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Before I forget, look out for a second email from me this Friday with a fun book-ish surprise. (I’ll also post it on my socials so please follow me on Instagram, Threads, or Bluesky in case you don’t check your emails.)
Alright, jumping right into this week’s newsletter in 3, 2, 1.
I have reached the season where I am attending more funerals than weddings, and quite frankly, I object. Every week, I’m sending condolences out, and I know it’s that season, but I don’t have to like it.
It reminds me to take the time to make sure my house is in order (and to remind you to get yours in order, too). Make sure your wills, living trusts are updated, as well as the beneficiaries for retirement and TOD accounts, and insurance policies.
Also, that I need to take more pictures of my children with my mother.
As with last week, you will find the following in today’s newsletter (feel free to skip to those parts):
- Personal note
- What brought me joy this week!
- What challenged me
- What else?
- Support and love our community
- Tell me more
Personal note
Did you know that ADHD medication can be less effective for many women during the luteal phase of their menstrual cycle? ALSO DID YOU KNOW THAT PERI/MENOPAUSE WORSENS SYMPTOMS OF ADHD? This is also why so many women are getting diagnosed with ADHD when they hit peri/menopause.
FUN TIMES.
Also, did you know that there are 5x more studies conducted about erectile dysfunction than PMS despite only 19% of men suffering from ED whereas 90% of women suffer from PMS?
Infuriating.
Anyhow, I feel like this adequately explains how insane I was feeling the week before my period and then my period started and I felt much more normal. WHAT IS LIFE WHEN MY PERIOD IS A RELIEF. UGH.
What brought me joy
I continued my content binge and watched Prime Video screeners for “Ballard,” starring Maggie Q. It’s a spinoff of “Bosch: Legacy” and follows LAPD detective Renée Ballard as she’s sidelined into a dead-end position as head of cold cases after pissing off the wrong people.
I’m still under embargo so I can’t talk about it, but when it ends, I’ll tell y’all more. (I am debating whether or not I want to review it because nothing ruins things I enjoy quite as much as writing about it for work.)
I also blazed through British series “Dept Q” on Netflix, and it was so good!! Like “Bosch: Legacy,” it’s based on a series of novels, too. And this series follows DCI Morck, who is ALSO SIDELINED to head the cold case division, after a horrible incident.
Both series sound so boring when I put it like that, but trust me. If you like solid acting and police procedurals, throw them in your queue. Plus, they are limited series and thus, so much more palatable in small bites.
Also also also.
J-hope of BTS released his latest new single “Killin’ It Girl (feat. GloRilla)” and it’s ridiculously sexy. I love it. SO MUCH.
You can watch my reaction here. (It’s basically me melting down on main.) While you’re there, please like and subscribe if it’s the sort of content you like.
What challenged me
I’m starting to re-realize that perhaps I’m so frustrated because I have unrealistic expectations of what my day should look like. Yes, having a toddler is utterly frustrating, but it’s even more so when I hope to live as if I don’t have a tiny human who is obsessed with me.
I’m hoping that this week, I will spend more time with her actively playing with and paying attention to her, and then maybe she’ll be more willing to be with her siblings in the afternoon.
SOMEONE PLEASE PRAY FOR MY FRAYED NERVES.
Additionally, I have not made much tangible progress on Book 3, but I will just trust that I’ll eventually get there if I slowly plug away at it. (It’s been really really really slow so I don’t know but I’m sure I’ll blink and then it’ll magically be done.)
What else
I can’t remember if I already posted this, but here’s the entertainment round up for June if you want some suggestions for what to watch featuring AAPIs in TV and film.
One of my favorite parts about writing my K-pop inspired series in the Her Multiverse is creating the lyrics and album tracklists for my characters. In particular, I have the main character Katie Wu written as a bit of a pretentious snob, and it definitely shows up in her album concepts.
The other day, I made myself laugh when I decided in one of the timelines, she’ll have an album called “The Grammar of Heartbreak” with each track titled a part of speech or grammar note. The album will detail the start and end of a love story, and one of the tracks will be titled, “Dangling Modifiers.”
Except, this song will be one extended d1ck joke. (Pun intended. You’re welcome.)
Yes, I’m twelve. Yes, I still am laughing about this conceit because is it brilliant or bad or both? WE’LL GO WITH BOTH.
Anyhow, if you’re new here, my Her Multiverse series is full of messy women who are emotionally constipated and have a martyr complex. In fact, all of these women are the same person: Taiwanese American K-pop singer Katie Wu.
Katie befriends a K-pop boy band and in each stand alone book of the series, she ends up with a different member of the band. Each novel is in a separate timeline, and yes, it’s Why Choose but in multiple parallel universes instead of in the same timeline.
In the first book “Illusive,” Katie Wu is finally safe after four years of hell. Too bad her heart hasn’t gotten the memo.
When the pop singer returns to Seoul after escaping an abusive relationship, her longtime friends, rapper Jung Do-won and singer Kitahara Akihiro, are stunned by just how much she’s changed.
Her scars run deep, but even Katie is surprised by how often her trauma resurfaces, threatening her attempts to make music and find love again. At least this time, she isn’t suffering alone in secret. Akihiro’s determined to prove to Katie that he’s nothing like her ex while his bandmate Do-won buries his emotions, focusing on his music instead.
How will Katie overcome her dark memories and create a brighter future?
Check it out on Amazon, Kindle Unlimited, or Bookshop.org.
Support and love our community
Friends, one of my besties, who is a fellow woman of color, has been in a rough patch for about 2 years, and I just want things to go right for her.
I talk to her every day, and she is one of my biggest supporters in life and work. She is one of the folks who keeps me sane, and without her, I truly don’t know how I would get through the day.
She checks up on me, makes sure I’m in my right mind, loves my kids probably more than I do, and is so capable, competent, and funny. She is a genuinely good person, and the world is better with her in it.
I know lots of people are in rough patches, and this economy doesn’t make it easy. If you are able and can contribute even a little to her GFM so she has a bit more wiggle room to move forward in her life and career, I’d really appreciate it.
Thanks again for reading and for holding space.
Tell me more
I hope you’re doing well, and if you are not, that you have people in your life to support you and hold you through it. If I can ever be one of the folks who you trust with upholding and uplifting you, please let me know. It would be a joy and a privilege to pay back even a little bit of how I feel buffeted by you.
May you have a week full of chaotic joy!
