It’s raining as I write this. Actually raining raining. Rain that won’t later freeze into a slick of ice; rain like I almost remember. Growing up in Malaysia, one of my favorite things was the monsoon. I loved how the storms would roar up over the capital, enclosing it in rain. How the world would suddenly be enveloped in a dark silver. The smell of petrichor. The lightning flashing through the clouds, almost alive.
I miss that. I’ll always miss that.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately of two books. One is Sarah Gailey’s haunting Just Like Home, which comes out on July 19th later this year. It’s the story of a woman named Vera and how she returns to her childhood home, summoned by her dying mother. Even from the get go, it is an unsettling read. Gailey’s word choices are impeccable: both warmly loving and threaded with warning about the house. Crowder House was where Vera felt safest, but also where Vera’s world broke.
It deals beautifully with the question of what do you do when your aging narcissist parent is dying? What do you say? How much forgiveness do you extend a rotted bundle of bird-bones and old memories as they lay on their deathbed? Knowing that they has no more time, no more ability to harm you. How do you move your adult-self through a space where you once felt so small, so sad? How do you comfort your inner child if it reacts to being in this setting?
I love the book too for its twists, the way it offers up its secrets one breath at a time until all you can do is softly gasp, oh.
(I think the book hits hard because I can empathize with Vera. My father wasn’t anything like Francis, but he’s been dead long enough that my perception of him is gentling. I realized a few months ago that there will come a point when I will have lived more years without him than I will have with him, and it’s strange to contend with that knowledge.
Anyhow.)
The other book I can’t stop thinking about is Olivier K. Langmead’s gorgeously extravagant Glitterati, which invites us into a world where beauty is everything and couture isn’t a weird thing only a sliver of the population indulges in but an everyday concern. It is a book easy to mistake as frivolous because Simone, our main character, is ridiculously frivolous: he is obsessed with fashion, entirely and wholly committed to appearances and aesthetics. He is as shallow as a flat pane of glass, but if you let that put you off (and really, you shouldn’t, because there is such a joy to be found in Simone’s descriptions of this world; the details are exceptional), you’re going to miss out on how clever the book really is.
In many ways, it feels like it’s in conversation with The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas. It asks, never unkindly, how much we willfully choose to ignore to preserve our way of life. How much we choose to pretend doesn’t exist so we can continue the glossy charade of social media. And more importantly, the mechanisms and the people that encourage us to do so.
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On a personal note, I’m really and truly excited about the fact that Call of the Netherdeep is finally out into the world. Being able to work on the property was a dream, not just because Critical Role is such an amazing franchise but because of the team I got to work with.
LaTia Jacquise and Sadie Lowry were both powerhouses who left me in constant awe. They had such knowledge of how to build ttrpgs, how to build resonance into the works, to guide DMs into creating better adventures for their players. Their kindness too, their openness — I hope I get to work with them again.
I’m floored too by the fact I got to work with Makenzie de Amas, who had absolutely no reason to go as hard as she did on the edits she provided me in my sections. I learned so much I’m still processing some of the notes she gave. My god.
And James Haeck, with his endless help and wisdom, was such the perfect lead for this. Of course, there’s Matt Mercer too, who honored us with his trust in building his world.
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Anyway, this is getting exceptionally long. I leave you with a photo of my beloved idiots. I hope y’all are having a good Saturday.
Working with you was a joy and I do hope we get to do another project together 💕
Somehow I didn’t realize or remember that you worked on Call of the Netherdeep! I am just starting to go through it, maybe I can get a campaign going.