Happy Halloween! Seasons’ greetings!! How does one even start a newsletter? Hell if I know, I’ve never done one. After every convention I tell myself “I should start a newsletter” and then I DON’T. So, here goes nothing. I’m going to try to make this as low effort for myself as possible, doing a seasonal newsletter with a structure that I can follow, cause my AuDHD brain is a prison of its own chemical neurological making. Here goes nothing!
WHAT I’M WORKING ON
As always, COMICS!! More specifically, ELDRITCH DARLING!! I’m still deep in what I’ve lovingly dubbed “the Sister Arc”, and the things I have planned are exciting but also kinda scary! Eldritch Darling started out as a pantsing exercise, where I vehemently rejected any Lore Heavy Things. But at the beginning of the year I went “welllll, what if a LITTLE lore. As a treat. For funsies.” And now look at me. Ina has a sister, a full eldritch language, and a Huge Mom. It’s really fun and I hope the rest of the arc is received well. It’ll probably take me another year to complete it, which I’m in no huge rush to. I’m selfish and go at my own pace. One good thing about planning episodes out more is I have a better system for a buffer, in that I can plan so much further ahead than when I was just improving a comic every week. That being said I’m still loose with it, nothing is set in stone until I hit “upload”. If I feel like a comedy episode is needed to bring in levity? Or need to make a shorter episode during a bad week? I have that freedom! It’s a nice freedom.
I’m also working on more store related things! From updating the store to include prints (shoutout to Isa and Meg at Fairylogue for being the best and teaming up with me. Go read Namesake and Crow Time), starting my first foray into enamel pins, to a volume 3 of Eldritch Darling, it’s gonna be a busy fall and a busy winter. I actually have paced out the next 3 Eldritch Darling books (3, 4, AND 5!!) now all that’s left is to format them and draw the covers. I’m aiming to do one, maybe 2 books a year. I’d love to one day make a full omnibus, but, that’s pretty far off.
WHAT I’M WATCHING
I really make no secret of things that I love and am inspired by. In fact, I often loudly and passionately shout it from the rooftops. Forget wearing my heart on my sleeve, I wear it on my whole body! My soul, even! So this section’s aim is to highlight something I’ve been consuming, be it a series, book, video essay, or this time, a video game!
SILKSONG! Sick of hearing about it yet? TOO BAD. I LOVE IT!!
I’m not what you would call an experienced gamer. Truly, at my heart, I’m kinda a nintendo girly. I’ve had my one switch since 2017 and I’m not getting rid of her any time soon. Ol’ reliable. While I love the lore of games like Dark Souls and Bloodborne (BLOODBORNE MY SOOOO BELOVED!!!! ELDRITCH HORRORS! TERRIBLE VISCERAL FEMININITY! EYES ON THE INSIDE!!) I don’t have the time to get good at these games, so I settle for video essays and Game Grumps playthroughs.
Enter: HOLLOW KNIGHT.
A cute game about bugs! A game where I don’t have to worry about the camera! A game with a world and lore as rich and tasty as Bloodborne! With some eldritch horror mixed in for good measure! THANK YOU TEAM CHERRY. For the record, I DID beat the Radiance back in 2020, but Absolute Radiance? No thanks. I know my limits.
And finally, Silksong. Can I just start with saying Hornet is one of the coolest characters ever? A half spider half god, using a needle and magical silk to guard a dying land she’s the princess of? AND SHE CANONICALLY LOVES FLUFFY THINGS AND FUCKS??? “DAUGHTER OF THE THREE QUEENS”???? THAT RULES!!!
I’m not gonna talk about the gameplay too much, that’s not my forte, but god running fast and attacking swift as Hornet feels soooo good and smooth. The clawline was a bit of a learning curve but goddamn it’s nice.
But the world, the lore, the story? Now that I love. A dying citadel, clinging to its once former glory as its imprisoned matriarch plots to escape her cage of slumber her creations bound her to. The heavy HEAVY catholic themes. If Hollow Knight was a slow descent into the void inferno, Silksong is a steady climb to a haunted silken paradise.
At Silksong’s core is a story of motherhood. It’s not a mistake that the first boss of Act 1 is Moss Mother and the final boss of Act 2 is Grand Mother Silk. If you know me you know I’m a sucker for a story about mothers. To go from Hollow Knight’s grand tale of a dying kingdom to Silksong’s comparably more intimate story of Hornet’s maternal family’s origins, and the children thereof, oooh it’s nice. I love a story about family wrapped in a bigger world. It’s the exact thing I strive for in my own writing. Lace viewing her existence as a vile, fragile thing, knowing she was made to soothe Grand Mother Silk’s desperate need for a child, and yet she still wasn’t enough. I love that.
Other things I love in Silksong: Your own house in Bellhart. Whiteward’s whole fucked up medical schtick. Trobbio. The Architects, both as a concept and the Architects’ Melody. SHERMA!! How it took so long to come out because the developers were having too much fun.
Currently I’ve done everything in Act 2 so all that’s left is Grand Mother Silk, who if I beat I move to Act 3. I’ve been blessed to have more experienced gamer friends in my life to take down the bosses I am simply not Git Gud enough to handle. I DID beat Phantom after only two tries tho, so that’s something.
I fear I may have to give up Silksong soon, though. The dopamine rush does come at the expense of my poor hands, and I kinda need those. Plus Act 2 has been my favorite part of the game and I think I got all I need story wise from other playthroughs. Karmelita you have my heart but I don’t have the courage to face you. But who knows! If/when DLC happens in the future it may pull me back in.
Anyways, Silksong good. Thank you.
WHAT I’M LISTENING TO
One of my favorite authors, Caitlin Moran, once said—and I’m kinda paraphrasing here—“Books are my roadmap, and music is the rocket fuel” and that’s always stuck with me because it’s so true! You ever listen to a song and envision an entire beautifully animated AMV featuring your OCs singing their hearts out and having a grand dramatic kiss at the end? Yea same. Here’s a little section for what has been that rocket fuel as of late.
Not gonna lie, K-pop Demon Hunters music has me in a grip, and has since the movie came out. Two songs I’ll highlight in particular are “How It’s Done” and “Your Idol”. “How It’s Done” sets the tone for the movie, and god does it do so well. In any karaoke setting my favorite parts are songs I know well and can RAP well. I’m a yapper, set me loose, I’ll yap right into the mic. So the rapping parts of “How It’s Done” took me a while to master but I’ve got it down and they feel SO GOOD when I nail them. In fact I got so bored of slow songs in my driving shuffles that I made a playlist exclusively of songs I can sing fast to. Brain? Scratched.
On the flip side, “Your Idol” has been a single driving inspiration for Erra, Ina’s bitch sister. It’s rare that I find a song and it single-handedly creates a character or a story moment for me, and this is one of them. The intro of chanting and latin, almost like a prayer? The chorus? The BRIDGE??? Boom. Erra bursting from my head like Athena from Zeus’ noggin. Thank you, K-pop Demon Hunters. May the sequels have even more banging tracks. I want to hear Zoey rap more.
Speaking of music, Eldritch Darling character playlists are on my ever growing to do list, and “Your Idol” is the first on Erra’s for sure. Now I just need to find good opening songs for everyone else.
WHAT I’M EATING
Full disclosure, my body is kinda riddled with chronic illnesses. Including digestion issues! Fun! I AM on meds and take good care of myself, but I do have to watch what I eat A LOT. Gluten? Dairy? GARLIC??? Fuggetaboutit! (Yes I can have a little in moderation but too much gluten inflames me and makes my joints ache and that includes my moneymaker—my hands—so no 24/7 pasta for me. And especially no garlic, please. My small intestines thank you.) At the same time, food is really important to me. It has been my whole life. Ghibli food when I was a kid, Tokyo Mew Mew as a middle schooler, Tampopo in high school, Delicious in Dungeon now, I’ve always loved stories featuring and centered around food. Meanwhile my own body wouldn’t be able to handle much of the food featured in these stories! How’s that for a paradox?
Anyways the point of this section is to feature something I’ve been eating I think is good! This fall? EGGPLANTS.
I didn’t actually eat eggplants for the longest time, but I’ve fallen in love with the wonderful girlie that is JAPANESE EGGPLANTS! ãªã™ã³ã€‚æ„›ã—ã¦ã‚‹ã€‚ Smaller than European eggplants, with more delicate skin, they’re absolutely delicious. I’m lucky enough to live near Uwajimaya, a Seattle staple of an Asian market, where Japanese eggplants are sold. I love them. My favorite way to prepare them is to slice them into 8ths (cut twice longways and once right through the middle); throw them on the cast iron skillet (lined with foil for easy ADHD friendly cleanup); drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper; and broil for around 15 minutes. The result is a soft delicious easy seasonal veggie that’s tasty and goes great with rice and a protein. This is my go to way of preparing veggies, but something about an eggplant hits so very right.
SEASONAL DELIGHTS
And a final misc section for random little life things, or big life things, or anything I didn’t mention in the previous sections.
I did three big conventions back to back this late summer/early fall. DragonCon, RCCC, and NYCC, bringing my total number of conventions this year to 5, which is a lot for me not gonna lie. I need to get better at hitting the ground running after cons and not just recovering for a week afterwards, thus throwing most of my schedule into chaos.
I’ve really loved doing conventions this year, I truly think I’ve hit my stride with what I’m selling, how I market myself, how I display my work, the work itself. All in all, I’m happy with where I am. I’ve worked damn hard to get here that’s for sure. I hope to do more shows in the future and fine tune myself into a lean mean tabling machine!
Also I don’t think it’s a coincidence that I just turned 30 over the summer then immediately had 3 of my best shows ever in a row. 30’s rules I’m so glad to not be a 20-something anymore.
I think I’m done for now. This is my first newsletter and damn did I not keep it brief haha. But it was fun! I’ve always loved screaming about things I like, so bullshitting for a while just comes naturally. In another life I’m an English major and my bullshitting powers are even more grand. But not this one. This one I draw girls kissing. Which, all in all, is a pretty good life.