Yoon Ha Lee's Blog, page 2

Howdy! During the pandemic, one of my weekend projects was a book of tips for breaking through writer’s block. It’s finally here!

Stuck on your story? It can happen to the best of us: our characters refuse to character, our book refuses to book. Here are 81 creative exercises to get your brain moving again, including:

* Write a synopsis of your book as a video game vision statement.
* Orchestrate your story: Is your heroine a delicate flute or a sassy alto sax?
* Describe your character as though they were a bitey shelter cat you are desperate to adopt out.

Available on Amazon [Kindle or paperback] as well as an ebook on other platforms (B&N, Smashwords, Kobo, etc.)

Alternately, you can get the ebook (epub) for FREE here (itch.io). It’ll ask you if you want to pay for the book, but please go ahead and click past that and download the file for FREE if money is tight.

If you enjoy the book or find it helpful, I’d love it if you spread the word or left an honest review wherever you got it from!

Thanks to Augusta Scarlett for the glorious cover. :3

A short story about ethnomusicology, strict construction, and imperialism.

Special thanks to Sonya Taaffe, Eller, and David Gillon.

A tabletop roleplaying game set in the Machineries of Empire. Forthcoming from Android Press in 2023 – more news when I have it! Inspirations include Liam Liwanag Burke’s brilliant RPG Dog Eat Dog.

In Ninefox Gambit RPG, players roleplay hard choices serving the despotic Hexarchate. This can end in three ways: rebellion against the Hexarchate, attempts to reform the system, or assimilation. The rules system is designed to encourage your group to collaborate in exploring your characters’ moral dilemmas.

Sebin, a young tiger spirit from the Juhwang Clan, wants nothing more than to join the Thousand World Space Forces and, like their Uncle Hwan, captain a battle cruiser someday. But when Sebin’s acceptance letter finally arrives, it’s accompanied by the shocking news that Hwan has been declared a traitor. Apparently the captain abandoned his duty to steal a magical artifact, the Dragon Pearl, and his whereabouts are still unknown. Sebin hopes to help clear their hero’s name and restore honor to the clan.

Nothing goes according to plan, however. As soon as Sebin arrives for orientation, they are met by a special investigator named Yi and Yi’s assistant, a girl named Min. Yi informs Sebin that they must immediately report to the ship Haetae and await further instructions. Sebin finds this highly unusual, but soon all protocol is forgotten when there’s an explosion on the ship, the crew is knocked out, and the communication system goes down. It’s up to Sebin, three other cadets, and Yi and Min to determine who is sabotaging the battle cruiser. When Sebin is suddenly accused of collaborating with the enemy, the cadet realizes that Min is the most dangerous foe of all…

While on a mission to cement peace between the Sun Clans and the Thousand Worlds, Min the fox spirit and her ghost brother Jun get stranded on a death planet with Haneul the dragon spirit and Sebin the tiger spirit. To survive, the young cadets will have to rely on all their wits, training, and supernatural abilities. And let’s not forget the Dragon Pearl…

This thrilling conclusion of the Thousand Worlds trilogy, told in alternating points of view, will put readers under a delightful spell as it transports them to worlds full of both danger and wonder.

Mapmaking at the end of the universe. Thanks to Sonya Taaffe for beta reading this.

A Twine game where you visit a planet and its friendly critters, plus whimsical puzzles! Suitable for general audiences, takes about 20 minutes to play through.

Dedicated to niqaeli.

Thanks to my beta testers, Arabelle Betzwieser and Layla Lawlor.

What it says on the tin.

Thanks to my beta readers: Yune Kyung Lee, Ellen Million, Sonya Taaffe, and Ursula Whitcher.

In this magical collection of flash fiction fairy tales, encounter science-minded fox spirits, tiger wives, books that can be read by anyone but their owner, and more!

Enter a world of magic and myth, where foxes fall in love and robots build their own dragons. In The Fox’s Tower and Other Tales, New York Times bestselling author Yoon Ha Lee crafts together short and moving stories of love, adventure, magic, and nature. With poetic language and intricate world building, readers will be whisked away to a different adventure with every new story. Full of fascinating creatures and LGBT+ romances, this collection combines the classic with the contemporary in Yoon’s captivating style.

NOTE: This is a new edition of the previous ebook; it contains a selection of the previous stories as well as five all-new ones.

A standalone f/f hexarchate story: a romance between a wheelchair-using politician and a disgraced duelist taking place in the cloistered world of a generation ship.

Thanks to my betas: Sonya Taaffe, Ursula Whitcher, Ellen Million, and Cyphomandra.