Malinda Lo's Blog

It’s only mid-March but mentally I’m already all the way in October because this week I received the advance review copies of A Line in the Dark. Lookie!

Advance review copies go out to reviewers, which means other people are going to be reading this book soon. This is a nerve-wracking time for the author, because now is the moment the book ceases to be mine alone and becomes … yours. I am excited and nervous for this book to hit the world.

In addition to advance copies, my publisher sent me a bunch of amazing bookmarks which feature the deliciously creepy cover:

They are gorgeous! And I will be giving them away starting Sunday, March 19, at the New York City Teen Author Festival. So if you’re in the New York City area, come and see me at these events and get a bookmark:

Sunday, March 19: Kick Off! (The Strand, 828 Broadway, 7pm)

Tara Altebrando

Andrea Cremer

Heidi Heilig

Malinda Lo

Lance Rubin

Maggie Stiefvater

Katherine Webber

Ibi Zoboi

Moderated by David Levithan

Monday, March 20 (Mulberry Street NYPL, 6-8pm):

Feminism for the Real World and for YA

Explanation: What does feminism look like and how does it work in both the world of YA creators and the worlds that YA authors create? To discuss this, we will have two different groups of authors in conversation. The first group is made of contributors to Here We Are: Feminism for the Real World, a new anthology of feminist voices across many creative fields. The second group of YA authors have all written about young women forging their identities in a world that often defines them other than how they would wish to be defined.

Panel #1:

Kody Keplinger

Kelly Jensen (moderator)

Malinda Lo

Sarah McCorry

Nova Ren Suma

Shveta Thrakar

Panel #2:

Donna Cooner

Mia Garcia

Lexa Hillyer

Michelle Hodkin

Goldy Moldavsky

Micol Ostow

Marie Rutkoski (moderator)

At the NYCTAF I’ll also be reading from and talking about my contribution to the anthology Here We Are: Feminism for the Real World. Given today’s real world, I can’t think of a better discussion to be having.

If you’re not in NYC and you’d like a bookmark, don’t worry, I’ll figure out a way to get one to you in the future. Stay tuned!

This morning, the cover for my novel A Line in the Dark went live on the internet at one of my favorite websites, Autostraddle. I’ll post the direct link in a few paragraphs, but first I want to tell you a little behind-the-scenes detail about the cover.

I am fortunate to be working with the super talented team at Dutton Books and Penguin Young Readers on A Line in the Dark, and they really came through with the cover design. Several people were involved with the cover, including Kristin Smith-Boyle who designed the book jacket; artist Stina Persson who created the beautiful title type; and Anna Booth, who did the interior design of the book (which is amazing and involves hand-made chapter numbers for every single chapter). My editor, Andrew Karre, made sure to keep me involved in the concept stage, and I have to say I was truly floored by the final jacket.

Once that cover was finished, we had to figure out where to reveal it. If you’re familiar with the young adult book community, cover reveals are a big part of getting people excited for a book. I knew immediately that the first people I wanted to share my cover with were my core queer readers.

To all of you queer readers who have been with me over the years: It’s been four years since I’ve had a young adult novel published, and during those four years you have continued to read my books, kept in touch with me via social media and email and in person, and cheered me on in ways you probably didn’t understand at the time. I feel like A Line in the Dark marks a new chapter in my writing career, and I wanted to share it with you first. Because of that, I knew there was only one place to reveal the cover: Autostraddle.

I was so excited that Autostraddle agreed to help out with the reveal, and I loved that Heather Hogan sent along a few questions for me to answer about my writing process. Without further ado, are you ready? Click here to see the stunning cover for A Line in the Dark.

You can pre-order the novel at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or iBooks.

(This post comes to you only slightly modified from my newsletter, Lo & Behold. If you want to get it in your in box before it hits the web, consider subscribing.)

We are eight months away from the publication of my next young adult novel, A Line in the Dark, on Oct. 17, 2017.

Eight months! Which means things are getting real around here. There are a million things that have to happen before a book hits the bookstore shelves, involving everything from double- and triple-checking every word (shout out to copyeditors and proofreaders, who are invaluable), to designing the book cover (which is totally stunning and you will get to see very soon), to advance planning about book events and publicity and …

It’s a lot! One of the many things I’ve been working on is updating my author photo, because believe it or not, it’s been nine years since I had one professionally taken. That’s right, the author photo I currently use was taken way back in 2008, before my first novel, Ash, was published. A lot of things change in nine years! I definitely got a little older. I also stopped wearing contact lenses and went back to glasses. Because A Line in the Dark is my first YA novel in four years (yes, by the time October rolls around it will have been four years since Inheritance was published), because it’s a new kind of book for me, and because my previous photo is nine years old, I took the plunge and got a new author photo taken.

Unsurprisingly, as someone who spends most of my time writing alone, I’m not a natural model in front of the camera. (Oddly, I do fine on video, but still photography freaks me out a bit.) However, I found an amazing local photographer who specializes in shooting author photos: Sharona Jacobs. She was fantastic and put me totally at ease, and now I have a new author photo that I love. Here it is:

Photo by Sharona Jacobs

So things are moving along in preparation for A Line in the Dark.

Another thing that happens as you move closer to publication is the collection of blurbs. Those are the little quotes on book jackets from other authors saying things like “This book is the best thing ever!” or “I couldn’t put it down!” I am thrilled and grateful that two of my favorite writers, Justine Larbalestier (author of My Sister Rosa and Liar, two of the best psychological thrillers I’ve read) and Kate Elliott (author of Court of Fives, one of my favorite recent books and a zillion other amazing fantasy and science fiction novels) read A Line in the Dark and offered blurbs for it. Here they are:

“Malinda Lo’s A Line in the Dark is a gripping, frustrating psychological thriller that delves into the love, desire, hatred, and friendship between four teenage girls, with depth and clarity. As soon as I finished, I had to read it again.”

—Justine Larbalestier, author of My Sister Rosa and Liar

“A beautifully written and compellingly well-observed psychological thriller.”

—Kate Elliott, New York Times bestselling author of Court of Fives and Cold Magic

If you’d like to pre-order A Line in the Dark, it’s now up on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iBooks.

In Case You Missed It: I’m giving away an advance copy of the paperback edition of Tremontaine Season 1, which will be published by Saga Press on May 2, 2017. I’m only able to ship to U.S. mailing addressees. The deadline to enter is March 12, 2017. Go here to enter the giveaway.

Also, I’ll be at the NYC Teen Author Festival March 19-20. On Sunday March 19, I’ll be at the kick-off event at the Strand Bookstore at 7 p.m., where I’ll be reading from my essay in Here We Are: Feminism for the Real World. I’ll also have bookmarks and other goodies to hand out (including A Line in the Dark stuff) so I hope to see you!

Then on Monday March 20from 6–8 p.m. I’ll be on a panel about Here We Are at the Mulberry Street NYPL, along with several other of the anthology’s contributors. We’ll be talking feminism, of course, and it should be a great event.

I have in my possession a beautiful advance copy of the gorgeous Saga Press edition of Tremontaine, which collects all 13 episodes from season 1 in one hefty paperback. This doesn’t hit bookstores until May 2, 2017, but one lucky reader will get this mailed directly to their house well before then.

If you’re not familiar with Tremontaine, let me remind you about this glorious project. I was one of seven writers who put together season 1, based on the world of Ellen Kushner’s groundbreaking Swordspoint novels. Tremontaine tells the story behind the rise of Diane, the Duchess Tremontaine, whom you may know of already if you’ve read Swordspoint. It also tells the story of chocolate in the City, and one intrepid chocolate merchant-turned-swordswoman, Ixkaab Balam. It’s also about intrigue, murder, romance, and did I mention swordfighting?

But don’t take my word for it! NPR called it “A binge-ready fantasy of manners, packed with swordplay, witty banter and chocolate.” Autostraddle called it “a paradise of queerness and chocolate” — and if that doesn’t do it for you, they also called it “a savvy commentary on the economics and ethics of cultural exchange.” As a former anthropologist and economics major, I really couldn’t resist that.

So what do you have to do to win this advance copy? Here are the rules:

You must have a U.S. mailing address where I can ship this book. I apologize that I cannot ship it internationally.
Entry is free; simply fill out the form below.
The deadline for entering the giveaway is the end of the day, March 12, 2017.

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Privilege

Privilege 101: A Quick and Dirty Guide by Sian Ferguson (Everyday Feminism)
“White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” by Peggy McIntosh
“Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is” by John Scalzi

Cultural Misappropriation

“Cultural Appreciation or Cultural Appropriation?” (Unsettling America)
“What’s the Difference Between Cultural Exchange and Cultural Appropriation?” by Jarune Uwujaren (Unsettling America)
“Kuu Kuu Harajuku: On Growing Up With Gwen Stefani, Japan Street Fashion + Cultural Appropriation” by Erica Russell (PopCrush)

Research

“A Beginner’s Guide to Researching Your Diverse* Fantasy or Science Fiction Novel” by Malinda Lo
“Avoiding LGBTQ Stereotypes in YA Fiction” by Malinda Lo
Tips for Research & Respectful Writing (Disability in Kidlit)
“Is My Novel Offensive?” by Katy Waldman (Slate.com) — on sensitivity readers
“Yes, You Can Say No to Your Editor(s)” by Kameron Hurley — on sensitivity readers

And more…

“How to Write Protagonists of Colour When You’re White” by Justine Larbalestier
Media, Diversity, & Social Change Initiative at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism — including the 2016 report on Inequality in 800 Popular Films
The Danger of a Single Story — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED talk
“The Woman Warrior and the Complexity of Chinese Identity” by Malinda Lo

Before I get to the meat of this post I wanted to let you know that I’m revamping my newsletter, which I have sadly neglected for the past couple of years. Things are changing now! I’ve given my newsletter a title: Lo & Behold, an ingenious name that fabulous author Kiersten White thought of. And tomorrow I will send out the very first issue, with actual real news about my upcoming book. If you’re already a subscriber, you don’t have to resubscribe; you’ll get Lo & Behold No. 1. But if you’re not a subscriber yet, please consider subscribing at this link or by entering your email in that box on the right side

From August 5–12, 2017, I will be teaching the Young Adult Fiction workshop at the Lambda Literary Foundation’s Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices. If you’re considering applying to the retreat, I’ve put together this post to give you more information about it.

About the Emerging Writers Retreat

This is a weeklong residential retreat for LGBTQ writers held on a college campus in Los Angeles. Everyone stays on campus, and we all eat in the dining hall — even the faculty! It’s immersive, transformative, and amazingly queer. This year there will be five workshops held simultaneously: fiction, young adult fiction, nonfiction, playwriting, and poetry. Each workshop consists of twelve students (also known as fellows) plus the workshop leader.

I’ve taught at Lambda before (back in 2013), and I’m thrilled to be returning this year. I will be reading the applications for the YA Fiction workshop, and I will select the writers. Because three spaces are reserved for returning fellows, I may only be able to select nine new writers.

What to Expect at the YA Workshop

Each workshop leader designs their own workshop, so while I can’t speak to what will happen at the other workshops, I can tell you what I plan to do in the YA Workshop.

Young adult fiction is a publishing category that focuses on novels. It’s very hard to get a YA short story published; there simply isn’t much of a market for it. For that reason, the YA workshop will focus on novels. This doesn’t meant that you need to have completed a YA novel, but the workshop will be most beneficial to writers who are working on novels.

For that reason, I will ask for fellows to submit 25 pages from their novel in progress (preferably the first 25 pages), plus a synopsis of the novel (yes, you’ll have to write a synopsis), to the group one month before the start of the workshop. That will give all of us a chance to read and prepare a written critique (which you will deliver at the workshop) in advance.

The schedule of the workshop goes like this: In the mornings, we will sit together and critique each fellow’s writing. I will lead a constructive discussion, in which the writer will listen silently for the majority of the workshop. After the discussion, there will be time for the writer to ask questions and respond.

During the afternoons, you’ll have an opportunity to schedule a private meeting with me, where we discuss your novel in progress and any other questions you have about your writing. As a group, we’ll decide if you’d like to use the rest of the afternoons to write independently; to do some writing prompts or exercises together; or to chat about other related topics such as querying or publishing.

In the evenings, Lambda organizes readings from the faculty, other writers, and special events. At the end of the week, all the fellows at the workshop will give a reading to share some of what they’ve worked on.

The Application: What I’m Looking For

The application requires a list of publications, an artistic/biographical statement, and a writing sample of no more than 25 pages.

This workshop is for emerging writers, not established writers, so you don’t need to have an extensive list of publications to be considered. Your publication history will not be my primary consideration. You don’t need to have an MFA or any previous degree in creative writing. However, none of the fellows are beginning writers. They have spent plenty of time with their words. They are ready for critique.

For your artistic/biographical statement, I am looking for a few things. I want to know what your vision for your writing career is. I want to know something about who you are as a person. I also want to know a bit about the YA project you hope to work on at the workshop, and why you think the workshop would help. I want you to be honest with me. I’m not looking for perfect writers who have everything planned out. I’m looking for writers I can help, and who can be helpful to others in the workshop, too.

For your writing sample: Please submit your best YA writing. You do not have to submit the pages that you hope to work on at the workshop. I want to read something that you’re proud of, that speaks to who you think you are as a writer. It can be in any genre — fantasy, contemporary, science fiction, historical, romance, etc. — but it must be written for young adults. Please do not submit non-YA work.

Finally, I want to make it clear that all identities within the LGBTQ+ umbrella are welcome at this workshop. I especially encourage LGBTQ+ people of color to apply. Scholarships are available for those with financial need; please don’t self-reject.

Dates and Deadlines

Full information about the retreat can be found at the application website, but here are the key facts:

January 30: Deadline for applications

March 15: Acceptances will be emailed on or before this date

August 5: Writers Retreat begins

August 12: Writers Retreat ends

There is an application fee of $25. Tuition is $850 and Room and Board is $800 (you are required to stay on campus), but ability to pay is not considered in the application process. Scholarships are available, so don’t let the costs prevent you from applying.

If you’re an LGBTQ writer of YA fiction and you’re ready to take your writing to the next level, I invite you to apply. I can’t wait to read your writing!

We have arrived at the end of another calendar year. Every year I look back on what I did and look forward to what comes next; these posts are tagged taking stock if you want to see where I’ve come from.

Things Published in 2016

At by Kathleen Jennings

The only thing I had published this year was Episode 12 of Tremontaine Season 1, “A Tale of Two Ladies”, way back in January. But it’s still my favorite of the three Tremontaine episodes I wrote!

And while this isn’t publishing exactly, I was also a guest on The Horn Book Podcast right around Thanksgiving. We talked about a bunch of things including book reviews, representation, and my holiday sweater. You can take a listen here or wherever you get your podcasts.

What I Wrote in 2016

I spent all of 2016 writing and revising my next young adult novel, A Line in the Dark, which is a contemporary thriller. This has been a fascinating book to write with lots of challenges for me as a writer, and I’m really happy with the outcome. I’ve really enjoyed working with a new editor, Andrew Karre, who has made this book so much more than I initially thought it would be. I’m excited to share it with you soon!

I’ve also written two short stories that I did not think I’d be writing when the year started. One will be in the upcoming We Need Diverse Books anthology Lift Off edited by Lamar Giles, published by Crown Books. This is a fun contemporary story that I brainstormed on vacation, and it was just as fun to write as it was to imagine it.

The other story will be in the anthology All Out edited by Saundra Mitchell, published by Harlequin Teen. All Out will be an anthology of historical fiction featuring LGBTQ+ characters, and my story takes place in 1950s San Francisco. I totally over-researched this story, but I love research so it was also a lot of fun. Both anthologies are due out in 2018.

I’ve also been continuing to work on a collaborative nonfiction project that I anticipate spending a lot more time on in the next year. Speaking of which …

Writing Workshops in 2017

In addition to writing my own stuff, I’ll be teaching at two writing conferences/workshops in 2017.

First up is the Desert Nights, Rising Stars Conference from Feb. 16–18 at Arizona State University. I’ll be teaching workshops on world-building and on writing diversity. Early registration ends Dec. 31, so if you want the discount go now! Otherwise, I believe the conference is open to all who are interested.

In August, I’ll be teaching the YA workshop at the Lambda Literary Foundation’s Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices in Los Angeles. I have taught at this workshop before, and two of the writers from that retreat had fabulous YA novels published this year, M-E Girard and Audrey Coulthurst. We workshopped early drafts of those novels at the Lambda retreat. If you are an LGBTQ writer of YA lit who wants to benefit from a weeklong immersion with other LGBTQ writers (and it’s a pretty special experience), please consider applying! The deadline is January 30. I will be reading your applications, and only 12 writers will be selected.

If you want to apply to the Lambda retreat but are concerned about funding, there are scholarships available. Please don’t let money (or the lack of it) prevent you from applying. Good luck! I can’t wait to read your writing.

Things That Will Be Published in 2017

I have a lot coming up in 2017.

First up on January 3, my essay “A Sort of Fairy Tale” will be coming out in the anthology Scratch: Writers, Money, and the Art of Making a Living edited by Manjula Martin, published by Simon & Schuster. My essay is all about that dreaded unmentionable topic: money and success and writing. The anthology also contains some other writers you might’ve heard of, you know, like Cheryl Strayed and Roxane Gay and Alexander Chee, no big deal. I’m sure they haven’t read my essay. But you can!

You can get Scratch at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, or iBooks.

Next, coming out on January 24, my essay “Forever Feminist” will be published in the anthology Here We Are: Feminism for the Real World, edited by Kelly Jensen, published by Algonquin. This anthology has received four starred reviews, folks! It features essays and lists and art from amazing folks including Roxane Gay (again! she and I must be destined to be together in anthologies!), Wendy Davis, Nova Ren Suma, Wendy Xu, and many more.

You can pre-order Here We Are at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, or iBooks (but I do recommend the paper version because the scrapbook design is so cool).

Then on May 2, you’ll be able to buy the collected print edition of Tremontaine Season 1 from Saga Press. This hefty volume includes all thirteen episodes in one place, so if you prefer print over ebooks, this is for you! Also, how awesome is it to have all those episodes collected together? Very awesome. Plus, it has a fabulous cover:

You can preorder Tremontaine at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or IndieBound.

Last but not least, my novel A Line in the Dark will be published … sometime in fall/winter 2017! Stay tuned for more details on the release date. This will be my first published contemporary realistic novel. This will be my first published novel with a Chinese American queer girl as a main character. And no, it probably won’t be what you expect. Yes, I’m a little nervous about its reception, but even more than that, I cannot wait to see how people react.

More Personally

I had a goal of writing more nonfiction essays in 2016, but the majority of my time that wasn’t spent on A Line in the Dark went to house hunting. After a four-month search my partner and I bought a house outside of Boston, which we both love. We moved in at the end of the summer. Now I’m about to begin building a library in my attic (well, a professional cabinetmaker will do the actual building), which is a fantasy I’ve had since my childhood when I read Little Women, in which Jo eats apples and scribbles masterpieces in her garret! Once my attic library is built, I anticipate never leaving the house again, which will surely make me extremely productive in terms of writing books.

I’m going to leave you with some gorgeous fan art of my characters that a most excellent reader commissioned from the talented artist Yutaan.

Here are Ash and Kaisa:

And here are Kaede and Taisin:

Onward to 2017.

Today is the publication day for Of Fire and Stars by Audrey Coulthurst. Like M-E Girard’s Girl Mans Up, I have a special history with this novel, and I’m so thrilled to celebrate its launch today.

Audrey submitted an early draft of Of Fire and Stars to the Lambda Literary Foundation’s Emerging Writers’ Retreat back in 2013. (This is a weeklong residential retreat for LGBTQ+ writers, and I’m teaching it again in August 2017. If you’re an LGBTQ+ writer, you can apply here.) I remember reading Audrey’s writing sample and thinking: Holy crap, this is a book I have longed for my entire life — it can’t possibly be real!

This is what happens in Of Fire and Stars: A princess (Denna) arrives in a foreign kingdom to make a political marriage to a man she doesn’t know, only to discover she is unexpectedly and suddenly attracted to her fiancé’s sister (Mare). Mare is quite a badass, too. She eschews court drama and spends her time in the stables, training horses, and gallivanting around the city like a rebel. Because the kingdom that Denna is marrying into highly values horses and horsemanship, Denna is forced to learn how to ride — and Mare, of course is assigned to teach her.

Although Mare initially detests this assignment and the two women have sparky arguments during riding lessons, beneath those disagreements is, of course, romance. As they get to know each other, Denna and Mare become embroiled in a political intrigue involving kings, assassins, magic, and undercover visits to the town pub — plus some climbing through windows in the middle of the night to, you know, get to know each other. Denna is a thoughtful and smart young woman who knows how to use her intelligence to her benefit, and she is a perfect foil to the fiery tempered and risk-loving Mare.

Readers, this book is so romantic. If you’re like me and/or you’ve enjoyed my fantasy novels, you will love this book. It has all the elements that many fantasy novels have — royalty, balls, weapons, training montages, clandestine visits to pubs while wearing cloaks, and secret magic — plus this book has queer women. In love. With each other!

We all deserve an escape into the world that Audrey has created in Of Fire and Stars. I assure you: This is the young adult fantasy you have been waiting for. So why not go and get yourself a copy? You can pick it up at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, iBooks, your local independent bookstore, or ask for it at your local library. I know you’ll love it as much as I did.

Yesterday, for the first time in years, I went to church. I was motivated to go not only by a need to connect with people in my community in an offline space, but by the banner that was hanging outside the church.

“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.

I consider myself to be a Buddhist. The church I attended on Sunday was a Unitarian Universalist church, and I was not familiar with their practices. During part of yesterday’s service, members of the church lined up to place a stone, representing their concerns or celebrations, upon the altar. Typically people can speak about those concerns or celebrations, but yesterday the ritual was deliberately silent.

It seemed as if every person in the congregation stood to place a stone on the altar, many of them with troubled expressions, often pausing to hug each other. It was a moving experience, a physical manifestation of the deep sense of anguish that has gripped many of the people in my life and my community after last week’s election.

The altar was completely covered in stones.

*

Since the election, spontaneous protests have sprung up all over the country. As the final mail-in ballots are counted, Hillary Clinton is winning the popular vote by millions. Aross the country, racist, anti-Semitic, and sexist attacks are occurring. And because this was the first election in 50 years that did not have the full protection of the Voting Rights Act, voter suppression may have occurred.

None of this changes the fact that Donald Trump won the electoral college, and in the United States, it is the electoral college that decides who wins the presidency, not the popular vote. Along with over 4 million others, I have signed this petition to ask the electoral college to vote for Hillary Clinton on December 19, but I am under no illusions that this will actually happen. Frankly, I don’t believe the electors have the courage to do it.

*

As a Buddhist, one of the teachings that I’ve found most meaningful is Pema Chodron’s essay on “Hopelessness and Death” in her book When Things Fall Apart. She writes:

“In Tibetan there’s an interesting word: ye tang che. The ye part means ‘totally, completely,’ and the rest of it means ‘exhausted.’ Altogether, ye tang che means totally tired out. We might say ‘totally fed up.’ It describes an experience of complete hopelessness, of completely giving up hope. This is an important point. This is the beginning of the beginning. Without giving up hope — that there’s somewhere better to be, that there’s someone better to be — we will never relax with where we are or who we are.”

Are you totally fed up with what happened during the election? I am.

But the idea that giving up hope could be a positive thing can seem bizarre on the surface. After all, eight years ago, Obama campaigned and won on a message of hope. So what does Pema Chodron mean when she says that hopelessness is “the beginning of the beginning”? She explains:

“The difference between theism and nontheism is not whether one does or does not believe in God. It is an issue that applies to everyone, including both Buddhists and non-Buddhists. Theism is a deep-seated conviction that there’s some hand to hold: if we just do the right things, someone will appreciate us and take care of us. It means thinking there’s always going to be a babysitter available when we need one. We are all inclined to abdicate our responsibilities and delegate our authority to something outside ourselves. Nontheism is relaxing with the ambiguity and uncertainty of the present moment without reaching for anything to protect ourselves. …

“Nontheism is finally realizing that there’s no babysitter that you can count on. You just get a good one and then he or she is gone. Nontheism is realizing that it’s not just babysitters that come and go. The whole of life is like that. This is the truth, and the truth is inconvenient.

“For those who want something to hold on to, life is even more inconvenient. From this point of view, theism is an addiction. We’re all addicted to hope — hope that the doubt and mystery will go away. This addiction has a painful effect on society: a society based on lots of people addicted to getting ground under their feet is not a very compassionate place.”

This is America: “a society based on lots of people addicted to getting ground under their feet.” No, we are not a very compassionate place. Does that sound harsh? Well, I am reminded of this lack of compassion every time I go to the supermarket on a weekend, and enraged men in cars honk and yell at me for driving slowly through a crowded parking lot to avoid hitting pedestrians.

*

Tuesday night, as the election returns came in, I was initially stunned. I remained stunned for days. I couldn’t eat. I haven’t slept well since last Monday. As this shock ebbed away, it became replaced alternately with despair and anger. Shock, despair, and anger. That’s what I’ve been feeling for almost a week now.

Through all this, a certain clarity has emerged. I have listened to Obama and Clinton and other Democratic leaders calling for us to work with Trump, to accept the results of the election, and while I understand why they are saying these things, I do not and will never welcome Trump as the president of my country.

I understand the Trump victory to be a product of many complicated things. It is a racist backlash against Obama and his policies. It is a sexist rejection of Hillary Clinton, the most qualified person ever to run for president. It is a product of an archaic electoral college system; the gutting of the Voting Rights Act; Russian intervention (!); decades of unfounded right-wing attacks on Hillary Clinton; a ratings-driven media that values punditry over facts; a broken educational system that leaves voters believing lies; and yes, a lack of compassion for those who are less white, less wealthy, less Christian, and less male.

I understand all these things. The obstacles facing those of us who believe in equality for all have never been clearer. I do feel hopeless, but it also feels like a new beginning for me.

I have lived my entire life in the shadow of my family’s experiences in Communist China, where they lived and died under an oppressive state that suppressed dissent. I grew up being told to be quiet, because quiet is safer. I have struggled with this, obviously, because I am a stubborn, nasty woman, and I have a lot of pointed opinions. I have found my voice in writing and in advocating for diversity in media, but I have often been afraid to act up, to stand up in my community, to demand better from my leaders. This election has changed that.

Donald Trump has been elected president of the United States, but that doesn’t mean we should roll out the red carpet for him. He has repeatedly shown himself to be a selfish bigot more concerned about seeing his name in lights than in actually doing good for the people. In the United States, we have rights, and we should use them. We should protest. We should call out injustice. We should contact our representatives and demand that they represent compassion and equality. I am going to do these things. I am going to do my part to help bend that arc of the moral universe toward justice, and I urge you to do your part, too.

We are stronger together.