a BUTTERFLY cover & and a crab story
BUTTERFLY cover, copyedits, playlist, and a new speculative historical story out in Uncanny
So: WHEN THEY BURNED THE BUTTERFLY has a cover!!
This is a cover I had a vision for from the start, and I was so so lucky that the designer, Esther Kim, and the rest of my team at Tor were all on board with it. We scored Carissa Susilo for the art—by complete coincidence, another Chinese Southeast Asian artist who grew up Singapore. I knew she was my first choice the second I saw her portfolio and this cover just BLEW me away. It’s the cover of my dreams, plucked right from my moodboards; it’s giving mean femme who’d burn your house down, it’s giving Wong Kar Wai moods and colours. I’m getting this framed on my wall.
The team and I are putting together a post about the entire cover design process, and that will come out sometime closer to the publication of the book (I wanted to share it earlier, but I’m at the advisement of actual publicity people now). I can’t wait to share all the inspirations and steps that went into the design, but here’s a little early peek at the first sketches from Carissa that had me screaming, crying, throwing up etc—and that assured me we were all on the exact same page:
As you can see, we went with a blend of various elements to get the final thing!
You can now preorder it for the gorgeous cover here.
In other updates, I spent this week racing through Butterfly copyedits. I came back from my residency in the UK (restorative! spiritually necessary! filled me with passion for life again! reunited me with beloved friends!) and promptly fell sick. I had to ask for an extension on my deadline and still found myself facing the prospect of finishing the entire book in about four days. Nonetheless, I locked in and persevered, with a little bit of accountability from my friend Tiffany and her cat Cinnamon.
And as of yesterday, I turned in my copyedits to my editor, which means Butterfly is pretty much locked into its final form after 3+ years of marinating in my head and turning itself around on the page. This is the version that will be going to ARCs, which means people are going to start reading this thing soon. I’m so excited about it, and I’m also excited to get back to work on the sequel in the meantime.
the crab story: “Red, Scuttle When The Ships Come Down” - Uncanny Magazine
It’s been a long, long time since I wrote a new short story, but I had a couple in reserve, and I managed to sell this historical magical realism piece to Uncanny!
I wrote it at Clarion West in 2022, inspired by the red crabs and colonial mining history of Christmas Island, where my grandmother was born, as well as the 1963 prison island riot on Singapore's Pulau Senang. It’s about indentured labourers and the stones of fire they’ve been shipped in to dig up; it’s about blood and brotherhood and revolution and crabs. There are a couple other pieces of Singaporean history that I have in my notes file for future possible books or stories—writing historical has actually made my relationship to my home country so much more endeared and complex. Here’s the opening of “Red, Scuttle When the Ships Come Down”:
The British plucked us from our prisons and sailed us here, this jungle island in the Nanyang with their treasure striated into the bedrock. More precious than gold, they told us on the ship, as though we had a choice to leave if we disagreed. I suppose some had the choice put upon them: we set sail from Hokchiu with two hundred and four of us in the belly of the boat—we arrived with two hundred. But that was more than enough. Icarine, they call it. We have a simpler name: hochio. Firestone. Every morning we rise and are grateful for the lack of chains. With the swing of two hundred hammers, we crack open the earth.
(And there is light.)
You can read the crab story here, and my author interview about it here!
the norwich residency
Another round of thanks to the National Arts Council of Singapore as well as the National Centre for Writing in Norwich for hosting me for four gorgeous, gentle, cusp-of-spring weeks in February. I ended up exploring a lot more than writing. Some photos!
currently consuming: Butterfly playlist edition
Thanks to copyedits, I have not actually been consuming all that much. But I have been playing my Butterfly playlist a bunch, so I wanted to take the opportunity to share some songs that are on it:
‘On My Way There’ by Lydia von Hof - a sapphic country/rock vibe that I added off Tiktok the second I heard the beginning: ‘Made my way down to ol’ Sin City/went to meet the devil cause I heard she’s pretty’
‘Fear the Future’ by St Vincent - “I run for you, what can I do?/When the war started new/In our bed, in our room/I'll come for you, come for me, too”
‘Hot Gum’ by Sofia Isella - Sofia did a sapphic remix of this song, so even though I like the original mix better, I’m quoting that: “She's a keeper, she's a believer/She's on the ground, on her knees in a theater/And she put us in a car, I don't know where we are/But she fell in love with a fevеr”
‘Dancing With Our Hands Tied’ by Taylor Swift - my obligatory artist, and this is such a Rep book, down to the fact that it’s actually about a love story. “Loved you in spite of/deep fears that the world would divide us.” “Swaying as the room burned down.”
‘Red Button’ by Dea Matrona - “(Do I wanna see the end?)/ I can feel it in my bones/Fire burning in a storm/Think my judgement day will come/Looking for an ever after I can't find”
Also: ‘So Damn Dangerous’ by Dea Matrona - “Red Leather looks better on a sinner in the summer/and temperatures rising but I feel I’m going under”
‘I Love Playin With Fire’ by The Runaways - self explanatory; 70s female rock is just theeee sound I was chasing
‘Bad Karma’ by Miley Cyrus ft Joan Jett - kiss me bad karma!
‘salvation’ by Christabelle Marbun - “Kiss me like I'm a conviction/Beg for divinity in my breath”
‘Criminal’ by Issadora Ava - hello, sapphic asian artist. “She said, "Are you listening?"/No, don't say anything/I found my lips pressed to her gun”
‘I am not a woman, I’m a god’ by Halsey - almost too easy of a pick, tbh, but it’s also the first song I added to the playlist. “I am not a martyr, I’m a problem” is soo Adeline
absolutely STUNNING cover. so excited!!