Howdy howdy! Welcome to the winter/new year newsletter.

First things first, Ryan and I launched a project to jumpstart creative blogging! It’s aptly named…Bring Back Blogging. In-progress work, craft-poetics, hot takes on the creative life—idk about you, but I selfishly want way more of this in my RSS reader.

We’re using the term ‘blog’ pretty widely here—if you’re already/planning on writing a newsletter or something similar, that totally counts. Own all your content! Host it where you want! We would love to have you participate whether you’re actively blogging, OR, if you’re like, ‘2023, this will be the year I start blogging’.

Just post 3 entries in January, and tell people about the directory (network effects and all). Read the full spiel and submit here!

Well, hi there!

It’s been a while since my last newsletter. Now is as good a time as any for an update, since it seems like we are no longer going to be…bird people. I’ll keep my current newsletter cadence, probably. That is to say, not too often ☺️

Lots of news! I had my first short story published, and my first personal essay in a while, for starters.

Since last letter, I rejoined Adobe as a Senior Staff Designer, focusing on some fun systems work. I probably won’t talk much about it here after this, both for coNfiDeNtiAlIty reasons and also because…I don’t want to in this newsletter! No hot takes, sorry! Get back on the bird for that! I’ll just say I’m excited to work with some of my favorite coworkers again.

Hi hi!

Everything’s still green and spring-y in the Bay Area, and I’ve been living like a vortex. Not in a vortex, not near a vortex, like a vortex. Me and mine are fortunate, so fortunate, but the last few months were still marked by instability, doubt, worry, quarantines and cabin fever, and crying, all the crying. I’m a big believer in crying (criers live forever!), but even I was like, oof…that’s a lot of tears, y’all.

Some of the crying was what you might call ‘positive crying’, or at least ‘kinship crying’, like during the last hour of Everything Everywhere All At Once. (Oh, hey! That reminds me, it’s AAPI month. Hang in there, my gorgeous gorgeous AAPI compatriots! ILU) Mostly, though, it’s been one of those times that opens you up to everything out there. You crack open the door a little and suddenly the world comes whooshing in: all that’s bright, all that’s horrible, and suddenly you’re a cute lil pink Kirby at the shitstorm buffet table of 2022.

Hello friends! Long time—a lot of life has happened since my last newsletter. If you’ve forgotten why you signed up for this and who I am, hi, this is me! 

Let’s start with…

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News

Happy April, friends 🌟 I’ve been doing my best to get in some rest this month, and hope you have been taking good care.

I don’t have much to add besides: I am still tired, worried, and angry. If you are looking for Asian American focused groups to support and resources, here are just a couple:

Stop AAPI Hate: Report incidents of Asian hate crimes, and learn how to better support the AAPI community.

Hello! Popping my head out of the endless merry-go-round of novel editing to 👋🏼. It’s always a weird part of the process, and a lot of it feels weirdly funereal, since I’m deleting some scenes that defined my first draft but won’t fit in the final. My punchlist is shifting from “Fix x relationship” and “Cut y character” to “Find and delete most uses of really, usually, etc.” At this point in the process I usually wonder if I’ll ever be able to start anything again, so I’ve been poking at some short and flash fiction, to remind myself that there will be more after this marathon is over.

In this issue we have on offer:

Well, hello! Long time no email!

It’s been almost three years since I sent a newsletter, so just in case you’re like, uh, wtf? who dis? here’s a re-introduction.

Hey! I’m Ash Huang, writer and artist, formerly a tech design lady. At some point you gave me your email and said that it was okay for me to email you. Here’s my old desiccated Twitter if you’d like a reminder of who I am. I left my job at Adobe this fall to pursue my own endeavors, some of which you’ll hear about in future emails if you decide to stick around.