Tag: Updates

Thoughts about art, writing, and imperfection

Hope ZaneWriting

I took a kind of sabbatical from author spaces and spent a lot of time drawing over the last couple months, while also dealing with my health.

In the meantime, I wrote a lot of the next chapter in Lira and Willow’s story, which then got cut up and edited into about 30k words as of now. This book has been fighting me harder than any book I can remember in recent memory, but I hope it’s all worth it in the end.

I’ve been wanting to do more with my art lately. It’s something I’ve wanted for a while, to be able to integrate it with my writing, to be able to see my characters and worlds come to life. I haven’t felt “ready” or “good enough” for a long time, and in many ways I still don’t!

My breakfast/lunch today!

But I’ve also been having some thoughts about “professionalism” and what it means, and how in some ways, I think it’s what’s led us to where we are, re: gen AI art and the way some people feel like they need to use it, or that it’s more desirable than their own imperfect efforts. And I do believe that human art is good and vital and necessary, despite and maybe because of its imperfections. So I think I will at least try to begin cultivating the visual world of my novels, in whatever way I can.

Maybe it will be a growing experience for both of us!

The Fox and the Rose, vol. 2

Hope ZaneWriting

I’m finishing up the edits on the next book in The Fox and the Rose series, and I can’t wait to show it to you. I’m excited to continue writing in the next book in the series, but also I am looking forward to taking a short break to finish off Koreatown.

I might be doing the cover art for this one myself! Here’s one sketch for the book cover. I might post the other thumbnails I did later if I can dig out my sketchbook (paper, like it’s 2004) in better lighting. <3

Sketch of Laurel and Shigeru for The Fox and the Rose, vol. 2 book cover

My art isn’t where I’d like it to be yet. I wish I could make more stunning illustrations! But I think I’m coming to realize that if I don’t start now, I’ll never get to where I’m hoping to go. So maybe we just enjoy the process.

Dog bite?! More kpop, more kdrama, and a new serial

Hope ZaneGeneral

I’ve been straight up obsessed with Devil by the Window by TXT for a couple of days now. I’m also neck deep in watching the kdrama Secret Relationships, which I clicked on purely by chance, but god I saw the twist coming, and yet it’s still so fucking good.

I got attacked by a dog the other day? So that was less than awesome. My foot hurts, and I can’t really walk on it, but it’s okay with meds and keeping off it. I’m on antibiotics and really hoping that ish doesn’t get infected. Ughhh.

I’m still not convinced this isn’t a very stupid idea, but I’ve been serializing one of my new BL books here. I’m having a really good time writing it. I hope you’ll have a good time reading it. I agonized so hard over the pricing structure because I really honest to god do not want to feel like I’m ripping anyone off!! I’d make it cheaper if I weren’t already getting murdered on the payment processing fees at $0.99.

I’m… trying things. Undoing things, trying them again. Thinking long and hard and then trying not to think because I still want to be more of a writer than a… what. Marketer? I don’t know. Trying to make it out alive, like we all are. Rising costs of living are murder, huh?

It is almost time for more pain meds, and then I think I’m going to try to write again. Wish me luck with crossed fingers, if you can.

Book Release Party (Existential Scream)

Hope ZaneBook Release

THE NEW BOOK IS OUT. Don’t talk to me, don’t look at me.

You can look at the book, though. It’s up here.

Most insane and honest synopsis I can come up with: It’s self-indulgent and includes boys who smell like milk swathed in lace. the ML is mean as shit and also coddled by his sisters <3 the MC is a tsundere brat pining over his dad/brother/boyfriend (these are all the same person; no, they are not related). One of them is an incubus but I’m not telling you who.

The existential uh-ohs can’t catch you if you’re flat

Hope ZaneGeneral

I am extremely tired today, like the fully wrung-out, lay flat tired. I had jury duty today, and the process was A Lot. The whole month has been a lot.

I have a new book coming out tomorrow, but book releases have always been quiet affairs for me. I am most excited about my stories while I’m actually writing them, living in them, when everything feels white-hot and vital.

Presenting a book to an audience feels more like showing off a piece of beach glass. Beautiful and worthy, but evidence of where the lightning struck rather than the lightning itself. I hope that doesn’t sound full of myself.

Which is to say that I’ve been living inside other books these days, and those feel vital to me. Lively.

I’ve been cross stitching and crocheting, drawing and looking for inspiration everywhere. I think I am trying to find peace.

I hope you check out the book, and that you like it if you read it. Here is a strange sticker I saw the other day as tribute.

a yellow fire hydrant with a holoraphic sticker on it of a person bending down with the caption "but did you stretch?"