yours in calendrical heresy

MUHAHAHAHAHA redactions and all

Thriller WIP; taking a break from contracted work to work on a novel on spec.

Mina's husband, a war hero, was gunned down in front of her during a screaming argument. Two years, seven months, and twenty-three days later, she's ready to trade mourning black and research mathematics for a quiet job at the pet shelter. But the government offers her a position with a black ops unit....led by a man claiming to be her husband. Mina races to decipher why he doesn't remember their marriage--and the real target of his missions--before he adds her to his kill count.

My novels evolve a ton during the writing, but a fake blurb is a great way to focus my drafting while I'm still sussing out the novel.

This may be one of my fave character inventory templates, from a Wacom character design workshop. Guess which one's Cheris and which one's Jedao! :D

I had not actually thought I'd finally achieve ~45 wraps per inch of fine thread handspun by blending ramie (모시 or mosi in Korean) and muga silk (chosen for a similar/compatible staple length). Thankfully this doesn't have to be plied if I set the twist as both the bast fiber and silk are going to be plenty strong and I still despise plying. /o\

Next to a computer mouse for scale lol.

Here it is on the wheel; the other colors are from previous spinning experiments, underneath. Fountain pen for scale.

The pattern is Kristina Nichols' Lakeview Placemats (Gist Yarn). I do plan to do these in a colorway other than NACHOS; these are for a friend who's also from Texas and shares my sense of humor. :p

Warped the Saori WX-60 floor loom!

Get an 8.5"x11" or A4 notebook, fountain-pen-friendly-ish, so I can keep scribbling at Next Novel on spec lolsob. Ninefox Gambit was drafted longhand, although the original draft was a flood casualty. I think I still have a partial notebook of the first draft of Revenant Gun that survived the flood, although it's almost all scenes that got cut completely because I couldn't get them to work while we were recovering from a flood that knocked out most of Central Louisiana.

Today's actual accomplishment was finishing threading the heddles on the kimono loom. I need a break before sleying the reed; I also have some orchestral mockup practice f9o9r school. :3

Currently I'm in love with Treenway Silks' "Resilience" yarn (bombyx silk / retted bamboo blend). I tried dyeing it yesterday in a spirit of experimentation; efficient I was not, but the results are pretty! Since this is intended for my own use (handweaving) and fortunately dyeing is time-consuming but much of that time is unattended soaking...

I'm now a great believer in C-clamps - there's one holding a lamp in place so I can thread the heddles more easily in this room's terrible lighting, and two in the blurry background holding the raddle in place on the back beam to keep my warp organized on this floor loom.

I originally made this box (Davey board, bookcloth, decorative papers) to hold paintbrushes, but it works just as well for my threading and sleying hooks! (The paintbrushes are fine and are now living in mugs.)

I own multiple Micro Journals by Un Kyu Lee and adore them; I went through a bunch of writerdeck/similar options during the year I was bedridden (illness). Un Kyu Lee provides build instructions, STL files, and firmware for those who are comfortable with DIY builds using ESP32 or Raspberry Pi and 3D printing. I personally can't handle e.g. soldering so I buy the premade builds that he periodically makes available as a one-man shop. (He's currently in South Korea, so for shipping reasons one might prefer to build locally.)

I'm noodling at various novel projects on spec (since I'm in hock for a composition/orchestration MFA, which is keeping me delightfully busy!) so the Micro Journal Rev.5.1 is a welcome companion! I knew I would like this as the earlier Rev.5 is also one of my faves.

Here it is with a keyboard (connected over USB-A); you provide your own.

I'm wildly surprised bids went this high?! Thank you to everyone who supported Romancing the Vote. (Yes, I made bids on stuff. Different stuff. I even won a couple!) They're processing a lot of donations so I guess I wait to find out if the winning bidder has particular Items of Interest they want annotated. :3

took a break with handspinning.

Clearly, catten is a handspinner! :D

As a novice, anyway; but I got the warp beamed onto the Inagaki R-25 kimono loom (for sampling placemats), which frees up the correct raddle so I can redo the warp for the Saori WX-60, which will then free up stuff so I can wind a warp for the Saori Piccolo... /o\

Terribad iPhone video (I was holding the phone in one hand and winding with the other hand) showing a bit of the beaming-on process on the Inagaki R-25.

I am not currently under contract (respite to do a part-time MFA and recuperate) so back to freewriting whatever the heck I feel like!

Commissioned (in separate years) from Renée Meeks of Scriptorium Pens. She's an absolute pleasure to work with and the pens, which really do belong together, are beautiful and write so well. The rollstoppers were based on my Ninefox emblem design.

This is US-specific in its goals, but Romancing the Vote “is a massive auction (July 1 to 6) featuring your favorite authors, crafters, comic book artists, screenwriters, video game creators, scientists, and more! this year all money raised goes to Vote Riders and the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, two organizations fighting to preserve the right for every person to have their vote counted.” Many auctions will be open to international bidders, though!

I have three auctions listed; feel free to ping me at [email protected] if you have questions about specifications.

Ninefox Gambit: Annotated - Are you dying to know what backstory got cut (entire flashbacks), added on a whim (formation instinct, the spur-of-the-moment invention that warped the entire Machineries of Empire trilogy), whether Jedao was lying/telling the truth/AVOCADO_ERROR for every single statement or where the mathy bits were supposed to go before my husband the astrophysicist told me to cut them? What was behind XYZ keyboardsmash worldbuilding word choice or where the Korean military history references were hiding? You're in luck! I'm offering one (1) typed and/or handwritten (hand health permitting) annotated copy of NINEFOX GAMBIT. The margins are small so you're getting the notes in a separate/companion notebook or volume. Maybe scurrilous explanatory cartoons/character sketches if I'm inspired. You never know! (The starting bid is $77 because I'm a troll and the extra copy I have lying around is probably the fancy edition hardcover, sorry not sorry.)

Tarot Art of Your Character! - Digital painting/illustration in an ink-and-wash inspired style; typical examples from the Ninefox Tarot WIP. Digital delivery only.

Bespoke orchestral music - Orchestral composition up to two minutes and mockup using VSTs (my toolbox includes Vienna Symphonic Library, Orchestral Tools, 8dio, Performance Samples, Impact Soundworks… too many to list, really). My music reel has short examples; my Bandcamp, especially the mini-album Trailures and Other Fiascoes, has full pieces if you’d like to explore further. Digital delivery only (for the audio file; this doesn’t include an engraved score). I've attached an example hybrid orchestral piece I composed and mocked up, "Fragmentation and Other Fiascoes."

A selection of other auctions (of the many!) that might be of interest:

Annotated copy of Ursula Whitcher’s North Continent Ribbon - On Nakharat, every contract is a ribbon and every ribbon is a secret, braided tight and tucked behind a veil. I’m biased because I read a number of these luminous, nuanced, thought-provoking science fiction stories, linked by a common culture/setting, in draft, as well as blurbing the book; the collection was a finalist for the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin prize. Ursula herself is ferociously brilliant across multiple disciplines: mathematician, editor, author, poet, knitter/knitting pattern designer (notably including - I’m biased again - the Jedao gloves pattern!), activist. If you don’t bid on this, I will because I am dyyyyying for deets.

1-Hour Biology/Worldbuilding consult with niqaeli #1 and offering #2 - Who’s niqaeli, you might ask? Among many other things, she’s a friend of mine with a biology degree and she helps me with worldbuilding on the regular. Any handwave nonsense is on me; she’s terrific at logicking through unhinged sci-fantasy/superhero/etc premises so I can decide how much handwave is on the menu. A++, endorse wholeheartedly; of more weight, she’s also endorsed by Arkady Martine and Christopher Rice! :D