👏👏👏I am a reasonably recent (a few years) reader but you are so good. I'm glad you got those chances.
Most of us never do. Most of us write silently, with a handful of people maybe paying attention, and we wish we had those chances. Some of us even maybe deserve them (I'm not very good I just enjoy making words, but I read so many who do). Seeing someone who got that be, well, you, is nice 🙂
I remember following you on LiveJournal when you published those chapbooks and I so wish I'd gotten a hold of them but I was a broke twenty-something at the time. Then, a few months later, when you published The Labyrinth, I had just got a gift card from work for some reason and I immediately bought it and I remember thinking how cool it was someone I followed on LiveJournal had published something I was holding. That book absolutely floored me and I was hooked and all I can say is thank you so much for sharing your fantastic stories with the rest of us for all these years.
Twenty years! Sometimes seems like yesterday that I was using a butter knife to fold copies of your chapbook (not having a bone folder) and cursing at the long range stapler.
As I recall, Z was the prize/incentive to get pre-orders of the special edition/remixed version of MOAPS (limited to 25 copies?). Z only has three copies, and I think the file was lost to the ether. My copy (as the publisher) sold for a bunch of money online in 2022, at a time when I was starting a new chapter if my life (again), and about to return to my own writing.
I'm so glad I had a part in bringing MOAPS into the world, and thrilled to know of its journey. Nominated for awards! So incredible!
Congratulations on your success, Catherynne. It is well-deserved.
Ahhhh LJ — remember poetryslamming? Remember crowd sourcing the return of a dog? Remember the earnest beauty of believing the people we meet online were real people and caring so much about it all? I have so loved watching your success and am delighted to find you here. Going through my mother’s papers as I sat at her deathbed last week I came across a stack of literature in letters from you, a gift I gave my mother all those years ago. Life is strange and sad and sweet, as it goes and comes around. xoxo LJ-pachamama
Hi! Happened onto your Substack by happenstance, but so glad to have found you- looking forward to getting to know your work. Today, though, I would ask you to contact our office as I believe we have a package that belongs to you (FedEx in Saco, ME): 207 494 6052. Never let it be said that we don't try to match packages with their rightful owners. Cheers.
I’m really glad you started down this road 20 years ago; you’ve given me a great deal of enjoyment, thought, and passion with your writing. It was “Silently and Very Fast” that hooked me in 2017, then I began hunting down your other work. But I didn’t know about “Labyrinth” until reading this post, and when I went to look at the used book websites they were asking hundreds of dollars for it, a price I simply can’t afford. Now i’ve had a library card every place I’ve lived since I was 8 years old, but I haven’t been able to get to the library for the last 5 years because I’m disabled. Just for grins, I looked on the Multnomah County Library website,and sure enough they have a copy of the book. So I called the library and asked if they could put a hold on it and mail it to me, and they said yes. I love libraries.
Thanks for sharing your voice and your stories Cat. And for reminding those of us starting out that there are ripples from our words we can’t even see. 💫
I just teared up reading this missive and thinking about the long path of your words winding in and out of my ears, my heart, my head, my soul.
I was there with you on livejournal, and twitter. I was there for the chap book.
I was there with you for the Ice Puzzle, and I still break my heart a little trying to put that magic into a bottle as small as a set of words, when it can only be passed in sound and imagination what it was like to play it originally.
I was there with you, when you sent us gorgeous letters in the mail, that I cracked so carefully under the wax, so I could keep them looking perfect even to this day, tucked on the shelf with all my most important childhood reads (even if they were read in my mid-twenties).
I was there (with you, and without) when I burst into tears the first day I got permission to arc review for you on Netgalley, when I was just breaking into that field, years ago now, and now I do all of them (and then get audio & hardcover copies on top of that).
I was there for the million million times you put everything about this crazy chaotic heart-breaking, but also soul-shatteringly beautiful, world into all the words I most wanted on any and every social media. And I'm going to keep following you up this path as long as I can.
Thank you for every step you took, and chance you took, for every character, word, sentence, page, dream and nightmare you shared. You are such a magical human being that it's been lovely to know,
and it's been a blessed to be invited to play within the worlds that exist inside you.
I love your breakneck, no-holds-barred writing, and loved meeting you in person at that Mythcon in Albuquerque back in 2011, which seems another lifetime. We need to get you to one of those again!
I think I was introduced to your writing by a Substack “you might be interested in”, and since then have read three of your books, all of which blew me away, in many ways. Such great and intricate story telling. so masterful! NOw on the fourth book and, what can I say? I’m basically a giant vibrating non consensual feelings-flute. (thank you so much for that one!)
👏👏👏I am a reasonably recent (a few years) reader but you are so good. I'm glad you got those chances.
Most of us never do. Most of us write silently, with a handful of people maybe paying attention, and we wish we had those chances. Some of us even maybe deserve them (I'm not very good I just enjoy making words, but I read so many who do). Seeing someone who got that be, well, you, is nice 🙂
I remember following you on LiveJournal when you published those chapbooks and I so wish I'd gotten a hold of them but I was a broke twenty-something at the time. Then, a few months later, when you published The Labyrinth, I had just got a gift card from work for some reason and I immediately bought it and I remember thinking how cool it was someone I followed on LiveJournal had published something I was holding. That book absolutely floored me and I was hooked and all I can say is thank you so much for sharing your fantastic stories with the rest of us for all these years.
Twenty years! Sometimes seems like yesterday that I was using a butter knife to fold copies of your chapbook (not having a bone folder) and cursing at the long range stapler.
As I recall, Z was the prize/incentive to get pre-orders of the special edition/remixed version of MOAPS (limited to 25 copies?). Z only has three copies, and I think the file was lost to the ether. My copy (as the publisher) sold for a bunch of money online in 2022, at a time when I was starting a new chapter if my life (again), and about to return to my own writing.
I'm so glad I had a part in bringing MOAPS into the world, and thrilled to know of its journey. Nominated for awards! So incredible!
Congratulations on your success, Catherynne. It is well-deserved.
- Skaja Evens (formerly Skaja Wills/Misty O'Brien)
Ahhhh LJ — remember poetryslamming? Remember crowd sourcing the return of a dog? Remember the earnest beauty of believing the people we meet online were real people and caring so much about it all? I have so loved watching your success and am delighted to find you here. Going through my mother’s papers as I sat at her deathbed last week I came across a stack of literature in letters from you, a gift I gave my mother all those years ago. Life is strange and sad and sweet, as it goes and comes around. xoxo LJ-pachamama
Hi! Happened onto your Substack by happenstance, but so glad to have found you- looking forward to getting to know your work. Today, though, I would ask you to contact our office as I believe we have a package that belongs to you (FedEx in Saco, ME): 207 494 6052. Never let it be said that we don't try to match packages with their rightful owners. Cheers.
I’m really glad you started down this road 20 years ago; you’ve given me a great deal of enjoyment, thought, and passion with your writing. It was “Silently and Very Fast” that hooked me in 2017, then I began hunting down your other work. But I didn’t know about “Labyrinth” until reading this post, and when I went to look at the used book websites they were asking hundreds of dollars for it, a price I simply can’t afford. Now i’ve had a library card every place I’ve lived since I was 8 years old, but I haven’t been able to get to the library for the last 5 years because I’m disabled. Just for grins, I looked on the Multnomah County Library website,and sure enough they have a copy of the book. So I called the library and asked if they could put a hold on it and mail it to me, and they said yes. I love libraries.
Thanks for sharing your voice and your stories Cat. And for reminding those of us starting out that there are ripples from our words we can’t even see. 💫
I just teared up reading this missive and thinking about the long path of your words winding in and out of my ears, my heart, my head, my soul.
I was there with you on livejournal, and twitter. I was there for the chap book.
I was there with you for the Ice Puzzle, and I still break my heart a little trying to put that magic into a bottle as small as a set of words, when it can only be passed in sound and imagination what it was like to play it originally.
I was there with you, when you sent us gorgeous letters in the mail, that I cracked so carefully under the wax, so I could keep them looking perfect even to this day, tucked on the shelf with all my most important childhood reads (even if they were read in my mid-twenties).
I was there (with you, and without) when I burst into tears the first day I got permission to arc review for you on Netgalley, when I was just breaking into that field, years ago now, and now I do all of them (and then get audio & hardcover copies on top of that).
I was there for the million million times you put everything about this crazy chaotic heart-breaking, but also soul-shatteringly beautiful, world into all the words I most wanted on any and every social media. And I'm going to keep following you up this path as long as I can.
Thank you for every step you took, and chance you took, for every character, word, sentence, page, dream and nightmare you shared. You are such a magical human being that it's been lovely to know,
and it's been a blessed to be invited to play within the worlds that exist inside you.
I still have my not limited edition of that chapbook and my copy of Labyrinth.
Even back then, I knew you would be the awesome you are today. A sassy hurricane, but an awesome one nonetheless.
Here is to 20 + more years dear human!
No, my dear, thank YOU. Thank you for taking crazy damnfool chances and letting your words and worlds go out into the world and brighten our lives.
I love your breakneck, no-holds-barred writing, and loved meeting you in person at that Mythcon in Albuquerque back in 2011, which seems another lifetime. We need to get you to one of those again!
Livejournal. Yes, that. And all of your other work, too.
I think I was introduced to your writing by a Substack “you might be interested in”, and since then have read three of your books, all of which blew me away, in many ways. Such great and intricate story telling. so masterful! NOw on the fourth book and, what can I say? I’m basically a giant vibrating non consensual feelings-flute. (thank you so much for that one!)
I received The Orphan's Tales for my 22nd birthday in 2008, and reading your work has been such a joy, such a balm ever since.
Happy 20th! That reviewer was right, you are a historically great prose writer. Thank you for sharing your labyrinth with us.
Happy 20th publishiversary!! (or maybe publishaversary - magic 8-ball says 'spelling is unclear for neologisms').
We loves your books, we do.
(and your writing here; we will follow if you find another platform).