Finding North: December 2023

Japanese adventures, and what I got done this year 🍣

Note: The recording above is a reading of this newsletter — there’s no different content, and it’s not produced, so you’ll hear the occasional stumble, or sounds of daily life in the background. If you’re someone who needs or prefers to hear their news, then I hope it’s helpful.

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Hi there! I’m Amie Kaufman, NYT and internationally bestselling author of The Isles of the Gods, Illuminae, Aurora Rising, These Broken Stars, and many more books besides. This newsletter is the place to learn about my latest releases or events, and to follow along behind the scenes as I find my way through writing, and through life.

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Hi, my friends.

Welcome to my very last letter for the year. This month I’m reflecting on what I got done in 2023, and looking forward to 2024. I’m also thinking about travel, and how it shapes my writing.

As I close out the year, and mindful that I have a lot more readers than when we began, I wanted to highlight a few old letters that some of you might enjoy.

There’s this letter, about finding perfection when things go wrong.

There’s this letter, about dropping everything to chase after fun.

And there’s this one, about how art does not have to involve suffering.

Of course, if you delve back through the archives, you’ll find talk of tabletop gaming, trips to New York, hiking, sailing and occasionally writing books — but for now, let’s get on with December.

A friend and I explored the Point Leo Sculpture Park recently, and this was my favourite piece. It’s by David Arsham, who’s known for his ‘future relics’ — here, he’s used a plaster mould from the Louvre of a head excavated in the 15th century, and believed to be from about 50 BCE. The crystalline elements represent regeneration. I loved the past-future tug-of-war it created.

What I’ve Been Up To

I’m writing this newsletter to you from one of my favourite places to visit: Japan.

I want to start by sharing something I saw through the plane window as we came in to land — Mt. Fuji jutting up above the clouds themselves. It was a magical sight, and gave me the most wonderful, tingling certainty that this was going to be a brilliant trip. I wasn’t wrong.

This is my fourth trip here, and this time we’re spending our whole 11 days in one place. We’re sinking deep into our favourite neighbourhood in Tokyo, getting to know the little laneways all around us, full of pedestrian traffic and bikes loaded up with families, and tiny shops selling all sorts of things.

These sorts of details are everything, when you’re writing. One of the pleasant surprises I’ve had this year has been a series of industry publications reviewing my work, and referring to me as a ‘master worldbuilder.’ I do love building new worlds, but I hadn’t particularly seen myself that way. Which is probably a good thing — I don’t really want to be the sort of person who walks around admiring myself in shop windows as I go by.

I’ve been reflecting (no pun intended) on my practice, though, and one of the things I lean into when I’m creating somewhere new is finding ways to show it’s really lived in. The scuff marks on the floor, if you will. The little details the characters share, that tell us their world has roots that go all the way down. And a lot of those small details, I find in the world around me.

This delightful shop, which is in a small laneway near our house, sells a variety of delicious things made from sweet potato. Muffins, cakes, fries, and of course baked potatoes with syrup. In choosing a picture to share with you, I’ve realised just how many of my pictures are of food.

This is the sort of thing I mean, when I say that I’m travelling for research. I’m looking for the scuff marks on the floor that show you people really live here. I’m looking for the textures, the sights, the smells. The habits I observe in people, the new food, the little everyday inventions that make sense in a particular climate, or the customs that differ from my own, and so make my own visible to me as well. That make me realise what I thought were universal behaviours were only the way my people do something.

The book I’m preparing to work on isn’t set in Japan, but it is set in the near future, and visiting Tokyo feels a lot like stepping into the future. The city’s population size, love affair with technology, and deep connection with its own history come together to offer ideas about how other parts of the world might look in the near future.

All of it goes into my brain, and — along with a lot of art, a lot of daydreaming, a lot of reading, a lot of learning — comes together to form somewhere new. An idea for a story is like the stick in the middle of some fairy floss. Everything that gathers around it to create a full-formed world, I have to find or dream somehow.

This is basically me, building a world. I have a stick, and now I need stuff to stick to it. (Pic by Jose Goncalves, under creative commons.)

Apart from daydreaming and gathering inspiration, I’m doing no work while I’m here — apart from writing you this letter, which doesn’t feel like work at all. When I get home, the thinking will really start.

I’ve been planning for 2024 for some time now, but December is my month for sitting down with my calendar and my spreadsheet, and really thinking through how I’m going to spend the year.

Writing is my full time job, and it’s the kind of work that — because I love it — could so easily creep into every part of my life. It’s never finished, in that there’s always another draft I could be writing, another idea I could be polishing. In many ways, I find that making a plan for the year means that although my to-do list is long, I actually do switch off. I know that a particular piece of work is for later, and that now I can take a break.

My 2024 holds projects and potential projects across five different age ranges, so I’ve been thinking over which months to commit to which, and how I’ll approach each of them. I’ve also been reflecting on what I got done in 2023 — more on that below.

What I’m Writing

The end of 2023 has been busy. I finished my copy edits and last polishing pass for The Heart of the World, and it’s off to be typeset — next time I see it, it’ll really look like a book.

Meg and I also handed in our first draft of our next book (codename Project LK, due out in 2025) to our editor — we’ll now wait for her notes before we dive in.

And in fact, the whole of 2023 has been pretty productive. In a minute, a short list of just some of the stuff I’ve got done. But first, a picture of the achievement I’m most proud of this year — returning to hiking, after years away for health reasons — and pulling off a multi-day walk in Tasmania. This picture here is one of pure bliss.

What else did I get done?

✅ Drafted, edited and copy edited The Heart of the World

✅ Launched The Isles of the Gods, including UK, Scottish and Irish tour

✅ Drafted Project LK with Meg

✅ Recorded months of the Pub Dates podcast

✅ Piles of school visits, festivals, and Guest of Honour at the Australian national science fiction convention

✅ Travelled to France, Ireland, Scotland, England, Vietnam, and Japan

✅ Conducted PhD interviews, generally worked at it, survived my mid-candidature review process.

Honestly, no wonder I’m enjoying my holiday here in Japan. I’ve earned it.

What I’ve Loved Lately

If you’re an Aussie, this book should be compulsory reading. And if you’re from overseas, and would like to broaden your horizons to include Australian First Nations stories, then this one is for you. It’s available as a paperback in Australia, and on audio in Australia and internationally. I had the honour of being one of the jurors to award Ghost Bird the Readings Prize a few years ago.

Written by incredible Murri author Lisa Fuller — who is one of the subjects of my PhD, and a fantastic storyteller — Ghost Bird weaves the stories she grew up with into spine-tingling speculative fiction. The narration by Tuuli Narkle is brilliant, and you won’t be able to put this one down. Even on re-reads, I find my heart beating faster.

Take this as your invitation to step outside what you might usually read, and diversify your bookshelf with a new read you won’t forget in a hurry.

News and Events

Best of Year lists: I was so, so thrilled to see The Isles of the Gods on two Best of 2023 lists from booksellers I love. First, Isles was voted onto the Best YA Books of the Year list by booksellers from my beloved Readings. I was in there just the other day, picking up some fantastic new books.

And then Isles popped up on the Best YA Books of 2023 with Waterstones. When I think back to tiny Amie, who used to save up all her pocket money and take it into Waterstones, then gawk at the huge shelves, it’s hard not to feel a shiver of joy.

Events: Melbourne! I’ll be at the opening of the brand new QBD Books Forest Hill on Saturday 9th December, at 10am. Click here for all the details.

Podcasts: Pub Dates! Pub Dates fans — thank you for your many emails and demands polite requests for new episodes. Keep an eye on your feeds, because Kate and I will be dropping in with a December episode to share all our news, and talk about the future of the podcast.

International releases: Lots have been happening!

Aurora Rising is out in Spain! Pic by @amorporloslibros7 on Instagram. And The Isles of the Gods is out in Germany! Pic by @love_booksandpixiedust on Instagram.

That’s it for this month. Thank you so much joining me in 2023 — it’s been such a pleasure to have your company. I’ve heard from so many readers about their connection to the newsletter, and so many of you have said hello at events. I love picturing you all as I write each month.

I’ll be back in January, with a look forward into 2024, and beyond. See you there!

And one more time, in case you forgot this was at the start, some old letters you might enjoy:

There’s this letter, about finding perfection when things go wrong.

There’s this letter, about dropping everything to chase after fun.

And there’s this one, about how art does not have to involve suffering.

If you use gmail, you’ll also find it helpful to drag this email from its place in the ‘promotions’ tab at the top, across to the ‘primary’ tab, so it doesn’t get lost among the advertisements.