C.H.Lei

The anthology released by @forestpublications.bsky.social that a lot of great writers/poets are featured in (and me) is out! Only on paperback at the moment, digital out soon! Let the paper caress your fingers 'n' things. Non-UK folks get it in the link below! #books #booksky #sff #horror

Nothing like writing a detective short … that’s actually not a detective story and more a fae/fairyland story … except it’s not really and more of an environmentalist story.

Decided to go all in on the Flavia de Luce series cus my library suddenly has all the books? So I’m basically doing what the person before me did lol. #booksky #books

#WeeknightWriters A5 Regain my motivation to write longform. It’s been an OFF month.

#WeeknightWriters A4 Maybe reworking the climax climax of the third act before the denouement? I have the very end worked out fully, but I can probably rework the climax.

#WeeknightWriters A3 I, uh, wrote four chapters as a vibe check first before I comitted, then wrote the outline afterwards.

#WeeknightWriters A2 Bisexual mess (f) burns out on NYC, has to drive of shame back home. Car breakdowns in a coastal town. Hot guys and girls. People die. Gets stalked by creepy teen. Shadow people. Feat the chinese exclusion act of 1882.

#WeeknightWriters A1 So I’m probably somewhere on the plantsing-plotter spectrum. I don’t really discover when I write, cus I know how everything’s gonna play out in my head. But I’ll also write like 5 chapters before I’ll start my outline.

#WeeknightWriters! I be C.H.Lei, and my #FirstDraftFall horromcom about a bi mess trying for love in a coastal town and finding murder and ghosts and horror is all done. Going back to check some stuff uo after two weeks of not writing (well, a short, for therapy reasons).

I think I need to read more weird af mysteries. The City & the City, RJB’s Ana & Din or Stuart Turton’s are great. I just wish there was more weird and good murder mysteries (still love my normal grounded ones, I just like me some weird as well) #booksky

Trying to find relevent querying comps (published within the last 5 years) as a minority is SO FUN guys. Just look at ALL the MG martial arts fantasy books. /s

Haven’t seen anything about the new season of Haunted Hotel on my feed but S2 is drastically better than S1. One ep is nothing short of amazing too.

#WeeknightWriters A5 Uh for #FirstDraftFall it’s a small coastal town on the East Coast. It’s a romcom/horror. Yeah, lol.

#WeeknightWriters A4 Nothing that really pops into mind. More if the story suddenly doesn’t fit, I guess? Like I can have things come together and then they suddenly don’t. And I’md rather just make use of something else than try to use a eraser on dried paint. Things are too set in the world then.

#WeeknightWriters A3 I don’t think there’s aspects of worldbuilding at large I pefer, as it’s just the base coating (and I never history/backstory). I do enjoy making cool areas though, like in my MG I’m querying I have a sewer temple in an impossobly sized room that I enjoy. So stuff like that.

#WeeknightWriters A2 Nothing!

#WeeknightWriters A1 It usually comes in tandem. Like I’ll have a basic premise of world and character. Then I’ll expand. Basically if A character is added, then B world piece is added as a necessity.

#WeeknightWriters! I be, C.H.Lei. My #FirstDraftFall project is a horromcom about a bisexual mess who winds up in a small coastal town, starts getting into almost-sexy sheannigans, then bodies start appearing. My planning is still done. Has been done. I’m chilling writing about frog ppl atm.

A non-library book haul. Already finished the murder mystery and it was solid—tho I easily guessed who it was lol. Do sort of wish Will of the Many stuck with the non-epic fantasy column cover. #booksky

#WeeknightWriters A5 My FMC graduated with honors in college, got her dream job in NYC, then burnt out spectacularly and works a deadend retail job. Book starts when she decides to give up NYC, and the car breaks barely out of the state along the East Coast on the drive back to Cali. Romcom!

#WeeknightWriters A4 I honestly don’t care to edit them. Like of they do something and then it works better and it means having to touch them up, it becomes a pain, cus then the story might be have to different to get to that new good scene.

#WeeknightWriters A3 Idk, it’s just fun. I barely pants stuff atm for longform ideas, but the character interactions and POV are very much a write-and-find-out deal for me, which is

#WeeknightWriters A2 Less facilitation for the story and more if it feels right. I don’t dwell on it, they just sort of pop, and there’s not much changing overall.

#WeeknightWriters A1 Well, for this #FirstDraftFall project, the idea came to me in a dream. So I woke up and the lead female love interest, and a dissapearing author were already present. Most everything else just pops up when they feel like it.

#WeeknightWriters! I be C.H.Lei, and my #FirstDraftFall WIP is all done with in the plannin’ stage. It’s a horromcom(?) about a loser accidentally finding maybe love in a small seaside town, and then bodies start piling up. So it’s a sliding scale to the horrors from a sort of romcom-y start.

All writing advice should come with the asterisk of *unless you’re a best-seller or writing in the literary genre. Me just reading someone’s 4th book (trad pub) and it having a mirror description scene, if scant.

Feeling like I need to retool some stuff from MG to like young YA. I feel like half of the references I refuse to cut is more YA based. This decision brought to you by Perfectly Parvin by Olivia Abtahi

#WeeknightWriters A5 “What happens when Ali Hazelwood and Stephen Graham Jones or Chuck Tingle Horror collab”

#WeeknightWriters A4 I mean, it’s fun for a bunch of ppl be doing creative stuff all at the same time. Allows for some unified but chill checks and balances.

#WeeknightWriters A3 Nah. If it’s done, it’s done. If not, it ain’t done.

#WeeknightWriters A2 Supernatural Horror, Romcom, Mystery. Basically I got the three acts (or four) set up as a scale of Romcom — Horror and just sliding it to the right as the story progresses. I’m better off just saying romance tropes and adding “but spooky” too lmao

#WeeknightWriters A1 As I mentioned lol, it’s a Romcom Horror mix (I’ve bene reading a lot of romcoms and watching a lot of 90’s horror). Bi mess, second chance at life, small town problems (like THOSE problems), love interests of both genders, and a lot of Asian-influenced horror. For reasons.

#WeeknightWriters ! C.H.Lei here. My planning for #FirstDraftFall is already done, so I’m all chill. It’s a Romcom Widow’s Bay, about some loser that winds up in a coastal town, and shit happens in the middle of a why choose? Situation. So not much time to choose when horrors are abound.

Demon waiters, a man-eating snake with a valley girl accent, hungry needle-mouthed ghosts, and a dragon that lives in the sewers of San Francisco. Those are just a few of the things 13yo Gracie Foon's spirit must overcome in her quest to retake her life from an evil ghost. #DVpit #MG #CF #F #ASIAN

MARTIAL ARTS, YAOGUAI, GANG STRIFE When a powerful ghost forces 13yo Gracie Foon out of her body, her spirit must brave San Francisco much different than she's used to. If she wants to survive and take back her life, she must find allies, ones that won't try to eat her. #DVpit #MG #CF #F #ASIAN

SPIRITED AWAY + TMNT: MUTANT MAYHEM 13yo San Franciscan Gracie Foon has lost her body. Retaking it from the powerful ghost that's now puppeteering her life means teaming up with a scrappy yaoguai tomboy who can DEFINITELY be trusted, and TOTALLY WON'T try to eat her. #DVpit #MG #CF #F #ASIAN

In the streets of San Francisco, the spirit of a 13yo track star must deal with exorcism-happy spiritualists, wuxia demon gangs, and hidden family secrets if she wants to reclaim her mortal body from the malevolent entity possessing it. #DVpit #MG #CF #F #ASIAN

#DVParty Day 5 part 2 - Another MG project TEEN TITANS + SUICIDE SQUAD 🤺 The daughter of an infamous merc 👾 A lab-grown genetic abomination 💪 A princess from an underground tribe The sitch: Either become heroes or get tried as adults. Can they work together to save the city? Do they even want to?

#DVParty Day 5 part 1 - Got TOO many things in the works. WIDOW'S BAY + CHECK & MATE (Horromcom) When her car breaks down at a seaside town, a consummate loser pretends competency and stumbles across multiple chances at love. Hard to kiss the guy/girl with nightly horrors and a rising body count.

#DVParty Day 4. Posting a gif about the martial arts side of my MG. There’s three major fight scenes, all moves I learned from Hapkido and Shorin-Ryu Shorinkan. No Shaolin but SF only had Mantis style that I knew of. Eh, gotta use what you have.

#DVParty Day 3. Yup, just the opening line. No big fantasy or horror/ghost stuff until later in the chapter. So for extra I'll just tease that the first chapter is called "The Last Time I’ll Ever Be a Good Samaritan".

#DVparty Day 2. Decided to “Graphic Design is my Passion” up some weird little profile sort-of-mood boards at 1:00 AM for my two #MG pitch heroines, Gracie Foon and Cingmei.

My #DVparty mood board! Forst time really making one, trying to blend the San Francisco vibes with contemporary fantasy, Chinese influence and the smidge of horror. Oh, and TW for a big snake. For moodboard and novel I’m pitching lol.

#WeeknightWriters A4 Rush as much as I can before #FirstDraftFall. I think I’m doing through edits of multiple projects lol.

#WeeknightWriters A3 If we’re saying since last Thursday, I had a fun time listening to so much jazz. There’s an all-fenale collective I’m a fan of and they always kill it.

#WeeknightWriters A2 Nothing I can think of, I just refer to my friends for information on their messy lives I can partially co-opt lol.

#WeeknightWriters A1 Me personally I’m good. Got family stuff (mother’s swollen lymph node that the doctors somehow missed has shrunk since last CT scan), but as I’m the chill one in the famly, I’m the one keeping the atmosphere cool, like. Gonna see Coyote v. Acme this weekend and I’m hyped.

#WeeknightWriters, it’s’a me, C.H.Lei, still grinding on this Horse Girl Horror, but winding down cus I gotta work on my #FirstDraftFall project … Which is a horror/romcom about a bi mess whose car breaks down at a seaside town. Horror! Kissing! Creepy Teens? Evil! The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882?

#AskDV Is it still possible to work a YA with a younger protagonist in the current market? (Ex like T.L Huchu’s Library of the Dead has a 14 yo protagonist but is not MG)

SPIRITED AWAY X JADE CITY On the ghost-riddled streets of San Francisco, the spirit of 13yo track star Gracie Foon must survive zealous exorcists and demon gangs who'd rather eat her up if she wants to reclaim her mortal body from the malevolent entity possessing it. #preDV #MG #YA #CF #F #H #Asian