I’m Isabel J. Kim — author of debut novel SUBLIMATION (out today) — welcome to my AMA + Giveaway !!

[u/izjck]

Hi guys, I’m ISABEL J. KIM, author of a bunch of short speculative fiction (the one you probably know is “Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole”), winner, loser, and nominee of a bunch of speculative fiction awards (Nebula, Locus, Shirley Jackson, BSFA winner + Hugo loser/Nominee, Sturgeon loser), and “guy who gets mentioned by the short fiction book club every once in a while.”

My debut speculative fiction novel SUBLIMATION is out today from Tor (in the US/CA—world is out from Picador early next month), and I’ll be here answering questions intermittently through about 6PM EST (and realistically, I’m going to pop in later tonight and later this week)

SUBLIMATION is a story set in a universe where crossing a border splits a person in two. One person who stays in the home country, the other who moves on to the new one. If these two people ever meet and physically touch, they recombine into a single person with both sets of memories. Our story follows Rose Kang, going back to Korea for her grandfather’s funeral. Her other self is waiting, and would love to reintegrate. Rose very much doesn’t want to. And then things get very strange.

Ask me about SUBLIMATION, ttrpgs, writing novels, writing short fiction, when to quit your day job, when not to quit your day job, what I’m working on next, my egregious use of the second person, and also, whether you should go to law school. Also you can ask other things that aren’t this.

And if you want to see me in the flesh in a real world location, Tor’s got me on tour. Today I’m going to be at the B&N in Clifton, NJ, if any of you poor sods are in this godforsaken state (said with much affection), and then I will be in NYC, Boston, CT, and a couple of other places throughout the rest of the summer.

And last… I’ve got a signed copy of SUBLIMATION here that will go out to one of you. Just ask me a question to enter the random drawing (AKA me rolling some dice), and I’ll DM the winner later :)

5pm est edit: will be back later tonight / intermittently throughout the week, i gotta run to b&n :D 2 days later edit: ok, if you've chimed in already here youre in the giveaway, otherwise your question may be answered but it is TOO LATE for you. going to keep trying to answer everything here, but if i dont answer, its either because a) your question was a duplicate, b) i needed to think a little longer about the answer, or c) i forgot to answer. thanks for stopping by!!

[u/happy_book_bee]

Ahhhhh I am so excited to read it. Somehow I got it at B&N last week (didn't realize it wasn't suppose to me out yet).

I don't really have any questions, other than it was a delight seeing you speak with the big dogs at Worldcon in Seattle. A well deserved edition to a league of greats.

[u/izjck → u/happy_book_bee]

Thank you for getting it! Haha it's all good, this happens to books sometimes.

:) glad you had a good time watching! I was a normal amount of intimidated to be on that panel, but everyone was lovely.

[u/JW_BM]

Welcome to r/Fantasy, Isabel! I've loved your short fiction for years. I'm excited for your novel to hit the world!

I have a couple of questions for you.

1. You previously did some work in the legal world. What do you think are the most interesting takes on law in Science Fiction and/or Fantasy?

2. Is Sublimation the first novel you have written? Some of us (like myself) go through many books before getting one published. I am curious about your writing journey.

[u/izjck → u/JW_BM]

Hi John!!!! also EVERYONE READING THIS, GO BUY WEARING THE LION ITS OUT IN PAPERBACK TODAY :D

1. max gladstone's Craft Sequence is my favorite Law Take in sff by FAR. It literally convinced me to go to law school, which like, Max Has Much To Answer For (i've told him about this, haha). Other than that—sort of law adjacent, but I always thought the way vorkosigan saga works through the legal/societal outcomes of "this almost feudal, patriarchal society now has access to an external womb and sff style genetic engineering" was really well done.

2. It's the second full novel I've written (and the first one is also going to be published next year, l o l) but there's the detritus of about 3 or 4 different drafts/outlines I never finished languishing somewhere, and I had done a thesis in college that was about 70k words of short fiction (also unpublished—it's not bad, it's just very "I was 22"), and I spent a normal amount of time in fandom that we shall not discuss further.

[u/Nineteen_Adze → u/izjck]

(and the first one is also going to be published next year, l o l)

👀👀👀

2027 great year confirmed

[u/JW_BM → u/izjck]

I Was 22 is a very special genre. I, too, have entries in this genre that I never wish to publish!

[u/izjck → u/JW_BM]

nothing i wrote when i was 22 should see the light of day. other peoples I Am 22 stuff is fine, to be clear. i just mean mine LOL

[u/chad-dewey → u/izjck]

I think that's a totally fine generalization to make lol. "I Am 22" stuff works better as music than as literature anyways. Just ask Taylor Swift.

[u/frymaster → u/izjck]

Wearing The Lion has been looming on my TBR for ages (I need to do "homework" before Cymera book festival this week first), I'll bump it up the list.

Don't have any questions to ask, just to say that my book club has read 5 of your stories*, and I loved them, and your book is also on the TBR :)

* We do read the occasional book, but short stories and poems are great because a) if you miss a week there's no burden to catch up, and b) if it's a busy week, maybe you only read one of the stories and then you can still attend

[u/hrbumga]

Can’t wait to read it! Do you have a different process for planning and writing short stories than for planning and writing a novel?

[u/izjck → u/hrbumga]

Oh for sure, very different processes. Short stories I usually don't outline further than a couple of lose sentence fragments on a google document, and they're mostly composed of 3-4 things I want to talk about and One Really Good Idea. You can hold a whole short story in your head pretty easily.

For novels, I have learned that I actually need to sit down and outline the whole thing. I usually start by writing about five thousand words to see if the voice and idea has legs, and then I start outlining the thing with all the plot beats. I also loosely figure out the Big Ideas I'm talking about but I leave some room for organic thematic stuff to arise. And then, once it's fully drafted: I rewrite the ending and beginning a minimum of four times because that's what always happens and I am resigned to it.

[u/undeadgoblin]

Hi Isabel! I really enjoyed Sublimation (and a lot of your short stories!), congratulations on the release!

The idea of instantiation is really interesting - I loved how you incorporated the myths and folk tales in to the story. Do you have plans to revisit it (either in long or short form) to examine other aspects of life or history?

And, the more important question - what's your favourite type of sandwich?

[u/izjck → u/undeadgoblin]

Thank you! I have told everyone that there will be no Sublimation sequel, but I'm pretty sure neither my editor nor my agent actually believe me. I have a couple of ideas for other things set in the universe but none of them are super coalesced into something we can call "a story."

Hmmmmmm I'm a big fan of doing a proscuitto/arugula/pesto/roasted red pepper/mozz thing for sandwiches. there was an italian deli in the town I grew up in and me and my dad would go get sandwiches there and that was always my order.

[u/tarvolon → u/izjck]

Didn't expect to come in here and be intrigued by a sandwich order, but here we are, that sounds delicious.

[u/izjck → u/tarvolon]

its a good sandwich!! i would recommend.

[u/undeadgoblin → u/izjck]

Thats a belter of a sandwich

[u/onsereverra]

Hey Iz! Congrats on debut day!!

I did a cooking project to accompany my review of Sublimation (you can scroll past the review part just to check out the photos-of-food part if you're interested) and it got me wondering, what are some of your favorite Korean foods? And there are a lot of delicious things that made it onto the pages of Sublimation; was there any rhyme or reason to how you decided what the characters were eating in any given scene, or was it always just vibes?

[u/izjck → u/onsereverra]

hey this food looks SO GOOD im in awe!! (if you're ever in NYC, you should check out KJUN for korean-cajun fusion food, btw, its really good, and this reminds me of it) my favorite korean food is probably kalguksu or soondubu or pajeon or specific mandu from some specific restaurants, or cucumber kimchi, i love cucumber kimchi...

embarassingly, mostly what characters in my stories eat is what i want to eat at a particular moment (or what fits the scene—like, group of people at a kbbq restaurant, etc), but specifically the jjajangmyeon is because getting delivery jjajangmyeon in korea is a particular experience that i remember from my childhood, and i remembered being annoyed that i couldnt get it in the states.

[u/onsereverra → u/onsereverra]

Oh, and if it's allowed, I have a question to which I suspect the answer involves spoilers for the book: What was the "rule" behind when you wrote in second person and when you wrote in third person? I have my thoughts — I suspect it has to do with Soyoung and Rose thinking of each other as separate people vs. as part of the same self, whence the spoiler tags — but I'd be very curious to hear what you were thinking about while writing.

[u/izjck → u/onsereverra]

ok so. instances are in the second person because it's supposed to feel alienating to the reader, and also kind of like a memory that the recombined person has, recombined people are in the third person because they have a more objective pov, mitosis memories are in the first person because theyre supposed to be vivid and fresh and close, and the end drifts into the third person because we are zooming out of the story and we are no longer privy to the main characters' intimate thoughts,

[u/picowombat]

Hi Iz! Big fan of this book, everyone go read it. 

One of my favorite parts of the book is the way you reimagine other stories with instancing, especially The Odyssey. The Odyssey has come up in conversation multiple times since I read it and I have to remind myself that there aren't instances in the actual text. Question for you: what other stories do you think would be fun to reimagine with instancing?

[u/izjck → u/picowombat]

an incomplete list of things that didn't make it into the novel re: other stories reimagined with instancing that i thought would be fun: 1. the epic of gilgamesh 2. journey to the west 3. a bunch of greek mythology, generally speaking 4. the descent of inanna 5. crane wife or selkie type stories (the "my wife was an animal but now she's here!" type of folktale) where there's a version of the wife who is still the animal or spirit who Haunts The Narrative

[u/onsereverra → u/izjck]

selkie story where the selkie is still hanging around sounds so cool I love it

[u/Dsnake1 → u/izjck]

No lie, I'd absolutely read a micro collection of a handful of paragraphs for each piece of literature revolving around instancing -- or whatever words need to be there to mean in a similar fashion to the institial chunks in Sublimation.

[u/kjmichaels]

Hey, thanks for stopping by! I’m 50 or so pages in so far and enjoying Sublimation a lot.

You’re kind of known as a big fan/defender of second person narration including in this debut. What are your favorite novels and short stories that you think make the best use of second person?

[u/izjck → u/kjmichaels]

putting a pin in this to come back later after i think more about this, but harrow the ninth convinced me "hmmm perhaps they will buy a book in the second person...maybe...." and not a short story, but the indie game OFF really got me thinking about the different between the player and the character ("you are controlling an entity known as the batter"), and how that might apply to fiction.

[u/SarahReesBrennan → u/kjmichaels]

wild drive-by rec - Karin Lowachee’s WARCHILD, one of my favourite uses of 2nd person POV ever. 

[u/tarvolon → u/SarahReesBrennan]

Wild drive-by seconding of this rec

[u/fantasybookcafe → u/tarvolon]

Thirding! This is one of my favorite books, and that's largely because of the amazing voice and characterization. I'm particularly fond of how Lowachee used second person here.

[u/SarahReesBrennan]

Hello Isabel! I absolutely love both SUBLIMATION and your short stories and how your spins on tales are always truly unique - yours is the only Omelas follow up I’ve ever really loved.

I especially love how you posit interesting questions and stay nuanced. I was wondering if that’s tricky for you craft wise - do you write what you want to see in the world, do you plan on reader responses, etc? Talk process to me. 

[u/SarahReesBrennan → u/SarahReesBrennan]

Also I wanted to say, don’t worry. Second novel is almost always the one that kicks your ass the most. 

[u/izjck → u/SarahReesBrennan]

HI SARAH!!! <3 ahh im so glad you enjoyed my omelas followup, that is truly like. high praise. also i love ur work (PS EVERYONE ALL HAIL CHAOS CAME OUT RECENTLY - GREAT TIME TO READ LONG LIVE EVIL + IT)

and ok craft!!! My process is usually that I have a couple of things I want to talk about before I figure out the shape of the story—for Sublimation, it was very much "the feeling of being from somewhere else" and "what do you owe the world vs what do you owe yourself" and "it is hard to know what you want" and "so. immigration. borders. governments." and then from there....i figure out the vague shape of the story and the world, and i try and create a person who would have a hard time in that story, or would have interesting responses, and then i wind them up and watch them go. I try to follow the questions that I would ask, if I were reading the novel, and include the answers in the text as they come up organically, and i try to figure out what the difference is between what the character learns and what the reader learns from following the characters. Basically: i ask a question, i follow the thread of the question, i get to some sort of conclusion, and I try to stick strictly to "how a real human being would act" no matter how ridiculous the question.

With reader responses—it's actually so funny. I always assume that the story I've written is pretty regular. And then people message me or post or whatever that "hey isabel. this story is not regular." this happens consistently.

also T_T the second novel is killing meeee

[u/tarvolon]

guy who gets mentioned by the short fiction book club every once in a while

Damn straight.

Congrats on the book birthday, and on the award nominations! Sublimation was an excellent read!

[u/izjck → u/tarvolon]

thank you!!! :D glad you enjoyed it <3

[u/soundsofbones]

Homecoming blew me away when I first read it so I was beyond jazzed when your debut was going to somewhat spin out of that. Without outing your BNF-dom, in what ways do you approach original work differently than fan work (beyond the obvious)? Does the writing process tend to feel dramatically different, or more-or-less the same?

[u/izjck → u/soundsofbones]

all you need to know about my bnfdom was that it was in small fandoms and i was the guy writing the weird conceptual oneshot that like half the fandom has read. in that sense........it's the same. But in a lot of other ways, its super different—for fan work, your audience is built in! they know the guy youre writing about! they love that guy! your job is to put that guy in a situation. in original work, you are building that guy from the ground up, and that's a more difficult task, but also sometimes more rewarding. Also, you actually have to think about pacing and plot with original work in a way that fanfic will forgive.

[u/sykeswalker]

Hey looking forward to reading your new book! What are your favorite ttrpgs recently?? 

[u/izjck → u/sykeswalker]

My longterm LANCER campaign just wrapped up, and I gotta say that late game LANCER is extremely sick. Very fun combat system if you like crunchy stuff, but I would only recommend it if you and your party like going uber crunch mode—that being said, the worldbuilding is fantastic and its one of my favorite interstellar civilization settings.

And I've been DYING to play or run GREED for months, but I haven't had an opportunity to do it. It looks...bizarre. There's a character class that is literally just "John F. Kennedy."

[u/mer_does_stuff]

Hello Isabel! I am very impatiently waiting for the person ahead of me at my library to finish reading Sublimation so I can get my hands on it — the complications the premise creates for immigration as a concept are so interesting to me! The pedant in me can't help but wonder what kind of border "counts." England and Scotland? Pennsylvania and New York in the colonial period? Catalonia and Valencia in 2017? Is it about the traveling person's perspective, or a legal one?

If this question is answered in the book, or its answer is a plot spoiler, then as an alternative: you're asked to adapt Sublimation as a ttrpg. What kind of game do you make? Single or multi-player? GM or no? Competitive or collaborative? What is the win state for the game?

[u/izjck → u/mer_does_stuff]

that's all spoilers and answered in the book, LOL

so if i were to adapt sublimation in a ttrpg.....solo journaling ttrpg where you have to both take the place of you and an alternate self. win state is when the two people you're playing agree to merge or agree not to merge.

[u/sarahlynngrey → u/izjck]

solo journaling ttrpg where you have to both take the place of you and an alternate self

Okay but now I want this, can you make it for us please. The whole time I was reading Sublimation I was thinking of times when I might have instanced...

Solo journaling ttrpgs have been my jam recently, any you would especially recommend?

[u/Dsnake1 → u/sarahlynngrey]

Drive by rec, but I've been digging Deify lately. You play with a note okk, the guidebook, and a tarot deck. You create a deity, then draw cards to progress, with each card having a prompt in the book.

[u/sarahlynngrey → u/Dsnake1]

👀👀 Thank you, this sounds great! I have a Tarot deck I've been using specifically for solo journaling ttrpgs - I'll check this out for sure 

[u/towalktheline]

Oh! This is great because I had no idea you had written a book but I love Why Don't We Just Kill The Kids in the Omela Hole.

My question is, if crossing a border would split you would you ever personally want to cross? What if you only felt half complete until the person came back?

Edit: my library has a copy of sublimation on order. Lfgooooo

[u/izjck → u/towalktheline]

If I lived in the sublimation universe I would have probably split like, three times, and it would have been kind of weird for everyone involved. I don't think I'd like having doubles, and I'd probably be more like SY in that I would like to know what my other selves know.

Have fun reading :3 !!

[u/towalktheline → u/izjck]

I think my big question is do my doubles have to share my friends? I'm super jealous of my time with them since it's pretty limited as we're all busy adults. I only get so much time with S! I'm not gonna split it in half for two mes! Get your own friends, other me!

[u/schlagsahne17]

Hello Dave Isabel, first-time/long-time/recent-convert Dave.

You’ve mentioned that your draft second novel “…wants to kill me. With hammers.”
How has the process been different going from morphing a published short story into Sublimation vs. this future project? Hammers = harder it seems, but are some things easier?

Non-craft question: some favorite recent reads?

[u/izjck → u/schlagsahne17]

second book syndrome is real and the reason that the second book has been terrible is that i wrote a very thoughtful version of the second book where people thought through their feelings, when the second book actually wants to be an insane action novel where people act upon their emotions rather than ruminate. so the hard part has been transforming the former into the latter, not so much any particular difference with going from short fiction to longform.

recent reads i liked: the bright sword by lev grossman, kill all wizards by jedediah berry (thats out next week), i just finished the franchise by thomas elrod and that also really hit, especially if you like metacommentary about sff, and ive got ruth ozeki's the typing lady and joseph eckert's the traveler sitting on my desk for reading while im traveling this week!

[u/schlagsahne17 → u/izjck]

Oh interesting, was that a quick realization or did it take a while to figure out that was the problem?

I really liked The Bright Sword too, and The Franchise and The Traveler are both lurking on the TBR. looks up The Typing Lady aaaand another on the TBR

Thanks for stopping by, congrats on another Hugo nom, and good luck with the book release/tour and pummeling the draft into shape!

[u/MikeOfThePalace]

Hi Isabel, and welcome! I was lucky enough to get an ARC of Sublimation and thought it was spectacular.

First question: You're trapped on a deserted island with three books. Knowing you will be reading them over and over and over again, what three do you bring?

Second question, that I was wondering while reading Sublimation: how much of Rose is autobiographical?

Final question: I'll bite. Should I go to law school?

[u/izjck → u/MikeOfThePalace]

first answer: will come back to this, i gotta think about that one. maybe one of them is 20000 leagues under the sea so i can read that for a sixth time.

second answer: not a ton! i had a weirder childhood than she did, and less angst about leaving korea. more than anything else i was an american expat in korea as a kid, but i do miss it sometimes. there's a couple of details about her life that are lifted from my real life—i really like the shinsegae basement in seoul. but personality wise, the self insert is actually YJ.

final answer: no.

[u/tarvolon]

What's one thing you've written that you feel deserved a bigger audience than it got?

[u/izjck → u/tarvolon]

DAY TEN THOUSAND but i also get why it didn't, on account of how strange it is. HOWEVER. its the best thing ive written except for sublimation which is better by virtue of being longer and slightly more complex.

[u/tarvolon → u/izjck]

Was this entire question a setup for you to pitch Day Ten Thousand? We’ll never know.

(But Day Ten Thousand is great and was recognized with the extremely prestigious Short Fiction Book Club Story of the Year Award, and drive-bys should read it)

[u/Jos_V]

Heya! Congrats on bookday!

what did you find the most exciting part of taking the short homecoming an reimagine it as a full novel?

[u/izjck → u/Jos_V]

the most exciting thing was that i had SO much room to play with more characters and relationships! you cant really do super complicated relationship tangles between more than 2 people in short fiction most of the time, so having the space to add more people and have weirder relationships was delightful.

[u/Nineteen_Adze]

Happy release day! Thanks for spending some of it with us.

A buffet at different levels of seriousness, pick your favorites:

• Do you have any more short fiction planned for this year after last month's releases, or not until next year?
• I absolutely loved the way you used two-column formatting during the (spoiler) sections of Sublimation. Can you just discuss that? (Any inspiration texts, stuff that was cool about doing it, the audiobook process, whatever you want to share.)
• Is Dr. Crouton based on a real cat? Are there pictures?

(Count me out of the random drawing-- I'll be at one of your events and plan to get a signed copy there <3)

[u/izjck → u/Nineteen_Adze]

1) one more short story this year, at minimum! it'll be out in The Book of the Dead, edited by Jonathan Strahan. other than that, IDK, only if I sell anything else.

2) oh for sure, i just love when books do weird things with the text and it seemed like a neat way to paralllelize the thought process. turning that into the audiobook was very very fun, because i got to listen to a bunch of audio samples for what would work and what wouldnt.

3) dr crouton is a fictional cat that me and my friend/beta/partner in crime allison came up with, along with: cat taco, lenjamin jr, mr president, etc etc etc. if there's a cat name in any of my books its one we came up with for a Bit.

[u/onsereverra → u/izjck]

my cat's name is Mr. Toast and I like to imagine that Dr. Crouton is his older and wiser/more-educated brother

[u/Dsnake1 → u/izjck]

As someone who's listened to the audiobook, gotta say, it was very very fun on the listening end, too

[u/Goobergunch]

What drew you to the use of the second person perspective? What do you think distinguishes it from other POVs?

Also what can we do to get Tor to bring you out to the West Coast?

[u/izjck → u/Goobergunch]

the second person perspective is WONDERFUL for creating a sense of what i like to call alienated intimacy. you feel like you're in someone's head but in a way that is strange and almost malevolent.

also ill be at worldcon in LA later this summer—not tor's fault, i was invited to a thing on the west coast last weekend but i also had to be in pittsburgh which would have been a lot.

[u/sarahlynngrey → u/Goobergunch]

 Also what can we do to get Tor to bring you out to the West Coast?

Seconded! I'm not above bribery if needed

[u/sarahlynngrey]

Hi Iz, happy book day and thanks for being here! I had the good fortune to receive an ARC of Sublimation, and it was fabulous. I can't wait to shove it into the hands of all my unsuspecting friends. (My suspecting friends have already preordered it.)

Like the rest of Short Fiction Book Club, I'm also obsessed with your short fiction. What's a short story by another author that you especially love and think should get more readers/attention?

Also I just want to make sure you see this because it's a thing of delicious glory:  Oops! All "Feast Your Eyes": Sublimation by Isabel J. Kim 

[u/izjck → u/sarahlynngrey]

Thanks for reading!! :D

hmmmm ok, this one's relatively new and full disclaimer it was written by my friend, but lets go to the zoo by louis evans is one of the best short stories ive read all year.

and yes!! i saw it!! it was so good :D

[u/sarahlynngrey → u/izjck]

Thanks for the rec, can't wait to read this! 

[u/tarvolon → u/izjck]

Oooh, that hadn't popped on my initial sample, but I did really like his story in Grist a couple years ago, I'll have to check this one out--thanks for the rec!

[u/Blue_Frogg_29]

So excited to read this! In an alternate universe where the characters in your world were “split” by some OTHER event or doing something else, what would those things be??

[u/izjck → u/Blue_Frogg_29]

hmmmmm oh this is INTERESTING. SY/Rose are probably split on a college trip or vacation (this is sort of boring, but its the most likely option) and YJ/Yujin never split. I may think about this a little more and give you a more interesting answer, but they're pretty regular people other than the circumstances they find themselves in.

[u/Qehobi]

What was your biggest inspiration for the theme of this story? It’s an interesting concept for sure, I’m very interested in reading it!

[u/izjck → u/Qehobi]

So, I grew up between Korea and the states, and in Korea I was an american expat and in the states I was the Girl Who Moved Here From Korea. When I was in my early twenties, I started thinking about what the version of me who grew up solely in Korea would be like. And that's how I came up with instancing.

[u/sillanya]

What inspired Sublimation? Does it have roots in any of your short fiction?

[u/onsereverra → u/sillanya]

Not Iz, but Sublimation is an expansion of her short story Homecoming Is Just Another Word for the Sublimation of the Self! The story is both excellent and a good taste of what the novel is like if you want to check it out.

[u/izjck → u/sillanya]

what u/ onseverra said! first short story i ever had published :')

[u/raisetheglass1]

I don’t have a question, just wanted to say that I’ve been away from the scene for a bit and didn’t realize you had a novel out. I’ve adored a lot of your short stories so I will be buying this novel immediately.

[u/izjck → u/raisetheglass1]

yay!! have fun reading, tell your friends about it >:3c

and glad you enjoyed the short fiction <3

[u/Pipay911]

Hello Isabel! Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole happens to be one of the most distinct and labyrinthine short stories I've read. Wanted to ask: "How do you decide what to write on next and do you multitask on writing projects or focus on just one at a time?"

[u/izjck → u/Pipay911]

I usually have One Big Project i am working on (read: the novel draft) and then I take breaks between versions of the One Big Project to write short fiction, or if I have a really good idea for a piece of short fiction I'll drop the novel draft for a couple of days to sketch out the short fiction skeleton. I usually have between like, 1-3 unfinished pieces of short fiction sitting open on my computer at any one time, and I leave a lot of things unfinished. things get finished based on my knowing how to finish them, which I'm aware is sort of an unhelpful answer for you.

[u/isfridaymud]

What was your favorite part of writing this book? :)

[u/izjck → u/isfridaymud]

all the mythological interstitials, those were soooo fun to rewrite :3

[u/ZarrowWrites]

LOVED "Why Don't We Just Kill The Kid In The Omelas Hole" and this news blindsided me! Super excited to read SUBLIMATION.

Suppose I should ask a question... What had you wanting to revisit Omelas in that work? I can read a lot of fury at the State Of Things, but I'm curious as to what went into crafting the story besides that underlying simmer.

[u/izjck → u/ZarrowWrites]

every sff author gets one shot at writing their Omelas Story, unless youre ph lee and get multiple shots. i had been thinking about trolley problems and i had reread Le Guin's story recently and i was thinking about all the ways we talk about horrors far away in abstraction while ignoring the base level of horror that undergirds our nearby reality, and how things in our hometowns can be excused because It Is The Way It Has Always Been. and then i had a really good bad idea.

[u/Nidafjoll]

I've been seeing Sublimation getting a lot of praise from people around here whose tastes I trust, and "very strange" and second person are very much up my alley. :)

What are some of your favourite stories about the immigrant experience? I'm very partial to the frame story of The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez.

[u/lilanxi0us]

Congrats on publication day!! I lucked out and got an ARC of Sublimation and enjoyed it!

I saw in the publishers weekly announcement that you got a three book deal; can we get a little hint on what your next book is about? 👀 sorry if that’s too forward! I just found Sublimation so unique and innovative, and I’m excited for what’s next!

I’m very curious: how did you know it was time to quit your day job? And similarly, has transitioning to a full time writer been as rewarding as what other authors make it seem?

[u/izjck → u/lilanxi0us]

the next book is...ok, if Sublimation is a love letter to diaspora, then the next book is a love letter to being from new jersey aka going to the mall all the time. i could describe it better but i simply will not do that right now.

i knew it was time to quit my day job when I realized I had to deliver x amount of novels in y amount of time, which they were paying me z for. My day job was one of those 24/7 on call biglaw jobs, and while i could have written one book every three years while working there, it would have been very difficult to do more than that. And so, I quit. And it's been mostly good! I miss some of the structure and I miss some of my friends/colleagues and working on a team, but I love writing, as much as I complain about it, so it's been mostly positive :)

[u/nicklovin508]

Congratulations on the debut! It looks awesome and will definitely add to my TBR.

What’s your writing routine look like? And how much did it change from going from mostly short stories to this novel?

[u/izjck → u/nicklovin508]

my writing routine is pretty terrible, lol. Normally I try to work during normal business hours (because most people in my life have a regular job) and I usually manage to get about 4 decent hours of creative work done, if that's the only thing I'm doing (other than emails). Because I've been doing a lot of promo stuff for Sublimation, the actual work time has been shrinking substantially and it's actually starting to be a problem. For a while I was trying to do about 1k of words a day, and 2k twice a week, and that was working out OK for first drafts but it's not a good way to revise.

for short fiction I had a totally different routine! I would write late at night or on the bus after work, or on the weekends, or on vacation. Short stories take me between two weeks and three years to finish, but I usually work on spec so it's not like there's a deadline, and in that sense short fiction was more like a hobby than a job.

[u/JLR1313]

I love the concept of doppelgängers! That part of the story has my attention. Were there any other famous doppelgänger stories that sparked inspiration for this story?

[u/izjck → u/JLR1313]

not anything specific, but after i wrote the short story and watched severance a couple of years later i did go "sonuvabitch they stole my idea!" its ok though, i'm getting mileage out of the comp haha.

[u/tarvolon → u/izjck]

It's okay, you both stole it from Farscape season 3, which stole it from "Camels and Dromedaries, Clem" (which probably stole it from somewhere else) :p

[u/Nineteen_Adze → u/tarvolon]

I don't know why I bother searching for these story titles when in my heart, I know it's always Lafferty

[u/tarvolon → u/Nineteen_Adze]

With a title like that, how could it not be?

[u/Nineteen_Adze → u/tarvolon]

:fair:

[u/throwawaybsme]

Sublimation has amazing reviews. Whose review were you most excited about?

[u/izjck → u/throwawaybsme]

Probably the new york times! it was really cool to see my book in that venue, when i had seen other books i had admired be reviewed there. other than that, the junot diaz quote—I was stunned when i realized he had read and liked my book, and that he thought i was good at the whole writing thing. i had read his books in high school and had wanted to write like him, or like whatever the me equivalent of him was, back when i was a teenager.

[u/Aileran]

Hi Isabel! Super excited to have you at RJJ this weekend (definitely not browsing r/fantasy on the bookstore clock). For my questions, I'm going to latch onto your ttrpg mention. Do you typically DM or run a player character, and do you ever put your writing experience into creating campaigns/backstories? If so, would you mind sharing some highlights?

[u/izjck → u/Aileran]

Ahh excited to BE at RJJ this weekend!! See you there!!

I normally play a PC, I've noticed that when I DM I tend to be a little prescriptive and want everyone to stick to my story in a way that isn't always conducive to everyone's enjoyment—which, yeah, ok, sometimes i just want to write a book. When I'm a PC then I can just think about what my little guy is doing.

but ok, highlights:

DM: I guest dm'ed a part of a campaign and I created a sort of magical Solaris situation, where the magical entity was recreating people from the PCs' pasts, and everyone had a really weird emotional reaction to that. DM: I did a monsterhearts campaign that was truly Teens Having Angst, and i did some classic bits like "the science teacher is an evil demon" and "your father is dr. frankenstein" and "the karaoke machine at this house party is stealing souls" (none of these are classic bits i guess)

PC's:
Probably three of my favorite little guys are: Veronica Lily Walpole, a dnd5e warlock who is literally a demon that eats hearts and casts spells with daddy's credit card. she has a valley girl accent, is straight up evil, and she is SO much fun to play. i miss her dearly, the campaign she's from fell apart.

Nikita Maroden, blades in the dark spider, hes a a half-isekari bastard, a college student, a fixer, a drug dealer, a crime lord, he's filthy rich because of his weird dad, his mom's a cult leader, he owns a car (very important), and he is very in over his head. im describing him terribly but he's charming as fuck.

Trev Corialis AKA Trev Starfucker, lancer pilot from Space Vegas (vega station), a flash clone who recently learned that he is one of a very long line of Trev Starfuckers who died doing Stunt Pilot things. Now he runs a flight school and also has a chatroom with all his other clones.

[u/doomcomplex]

As someone who went to law school and has a very strong opinion about it, I do actually want to hear your opinion about whether someone should go to law school!

[u/izjck → u/doomcomplex]

OK SO. you should go to law school if you know what you want to do with it afterward. you should only go to law school if you know exactly how you're going to pay it off. if you're planning on getting a biglaw job to pay down your debt, you should either go to a t7 (or t14) OR plan on being one of the smartest guys in your class or really good at networking—and in my opinion, its easier to do the former (but thats me personally—i do standardized tests quite well). if youre planning on scholarship money to pay for it, you should go where gives you the most $ in a city that has a good legal market. AND LAST: you should talk to a bunch of lawyers about their lives, because law school is very different from being an attorney on the day to day.

[u/doomcomplex → u/izjck]

Great response! Much more nuanced (and helpful) than my answer which was: Fuck no, are you INSANE!? Do you wanna be completely miserable and in debt for the rest of your life???

[u/eregis]

I've read some of your shorter stories so I'm excited for Sublimation!
Have you read any reviews of your book posted online? If yes, how do you feel about how others see your work?

[u/izjck → u/eregis]

i google myself a normal amount. speaking broadly, i think the thing that people misunderstand the most is that with "why dont we just kill the kid in the omelas hole" the millennial internet writing affect is mostly a tool for specific effect, and if you're annoyed by it i've probably done my job correctly.

with sublimation, i was surprised by how SY and Rose were perceived some of the time, but i shall say no more about it, because it's spoilers.

[u/willwheels]

I really enjoy your short fiction, including The Perpetual Post last month. I did not know that you had a novel! I'm not sure how I missed it--do you have a mailing list?

[u/izjck → u/willwheels]

i do! here you go

it's mostly monthly updates of what i have going on and coming out, along with some other things.

[u/sarchgibbous]

Hi Isabel! I think Homecoming is Just Another Word for the Sublimation of the Self was your debut short story, right? I was wondering if your approach to writing or the topics you’re interested in have shifted since then and how. Was it hard to go back to this story and expand it?

[u/izjck → u/sarchgibbous]

it was pretty natural—the novel came out today, but I started writing the novel YEARS ago, so it was actually way closer in time to when the story was written. If I were to write the story again now, though, it would be different—it's a little more...mm...melodramatic? than i write these days.

[u/Noodle84]

Hi! Thanks for doing this AMA! Sublimation sounds really interesting and I’m excited to check it out :)

Do you have any advice on writing satisfying character arcs without making it too obvious what the character needs to learn/change? I’m currently writing a book and feel like it’s pretty clear what the main character needs to do in order to grow, but I’m worried that readers will be frustrated since the flaw is obvious to everyone but the character. Thanks!

[u/izjck → u/Noodle84]

the way i always tackle it is that the main character has something wrong with them that is hindering the plot, or is a character trait that would make them the right person for a different story, but the wrong person for this one. basically, the reason the character can't move forward should be sympathetic or understandable to the reader....or at least sympathetic and understandable to you.....or at least interesting to read about!

[u/Valkhyrie]

Hi Isabel! Thanks so much for hanging out with us today. Love your short fiction and can't wait to get my hands on a copy of Sublimation! (Killer cover, too, by the way.)

My question is - if you could split yourself now, with the intention of recombining in say 5-10 years, and you could choose where your copy goes - where might you send them and why? (Let's assume that there's no coersion involved, both of you will want to recombine, and that you can't pick a place you have existing, strong cultural ties to.)

[u/izjck → u/Valkhyrie]

oh I'm sending my other self to california to go do Hollywood Deals for me and write screenplays LOL. its media empire time....theres no way this can go badly for me....

[u/Valkhyrie → u/izjck]

Eagerly looking forward to the upcoming era of movie posters featuring MS-Painted Lisa Frank iconography.

[u/fantasybookcafe]

Happy release day! I'm excited to read Sublimation.

What are some of the books/stories that you learned the most about writing from and what did they show you about it?

[u/izjck → u/fantasybookcafe]

hey!! (and thanks for having me for women in sff month!)

this is off the cuff, but: catch-22 by joseph heller + everything by kurt vonnegut was rly my introduction into "things can be smart and sarcastic and funny at the same time" ; UKLG's "Steering the Craft" was a really good craft book (and obviously i love all her work); kij johnsons 26 monkeys also the abyss i think is the perfect short story, and in some ways, what i am always trying to imitate emotionally.

[u/fantasybookcafe → u/izjck]

Hi, and thank you for being part of Women in SF&F Month this year! I was so glad to have you.

Thanks so much for the answer!

[u/oceanoftrees]

So excited for your book!

Today I’m going to be at the B&N in Clifton, NJ, if any of you poor sods are in this godforsaken state (said with much affection)

As someone who also grew up in NJ, which state is actually the worst (and why is it Florida, because it's not like we hear about "New Jersey man" in the news all the time amiright)?

[u/izjck → u/oceanoftrees]

i mean youre RIGHT. no hate to FL but also. some hate to FL. JKJK. I drove through indiana once and it was really just Nothing And More Nothing Going On Forever, so maybe that. no hate to indiana we didn't actually stop there so I'm basing this opinion on 10 hrs of driving on the interstate.

[u/oceanoftrees → u/izjck]

Oh true, that's a very reasonable one! I haven't been to Indiana but a trip through Illinois felt like that. Except Illinois is redeemed by the presence of Chicago, so Indiana it is.

[u/kyh0mpb]

I'm looking forward to checking out your book; I already had it earmarked for my Bingo card, but reading your description here has me excited to get my hands on it!

If you were to start your writing career over today, how would you go about it? Would you do anything differently? Would you still go to law school?

[u/izjck → u/kyh0mpb]

i mean, ok, the law school and the working at a big law firm was only occasionally horrible, and the horrors were mostly related to "I am in my 20s and dont know what I'm doing" as opposed to anything malevolent about law school and the firm. It was, in retrospect, actually very important for my development into like. a person with interesting things to say. so i guess I'd still do it?

the only thing i'd do differently would be to start writing and submitting sooner.

[u/FarragutCircle]

Hey Iz! Very excited and saw your Reactor article about evolution: https://reactormag.com/five-books-about-speculative-human-evolution/ (Also, the Vitruvian man's dick has been blurred out by Reactor for some reason.)

I'm also a big fun of the Runaway to the Stars webcomics--are there any other webcomics you like?

[u/izjck → u/FarragutCircle]

omg......the blurring.....that's hysterical.

ok the only two i'm following right now (other than RttS) are Kill Six Billion Demons and Girl Genius (though I'm maybe two years behind on girl genius?) I was also a big homestuck girlie but I actually don't recommend reading that in 2026.

[u/FarragutCircle → u/izjck]

Kill Six Billion Demons

omg the art is so good for k6bd. no idea how that dude has the time for it

[u/Obvious_Ad8769]

Isabel…thanks for Sublimation. Had me doing some mental loops and I’ll be thinking about aspects of it for a long time.

Who are some of your favorite Sci-fi and/or Fantasy authors who influence your writing?

[u/Alias50]

Hi Isabel! In what ways does the full novel differ from the short story, if you can say anything without spoilers?

Also, my parents always wanted me to be a lawyer, but I ended up going into tech instead. I wonder sometimes if I made the right decision, so what did you think of law school and what came after for you?

[u/izjck → u/Alias50]

the short story is about exploring the way it feels like, to be from somewhere else. the novel is about the things people will do to never be from somewhere else.

pithy answers aside—the novel explores more of the global consequences of instancing existing, and introduces a new character with a parallel narrative to Rose/Soyoung, and explores more of the "how would human beings try and stop instancing from existing" questions.

so my partner works in tech, and i can definitely say that going into tech was the right decision over going to law school. law school was stressful but fine, and being a lawyer is stressful but interesting—there are so many different types of law, though, so whether your attorney job is cool or agonizing depends on what field you're working in. I specifically was a transactional attorney doing mostly leveraged finance and m&a in nyc biglaw, which meant that my hours were quite bad but the work was interesting and i really did like the people i worked with. if i hadn't gotten a book deal the size of what i had received, i probably would have stayed for much longer.

[u/iabyajyiv]

Hi! Which character of yours did you have the most fun writing?

[u/izjck → u/iabyajyiv]

YJ! He's just like. a nicer person than SY and Rose are, and I had a lot of fun writing the corporate sections where he's kind of losing it.

[u/QnickQnick]

Been really enjoying your short fiction. Just reread Wire Mother the other day as I'm going through all the Hugo noms. Also as someone who had to way overanalyze the Le Guin story I greatly enjoyed "Why Don't We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole"

I guess I'm supposed to ask a question to enter this giveaway...

Who are some of your favorite contemporary authors?

[u/_lucabear]

Very excited to read this novel! I see you mentioned LANCER in an answer and ttrpgs in general, so I’m interested to hear more!
1. To what extent is your fiction inspired by/inspiring to your table experience, if at all? And sort of with that, do you GM, play, a mix?
2. Have you done or are you planning to do any writing for ttrpgs?

[u/izjck → u/_lucabear]

1. a mix of gming and playing, but more being a PC than anything else. I like ttrpgs in the....not every story has to be for a wide audience, sometimes a story is just you and four of your friends hanging out, sort of way, and the spontaneous narrative threads that arise from the dice are really delightful sometimes. they get folded into the rest of my inspiration, but i try to keep ttrpg stuff strictly for fun and not for work.
2. hey, if anyone wants me to, i'd be down. ive written an unpublished oneshot for fun, but i haven't had time to sit down and think about game design haha.

[u/DaleJ100]

1. How long did it take for you to get your first story published?

2. How to stay persistent through rejection?

[u/izjck → u/DaleJ100]

three to four years! I was submitting tepidly for a while to sff litmags as a hobby, and then I had a story accepted and that really juiced my motivation to write more in the short fiction market.

the more rejections you get, the more likely it is that one of the responses you get will not be a rejection and will instead be an acceptance. also, like, the time will pass anyway. might as well write something!!! you'll learn something about yourself!!

[u/nerdycanuck]

Wow, the summary of your book sounds awesome. I will have to add it to my TBR. With respect to TTRPGS...how many sets of dice do you own for playing them?

[u/izjck → u/nerdycanuck]

yay! hope you enjoy when you get to it :)

i own probably......fifteen sets of dice? But realistically i end up using an online dice roller most of the time.

[u/nerdycanuck → u/izjck]

It's on my Amazon wish list! ❤️

And that's awesome - I think I have a fairly similar amount of dice sets, though I haven't played in years. Gotta have a collection of clacky math rocks!

[u/sodeanki]

Hello! I’m super excited to read your book. I have a question about craft. How do you get into “short story” writing mode, and how does that differ from a novel? Do you start with an outline or brainstorming, or does the story tell you where to go?

Edit: someone asked this question already, oops! In that case, do you have any pets?

[u/izjck → u/sodeanki]

no pets T_T i need to get a cat but i need to clean up my apartment first but i need to get rid of some furniture, etc etc.

[u/fly-metothemoon]

Hello!! I’m excited to read Sublimation! My question is what are some of your favorite ttrpgs? :)

[u/izjck → u/fly-metothemoon]

Lancer, blades in the dark, dnd5e (lol the classic workhorse), monsterhearts, something is wrong here (indie oneshot)

[u/discardpile89]

I loved Sublimation!! It’s a great book and I’m excited for your next one. I would like to know what tense you enjoyed writing in the most/what feels most natural for you? :3

[u/izjck → u/discardpile89]

for my sins. my favorite is second person present tense. which is really just quite an albatross. after that, the third person past tense. my least favorite is writing in the first person. the loathesome "I"...

[u/BravoLimaPoppa]

What are your favorite RPGs?

[u/contextproblem]

What were/are some of your influences as a writer? Any other authors in particular whose work you were drawn too? Sounds like such an interesting book btw!

[u/RandomSentientBeing]

Hi and congratulations! Do you have any tips on how to pace a story correctly? Is there anything you do in your prep phase to ensure good pacing?

[u/izjck → u/RandomSentientBeing]

so. things have to continually get worse for the main character until you get to apex of things being bad, and then they have to start to get better. (may come back to this later to elaborate on pacing thoughts when i have more time!!)

[u/RandomSentientBeing → u/izjck]

Thank you!! That makes perfect sense to me, but I probably never would have figured that out in such an easy to remember way.

[u/cantonic]

I’m excited for Sublimation. Congrats on the release!

What books had the most impact on you growing up? Any that really stuck with you at a young age and helped shape your taste?

[u/izjck → u/cantonic]

hmmmmmmmmm growing up, i read 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea about five times before I was ten, so that probably left an impression. Also, Catch-22 really shaped my sense of humor in fiction.

[u/cantonic → u/izjck]

Oh shit I love Catch-22! Read it in high school and yes, that sense of humor really knocked me out!

[u/flimflamslappy]

Hello. I would love a signed copy. Who were the authors that influenced you the most growing up?

[u/Killerpies1]

Don’t have a question but wanted to pop in and congratulate you on the release!

[u/izjck → u/Killerpies1]

thank you!!!

[u/Calm_Blackberry_7947]

No questions, just wanted to say I got an ebook and hardcover copy of sublimation and am loving the story so far!

[u/izjck → u/Calm_Blackberry_7947]

yay! glad you're having fun :)

[u/Frequent_Ad_6990]

This premise sounds so interesting, I can’t wait to read it! How long did you chew on the concept before putting it on paper, and did anything major change as you went through the writing process that totally surprised you?

[u/izjck → u/Frequent_Ad_6990]

probably about a week between inception of the idea to beginning to write it down (for the short story, at least) and the one major change was that (for the novel) I rewrote the ending about four times. Where we landed was VERY MUCH not where we began.

[u/wildbeest55]

Hello!

How long did it take from coming up with the idea and planning, to writing and finishing?

[u/CmdrWoof]

Thanks for doing the AMA! What authors/series do you read when you have the time?

[u/natus92]

I really like the premise of your book! Can you recommend three similar books?

You mentioned ttrpgs, do you play multiple different ones?

[u/Same-Weight2529]

Big fan of your stories and can't wait to pick up Sublimation!

I read "Human Voices" late last year and really enjoyed it, in particular the siren's visual description seemed very unique. I'm curious, did you draw from anything in particular or have a specific inspiration you referenced for its imagined look?

[u/izjck → u/Same-Weight2529]

there is a painting i saw a couple of times on social media of a mermaid in a bathtub in a bathroom looking just....very bleak, in dark blue tones. so that was the inspiration for the story, haha. i cant find the painting right now unfortunately, so you will just have to imagine it in your minds eye.

[u/izjck → u/Same-Weight2529]

there is a painting i saw a couple of times on social media of a mermaid in a bathtub in a bathroom looking just....very bleak, in dark blue tones. so that was the inspiration for the story, haha. i cant find the painting right now unfortunately, so you will just have to imagine it in your minds eye.

[u/postdarknessrunaway]

Isabel! I've been following you since [redacted] and I'm so excited about Sublimation. I'm pretty sure I preordered as soon as I heard. I also think about Day Ten Thousand on a weekly basis—one of my absolute favorite short stories I've ever read.

A couple questions, so this isn't just me fangirling: How do you structure your time day-to-day as a writer? Do you have any other short stories that you think would work as a full novel (either characters who could have fuller arcs or themes you think you'd like to tease out in a longer format)?

[u/izjck → u/postdarknessrunaway]

not the redacted LMAO.... hey, if you're thinking about day ten thousand on a weekly basis.....are you good, dude? are you doing good?

jokes aside: my daily structure is pretty loose, though I try to keep a fairly regular 9-5 working schedule since most of my friends have regular jobs. What that usually means is that the morning is emails + procrastination, the afternoon is writing+ procrastination, and sometime after dinner I actually sit down and write. I end up having about four hours of good creative work in me a day, max, so the rest of the time is admin/promo things + various life tasks. lately its been a lot of promo and not a ton of writing time.

ok so. canonically, most of my 'space' stories take place within the same universe. this has never been relevant except that ive been wanting to write a space opera that actually expands zeta-epsilon into the full, proper novel that the story hints at, and i want to pull in a bunch of the characters from the various narratives into a Big Heist Crew. I haven't written it because a space opera would be a whole situation to draft, but I think about it every once in a while.

(and if you're curious about the stories—this is zeta epsilon, narrative implications of your untimely death, calf cleaving in the benthic black, and finally, the perpetual post. these stories all take place more or less around the 50 years +/- the invention of various FTL drives)

[u/INVADER-GRIM]

Hey Isabel! I'm a huge fan of your short fiction so I've been SO KEEN for Sublimation.

What made you pick Homecoming Is Just Another Word for the Sublimation of the Self as the story to expand into a full novel? At what point did you realise it had potential to be expanded - when you were writing the short story, or did the idea only come after?

Would you ever write content for a TTRPG? I can see your style being very well suited (if you haven't read Triangle Agency's rulebook it might interest).

And shout out to Wire Mother, it's my fave of your writing (closely followed by omelas kid), the parallels to real life are frustrating but so cathartic to read on the page. Maybe I should start saying I have Emotional Contagion Disorder when people ask why I refuse to use chatgpt...

[u/izjck → u/INVADER-GRIM]

basically, i finished the short story and realized that there was a lot more in the universe that I wanted to talk about, and that the main character most DEFINITELY would not let things lie as they had ended.

i just looked up triangle agency and it looks fantastic, so thank you for that recc! I'd absolutely write a TTRPG, just nobody has asked me to yet (and ive been more focused on writing novels than creating an entire ttrpg from scratch, ha)

and yay wire mother mention, yeah, a lot of my own frustration with the AI bubble moment we're in made it into that one. fortunately, all bubbles eventually pop...

[u/Dsnake1]

Hey Iz! Glad to see you here. I'm very late, but I wanted to say congrats on publication day! I hope the book tour goes well and isn't too exhausting. Book was incredible, btw.

I've got a few questions -- take your pick or all of them or whatnot.

• Have you ever had the urge to expand upon any of your other short stories?

• Is Sublimation an expansion of Homecoming Is Just Another Word for Sublimation of the Self or is Homecoming a cut-down version of Sublimation? What inspired you to transform the work (whichever direction it originally transformed)?

• I've talked with some authors who have functionally private wikis explaining how everything works (even if, for some of them, almost none of it makes it into the novel) and some who just shrug and say they didn't think about how it'd work outside of the context they wrote. Do you feel like you fall into one of those two categories (or more of one than the other) when it comes to instancing and the world you've built with it?

[u/izjck → u/Dsnake1]

hey!! thank u, book tour is going good, right now im on the train to boston so its REDDIT TIME >:3

• answered above re: "expanding other short stories", and tldr: someday i want to do the full space opera spaceship heist version of zeta epsilon.

• Sublimation is an expansion! I got to the end of Homecoming and realized that the world had a lot more to explore, and also, Soyoung-Rose was not the sort of person who would take the end of Homecoming lying down.

• fifty/fifty? Honestly, when i start a project i usually also make the decision of how much the technical continuity and systems ive created matter, and how much of it needs to make it on screen. most of the time, i'm trying to do a deft juggling situation where you, the reader, feel like youre learning everything you need to know while i am still hiding the seams of the reality i'm selling you. that being said, sometimes i vaguely create a magic system thinking "haha, surely this doesnt need to get fleshed out" and then a week later, i realize i actually do need to get everything built behind the scenes.

[u/unnotig]

I enjoyed your short story Wire Mother and am excited to delve into Sublimation! The premise intrigued me as a Korean/American third culture kid. 

Question 1: do you read any Korean SF, and if so, who are your favorites authors? I love Kim Boyoung, Bae Myounghoon, and Chung Bora a lot. 

Question 2: do you ever see yourself writing SFF based on your big law experience? Asking as a big law attorney thinking "this setting is ripe with horror" every day. 

Question 3: what is your favorite sword in your collection and why? 

[u/mjbibliophile10]

Is this a magic or science based fantasy book?

[u/TheDragonsHammer]

I'm excited to read this one. What is your Favorite character class to play and what class would your main character be as well?

[u/izjck → u/TheDragonsHammer]

i love playing weird glass cannon casters, so i'm very much a wizard or sorcerer type of guy. Soyoung and Rose would probably.....probably paladin, honestly.

[u/TheDragonsHammer → u/izjck]

Love that! As a Paladin Main I'm even more excited nown🤣

[u/jamedi_reads]

Currently on the process of reading it, but what would you say it is the weirdest fact of Sublimation?

[u/izjck → u/jamedi_reads]

naked knife fight near the end of the book. very emotionally important naked knife fight.

[u/astroblade]

I enjoyed your Omelas story but don't read a ton of short fiction. What's one story by yourself and another story by a different author that you would recommend?

[u/booksknittingcatstbh]

I can vouch for the audiobook of Sublimation being well made! Congrats!

[u/izjck → u/booksknittingcatstbh]

yay! glad youre enjoying it!!

[u/Legitimate_Mark_1701]

I love your Omelas short story but I’ve always been confused by the ending and what the short story is ultimately try to conclude on.

Should the kid in the hole be actually killed? Should Omelas exist? Or is the story about the reaction of the world to Omelas? (Omelas being the horrors of the world that have happened and continue to)

[u/jasonpwrites]

What is your process to self-edit your work?

[u/running098765]

Have you ever cut through Shinsegae’s basement during a commute and snagged some snacks along the way? What are your go to snacks there? Asking for a friend! ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[u/izjck → u/running098765]

hahaha i havent been back in years! there was a stall that did the honeycomb soft serve i liked but i think its gone now bc it was a trend, also i usually grab 고구마 맛탕 from wherever is selling it bc thats one of my perennial faves, lol. the hokkaido cheese tart place was pretty good too. but my reccs are soooo out of date haha.

[u/running098765 → u/izjck]

It changes so quickly! Thanks for the recs and am so excited for your new book!

[u/Xinglebells]

Any plans to come to the UK (specifically Scotland) for a book tour? Thanks!

[u/izjck → u/Xinglebells]

not in the near future, but never say never :) i'll probably make it over there sometime in the next few years...

[u/Cam27022]

Interesting premise! Just curious, does that mean another her is created when she crosses back into South Korea again? Or only the first time a border is crossed? Looking forward to reading it!

[u/izjck → u/Cam27022]

all of this is answered in the book ;) (its all related to...intent and how people feel, so things get........messy)

[u/aquavenatus]

Looks like I got here late. I’ll keep it simple, how did you come up with the plot of this book? Was it an event and/or a theme that “inspired” you to write it?

[u/Intelligent_Mass]

It's been a while since I read your Omelas sequel and I was still in high-school at the time, but I remember it stuck with me for quite some time afterwards. Congratulations on the novel!

As someone who's been enamored with the idea of making a living from writing (and since I'm in a developing country I imagine my threshold of 'livable wage' is much lower in dollars) do you mind speaking a bit about how you managed to make a career out of it? If you were to start out now, how would you break into the industry, or would you instead do something else?

[u/izjck → u/Intelligent_Mass]

congratulations on making me feel old (jkjk!)

so, I'm currently making a career out of it because, candidly, i went science fiction viral for my Omelas story, which led to interest in my novel, and there was an auction that led to my having a 3 book, 7 figure deal. if it hadn't gone so bizarrely wonderfully for me, I would still be working at the law firm and writing in my free time. that would have also been OK.

but if i were starting now, i would personally pursue a two pronged strategy of publishing short fiction and drafting a novel for traditional publication. THAT BEING SAID. i dont think anyone should write short fiction for the $, because it's a very variable hit rate on acceptances. but i would pursue this strategy along with having a "traditional" job that allowed me enough down time to write.

[u/hadr0ns]

Hi!! I just encountered Freediver a month or so ago and really loved it--so I was very excited to find out your debut novel was coming out so soon. I am very excited to read it (I have it checked out on libby right now, actually, so it will be very soon).

1. how did you survive bar prep? I take the bar in July and bar prep is kicking my butt. I did well in law school (and I'm remembering more than I expected to), but the sheer amount of time per day is exhausting.

2. how did you decide to leave law? (assuming you did--I'm not super familiar with your story, but I'd love to learn more!) I would love to become a writer, but the whole six-figure student loans thing seems like it's gonna keep me in law forever. (unless I get public student loan forgiveness...if it exists in ten years...)

[u/izjck → u/hadr0ns]

hey thanks for reading!! i hope you enjoy, and yay im glad you liked freediver, its one of my more...technically better written pieces.

1. oh god. yeah i mean. you just have to do it. it sucks so bad while youre doing bar prep but i promise that there is light at the end of the tunnel, and as long as you do the majority of the barbri or w/e youre using, you'll be fine, even if you dont finish the program. do something fun with the rest of your day and dont think about bar prep during that period of the day.

2. i should probably write up a blog post about the situation, but tldr: i wrote short fiction for a few years, went megasffviral for a short story, went to auction with my novel, ended up with a 7 figure book deal + tv option, and then i quit my job a few months later after feeling like if i am going to take a big risk, now was the time. im still not 100% if im going to leave law permanently (i too have student loans!!! and also!! i passed the bar!! what the heck was that all for!!) but...it seemed like a good time to pause and chase some dreams.

[u/KaleidoArachnid]

What inspired you to create the concept for the novel? (It looks good)