About carving out joy,
or failing and having the best time doing it.
Hello friends,
I hope you are doing alright.
Is your jaw clenched? Are your shoulders drawn up to your ears? Your forehead furrowed? Yeah, same, I see you. I don’t have a chill bone in my whole body, but I try, so you have to relax with me.
I understand that I’m going to have to work until I fall down face first, having no hope of any retirement security. I might as well try to relax now. Work for small businesses, pour my energy into the community, and be satisfied with what I already have.
This might be a bit of a downer for you, but I hope it isn’t. It gave me a sense of peace when I stopped trying (trying to fit in, trying to make as much as the generation before me, trying to grind so hard it burns me out – choose one). I’m a workaholic; I do fifty things at once and run on high speed. I tell you, if I weren’t disabled, I would juggle three full-time jobs (or try to, probably unsuccessfully). I run on a smaller scale now, but in the last couple of years I’ve added more and more things that I do because I love them. The capitalists would hate me, and I feel their hate, feeding my subconscious voice to just get a proper job. But I haven’t, not yet, baby, not yet.
Grab your (iced) tea and let’s get into June!
Writing News
There is A LOT this month. Buckle up for some hot, fresh news.
Prometheus
We did it!! We not only fully funded Prometheus – no, we exceeded the goal and reached two more stretch goals. Wow, thank you, thank you so, so much to everyone who backed us, shared and posted. Prometheus is an amazing project, and I can’t wait for you to hold it in your hands.
Trans/Feral
SURPRISE! There is an erotica anthology coming from Snakeskin Press. Trans/Feral is all about empowering trans voices writing trans stories. Yes, it is going to be very spicy, as it is in the nature of erotica. That’s the reason I decided to go with the new pen name Quinn Porter. My story, Clean Peaches, will be featured exclusively in Trans/Feral.
Quinn Porter
Quinn is the place where I can experiment with steamy contemporary and paranormal romance and darker themes. I want my readers to be able to make informed decisions, and as M. K. Nedjelkovic might write a spice scene in a whole novel, it didn’t feel right to write erotica under the same name. From now on you can choose your own adventure. Isn’t that cool? I think it’s cool.
Translation
The translation of 207 Years is mostly done, and you can listen to the German version, 207 Jahre, on the 28th of August, at the Telurian in Dortmund, where I will be having a small event with my author friend Caro Lüders and her novel. Stay tuned for more details.
Project Winter
Prometheus and 207 Years gave me a boost to get this novel done, so I started editing again, slowly making my way through the chapters. George as a character has so much more depth now that I (and soon you) know his back story and how he came to be in Project Winter.
Sales in June
My nautical fantasy novel, Carved by Water, is featured in the We Exist Without Permission bundle running until June 11 and in the Disability Pride Bundle 2026 running until June 18. Bundles are an amazing opportunity to dip both your feet into indie waters for a good deal.
Art
Markets that fail
I was waiting for this to happen. So far I have had successful markets, but I knew the day would come when I would have a bad market.
This Sunday was the day. It was a combination of being in a poorer part of the city, where people just don’t have the money for art, and it being 35°C. I barely made the fees back, and you know what? I had so much fun.
It was the first market with an artist friend, and we laughed so much, made plans for the future and had an overall amazing time. This market wasn’t really a failure, just one market of many to come. And I’m very glad that this wasn’t my firt one (that would have demoralised me so much).
If you had a bad first market, try again, don’t give up, it was just bad luck.
Reading
Okay so this month I actually felt like I was back in my reading habits. I made it through a bunch of amazing books.
ARC READ
Vicious Miscreations by Jenn Neal (Snakeskin Press author)
It started with murder in a back alley, and we get thrown right into a huge gang rivalry, political intrigue, and multiple magic systems. Someone please tell me that this is just book one, because I need more of this!
“Their mother was violence, their father was extortion, and their only loyality was to their queen.”
The characters were my favourite part. Their development was amazing. I enjoyed Lux and Fletcher the most for how much they grew during the story. And, poor boys, they had to go through so much. The setting with its urban botanical dangers, carnivorous plants and hidden creatures was my second favourite thing and made the perfect backdrop for the story. It was gritty, dark and a little hopeless at times.
INDIE SPOTLIGHT
Wherever the Stars Call by S. Jean (Snakeskin Press author)
If you know anything about me, you know that ‘found family in space’ is my all-time favourite trope; add vampires to the mix and there is nothing that could go wrong. This book drove my favourite elements home, adding tension, action, and lots of emotions.
“Sometimes, life is the simple act of living until tomorrow and the next day and the next. It has no rhyme or reason, just the continued existence of you.”
The focus here was clearly on friendship and the fight for freedom. I love it when in novels there are rebels and misfits fighting the system from the bottom. And oh, Laurel and Juniper had to fight a lot.
He’d Had Pink Coke Sprinkled on His Nose When Crucified by Leviatan A. Solivagant (Snakeskin Press author)
I’ve heard you are into literary fiction with vampires, but you want it dark, gritty, and dangerous? This had little plot (who needs plot?) and was a character study in beautiful prose.
“He raked his brains, reading the room, attempting to X-ray the circumstances and figure out what exactly had led to such as caustic feedback”
To be honest, I wanted to give Quinn a hug, but reading about his spiral was great as well. Such pretty words to describe a downfall.
Is it too cheesy when I say it makes me genuinely so proud to be published alongside these amazing authors soon? Like, what are you saying my name is going to be among them? Wow.
Coal Gets in Your Veins by Cat Rector
Wow, this was a good one. I still need to process this. The backdrop of Nova Scotia’s coal mining country, cutting deep into the generational trauma of its people, made this book so much more than just a vampire novel.
“A thousand tragedies, big and small, and each one of them held tight to people’s chests like talking about them made them real.”
The writing was of the sort that made my fingers itch to write too. Just because some authors are so good, you’d like to reach some of their skill.
I loved Spencer. I don’t have favourites when it comes to vampires, but I loved him nonetheless. He was the perfect counterpart to Laurel, and Laurel the perfect puzzle piece to Spencer. I can’t wait to dive into book two.
June Wrap-up
Ode to the Half-Broken by Suzanne Palmer
Empire of Silence by Christopher Ruocchio
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Wherever the Stars Call by S. Jean
After the Flood by Kassandra Montag
Vicious Miscreations by Jenn Neal
He’d Had Pink Coke Sprinkled on His Nose When Crucified by Leviatan A. Solivagant
The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
Coal Gets in your Veins by Cat Rector
Watching
Movies
Caddo Lake
”When an 8-year-old girl disappears on Caddo Lake, a series of past deaths and disappearances begin to link together, altering a broken family's history.”
This movie has Dylan O’Brien, and I love his films (Maze Runner – obviously – but also Love and Monsters). It is fun to see how the actor ages while I do the same. From Teen Wolf to now. More than anything I liked the setting in Caddo Lake, the horror sci-fi elements and Ellie, the teen MC played by Eliza Scanlen. It was gritty and wet and creepy.
The Half of It
”When smart but cash-strapped teen Ellie Chu agrees to write a love letter for a jock, she doesn't expect to become his friend – or fall for his crush.”
This was cute. And I loved the fact that this movie was written by an Asian-American writer (Alice Wu) starring an Asian protagonist and her struggles. Her dad doesn’t speak great English, and so they watch movies together every night and eat in front of the TV while the father grieves the loss of his wife. And yet, despite the heaviness, this movie is cute, heartwarming and cosy.
The emo starter pack (music)
Yeah, sorry, this needs to happen. I dare you to make a playlist the old-school way. Log out of your streaming service and go on a hunt.
Here is mine.
Breaking Benjamin - The Diary of Jane
Breaking Benjamin - So Cold
Breaking Benjamin - I Will Not Bow
Paramore - Decode
Linkin Park - Numb
Linkin Park - In the End
Linkin Park - What I’ve Done
Avenged Sevenfold - Afterlife
Papa Roach - Last Resort
There are so many bands that I can’t listen to anymore. As a teen I loved Skillet, but if the band’s frontman “JOHN COOPER Explains Why He Believes ‘Queer Theory’ Is ‘Literally The End Of All Things’” I hope we queers can be the end of his music.
Check your bands and listen to good music. Yours truly, Local Elder Emo.
Every month, this newsletter sneaks up on me, and I think about making it shorter, simpler, and easier to write (it usually takes me a solid three hours from start to finish), but then I look back at it and on all the cool things I want to tell you about and do it again.
But then I know people reading the whole thing every month, and it fills my heart with so much joy. Thank you.
Chipping away on my novel is next, maybe submitting another short story, maybe exploring, maybe going on an adventure.
Love,
M.K.