All kinds of deep dives

I attempt an ASMR video / Death By Water reprinted in Escape Pod / How the writing's flowing

Hello readers! It’s my first newsletter for 2024, and I’m bombarding you with watery metaphors.

Scroll down to find my claustrophobia-inducing, cyborg-archaeologist story reprinted in Escape Pod, a long video where I speak to you in soft tones about the Korean edition of Every Version of You, and a reflection on my writing practice.

As always, thanks for joining me in this corner of the Internet! I truly appreciate having you along for the crests and troughs (heh) of this writing journey.

Death By Water reprinted in Escape Pod — woohoo!

My Aurealis-Award shortlisted story, DEATH BY WATER, has been reprinted in Escape Pod! This is a sci-fi horror story about a cyborg archaeologist who investigates a failed expedition to the planet Orpheus...but discovers that she has some inconvenient emotional ties to the lost explorers.

(Much of the story takes place in icy, water-filled, underground caves. Why do I like exploring claustrophobic places in my writing? Surely it’s not because I’m claustrophobic myself…?)

You can listen to Rebecca Wei Hsieh's cinematic narration here, or wherever you get your podcasts. I hope this tale takes you to dark, watery, enclosed and far-flung places!

A huge thanks to Escape Pod for picking this one up, to Clare Rhoden for publishing it originally in From the Waste Land, and to Leanne Yong for beta reading the draft.

A Deep Dive into the Korean Edition of Every Version of You

Just for fun, I thought I’d try something new. In the video above, I take you on a slow, softly spoken, meditative deep dive into the Korean edition of Every Version of You. At the end, I read an exclusive passage in which I reflect on the writing of the book.

Here’s a website where you can purchase the Korean edition of the book!

My writing practice: diving, flowing, changing lanes

I had this vague idea in my head that come February, I’d be well and truly stuck into the first draft of the second novel, but somehow things keep getting in the way. First I wanted to write a revenge novelette (as you do) with Orin’s mother as the main character. If you’ve read my Beaconer stories (The Dunes of Ranza, Nobody Ever Goes Home to Zhenzhu, and Post-Hacking for the Uninitiated), you’ll know Orin well. The revenge part may have been a teensy bit inspired by watching The Glory and Blue-Eyed Samurai and getting swept away by the perfectly-plotted-coldly-determined-long-game-vengeance-vibes. Halfway through the novelette, I remembered how hard it is to actually write novelettes—they’re quite a different beast from short stories. They have sections. They have structure. Stuff needs to happen?! Argh. Anyway, the novelette remains half-drafted.

More broadly than that, I’m still trying to grapple with how writing fits alongside my work roles (multiple, interesting, challenging) and a child (what even is time anymore). Children, I’ve discovered, are funny creatures that evoke all sorts of complex emotions. Each phase of their early lives passes so quickly; spending time with them reminds you of both the novelty and fleeting nature of all experience.

Apart from negotiating creativity and motherhood, I’ve also been negotiating creativity in writing and creativity in other arenas—drawing, painting, games, and skateboarding. I’ve been thinking a fair bit about flow, and how different kinds of art allow for a different expression of the self. I’ve started some a collection of stories on my Instagram highlights where I’m hoping to collate other kinds of art that give me “EVOY vibes”. I may have more thoughts on this in the future!

The revenge novel is hitting a lull, so I think it’s time to put that to one side for now, and turn back to the second novel—for which my excitement is brewing like a cumulonimbus. I mean, it’s gonna have a migration ship, near-immortal caretakers for humans in stasis, a strange affliction, a narrative style washed in memory, and a touch of cosmic horror. What’s not to get excited about?!

For next time…

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen that I did a call-out recently for writing and speculative fiction podcasts. Thank you to those of you who replied! I’m putting the recommendations together into a neat list, with links, and will share it in my next newsletter.

Until then, I hope you find creativity, flow, and rest.

Grace