43 | Behind the scenes of my new story

& Patreon sneak peek!

Samantha Garner
November 15, 2025

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

Hi everyone,

Anyone else’s head spinning? How is it mid-November? Not that I’m complaining, mind. It’s still autumn of course, and I’m enjoying the quiet coziness the season requires. I also can’t resist looking forward, just a bit. Today I’ll share an exclusive look behind the scenes of my latest story, and a look ahead at what’s coming next year on Patreon.

Ginger & Smoke story - Behind the scenes

You may have seen on social media that I have a short story, “Learn the New Light,” in the first issue of Ginger & Smoke magazine. A Filipino-Canadian first, Ginger & Smoke is a genre-blending publication reclaiming Filipino folklore, mythology and fairy tales. It’s basically my dream publication!

“Learn the New Light” is a science-fantasy story about a nuno sa punso living on a tidally-locked planet, grappling with guilt over his failure to protect his land against expansion by human settlers. It explores his fractured relationship with his community and the “Eternal Ones” Anitun Tabu and Meylupa.

As you will have seen in your subscriber-exclusive folklore field guide, the nuno sa punso is one of my favourite characters from Filipino mythology. To help create this story I turned to Katie Li’s From Song to Story course, where you write a short story using a song as idea generation and inspiration.

The song I chose was Lhasa de Sela’s “Soon This Space Will Be Too Small.” Lhasa’s album “The Living Road” has been a quiet favourite of mine for over 20 years, so I was eager to use one of its songs as inspiration. “Soon This Space Will Be Too Small” perfectly encapsulated (pun intended) my nuno’s retreat into an inner world of guilt and shifting reality.

Here are my notes for the Mind Map section of the course, after listening to the song a few times in a row and freewriting about it. Most of these images and themes ended up in the final story:

You can read “Learn the New Light” here (and I encourage you to explore the rest of Ginger & Smoke!

A sneak peek of what’s coming to Patreon next year

As I mentioned in last month’s Deadmedia, my Patreon will take a new shape in January. I'll share monthly Chronicles: reflections on folklore, history, cultural discoveries, and ritual inspired by my own research on Filipino and Finnish culture.

Each Chronicle comes with a Field Note of complementary personal history or ritual.

It’s part cultural storytelling, part personal meditation on belonging in the in-between.

For those who want to explore deeper, the second tier also includes Bonus Field Notes of folklore from other cultures, behind-the-scenes peeks into my research and writing, two zine compilations and AMA videos, and the chance to vote on what elements I explore in my fiction.

The free tier will have quarterly polls to decide what I explore in future Chronicles, journal prompts, and Micro Field Notes.

There will also be low-cost downloadable seasonal & ritual guides for anyone who wants to support me without joining a tier.

Here’s a short preview - an excerpt from one of the upcoming Chronicles for the new tiers.

The Shape of Your Future: Lead Divination in the Finnish New Year

In the darkness of winter, we call the light of the coming year closer.

The year's end is an upside-down time. We're reflecting on the months behind us and feeling that crackle of anticipation for the year to come. It can be a highly liminal space: between two years, early dark, disorientation. We want to prepare and maybe even get excited. In Finland, they call to the future with the steam and hiss of melted tin.

Tin casting, "tinanvalanta" - also known as New Year's tin, "uudenvuodentina" - is popular way to mark the end of the year in Finland. In earlier times, this took place at the end of the agricultural year, in the period of about 12 days in autumn between the lunar and solar years. The exact date wasn't fixed - instead, the year end fell after the autumn harvest. This was the old harvest festival called Kekri. The veil was thin in this time. It was perfect for gathering with loved ones in a cozy firelit home to indulge in a little divination. Who would get married next year? Who might die? How good would the next harvest be? Would money come to us next year? The tin (and some lead) told these stories and more.

Want to read a bit more, including some of my favourite excerpts from my tinanvalanta research? Check out the full post on Patreon for free here.

PS, miscellaneous cool things:

A couple of 2026 book releases I’m excited about: Kelsea Yu’s Stormraven (Mexican Gothic x Get Out in a Rebecca-inspired gothic horror rooted in Chinese American history), and Sunyi Dean’s The Girl with a Thousand Faces, “a Chinese-Gothic tale set in a historical Hong Kong that meshes ancient myths and local legends into a haunting story of ghosts, grief, and women who will not forgive.”
Thien-Kim Lam wrote a fantastic newsletter post called “Cozy Ways to Replenish Your Creative Well,” and I highly recommend you read it - whether you’re a creative person or not. It’s so compassionate and validating. I loved it!
In case you missed it, my latest Open Book column was all about writing unlikeable protagonists that readers will actually be interested in following throughout a whole book.

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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