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Hey there! You're reading the Tuesday Telegrams, a bimonthly newsletter from author Naseem Jamnia. Every other Tuesday, I send out a Telegram that's either writing related or a personal essay. You're currently reading a writing-related Telegram, which is where I give updates on projects, behind-the-scenes look at my work, craft discussions, recent publications, event news, and other publishing things.

Originally, I was going to send this Telegram last week, but I chose not to for two reasons: one, I needed to ease back into admin work; two, because I didn't have the things set up that I wanted to have set up (see reason one). I figured your inboxes would get cluttered up from first-week-of-the-year stuff anyway.

Welcome to the new Telegrammers! Thank you for joining us!

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The Telegrams are an interesting space for me. I first started them in 2016, before I left Chicago for Philadelphia to start my PhD, as a way for people to keep in touch with my goings-on. I had started publishing a few things here and there, and TinyLetter was free and easy to use, so in lieu of a blog, I began to chart my burgeoning social consciousness and send them out in the hopes that others would begin to care about structure inequities as I had. (I think I original sent out some in MailChimp before abandoning it for not being user friendly.)

I bring this up because TinyLetter is shuttering, which means all my old Telegrams will get yeeted into the ether. Because I cannot let things go (and am a packrat), I went through and copied my old Telegrams into a document for myself. To my surprise, the document is over 100,000 words (and doesn't include all Telegrams—I skipped a few short PSAs or ones that copy-pasted pieces I was publishing or would go on to publish). I am impressed that I was so consistent in writing them in 2016 and 2017 (until my depression noticeably hit); there are a couple of sporadic ones in 2018, and then the newsletter goes silent until I decided to revive it in January 2022. I decided to formalize the Telegrams in their current form as my author newsletter by moving to ConvertKit about a month before The Bruising of Qilwa came out.

You can tell, then, that the personal Telegrams are the remnants of my freelance career. (Although I didn't start out writing nonfiction, personal essays were how I, along with many others in the mid/late-2010s, broke into publishing.) My early subscribers (as you might imagine) were friends and family. As such, I felt comfortable exploring parts of my psyche I didn't necessarily want to publish widely on, allowing my thoughts, analyses, and understandings to be messy.

(Looking back, I am pleased at how utterly cringe-worthy many of these Telegrams are, because it charts a level of growth I wasn't expecting. This is especially the case in my analyses of social and societal issues, moving from baby queer/feminist/activist to whatever I am now.)

The circumstances of the Telegrams are obviously different now. Being a public figure (no matter how small) is an interesting balance of authenticity and self-preservation. I talk about some extremely personal topics in my Telegrams, and I enjoy doing so for the same reasons I enjoy writing creative nonfiction: exploration of difficult topics that many of us have experienced (and many more have not) without having the language (or therapy) to process them.

I'd like to keep doing that, but I am conscious of how many people now have access to my inner thoughts. I won't lie and tell you I suddenly have thousands of subscribers—I don't! But many of you have joined because you're interested in the writing side of things and don't necessarily care about the personal essays.

So, in order to make the Telegrams as useful as possible, I've decided to split up who gets what: you can now opt-in to the personal Telegrams and otherwise hear from me once a month regarding writing and the publishing world, or vice-versa, if you're here from the old days with little interest on publishing insights.

Here's how you can update your preferences as to which type of Telegrams you'd like to receive (it should take less than a minute!):

At the footer of this email, you should see "Update your profile." Click on that, and you should get a screen where you can add your first name, update your email, and see three options for topics of interest: Personal Telegrams, Writing Telegrams ONLY, Personal Telegrams ONLY.

As the names imply:

• If you're only here for the personal insights, click the "Personal Telegrams ONLY" option
• If you're only here for the writing goodies, click the "Writing Telegrams ONLY" option
• If you'd like to continue to receive personal Telegrams in addition to writing ones, click "Personal Telegrams"

From here on out, I'll be sending personal Telegrams only to those who want them. Any big writing news will get a mention, although I will send out any publication announcements to all my subscribers.

If you don't end up doing anything regarding your preferences, I'll migrate you over to the writing-only option. You can always opt-in to receive the personal Telegrams at a later date.

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Two other things:

• I've created a tip jar! This is the equivalent of a Ko-fi or other platforms that allow you to send a little monetary support to your favorite creators. I've toyed with the idea of making a more involved Telegram that includes a paid subscription component, but as I believe in open access to publishing information (especially for those who can't afford it), I think this is a better option. If you've ever wanted to buy me a coffee in thanks for my Telegrams, that's the space to do so!
• I've put up my querying ebook for a pay-what-you-want amount. (This is the same ebook I sent out toward the end of last year for newsletter subscribers, so if you picked it up then, you're good.) If the starting $5 is prohibitive to you, please reach out.

I mentioned at the end of last year that this is the year I'm monetizing my expertise, so expect there to be a Publishing 101 ebook at some point in the year!

So what can we expect in writing Telegrams?

Last year, I rolled out a new format for my writing Telegrams, where each one had a Qilwa Corner, the behind-the-scenes of The Bruising of Qilwa, including the larger world (currently named the Qilverse, per the suggestion of one of my friends). This year, I'm going to alternate the Qilwa Corner with a WIP (work-in-progress) Check, where I talk about whatever project I'm working on. You can expect the first WIP Check to be about the dark academia novella I mentioned at the end of last year, which already has a title, tagline, and 7k of it written.

How often the WIP Check comes up will likely vary. Starting in the fall, I ended up having severe burnout from working on three novels back-to-back. This year, I'm planning on scaling back on new projects to work on the aforementioned novella and a proposal for a middle grade horror I'll work on in the second half. However, I hope there will be editor interest in the books we've got out on submission, in which case, I can talk about how revision is going on those.

Wasn't there something about a COVER REVEAL?

Last month (when I was taking a break from the Telegrams), Tor Teen revealed the cover of The White Guy Dies First, an anthology of 13 authors of color reinventing classic horror genres, edited by one of my brilliant besties Terry J. Benton-Walker. BEHOLD:

If you're in the YA scene, you'll immediately notice how different this is from typical YA anthology covers. I absolutely love the simple design and how much it pops. I also screamed the first time I saw that face in the shadow of the skull—what a brilliant touch!

My story, "Break Through Our Skin," examines body horror from a trans perspective. It's a story that's been kicking around in my mind ever since I first saw the image social media incorrectly branded an ancient priestess but correctly named the oldest prosthetic eye found thus far. The remains (and eye) were unearthed in 2006 at the archeological site the Burnt City, Iran. I imagined a life for the remains beyond the scope of what we know.

You can preorder this absolute gem of an anthology here or wherever you get your books.

Where I've Been: Reno Edition

While there's a strong possibility I'll be at Boskone this year, that's still up in the air, so I'll talk a bit about what I've been doing in Reno.

I've been hard at work with my coconspirator/bestie on planning this next year of The Heretics' Workshop, the local writing group we run. We had a fantastic workshop on Sunday for setting realistic writing goals, and I'll continue to be at the Radical Cat on Tuesdays for our write-ins.

If you're in Reno and want to keep in touch with that, the best bet is to follow us on Instagram @hereticsworkshop or follow the link in our bio there to sign up for our Discord and/or newsletter (which has migrated to a Google Group).

In the meantime, the Radical Cat asked me to be part of a panel on the importance of inclusive children's literature. That will be on the 24th of this month from 5-7pm. After going to the Washoe County library trustee's meeting in December (which might be the subject of my first personal Telegram of the year), I've realized I need to step up my game on the local advocacy front and am glad to be a part of this discussion.

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In this new year, I'd like to remind everyone that Gaza has been under siege for over three months, with a death toll approaching 25,000, including almost 10,000 children. There are easy tools like ResistBot that allow you to reach out to your representatives (in the US) to demand a ceasefire. I'm taking this following list verbatim from the latest newsletter Sidequest.Zone released:

• Read and share All Out for Palestine, a digital action toolkit by Palestinian Feminist Collective​
• Donate to Medical Aid for Palestinians and the Palestine Children's Relief Fund​
• Donate to an eSims crowdfunder, like Crips for eSims for Gaza​
• If you're able, attend a local solidarity protest (please wear a mask!)
• If you're not able, here are some alternative ways you can organise!
• Do your best to educate those around you​
• Go through this mega list of actions you can take if you're based in the UK or North America