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November 2025 Updates

Hi, everyone! I hope your November went alright for you. My updates for this month are below.

• I got some more work done on my fanfic projects, which was fun. I met my goal, but it definitely was a bit of a struggle towards the end as I got busier with work and personal stuff.
• I also did a little more reading and finally started a book that my sister had given me last year for Christmas, and I am liking it so far. 

Thank you for checking out my updates! Let me know what fan projects you are working on and books you are reading in the comments! This month, I am once again encouraging you to donate to Khartoum Kitchen, which is directly running 12 kitchens in the Khartoum area in Sudan, and to follow Saroyah’s Twitter list for updates on the humanitarian crisis. I also encourage you to give to the Western Alaska Disaster Relief Fund, which is supporting Western Alaskan communities following devastating typhoons and storms in October. For more resources and organizations to support, please look here.

October 2025 Updates

Hi, all! I hope you are having a good October! My updates for this month are below.

• I wrote two more Fire and Blood fics, which I had not planned to do at all. You can read them here. Like with “Lavender,” I wrote these fics to wrestle with various topics I came across while reading the book.
• I am happy to say I did more reading than last month! I only have two chapters left of Fire and Blood now, and I made some more progress on the long fics I’ve been reading.

Thank you for checking out my updates! Feel free to share your fic and reading updates in the comments. This month, I encourage you to support The Needle of Hope, which raises money for Omar to tailor clothes for children in Gaza, the Sudan Solidarity Collective, which is raising money to support food distribution in El Fashir, and the Ohketeau Cultural Center, which is a Native-led cultural center that supports Indigenous people in Central and Western Massachusetts. For more resources and organizations to support, please look here.

Fanfiction: Lessons in Soup and Hands

A pair of washers, a maester, and two mothers in the aftermath of the accusations following Queen Jaehaera’s death. https://archiveofourown.org/works/72728771

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“One of the queen’s bedmaids also came under suspicion, when it was found that she had stolen two of Jaehaera’s dolls and a pearl necklace. A serving boy who had spilled soup on the little queen the year before, and been beaten for it, was accused. Both of these were put to question by the Lord Confessor, and finally declared innocent (though the boy died under questioning and the girl lost a hand for theft).”

-Fire and Blood, “Under the Regents: War and Peace and Cattle Shows”

Lesson One: Speak Quietly, Work Quickly

“Do you think it wrong?”

“Shush. You never know who listens.”

“Who cares for the whispers of two washers?”

“The Lord Confessor might.”

“That boy, though…they say he was innocent.”

“It does little to think of it. He is beyond our help.”

“All for a drop of soup?”

“He ought to have been more careful. The poor Little Queen.”

“And the girl…”

“She stole from a royal. She is fortunate a hand is all she lost.”

“I fear…”

“You must harden yourself. Remember where you are. Let us work quickly.”

~~~

The girl’s screams and sobs clash against your ears as your hands weave white bandages across her bloody wrist. A maester, you are called. Knowledge is your domain, and, yes, much knowledge you keep. You cover the girl’s jagged stump, the reminder she will carry for life.

“Hush,” you say. “You will live.”

And on she weeps. Her wails shake against your ears, although your hands remain steady. You are a maester, and knowledge is your domain, and knowledge you will keep.

Lesson Two: Clean Spotlessly, Weep Soundlessly

Nell washed her son’s bruised and bloodied skin. It was softening now as bodies did over time. She knew death. Had seen it through war, riot, fever, and peace. The Winter Fever had passed only moons ago. Her husband six years ago. Nell had lost parent, friend, sibling, niece, nephew, but never child. Not until now. Miraculously, all six of her children had prevailed through the clashes between her and her husband, had survived the war and riots three years past (although they gained an unexpected brother), and had endured the sickness and hunger that followed. You have been blessed by the Mother, her neighbors whispered to her. No, she would tell them. I am blessed by the cunning of my brother and the skill of his needlewoman wife.

And she had been, until this morning, when her brother had come to her door, not with the coin he usually brought her, but her eldest son tucked in his arms. “I should not have brought him with me to the castle,” her brother spoke to her through sobs. “I should not have gotten him that job.” She had never seen Chester so distraught. “I will dig him a grave,” he had said and then left, leaving her with her boy.

So Nell cleaned her son’s body. Her other children sat around her, staring in shock and weeping soundlessly. There was Margie, her eldest, hugging poor little Jesse, only three. Tears streamed down Jonah’s and Ellie’s pale faces. They were the oldest now after Margie. Then there was Billy and Tallie, mature enough to see death but still youthful enough not to understand it truly. 

And, Benji, dead now. He had been quiet in life, always lost in a daydream. I should have known better than to let him go to the castle. Nell’s eyes tightened with pressure. I should never have let Chester make him into a serving boy. She blinked. She could not lose herself in the what-ifs. She washed her son’s body.

~~~

Susie, I failed you as a mother. I should have taught you to keep your head down, to understand our lot in life. Your father is a kind man, a soft man. He does not understand our lives. I had wanted you to be strong. I had wanted you to succeed and be proud. You were my first child to live. And, now, you come home to me, to your father, to your three living siblings. Rose and Mabel look up to you. Owen, although only four, adores you. But you are one-handed now. How will you sew? How will you clean and cook? No man will take you as wife. You will be cast to the streets once your father and I are gone. I should have taught you that people like us cannot take. But now you have learned your lesson in hands.

Fanfiction: The Witch and the Lamb

A person grapples with questions regarding Rhaena and Viserys, children of Aenys, and how the violence they suffered under Maegor is perceived. https://archiveofourown.org/works/72612831
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Tell me a story of Rhaena and Viserys, two children of Aenys. Tell me of their mysteries that lurk within the shadows. Tell me of their ghosts that haunt the stone walls. They say one is a witch, trailing the riverside, white and haggard with loss gleaming beneath eyes. The other, a lamb, butchered by uncle, abandoned by mother. 

But why, you must ask me, why these two? One smoldered with rage. She killed her husband, they whisper. She killed her daughter. And the other was a whisper that flickered and blew out. A sad boy, a sad story. They both suffered under a king, yet one is called a witch and the other, a lamb.

Tell me, what makes one over the other? Is it that one died and the other did not? Oh, how cruel that sounds. Must only children retain innocence? Or is it that the body that bleeds in the bed hurts less than the body that bleeds in the dungeon? Perhaps, one is seen as more natural than the other.

And still, you must hear me. I can’t help but wonder about those two, witch and lamb, queen and prince, wed and unwed, daughter and son, sister and brother, Rhaena and Viserys. 

So, tell me, Rhaena. Tell me, Viserys. Tell me your stories.

September 2025 Updates

Hi, everyone! Happy end-of-September! I hope the month treated you well. My updates are below.

• Most of my creative energy has been going to the fanfic ideas I mentioned in my August updates. While I do wish some of that motivation could also go toward my original writing, I’m still having an exciting time working through different concepts!
• In terms of reading, I have to admit that my reading has slowed down a bit, but I did read a few beautifully written Silmarillion fics this month. I particularly enjoyed timelessutterance’s “The Cradlesinger,” silmalope’s “On Tomorrow's Bright Frontiers,” and NIQtraust’s “Rings, Ravens, and Revelry.”

Anyways, that’s it for this month! As always, thank you for stopping by, and you are welcome to share your fic and reading updates in the comments. This month, I encourage you to support AIDESEP, an organization in Peru that supports the rights of Indigenous peoples along the Amazon. It appears that you need a Peruvian identification number to support them financially through their website, but you can follow their social media accounts for more information about their actions. I also encourage you to support On the Rise, a Massachusetts community and Safe Haven for women, transgender, and nonbinary people moving through homelessness, and to follow Refugees in Niger, which brings attention to the Black African refugees protesting the neglect and human rights abuses they are facing in Agadiz. For more resources and organizations to support, please look here.

August 2025 Updates

Hi, everyone, and thanks for visiting! I hope August treated you well. My updates for this month are below.

• I actually have been surprisingly busy with fanfic ideas. I’m still early in the research, worldbuilding, and brainstorming processes, so I will wait to share the ideas publicly, but I’ve been pretty excited about them, and it’s been fun feeling motivated to write and research.
• I have another two book reviews. I had written them months ago and finally finished editing them. You can read my reviews of Carolyn Huynh’s The Fortunes of Jaded Women and Jesmyn Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing here and here.

Thank you for stopping by! Let me know what fanfic you’ve been writing and books you’ve been reading in the comments! This month, I encourage you to check out the National Black Food & Justice Alliance, a coalition supporting Black self-determination and food sovereignty in the US. Additionally, The Okra Project is a mutual aid collective supporting Black Trans folks through food and housing security and mental health support. I also urge you to support the Rohingya Community Partners’ fundraiser to run a training program for Rohingya refugee youth and girls. For more resources and organizations to support, please look here.

'Sing, Unburied, Sing' Review

Sing, Unburied, Sing

By Jesmyn Ward, narrated by Kelvin Harrison Jr., Chris Chalk, and Rutina Wesley

Genre: magic realism, fiction

Content warnings: racism, death, incarceration, police brutality, child abuse

Description: “Jojo and his toddler sister, Kayla, live with their grandparents, Mam and Pop, and the occasional presence of their drug-addicted mother, Leonie, on a farm on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. Leonie is simultaneously tormented and comforted by visions of her dead brother, which only come to her when she’s high; Mam is dying of cancer; and quiet, steady Pop tries to run the household and teach Jojo how to be a man. When the white father of Leonie’s children is released from prison, she packs her kids and a friend into her car and sets out across the state for Parchman farm, the Mississippi State Penitentiary, on a journey rife with danger and promise.”

Jesmyn Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing is a powerful novel that explores the complexities of grief, family, and childhood within the context of systemic racism and anti-Blackness in the United States. The book is haunting and beautifully written, with profound explorations of all the characters involved and their actions. 

What I enjoyed:

-Ward writes the characters and their relations to one another poignantly. Each character carries a complexity and nuance that challenges assumptions and encourages empathy. Leonie and Jojo’s complicated mother-son relationship is particularly well-written, where you can feel so much for both characters as they negotiate their understandings of and feelings toward one another. While this book focuses on family, Ward avoids divorcing the context of generational trauma from the wider context of systemic injustices. Grief is a significant part of the story, specifically in how it relates to family, anti-Black racism, and the US incarceral state, and Ward deftly examines grief both through the ghosts and through those who live.

-Ward’s prose is masterful. The scenery and the various places the characters travel to are described viscerally, and the most painful parts of the novel are depicted sensitively yet powerfully. Narrators Kelvin Harrison Jr., Chris Chalk, and Rutina Wesley convey the emotions of each scene with passion and care.

-The magic realism melds with the realistic elements of the novel very effectively. The addition of the ghosts brings the present and past together in integral ways and enhances the book’s messages on the relationships between memory and reality and the continuation of systemic violence and their impacts on grief and family.

-Since I listened to the audiobook, I have to give a special shout-out to Kelvin Harrison Jr., Chris Chalk, and Rutina Wesley for their reading of the book. They portray the characters with attention and compassion.

What I thought could be better:

-I had no major concerns while reading this novel. I appreciated listening to this book and immersing myself in its stories and messages. 

Overall, Sing, Unburied, Sing was a powerful read that I highly recommend to anyone looking for an engaging novel that thoughtfully and meaningfully grapples with family, grief, and systemic racism.

'The Fortunes of Jaded Women' Review

The Fortunes of Jaded Women

By Carolyn Huynh, narrated by VyVy Nguyen

Genre: adult, magic realism

Content Warnings: discussion of war, imperialism, colonization, racism, depression, grief, miscarriage, death

Description: “A multi-narrative novel brimming with levity and candor, The Fortunes of Jaded Women is about mourning, meddling, celebrating, and healing together as a family. It shows how Vietnamese women emerge victorious, even if the world is against them.”

The Fortunes of Jaded Women is a quick and amusing read that tackles topics of grief, loss, joy, and healing. While I do have some critiques of how this book handles certain matters, overall, I found this book to be an entertaining listen.

What I enjoyed:

-The book is incredible with voice! Huynh fits a record number of main character perspectives, ensuring each character feels fresh and animated. While listening, I never felt confused about which character was in focus. Special kudos to the narrator, VyVy Nguyen, for her terrific acting!

-On a related note, I loved the author's sensitivity to each character's choices and feelings. It’s always a difficult task when writing generational stories to showcase trauma as an explanation and not an excuse. As I mentioned, the book provides each character a unique voice, allowing readers to understand or at least sympathize with each of their choices. The particular attention to gender was impactful and handled thoughtfully. The women are allowed to be flawed in this novel, creating a richer narrative that speaks true to real life while providing hope for reconciliation.

-I appreciated how the novel tackles painful subjects of war, discrimination, colonization, and grief while also holding space for healing and joy. This book exhibits the myriad of human emotions while acknowledging systematic injustices and cycles of abuse, and you can feel the love Huynh has for her fellow Vietnamese American community. While this book has some moments that require a bit of suspension of disbelief, the magic realism elements of the story balance these features out.

What I thought could be better:

-The novel does walk the fine line between attempting to critique stereotypes and potentially perpetuating them accidentally. While the humorous nature of the book does somewhat emphasize to readers that these stereotypes are trying to be mocked, it’s a fine line, especially when the book will call out directly the problems and effects of American imperialism, the fetishization of East and Southeast Asian women, and racism within Asian communities in some parts of the narrative and then immediately after showcase a character’s classism for comedic effect. While I do love morally complicated characters and stories, I do wish these topics were handled in the novel with a bit more nuance.

-On that note, while not unacknowledged, the novel struggles to fully wrestle with the implications of assimilation and the privileges of some of its characters. This feels like a lost opportunity, particularly when the book does emphasize the impact American imperialism and intervention had on the women’s families. The book becomes very wrapped up in the family reconciliation side of the story by the end, which is sweet, but feels like a missed chance to go even deeper into exploring the characters’ and story’s messiness.

Overall, The Fortunes of Jaded Women was a fun listen that kept me itching to hear more. The strength of this novel is its attention to its characters. While the book toes a fine line with its critiquing of stereotypes and misses opportunities to delve even deeper into certain complexities, the novel is still an enjoyable read/listen for anyone looking for a quick, entertaining story about family drama.

July 2025 Updates

Happy July! I hope you are doing well! I can’t believe I have an actual writing update to share this month. See my updates below!

• I actually wrote and published a fic! This is the first fic I’ve published since my Kingo one a couple of years ago. My new fic is inspired by Fire and Blood and is titled “Lavender.” It provides a glimpse into the end of Maegor the Cruel’s headsman, gaolers, and confessors. I definitely attempted to pack a lot into the fic’s 247 words. I had wanted to grapple with the dehumanization in systems of violence and complicate the role of the child as a symbol of innocence. There are a lot of other complex dynamics that I tried to hint at in the fic, too. I wrote the fic as a way to wrestle with these subjects and not to analyze them, as I am very unqualified to provide scholarly critique of them. However, since the topic is extremely sensitive, I want to make it clear that I am very open to constructive feedback.
• Speaking of fanfic, the list of long-form fanfics I’m reading is slowly growing. Besides Ossuarium, I’ve been reading LeucisticPuffin’s we will make this place our home (which is making me cry) and TheChasm’s The Fairest Stars (which is the first bullet fic I’ve read and it’s amazing). Once I finish Fire and Blood, I’m hoping to start either timelessutterance’s Prayers to the Broken Stone (I’ve been reading her essays on Tumblr and it sounds like such a powerful story) or Leethevix’s Light Splintered and Sewn (I read one of his Tumblr responses and then skimmed through the fic and it looks like such an intriguing AU). I’ll end up reading both of them somewhere down the line.

Wow, that was the longest update I’ve written! Anyways, thank you for stopping by! Let me know what you’ve been reading and writing in the comments. This month, I urge you to support USCPR’s Water Is Life Gaza campaign, which is a Palestinian-led project that delivers clean water to families displaced by Israel’s ongoing genocide. I also encourage you to support Refugees in Libya, an organization advocating for refugees throughout North Africa and Europe. Finally, please support the Massachusetts Bail Fund, which is an abolitionist direct service organization that pays bail for those who cannot afford it. For more resources and organizations to support, please look here.

Fanfiction: Lavender

A glimpse into the end of Maegor the Cruel's headsman, gaolers, and confessors. https://archiveofourown.org/works/67667316

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“The royal clemency did not extend to all. Maegor’s headsman, gaolers, and confessors were all adjudged to be guilty of abetting Tyanna of the Tower in the torture and death of Prince Viserys, who had so briefly been Maegor’s heir and hostage. Their heads were delivered to Queen Alyssa, together with the hands they had dared raise against the blood of the dragon. Her Grace pronounced herself ‘well pleased’ with the tokens.”

-Fire and Blood, “Prince into King: The Ascension of Jaehaerys I”

The boy’s lavender eyes pierced you. You who knelt before the dowager queen. Knees dug into stone. Stone laid by those whose bones now grumbled and moaned within the chasms they hollowed. The boy, only a wisp now. One of many you defiled for Him and with Her. Although this boy is only one, still he is the one setting your end. His ghost, a flicker that sparks.

But you. Who are you? Gaoler? Yes. Subject? Yes. Murderer? Victim? Both yes. Although you do not–can not–comprehend all the fragments of you at this time. And what little time you have and what little time you were given and what little time you gave.

And what of this queen? One queen where once there were six. Two your cruel hands fell. Though you answer not for their lives. This queen sits above you. Son’s ghost by her side and son’s words delivering vengeance. She is the sea scraping the shore, burying guilt and grief beneath sapphire waves.

And what of the nameless? The others whose blood spilled beneath your fingers and whose shrieks raged through your ears. They are nameless as surely you are nameless. Phantoms lingering in crevices of halls.

You stand and go now to death as you once bequeathed it. And as you stumble on, you remember. You remember a time where you smelled lavender. Tasted it, felt its drops on your tongue. You were young then and lavender was simply a balm.

June 2025 Updates

I made it in time this month! My updates for June are below.

• I’m still in a Silmarillion bubble 😅 and I particularly enjoyed reading theScrap_Witch’s fanfics “From Ruins We Grow” and “This is Not a Second Chance.” I also enjoyed steadfastalysanne2022’s Fire and Blood fanfic "‘A Kinder Ghost, But No Less Sad’."
• I’m still reading Fire and Blood and I am almost done reading the Dance of the Dragons section. It’s been an interesting journey!

Thank you for stopping by this month! Feel free to share any fic recs or book recs in the comments! This month, I encourage you to donate to the Sameer Project, a Palestinian initiative working to provide medical aid, supplies, and food in Gaza. Also, please check out ‘Āina Momona, a community organization working toward environmental health, social justice, and Hawaiian sovereignty. Thirdly, Hope Relief and Rehabilitation is a Sudanese organization supporting people with disabilities, particularly in the Nuba Mountains, where famine has been declared. For more resources and organizations to support, please look here.

May 2025 Updates

Hello! Sorry for the later update than usual! I have posted my updates below.

• After being trapped in a Fire and Blood rabbit hole for a few months, I have (unfortunately) now fully fallen into a Silmarillion-shaped pit. I blame this pit for why I am late with this month’s updates. 😅
• On the other hand, I did manage to get some work done on that Roku fic I started writing last year. Hopefully, I can finish it before Awakening of Roku comes out in the Fall!

Anyways, that’s my May updates! Let me know what rabbit holes and pits you’ve fallen into below! This month, if you live in the US, I encourage you to contact your congresspeople to urge action regarding the ongoing forced famine in Gaza here and to advocate against cutting SNAP here. Please also review Saroyah’s Twitter list here for updated information regarding the continuing humanitarian crisis in Sudan. For more resources and organizations to support, please look here.

April 2025 Updates

Happy April! I hope you are all doing as well as you can be. My updates are below.

• Thanks to The Sillymarillion podcast, I’ve been re-reading The Silmarillion, which has been entertaining. I’m realizing how little I retained from reading it about five years ago. 
• I worked a bit more on that Roku fanfic I started last summer after reading The Reckoning of Roku. You can also now find me on Neocities and Wix (links are on my Carrd).

Thank you for reading my updates! Feel free to share what you have been reading and writing in the comments! This month, I encourage you to support the Basandja Coalition, which lifts the voices of Indigenous and local communities in the Congo Basin, and FiveforFive, a collective fund for trans women in the UK. Also, please check out AILA’s immigration advocacy resources. For more resources and organizations to support, please look here.