Monthly Update: June 2024 (Patreon)

We've had three months off! I'll probably just cover the last month though, because at this point, who even remembers April and May.

There was a lot of stress last month, and unfortunately, there continues to be a fair amount of stress this month. My mother gave me an opportunity to speak with an agent for ten minutes through Manuscript Academy...and so I did, and actually left it very discouraged because she told me superhero novels are a tough sell (something I suspected) and couldn't recommend me any agents that would be interested. When I started writing the novel around 2019, a lot of superhero novels were being published, but obviously I took so long to write it that the star has fallen.

But then the woman in charge of the program emailed me how it went, and I said the advice was great but I felt very discouraged knowing superhero novels don't sell, at which point she freaked out, said she didn't know why she'd say that, and gave me a replacement session with her where she even looked over the first five pages. She was much more encouraging (which might have been so I wasn't an upset customer, but it did make me feel better) and recommended me a couple agents. She also said the agent I chose had gotten three complaints that day, so I guess she was just in a bad mood or something.

At any rate, I'm still going to give it a shot. I was told the tone of my book seemed more YA by both agents and I've found out that New Adult is really struggling as a "genre", and is basically kind of expected to by YA but steamy, so I've made a YA version of my story, even though I really didn't want to age the character down as I used her to capture early 20's ennui...but I can submit the NA version to agents interested in it and see what happens and the YA version to others. It will allow me to cast a wider net.

One agent suggested the query letter be more specific and another suggested a different opening so I've been working on those. Hopefully, when I get back from vacation, I will finally, FINALLY be ready to start querying

Speaking of vacation, I'm going to Anime Expo! I'm super scared of the crowds, but as soon as I saw Ryoko Kui was there, I bought tickets. Then it turned out she was only giving autographs and there were only 75 tickets and of course I did not get them in the online lottery where thousands showed up. But!!! she's also doing a Barnes and Noble event in LA and I got someone on Reddit to sell me a ticket (it's digital, so I have it safe and sound). So at least I'm going to get to see the reason I came in the first place. In addition to that, there's a Witch Hat Atelier panel with Kamome Shirahama I'm so excited about! My only real aim during the Expo is to go to that, and possibly the Dungeon Meshi panels with the anime director etc. I'll probably need breaks from the crowd and if I'm completely miserable, I'll just do California stuff rather than worry about any other panels. (There's also a pop up Akiba Maid War cafe somewhere, which sounds amazing).

Reading-wise, I've been catching up on manga and looking at comps. Last month I read the second Emily Wilde book, which was fantastic, and then I read the I'm in Love with the Villainess spinoff novel from Claire's pov while simultaneously speed-reading TJ Klune's The Extraordinaries since I plan to use it as a comp.

The Claire one was cute (her minions are getting their own yuri plotline, incredible), though it was funny that Claire has a secret roomate that someone never appeared in the main series. But they do invent a magical wheelchair for her, so that's nice! Inori- I mean, Claire! also goes on a monologue about respecting sex workers. It doesn't make much sense considering Claire is supposed to hate commoners right now, but as always, it's heart is in the right place and I find that very endearing.

The Extraordinaries was less enjoyable. It should have been 100 pages shorter, at the very least. I appreciate that the main character is a realistic example of ADHD with the tangents he goes on (well. of a guy with ADHD. As a girl, I always got huge pushback on loud talking or rambling or being annoying, and basically had those habits beaten out of me, especially my constant pacing when I was excited. So I became very quiet and very spacy instead. I tend to sometimes find it frustrating to interact with some guys with my same condition for this very reason because I get unfairly resentful) but ironically, it made the book very hard for me, a woman with ADHD, to follow, because there was so much goddamn pointless talking.

The way the teens were written was sort of cringey, for lack of the better word. There were two lesbians and there was so much constant emphasis on how strong and cool and tough they were, which I obviously prefer to other things, but it felt sort of like they were put on a pedestal and not allowed to be human.

It also had an intense level of copaganda, even for a superhero property. The main character's dad is a cop, who got demoted for police brutality in the past. And uh, we're supposed to like him?? And feel sorry for him??? When he should have lost his job but of course the captain liked him so he didn't??? It's wild.

There was also this absolutely bizarre running thing where the kids would accuse the adults of pedophilia as a "joke" or it would randomly come up. They continually accused this one police officer of hitting on them when he was doing absolutely nothing, and when the "hero" was revealed to be 17, the Lois Lane stand in was horrified and all "but I've had ~thoughts~ about you!"

Speaking of the Lois Lane stand in, the main character absolutely loathed her because...well basically because she was Lois Lane stand in his crush always talked to and they seemed to have a special connection, and that petty jealousy is realistic for a teenage boy, but I was hoping there would be a moment where he realized his jealousy was misguided and she was fine...but NOPE! Turns out she's a terrible person and he was right to hate her!

Oh and also in this world superheroes have been around since the 1940s (starting with a Captain America stand in who turned out to be sexist and racist because it's the 40s--thank you for the coldest take ever, TJ Klune!) yet...Marvel and DC comics still exist in exactly the form they are in this world? INCLUDING Captain America? And the MC complains about the Hydra plotline, like he's upset they'd make Captain America a Nazi, even though the real Captain America-alike was a racist and horrible? Wouldn't they have retired Captain America if a person just like him was disgraced?

My dude, if there were actual superheroes, comics would not exist like they do now. People might find them boring, or they'd pivot to being about the real heroes (which is what I had happen in my book. Though the timeline for when people got superpowers is much shorter (20 years ago) so comic books as we know them did exist until then, but everyone basically looks back on them as outdated now because it's not like the REAL thing, except for a few people who are still avid fans, like Alyssa (my superhero character)).

Wow that was a long rant. Well, that's what this is for, me airing opinions I can't air publicly because unfortunately, I still have to use this as a comp because it's the only queer superhero novel series in the last five years that did well. And I do think it had it's heart in the right place as far as the main queer romance goes, I could see it being cute if I wasn't so annoyed with everything else.

And I will give it this: I think it might be the only traditionally published novel in the world that references the Tumblr nipple ban (disdainfully) so that makes it a historical artifact.

Anyway, now I'm reading Starter Villain by John Scalzi as a comp for the adult version, and having a much more enjoyable time.

As for anime and shows, the season is coming to an end! I really enjoyed Girls Band Cry, and coming in second as super enjoyable are Train to the End of the World. Whisper Me a Love Song is very much struggle animation wise, and had it's ninth ep delayed for three weeks, but it's back now, and I do enjoy the sexual tension between the edgy rival band girl and the sad blonde girl significantly more than the actual main relationship, so I'm super intrigued by that plotline.

I'm pretty close to being done with Monster, which is amazing. 14 episodes to go! I'm probably gonna be sad when it finishes, it's been so good. I've also been watching 7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy! (yes it was adapted from a light novel why do you ask) and really enjoying it. The main character is so fun and badass and I'm with the love interest that it's a total turn on whenever she matches a devious scheme or beats up a bunch of guys. Also, I'm much more invested in Wonderful Precure now that we're focusing on the catgirl, I am nothing if not predictable.

Whew! That's enough for this month. See y'all next time!