40 | A draft finished, a gift for you

Deadmedia shares monthly writing updates, folklore & history inspirations, and exclusive content from SF/F author Samantha Garner. Learn more here.

Hi everyone, I’m two days early because I’m too impatient.

There are a couple of updates I’ve been saving for you - firstly, draft 1 of my “Project Awakened” science-fantasy novella trilogy is finally done! Let’s not talk about how I started act two of the last book in JANUARY. Maybe this is why it feels more like bone-deep satisfaction rather than a celebration. I’m happy to report that my usual book-finishing rituals remained intact: 1) Crying at the end and 2) Listening to Peter Gabriel-era Genesis.

We can dispense with the working title now - the trilogy is called The Other Air, a term for the Finnish land of the dead.

To refresh your memory, here are some of the trilogy’s features:

⁂ Set on a tidally-locked planet where the sun never sets⁠.⁠
⁂ Explores community and belonging, the effects of colonialism, and humankind’s environmental impact.⁠
⁂ Folklore/mythology from the Philippines including nuno sa punso and tikbalang⁠.
⁂ Folklore/mythology from Finland including Manala (the land of the dead),⁠ and haltija⁠. ⁠

Want a little visual inspiration? Check out my Pinterest moodboard for the trilogy.

First dibs for the inner circle

Now, the second bit of news. Before I share this anywhere else, I wanted you to have it first. I’ve created a new PDF guide about the nuno sa punso, haltija, tikbalang, and Ajatar, four nature spirits from Finnish and Filipino folklore who guard the edges of our world. Some of them have personal importance to me (and appear in my writing, as you can see above), and some I just think are neat.

In the guide you'll find expanded lore, personal stories, two bonus mythical figures that won’t appear in the eventual shorter blog version, questions for reflection, and simple rituals for connection with the liminal world. Download “Boundary Keepers & Path Shifters: a Field Guide to Mythical Beings of Identity & Belonging” below (the page password is “mythical”). And hit Reply to let me know what you think!

PS, I’m solving the summer problem:

The last few weeks have felt like a quiet internal turn. My Undone Rituals literary mixtape project on Patreon is heavily seasonal, and as a classic summer hater I’d been dreading this season’s mixtape a little bit. But by the time summer came around I found I wanted to deconstruct and analyze it.

I decided to start with trees, to learn them with more specificity than “that’s a linden.” Daily exposure to trees—in my neighbourhood or in a forest—is a summer non-negotiable. I wrote a whole novel about forest magic and I loved researching tree stuff. So deepening my “tree lore” felt right.

It’s ongoing, sometimes overwhelming. I learned to understand just one tree near me (littleleaf linden) before learning another. Now I go on my walks looking up more often. I linger in the shade. I notice how neighbourhood trees change in the subtle August shift. I say hi to my faves. And sometimes, when the wind is right, it feels like they say hi back.

I want to hear from you!

Thanks for reading Deadmedia today. I’d love to hear what you thought—leave me a comment or hit reply to send me an email!

Talk soon,
-Sg.

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