the zine and print it out yourself! I’m definitely going to!
Now THE NEWS!
Sometime in mid-September, I did a poll on Instagram - I asked if you’d like me to do a series on literary magazines - submitting to them, rejections and what they meant, etc. etc., you get the jist… Many of you voted YES! so starting this October, I’m kicking off the first series in this newsletter, on literary magazines! This series is for everyone, beginners or not. So, stay tuned for that!
Also, if you have any questions and would like me to cover a topic of your choice in the series, drop a comment here and I’ll include do a newsletter on that. :)
P.S. So much is happening in my life, right now. I’m really hoping I’ll be able to keep it going, but I’m leaving it to masala chai!
SEPTEMBER RECOMMENDATIONS:
Book rec:
The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li - This might just be my new favorite book! It is about Agnes and Fabienne, two teenage girls living in the French countryside. Agnes and Fabienne are rebels; rebels against the world and its ways, its glories and losses, its people, customs and everything else. They keep a big secret from the world. They discuss growing happiness like apples and oranges.
Netflix rec:
Orthodox - This is a limited series of only four episodes. I finished it in 2 days. Orthodox is about the life of a Hasidic Jewish woman who, after loving her world for years, finds herself disillusioned by it and flees. This series portrays so much depth and complexity in such limited screen time and is not at all cliché!
That’s all for now! If you want to get in touch, drop me a comment or reach out on my Instagram here or Twitter here.
xoxo!