Hello, Inklings!

Eliwood, here! It has been a cold May, filled with writing and house projects alike. My hometown in Upstate NY will never live down the year we got snow on Mother’s Day some decades ago, and while we haven’t quite reached that degree, it’s still a lot chillier than expected. I can’t really complain, since yardwork is much easier in the cooler temps, but it certainly keeps my thermostat guessing!

Growing Metaphors

I don’t consider myself an experienced gardener by any means, but I’ve been at it for long enough to have learned a few lessons along the way. I grew up helping my parents weed their vegetable bed, and one important thing that taught me was this gem: if I hate doing something, it’s going to make it very difficult to convince myself to do it. 

But, even non-gardeners out there will recognize the necessity of preventing weeds from choking out precious tomato plants or cucumber vines. So what choice does that leave you? Well, you could always ignore the problem, and hope it goes away. (Personal experience says: mixed to poor results.) You could force yourself to do the thing you hate and wait for the rewarding results. (Neurodivergent experience says: this is an extremely unreliable method. You will not be the same person in a month as the optimistic one that made this plan.) You could hire someone else to do it. (I don’t have kids of my own to pressgang, and my wallet vetoes using anyone else.) Or you could just not garden at all, and cut out the problem at the source. (I took a break from gardening last year. I didn’t miss negotiating with weeds, but I missed everything else).

So what to do?

(I’m going somewhere with this, stay with me.)

I’ve struggled a lot with my writing. I’ve always loved it, and always wanted to be a writer. But completing stories, committing to rounds of editing, trudging through drafting – honestly, finishing anything seemed like the impossible standard. My process tended to look like:

1. Inspiration!
2. Feverish writing (Anywhere from 2-50 pages)
3. Minor roadblock
4. Drag through as long as possible (for NaNoWriMo, until 50,000 words)
5. Put it away and never look at it again

I’ve talked about this before, but Bludeye Beach was the first book I’ve written that I’ve been able to commit to the finish line. And don’t tell Edie and the others, but it’s not because this is the first story I’ve loved this much. I’ve loved and written dozens of characters and plotlines. But Bludeye had something nothing else had: a planned approach that finally worked. A plan that basically required me to frontload as much of the work as possible, so that when it came time to write, I never got stuck at that third Roadblock step. Sure, I hit little bumps along the way, but I’ve finally found a method that helps me navigate these issues ahead of time, so I can focus on the work in a way that keeps me going.

Now you, clever Inkling, have probably already guessed where this comparison is going. I, as a gardener, have spent this early Spring frontloading as much work as possible to help me with weeds, invading pests, and all the dreaded parts of gardening; with some help, I’ve put together new raised garden beds, covered them with mulch, and set up a system that (hopefully) is going to get me through the worst of those roadblocks. 

Not all plans are going to work the same way for everyone. But maybe there is some wisdom in, when approaching a project, stopping to assess your future roadblocks along the way. You won’t foresee every problem, but you might be able to see the shape of your path a little clearer with some lessons previously learned guiding your path.

(Hold on. Is this just the wisdom that comes with age? I may have been had …)

Pride

Hook & Quill Press is, I’m proud to say, inextricably linked with queerness. We write queer characters, we wear our own identities with pride, and we are unapologetically here for more queer art. And part of that, for me, is because truly there was not this level of nuanced discussion around queerness that exists today. I had a sort of persistent drumbeat of knowing there was something Different in the way I viewed myself and understood my own feelings, but that was basically it. I didn’t find a word that matched how I could view myself until well into my twenties. Even now, I’m in what passes as a heterosexual marriage, but I am so proud of how much I’ve integrated my own understanding of myself and my attractions that I barely think about it anymore. 

For me, Pride Month isn’t necessarily about coming out or proving to the world I’m here (though these are both worthy things of celebrating) – it’s about reminding myself that queerness itself is worth celebrating. Understanding that the narrative that was repeated about the “right” way was only one way, and that the real power comes from understanding yourself enough to know what you actually want – and then finding the community that can help support you in your pursuit of that life. 

I don’t have to remind anyone here that the comfort of normalization I have come to appreciate is very much under attack. But I can say one thing for sure – I’m not going anywhere. The queer community isn’t going anywhere. And even if where you are, right now, isn’t a safe place for you to be yourself, there is a safe place for you somewhere. You are worth celebrating, you are worth normalizing, and you existing at all is so, so important. 

Hook & Quill Updates

Spring is the season of growth, and we’ve certainly seen that; our number of published books has doubled, and Hook & Quill has also produced its first ever Zine! The Gods of Atalantis is currently available here digitally (keep your eyes peeled for that physical release!), Bludeye Beach is available here, and you can grab our Zine from Patreon, Ko-Fi, or itch.io. 

We also may be working on our next Zine already…with this month being a celebration of Gay Pride, we may have been very influenced by that concept!

Where in the World is Quillbert?

Even in the cooler temps, Quillbert has been enjoying his time by the water, including this beautiful lake in the Poconos area. I tried to tell him about the difference between freshwater and saltwater, but, and I quote, “octopuses have already developed the technology”. Whatever that means? 

As always, thank you for your support!

Best,

Eliwood