Author. He/him. Barely here. Latest: LOST ARK DREAMING (2024 Nebula & Ignyte Award Finalist). Forthcoming: SEASON OF THE SERPENT (The Nameless Republic #3). https://suyidavies.com/links
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As Nalo rightly pointed out, affording an assistant is likely a significant challenge for most authors, simply because the earnings typically aren't enough. I've been lucky enough to be able to afford it for near half a decade, even though I've had to take cuts elsewhere--the upsides are worth it.
Boosting this (and the whole, very nice thread). I worked with Tiffany for about a year or so back in, what was it, 2018/19? She long set the bar for any business managers I would go on to have. Indeed worth her weight in gold; you should consider hiring her if you're looking to work with someone.
I find the performance particularly abhorrent, not least because nothing separates this guy's death from those who've died in ICE custody, from denied health coverage, lack of vaccination, school shootings, rioters on Jan 6, and other violences this government runs on. Nothing.
It's one thing to sensibly decry "political violence" and advocate for "gun laws", words that suggest no actor and therefore may be applied equitably. It's another thing, however, to suggest I must distribute my sympathies equitably as well. Don't make me tap this sign: bsky.app/profile/suyi...
When I was a grad student in Arizona, Turning Point USA would send its members from Phoenix down to our campus in Tucson to harass queer instructors. There'd be a "harasser" following the instructor around & "asking questions," a cameraperson recording the encounter, & an "enforcer" for menace.
Thank you, Iryn!
bask in the brilliance of this cover!
Thank you! Excellent art doing most of the heavy lifting, tbf
It very much is! Good work by the great Dan dos Santos + Lauren Panepinto @ Orbit.
Look at our gal--so freshhh! The majesty, the jewellery, the braids. The authority, the defiance, the gaze. The casual step-on-me energy. Esheme hive, rise--this is our time!
Welcome to the final reckoning. SEASON OF THE SERPENT 🐍, the final book in The Nameless Republic trilogy, is out from Orbit Books in August 2026. Buckle up.
I don't really care if the future is short videos. I like words. Words have gotten me this far and I'm gonna stick with 'em for the duration
Perhaps I feel most concerned about where "Using your talents and resources to help others" ranks on the right side of this chart. A country sliding into dangerous times, and a slice of its next generation is already committed to ignoring the wellbeing of their neighbours? Well, that's not good.
The Sauútiverse keeps expanding! Behold the cover for our 2nd anthology: Sauúti Terrors! Following Mothersound, return to the Sauútiverse - our collectively-built, Afrocentric, matriarchal shared-world of strange planets & sound magic - for dark fantasy, SF & horror stories & poetry. Jan 2026.
If you see my face in a video (that's not an interview/podcast) and I'm smiling, laughing or being goofy *on purpose*, I assure you there's a metaphorical gun pointed at me out of frame. I'm a fun guy! A fun author even! But on video? On purpose? Lol.
Cover reveal for SEASON OF THE SERPENT in 3, 2, 1 days. And look---a tiny peek! (What do we suppose is on the cover? Wrong answers only.)
In May 2022, an Israeli sniper shot and killed Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh. Last week, Israel targeted and killed five journalists in one attack. In between those dates, Israel became the largest killer of journalists in the world.
HRB keeps you updated about events... Like this one coming up in NYC with @shereereneethomas.bsky.social and @suyidavies.com ! #bookevent 💙📚
Oh it's for sure overwhelming, no matter what you go as 😄 I've ended up not attending anymore for the very reason that I'm simply unable to take that degree of overwhelm.
More the latter, I believe. (I'm curious to hear your eventual assessment of AWP; it can be quite jarring to folks conversant with genre spaces.)
"will be fondly remembered for..." *goes on to list worst qualities*
They had me in the first half! Completely thought it was a celebratory banner--and then! a curveball! Classic.
Must take quite a dim view of their readership to assume they cannot rise to the occasion of pronouncing a 3-syllable name, and that's before they get the proposed pronunciation wrong!
A new tenure track fiction job at Oberlin, deadline of 9/15/2025. jobs.oberlin.edu/postings/16771
This seems like a sensible plan I should keep in mind
A very happy birthday indeed 😄 (Thank you, though!)
The duality of man: It was my birthday this past week. It was also the first time I fell down the stairs. Only one of those two things is shown in this photo.
Overall, I expect more "It can be owned because it's not really human" arguments to settle into public lexicon sooner rather than later. Probably (but hopefully not) in my lifetime.
Heck, the rush to anthromorphize genAI software--currently without physical "bodily" representation--shows we're primed for dehumanized labour with human atrributes. Plus: we already dehumanize the humans who do labor we believe is beneath us. (See every aspect of current anti-immigrant rhetoric.)
Between recent popculture imaginaries (Murderbot, Alien Earth, etc) & the technofeudalism of major global corpos, "humanlike entities" being owned as capital strikes me as a key near-future concern. First, it's been done before (see: chattel slavery) & second, many will gladly do it again.
Twisted Metal S1 is a bit run-of-the-mill but stays true to the spirit of the video game. But S2---oof. Triples down on everything that made game & show deliciously irreverent: more chaos, more freak energy, more goof. It's a big joke of a TV show that knows how to laugh at itself. Solid craic.
Pretty much this: bsky.app/profile/suyi...
Ooh, just saw this: I don't believe they're being gatekept. The person is still writing & I'm not a publisher! But they were asking for advice to get to their destination quicker, and my advice was pretty much that: read more/wider, write more in the field you're trying to publish in; no shortcuts.
This is a short one, but once its over, if you'd like more recent Wokoma, she's in a contemporary romcom titled Cheaters, S1 & S2. Phenomenal acting work there too + lead in a more-drama-than-comedy role.
In my lifelong quest to watch everything Susan Wokoma has ever been in, ended up stumbling into this slept on one-season wonder with the irrepresible Matt Berry. Hilarious.
Oh, that's a given over here for sure
Agreed. I've never considered such lists, & even when I come across them, they're barely ever representative of what I'm looking for. I find that a narrower network of trusted recommendations is likelier (e.g. I found TESTED after FLASH FORWARD ended). We often follow those whose work we trust.
I'll never understand the finger-wagging that happens whenever a horrible person dies in Western nations. You better get gud with speaking ill of the horrible dead! When the brutal Sani Abacha died in '94, Nigerians patrolled the streets with a casket, dancing. This was us:
One thing you can trust Nigerians to do is pull out all the stops to celebrate the demise of a knobhead. Americans, when that day arrives (you know the day I mean), you better be out there in the streets with your dancing shoes on, popping champagne and throwing block parties.
At every stage I did what the state asked me to, even though it was humiliating, degrading and cruel. And it kept moving the goalposts, and reneging on the agreements it made, whilst continuing to hold me to them even when they are now mutually contradictory. (12/13)
As it's still valid, presumably if I don't keep following it, I am also breaking the law and subject to arrest. The law of the land simultaneously requires me to be both a man and a woman and if I do either then I am breaking the law and subject to arrest. (11/13)
Trialing device-free classrooms this term as well, myself included. Means a lot more prep (e.g. sharing printed study points with students, etc). Note-taking via electronic device only for exceptions (e.g. accommodations) & agreed ahead of time. We'll see how it goes, but something has to give.
Proud hAIter over here.
Took me a while, but I've discovered the secret to slipping into the correct headspace for writing in my home office: It's the lights. I need 5-6 small increments of light levels: from total darkness to three lamps on + window open + overhead light with dimmer switch, & everything in between.
Today in Authorland: - Dread-opening a manuscript attached to a bright-toned editorial email; - weeping as it lists "364 comments"; - a sigh of relief, as most are "yesss" and "so good"; - weeping again, cos that last 3-paragraph comment means rewriting half the manuscript 😭
New devices handed to me by my institution: the laptop keyboard has a "Copilot button" and the tablet's has a "Gemini button". Even more evidence that "genAI" is a spaghetti-&-marshmallows grift that needs brute-forced buy-in to hold. A useful product won't need to hold potential users hostage.
I've read a lot of this column over the past few years and always wondered if I'd be able to do it (I concluded I wouldn't; I'd be too upset, lol). However, this discussion seems closer to the spirit of talking across divides that the column hopes to embody, so kudos to you, actually.
I mean, he's running under another banner now, but that is moot. Best if he just runs under the banner of fascists, where he belongs.
I'm neither a New Yorker nor American, but I cannot be convinced that Andrew Cuomo is a Democrat. There is simply no evidence of this.
So, so badly. In an alternate universe, that show could've gone on for seasons, and Beharie & her co-star's careers could've taken off.
12 years ago, the Sleepy Hollow show introduced us to the criminally underrated Nicole Beharie as Lt. Abbie Mills. Could've been a new Mulder/Scully! Unfortunately the show died after refusing to support Beharie during an illness (insisted she continue working while her co-star took time off).
For decades, I didn't know (until I later learned) that the big toe was supposed to be the longest toe on each foot, because...on my feet, it's the *third* longest.
I point this out for clarity. I also have a long-term interest in how my crafting of ideas is sometimes confused for the very serious idea being crafted. So to be clear: AI is political attack on labor with few limited cases for social value and an absolute ecological disaster.
Ignyte Award @theignyteawards.bsky.social voting is open to the public through August 15th. PseudoPod, @podcastle.org and @castofwonders.org are finalists and you totally could vote for one of us! 😁 ignyteawards.fiyahlitmag.com/vote
Perhaps they want to "have written" the novel more than they want to "write" it.
😭
If you hadn't mentioned they were men, I'd simply have assumed, because most of the folks who approach me with this attitude are often, almost always, men.
Huh, this broke containment real quick. Now muted. To clarify, though: I wasn't upset by this, just baffled. I also gave them a lot of tips on how to develop a reading & writing practice, so maybe they'll end up quite alright.
One thing they never tell you about being a writer in residence in any sort of public capacity is simply HOW MANY people will come to you with copious questions about how to write a novel...without actually wanting to read a novel or, get this, even write one.
Or, basically: long fanfiction, will have to be rewritten as a novel for it to function as one, which is a lot harder than it seems at first and still requires one to know how a novel works.
What I said was more like: They can't write long fanfiction & pretend it's a novel---fanfic is its own form & approach. They'll still have to learn how to write a novel, or else they'll just have a bad novel. Bad novels get published & sell in high numbers all the time, though. But will theirs?
I'm of the belief that the accessibility tothe writer's tools of creation (word processor, pen/paper etc) affects this. In other arts, you must first become familiar @ a high level with the instruments & tools of creation, AND the skill, AND the theory & practice, before even dreaming of a career.
This person, like many who've come seeking advice, wanting to know "how you've achieved it", seem to have no separation between loving stories, having ideas & becoming a professional author. Shocked, they often are, that the One Weird Trick is reading more & writing (badly) until it gets good.
I have a lot of ideas, insisted the person. Well, YOU can't sell ideas, I said. You sell a novel you've written. & to do that, you have to learn how to write a good novel, a separate & distinct thing from pivoting off other media. The number of times I had to say "a novel is not long fanfiction."
This week, I had a long chat with yet another person who wants to be an author. Has "written a fanfic novel" and now wants to "write my own and sell it to publishers". OK, name the last 5 novels you've read? Problem. OK; what's the last non-fanfic thing you've written? Nothing.
I believe the semi-blasphemy is part of the point 😂 The writing of a book can feel both existential--and yet, at the same time too banal--as to be comparable in this manner.
Your friendly neighbourhood author, after turning in the final book in The Nameless Republic trilogy:
Outside of narrow specialty (& not necessarily ethical or positive) usage within certain industries, these genAI models are best publicly employed in producing destructive reality recreations, giving those devoted to their own realities the words & imagery to force it upon everyone else.
To clarify, it is absolutely nothing like that, & will never be.
My plan is to one day include Dambe in one of my novels. Haven't found space for it yet, but by Jove, someday I will. Got to watch a few fights when I lived in Minna. The choreography, the athleticism, the skill---top stuff right there.
GOOD MORNING, CAN I INTEREST YOU IN SOME MURMAIDER (get it?) Year of the Mer cover reveal. Go buy my book. www.pastemagazine.com/books/l-d-le...
My living room is still boxes galore, but we're getting games shipped out as fast as our hands can go! So exciting to see pics of Prosper with Dragons in the wild!
Yay! Enjoy!
Excellent mail day! Beautiful Prosper with Dragons card game and note from @nickydrayden.bsky.social and @suyidavies.com . Can’t wait to play!
In the new Washington Black TV show, some guy criticizes Nat Turner (yes, the historical figure) for revolting via murder of enslavers, rather than via "sensible dialogue." Turner puts a dagger to the guy's throat, like "dialogue with this, mf." And that's how I try to live in these times.
Black Mirror, S2 E1: "Be Right Back."
Disagree. Self-publishing's own troubles are relatively challenging.
Exactly! You celebrate everything twice---privately, when you first get the good news, and publicly, when finally announced. But the gap between the you who had a visceral response to that success and the you who publicly performs a celebration can be so wide. A constant double consciousness!
We clearly do it for the dopamine rush, cos we sure don't just do it for the paycheck!
Being an author in traditional publishing is such a constant brain somersault. Exciting things happen that you can't yet enjoy publicly, while you're elbow-deep in the late stages of previously contracted work, while mired in the equally exciting & hair-pulling creative quicksand of a fresh project.
So horrific, and yet so strange to watch it settle in as the new normal. (Or, in many ways, simply a repeat of the old normal.)
Almost as if the ground is being prepared for this grab-bag of perceived enemies to be considered subhuman before perpetuating a large-scale attack on them. Almost as if. The current phase is institutional capture, but I wonder what happens once that is complete & this language has set in.
The orange clown & a few lackeys used such language, visuals & rhetoric during the first term. It is now the remit of every facet of the admin, from top brass to foot soldiers to neutral parastatals. Alien, criminal, liar, nasty, dirty--every insult short of "animal" or "vermin". For now, at least.
I'm constantly shutting my eyes & plugging my ears whenever US news appears in my feed, but when I'm ambushed too quickly by it, the thing I find most particular--that I'm yet to see more USians talk about--is the constant dehumanizing language used by the admin to describe their perceived enemies.
Yes, I'm bleary-eyed and cranky--why do you ask?
Having always made judicious use of em-dashes, I'm so glad (derogatory) that "humans don't use em-dashes, bots do" is now heyday discourse. Please, carry on! Keep at this! What better way for someone to signal to me right out the gate that they might be, in fact, foolish.
When you strip away humanity
THIS AIN'T MY DAD; THIS IS A CELLPHONE
ISRAEL IS STARVING GAZA. what else do you need to know? Divest. Raise your voice. The US is funding this genocide. We all own it. This is not complex.
My reading of that book was as a locked room horror for normies, if one stretched the boundaries of "locked", "room" and "horror" as far as possible to the edges of their their interpretations, and if all the haunting was being done to each other.
Read this on vacation last year, and oof. Loved it. Wang is so adept at taking the minutae of discomfort and blowing them up.
An excellent review of the kind of fantasy I love to see, and that I only have faith a few folks are able to pull off, one of such being Tasha. Congratulations! (Definitely going to read this one soon.)
I find this refreshing, that amidst the algorithmic-forward cultural zeitgeist, the variety--rough edges included--suggests that writers are still out there trying to write their own specific thing, and that there's still a book for every kind of reader within the great tapestry of science fiction.
I often see this used as banter and can't be convinced that anyone seriously thinks this. Despite being an SFF writer, I've never ever solely read SFF--in fact, I might even say I've read more of other "genres" collectively than I've read SFF altogether, and ALL GENRES have quite the variety.
Sounds 100% like a Mona Awad novel
Catch me and a bunch of other exciting authors in this come October.
Thank you for facing it out, @harvardbookstore.bsky.social! cc shelfbuddy @suyidavies.com 👋🏼
100% this. Some kids are kinda alright, and I'd love for us to encourage those kids by showing others like them often (rather than give further airtime to the gormless, very not okay adults bringing this about).
I like this very much.
Yesterday, two young men on the train (one of whom kept goofily, amusingly, mimicking the train voice, "Ouverture la porte" and cackling thereafter) loudly & publicly rejected AI, saying: "Use your brain, man. It's better than a computer." Less doomerism, more coverage like this, thanks.