41 | Seasonal shifts, revisiting projects

Hi everyone,

The last weeks of summer feel weirdly bittersweet. I wrote in my last letter about how my classic summer hatred has been easing a bit while working on the Summer Mixtape for my Undone Rituals project on Patreon. I’m releasing it the day before fall starts, and so I’ve been preoccupied with that time in a different way than I usually am. There’s excitement for autumn, sure, but I also feel this tension between the ending of one thing and the beginning of another. We’re in a threshold, baby — the most exciting place for creativity.

Familiar yet changed

I’ve been taking my time editing my first draft of The Other Air. I’m in no rush — it’s only been four months since Twist the Branch went on submission. In this stretched-out space I’ve been thinking of returning to TTB’s sequel, Corrode the Song. I set it aside a long time ago, seven chapters in. I keep thinking about it. It feels like approaching an old house and hesitating on the porch. There’s relief seeing that it’s still standing, but also nervousness about opening. What have my characters been up to inside?

I’ve been thinking about how to make re-entry gentler, more intentional. Maybe some sort of ritual. Maybe something to mirror the threshold-y aspect of this period. The few days my husband and I spent at a cottage at the base of a foresty hill (pictured above — I really loved that rock!) felt significant in that seasonal-threshold way. Out there, observing the changes, everything felt full of meaning.

In Finland, the name day for the name Mielikki is September 23. As the most famous Mielikki is the Finnish goddess of the forest, Reetta Ranta suggests leaving a small offering of food or drink at the foot of a tree on that day.

And in the Tagalog pantheon, Mapulon is the god of seasons. While my personal history makes me not super comfortable with the thought of worshipping deities, I do love the thought of a god of all seasons and not just one season, or a component of one. And Mapulon is said to be super chill. Maybe just appreciating this seasonal turn in the world and the inner turn in my writing life will suffice. Mapulon was also seen as the constellation Pleiades, so this could be the time to bust out the lined constellation-print leggings I bought for my Iceland trip where I walked into the shop with the mission “get the witchiest/gothiest ones they’ve got.” Not-yet-autumn-weather be damned!

Thank you for the Field Guide love!

Thank you to everyone who’s downloaded “Boundary Keepers & Path Shifters: a Field Guide to Mythical Beings of Identity & Belonging,” and to those who’ve let me know they like it. I’m so glad you did! I’ve been casually yet intentionally doing more active research on Filipino & Finnish folklore and mythology, largely inspired by the field guide. I’ve been beefing up my existing knowledge and learning more about other things — in short, I’ve been enjoying myself quite a lot. So I have you to thank for that as well. In fact, I might share a bit next month about Kekri, the ancient Finnish & Karelian harvest festival celebrated in October/November. I’m already looking forward to it!

PS, advice for and about beta readers/critique partners

My last two columns at Open Book were on the theme of writing feedback — both how to give useful writing feedback as a beta reader/critique partner, and how to receieve useful writing feedback as a writer. I hope one or both of these will be helpful for you!

I want to hear from you!

Thanks for reading Deadmedia today. What are your favourite transitional season rituals? How do you deal with transitional periods in your writing/creativity? I’d love to hear what you think — leave me a comment or hit Reply to send me an email!

Talk soon,
-Sg.

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