Hello from writeathon recovery zone ⌨️
I come to you from my bed the day after a writeathon in which I logged 8,500 words on my WIP! And by “from my bed,” I mean literally, because I didn’t wake up til past 1 p.m. today and I haven’t made it out of bed since then, lol.
Last week I was recovering from my trip to Chicago — and the cold that resurfaced, so my apologies for not sending a newsletter! I was taking the idea of “rest” to heart. I was also spending six hours on a google meet with some friends, which was restorative if not restful!
I’m not going to share too much about yesterday’s writeathon here because, frankly, I’m still debriefing with myself, lol. I hope you’re all taking care of yourselves, showing love to your fellow humans, and if you’re in NYC, enjoying this stunning weekend weather!
From the heart 💗
I did something this week that was both impulsive and long-thought-out: I came out as a lesbian on certain social channels.
I have identified as bisexual for the past several years, and been open and out about that identity, so this wasn’t as much of a big deal as my initial coming out was, probably. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a big deal to me.
I’ve been afraid to claim the lable lesbian, because my history has shown many crushes on boys and men, and I used to dream of getting married to a man and having his babies and all sorts of things that don’t initially scream, “this woman is not interested in men.”
So while I was in Chicago, I pulled up the “am I a lesbian” masterdoc and did some reading. I’ve had this page bookmarked for years, because, well, it only took a few months after coming out as bi for me to realize I wasn’t really into men anymore.
I won’t tell you what I learned from the doc (you can read it yourself, lol), but I will tell you that it gave me the courage to claim for myself a label that scared the shit out of me.
Labels aren’t good for everyone, I recognize, but I’ve always been someone who likes to have a name for what and who and how I am. It’s true with my mental health, and it’s true with my sexuality. I’d reached a point where I was more comfortable calling myself “queer” than “bi” because I was so unsure about the “being attracted to men” aspect.
But coming out again was scary. Not only because I had this fear of “what will happen if, in some distant future, I like a man?” but also because I was afraid that I didn’t deserve to claim this label.
Ultimately, though, I do believe that no one else can decide who I am — just like no one else can decide who you are. We are masters of our own identity, and even those who know us best will never know us as well as we know ourselves.
So if you’re dancing around something you know to be true — whether it’s about your sexuality, your neurodivergence, or any other aspect of your identity — I want you to know that you can claim to be who you are. You don’t have to! But you can. That’s allowed.
From the camera roll 📸
From the page ✍️
About six weeks ago, I fired off a draft of a YA witchy romance to my agent and settled in for a long wait to hear back his thoughts.
It only took three weeks, though, for him to hit me with a big question: are you sure this book isn’t middle grade?
Here’s the thing — I’ve been a YA author since I started writing novels. Of the seven I’ve completed, all of them have been for young adults. I am very attached to being a young adult author. And while I’ve danced around writing middle grade and even adult (going so far as to fully outline several projects in each space), I’ve never actually written or completed a draft of anything but a YA novel.
My agent’s suggestion kinda rocked my world, if I’m being honest. There was the immediate fear — do I even know how to write at all, if what I’d intended to be YA was actually reading more as MG? Following swiftly on those heels came the overwhelm at what a big undertaking it would be to rewrite the book for a different audience. And then came excitement: my brain started firing on all cylinders and I started realizing all the ways that this simple change, from 16 to 13 and YA to MG, would actually fix some plot holes.
So I decided to do something drastic (and I’m pretty sure Eric did not anticipate me doing this when he suggested the change, lol): I decided to redraft from scratch. I fired up a blank google doc, called it Hex Draft 5, and started typing. Yesterday, I wrote 8,500 words in the new document, bringing my draft total to just over 11,000. And you know what? I kind of love it.
It’s still terrifying, of course, because what if I mess up again and turn in this new sparkling middle-grade draft and find out it’s YA, actually? It’s overwhelming, because I have a lot of words left to draft, and then revisions to go over, before it’ll be ready to send back to my agent. But it’s also exciting: I’m doing something new and bold, and I’m fixing problems that arose in previous drafts.
Before I sent this book to Eric, I will confess I was a little burnt out on it. I had worked on it consistently since last September, going through at least three whole drafts of it. I was ready to yeet it into the void and have a professional tell me what to do with it. There was a part of me that hoped (thought?) that he would tell me it was about ready to go on sub. Lol.
The break that I took while he read the book, as well as the accidental break I took while I was in Chicago, reignited my love for the project. So now I’m ready to dive in. Let’s go, baby!
Alla prossima 👋
As I sign off, I would love to drop a lil linky link to the fundraising page for my Lambda retreat. I have about another month to raise funds, and I’d love to get close to the full retreat price covered.
That said, if you have money to donate, I’m also going to link to Operation Olive Branch and Gaza Funds, both of which are excellent ways to get money directly into the hands of Palestinians trying to survive Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. Because, as much as my social media feeds this weekend have revolved around Bridgerton alone, Israel is still constantly killing Palestinians. They need our help and support now as much as ever.
Love y’all.
— Karis xoxo
I am so happy for you ❤️
And I think MG Hex is gonna be phenomenal
I am in awe of you as both a writer and a person 💗💗💗