Closure, Continuing To Choose Compassion, And Book Recommendations

This is the truth of what had happened to me when I tried to publish my book in the Summer of 2022. I share this to empower underrepresented writers. Keep writing. Keep speaking. Do not yield.

In the Summer of 2022, I had tried to publish my first book. It is a memoir called Scarlet Butterfly. The book chronicles the first twenty years of my life where I fought back against intergenerational trauma and unjust systems. It is a project about healing, catharsis, reclamation, and choosing compassion despite the storms.

I had big dreams going in to publishing at age 20. I wanted to uplift underrepresented communities and help preserve their stories. Living in the rural American South for more than ten years, I’ve witnessed the unequal treatment forced upon people of color, women, LGBTQ+ communities, disabled folks, kids from low-income families, children with different learning styles, individuals following different religions, immigrants, and more. I wanted to speak up for them. I wanted to stand with them.

And I have.

I talked to the only Black lady who worked at my old high school cafeteria. Even though students were only given 25 minutes to consume their lunches and her line was usually the longest, I’d chosen to wait 15-20 minutes every time so I could speak with her. She always smiled upon seeing me. One time, she told me that she felt really happy to see me because the other kids all ignored her, and some even hurled nasty words at her.

I also loved talking to the Black lady who worked at the dining hall of the college that I attended. She asked to give me a hug every time she saw me, and I always listened to her talk about her day-to-day and her life story. One time, she started crying and said that most students were rude to her and called her “an annoying table-cleaner” when she gently asked them to move their bags off the floor so she could sweep.

I felt for her. So I said: “You’re not just a table-cleaner. You are a good person and a loving grandma who took this job so your grandkids can eat.”

Of course, the sassy rapper in me added: “These rich kids don’t know what it’s like to worry about their livelihood and family. After all, they got daddy’s money.”

That got a laugh out of her. She thanked me again and loudly declared for God to bless me. I smiled and said that there was no need to thank me, I simply spoke the truth.

I loved seeing her face glow with joy.

The five words that I often use to describe myself are compassionate, resilient, creative, confident, and honest. And in this current climate of fearmongering and spiritual alienation, I aim to embody the kindness that I wish to see.

I always hold the door for people and thank everyone who hold the door for me. Anytime when someone needed guidance or just an impartial listener, I always made the time despite my other commitments. I advocate for my fellow Chinese Diaspora, bring people together for music videos, ensure that everyone feels included in group activities, and so much more.

I mean what I say, and I say what I mean.

So when I heard that people in publishing were working to diversify literature, uplift underrepresented voices, and promote unity in society, I was so stoked to join the movement and make a difference.

I did my research. A lot of people said that to publish, you needed a platform. Many of them also recommended for young writers to join the “community” on Twitter. Furthermore, the time was 2021, and the pandemic forced in-person interactions to a halt. So I became active on Twitter in hopes of meeting like-minded intellectuals and powerhouse writers who promised to champion inclusivity and preserve the freedom of expression.

Instead of being empowered, I became the target of a smear campaign engineered by someone who claimed to be my friend for almost a year, got cyberbullied by the very same people who said they would advocate for underrepresented writers, and realized that this social media cult is what is really killing modern American publishing.

I am done with silence.

This is the truth of what had happened to me.

I hope that by sharing this, other writers who have suffered or are going through similar ordeals will find solidarity and the strength to keep shining.

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The Harassment, The Smear Campaign, And The Mob

I became active on Writer Twitter around January 2021. Two months later, I met a girl on there from Hong Kong whom I had initially gotten along with very well. We had a lot of voice calls, and I enjoyed talking to her. Two months after meeting her, in May 2021, she invited me to join a group chat with other young writers so we could have each other’s backs while we pursued traditional publishing. There were nine people in there, which dwindled to six given that the other three were often inactive.

Gradually, I became closer with someone else in that group chat. We will call this person “A” because that is the first letter of their name. I trusted every single one of those girls in the group chat. I confided in them, shared my vulnerabilities with them, cheered them on, took large chunks of time out of my busy days to listen to them, to talk to them, to be there for them. I told them about my past. I truly rooted for them to win.

And they repeatedly encouraged me to open up. They repeatedly told me that they would always be there for me. They repeatedly called me their best friend. And best friends were supposed to be there for each other.

I was not in a safe offline environment at the time, and I was going through a lot. But I didn’t want to overwhelm them with the negative things that were being forced upon me, so every time when they asked me to open up, I made sure that they were in a good place and not stressed out themselves.

During our conversations, I always checked in with them to ensure that I was not crossing any boundaries and that I was not making anyone uncomfortable. And they always invited me to keep going, telling me that “it wasn’t about them, that it was about me.” But I still always wanted to ensure that the girls were not overwhelmed. And I did everything I could to bring smiles to their days. I made memes. I asked everyone how they were doing every day. I hosted group video chats and game sessions.

Even when another girl in the group chat told me in private that “A” always sought to dominate the conversation, talking at us as if we were her audience and not real people, I stood by “A” because I had wanted to uplift her the way I uplifted everyone in the group chat and out in the real world.

“A” lived in a different time zone. I often stayed up with her despite being several hours ahead. She told me that she hated herself and that she loved to bomb friendships to make her feel better. She also admitted that she enjoyed stirring the pot to make herself feel powerful. And she made multiple fake accounts on Instagram to argue with other people even after being blocked.

I should’ve heeded the red flags. But I wanted to genuinely give her a chance. So I kept talking to her and listened to her vent about how she wanted to destroy everyone and everything. Every time after our voice calls, I felt very drained.

Fast forward to June 2022 when I pursued traditional publishing for my memoir. The group of girls repeatedly told me to not query because they didn’t think that I was ready. I told them that “I am the only one who gets to decide whether I am ready or not, and if querying didn’t work this time, then I would’ve gained the experience that would prepare me for my next try.”

Another girl in that group chat was Zo, who had been passive-aggressive towards me for weeks. I didn’t pay too much mind to it at first. Zo was stressed out at the time, so I thought that she was just cranky.

But then one afternoon, I sent something to the group chat, and Zo started hounding me. I called her out on it. And then she started harassing me. She called me “spineless” and “suicidal.” Of course, I stood up for myself, pointing out all the instances where she had been invalidating me in the past few weeks. Zo continuously deflected everything that I called her out for, claiming that I was not willing to communicate even though I was literally communicating with her. She then accused me of “trauma dumping in everyone’s DMs” even though they repeatedly invited me to talk about my feelings.

And then she accused me of “invalidating everyone’s dreams” when I was literally just giving very valid criticisms of how traditional publishing needed to honor their promises to underrepresented writers. For whatever reason, Zo thought that “traditional publishing ought to pay writers of color, especially women of color, more money so they wouldn’t have to worry about finances” was a personal insult towards her own dream of being traditionally published despite telling me two weeks prior that she didn’t actually want to traditionally publish.

Furthermore, I had been going back-and-forth with my own decision between traditional publishing and independent publishing. Of course, Zo made that about herself too even though I always cheered all of them on.

But regardless, Zo kept insulting me until I got angry and fired back.

It was a heated back-and-forth that ended with Zo not replying.

I was not very happy with the conversation. But I did say some things that I didn’t feel right saying, so I went back to apologize for those things while also making it clear that Zo could not mistreat me the way she did. After a few hours, Zo did come back and gave a half-hearted apology.

I thought it was over. I mean, even the closest of friends argue, and Zo was stressed. It didn’t make it right for Zo to just take it out on me. But everyone makes mistakes, everyone has those days. So I was ready to move on. And perhaps Zo and I could’ve both moved on that night if “A” didn’t reveal her true colors.

During the entire argument, which mostly consisted of Zo launching personal attacks and accusations against me, all the other girls stayed silent in the group chat. Nobody stood up for me. In the aftermath, they said that they cared about both me and Zo, so they would not call Zo out.

In retrospect, this is highly problematic because they are basically saying that it was okay for Zo to bully and harass me, that they would condone that misdeed toward me, that they didn’t think I was a person worth standing up for.

Of course, I was really sad that night because at the time, I loved those girls as if they were my sisters. I wanted to meet them offline and just really make sure that they were safe, that they were okay, that they were taken care of. And the sadness was quite overwhelming, so I posted a short message on my Twitter account, asking people to send me cat memes and funny photos. I noticed how 50+ people had unfollowed me for seemingly no reason. I had a big account of over 1200 followers at the time, so I didn’t really care. People unfollow all the time. It was no big deal.

But then the next day, I woke up to see Zo harassing me once again in the group chat. She continuously insulted me and accused me of being a “narcissist who had no reading comprehension.” I was really hurt by that because I thought she was my friend. So I blocked her. But then “A” left the group chat and stopped talking to me even though I was there for her every single time when she needed someone. The other three girls said nothing throughout it all. And their silence spoke volume.

I kept losing followers, and I was starting to wonder if most of my followers were being deleted for some technical reason. But then I saw that “A” blocked me even though I did nothing to her, even though I supported her throughout all the friendship dramas and family breakups that she was going through in the previous months, even though she sent me 99+ messages within the span of 10 minutes when she got called for jury duty. I read everything that she sent me, replied to it all, and I tried my best to help her love herself.

I wanted an answer. “A” ran a private account, and I thought I could reach her there. But then I saw that she didn’t block me on her private account. And I saw the tweets that she made throughout the past week where she wanted everyone to know that “there was a terrible person in the writing community who always started problems and how she used to be friends with that person until she got fed up with how this person lied to everyone about being an advocate for diverse voices and that this person must be held accountable for bullying people on social media and pretending to be a saint.” People replied to that thread on her private account and asked “A” to name-drop the “abuser dressed in victim’s skin” so “everyone could avoid this abuser who everyone hates and shouldn’t be on this platform.”

I read that three times and I cried. Why? Because I am not the abuser. “A” was the one who had done everything that she talked about. “A” was the one who was projecting her own problems onto me. “A” was the one who was the actual abuser dressed in victim’s skin. “A” admitted to me that she did all those terrible things that she blamed me for. And later, I found out that “A” had been manipulating the other girls in the group chat into thinking that I was out to get them. “A” is the liar.

Not me.

But everyone believed her in that digital space.

And they all accused me of being an “abuser” when I was being physically, emotionally, financially, and verbally abused at home, offline, by a man whom I had been fighting back against since I was fourteen.

And I realized that “A” had been plagiarizing a lot of my tweets, the way I made mood boards, and the things that I posted. I wanted to remind everyone to drink water. I wanted to encourage everyone to love themselves. I stand up for the people being silenced. I am the compassionate and empathic creative who has something good and uplifting to say.

Yet they all believed “A” who is the actual problem and culprit.

In Chinese, we call this 贼喊捉贼，颠倒黑白，小人得志。

I confronted “A” in private. She messaged me back after ignoring me for two days. She accused me of being a “narcissist.” She said that “only narcissists wrote memoirs,” and she claimed that “you treat everyone around you like this.” She repeatedly emphasized how “it was not worth it being your friend,” how she thought long and hard about it and decided that “it was not worth it at all,” and that “you should get help for being a narcissist.” Then she blocked me. And when I turned to the other three girls for help, they told me that “they were not responsible for A’s actions and that they talked with A and realized that I never respected any of them and that I shouldn’t expect them to call out A.”

Wow. That left me speechless. They basically told me that my feelings didn’t matter, and that “A” had every right to spread lies about me, and that I should just not exist.

These were the very same people who had promised me repeatedly for more than a year that “they would always be there for me.” These were the very same people who had called me their best friend.

Soon after, one of the girls reached out and asked me if I had told some other person on Twitter what they did to me. I said no. Then she stopped replying to me. I blocked them all. But then they emailed me twice after I blocked them. “Last contact. Do not ever include us in your memoir. Bye.”

They thought they could just get away with it. They were scared that they would be exposed. They wanted to uphold their digital performance of purity. They didn’t want anyone to know what they did. They wanted everyone in that space to believe their lies, that I’m the “bad guy,” and they’re the whistleblowers. They never apologized, and they never will.

That put me in a very dark place for a very long time. Those people were all older than me. I had just turned twenty for two months, and they did all this to me for no reason.

It didn’t help that within five weeks, I received 50+ rejections from literary agents who told me that “they felt touched by my writing, but they could never market my books.”

And then my friend and I got “cancelled” on Writer Twitter for speaking up. I offered alternative pathways to writers who all deserve to get their stories out there. My friend called out the hypocrisy in the industry. Instead of entering into a nuanced discussion with us, multiple people took screenshots of my friend’s writing, marked it all up, and told him that “he’s not good enough and should shut up.” When I stood up for him, they called me “embarrassing.”

Wow. My integrity is not embarrassing. And my friend’s bravery is not disgusting.

So that was what had happened in the Summer of 2022 when I had tried to publish. In hindsight, the biggest problem plaguing this industry is not even the commercial aspect of it all. It is the virtue-signaling digital cultists who claim to support human beings, but are actively working to undermine the confidence and self-worth of underrepresented writers and those with a story to share.

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Healing

In the past three years, I have been committed to healing and building meaningful in-person relationships. I am surrounded by loved ones and real ones. I am very grateful for my partner, my mother, my good friends, genuine creative people, amazing professors, empowering communities, my spirit guides, Nature, and more.

I wrote about my healing process in my published poetry book titled Flower Crowns Reign, and I also talked more about my feelings in another blog post that I will link at the end of this one.

But up until this point, I never talked about what had actually happened that summer. I mostly focused on my own healing, reclamation, and integration.

So, why am I talking about what they did three years later? Because so many times, women of color are slandered and silenced, and I am not going to let that slide. Nobody else gets to define my narrative. Nobody else gets to twist my truth. Young people often hear from their parents or teachers that liars and bullies will one day run into someone who they wish they never messed with.

I am that person they never should have messed with.

They don’t want the truth out there because they are scared. They want to stab others and just forget about the bloody wounds that they had opened on good people like myself who are left to pick up the pieces and heal from a war that we never started.

So I speak the Truth of what had happened that summer. And I relinquish it to the Lord of Justice and the Lady of Judgement who always right the wrongs. 555. They will not get away with it. But that is not up to me to oversee. So I thank Karmic Justice.

I will keep speaking. I will keep championing the causes that I believe in. I will keep advocating for people who deserve to have their stories out there. I will never yield to the toxic pettiness of empty clowns who lack substance, integrity, and critical thinking skills.

And at the end of the day, most of the people who I had spoken to offline since then are all great people. The artists and musicians and mothers and fathers and professors and book lovers and writers and strangers. My partner and my good friends and my mother. All of them encouraged me to keep going. All of them cheered me on. And in turn, I will keep cheering on others because that is what I stand for.

Everyone makes a choice: to uphold the Light, or to give in to the void.

I choose the Light. I choose the Truth. I choose Love and Learning. I choose to protect Nature. I choose to stand up for Indigenous people. I choose to stand in solidarity with other human beings who had suffered the same unjustified crimes that were forced upon me by cowards who could not own up to their own problems.

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Self-Love Is Beautiful

I have noticed that there are two types of people who call themselves artists. The first type are the real writers, poets, musicians, dancers, painters, actors, photographers, and other people who practice a creative discipline. Collectively, I will call this first type True Creators. These people are sensitive, empathetic, compassionate, and empowering. They stand up for themselves against all odds. They stand in solidarity with each other. They advocate for those who are being oppressed. They are committed to helping the environment. And most importantly, they actually make good art with substance, depth, and meaning.

An example of a True Creator would be Aurora Aksnes whose ethereal and high-vibrational music soothes weary hearts and encourages people to take a stand. Her fourth album, What Happened To The Heart, is inspired by a love letter to the Earth authored by indigenous activists in Brazil.

Another example of a True Creator would be Iniko whose first album, The Awakening, inspires everyone to look within and reconnect with their Souls. Their powerful messages of self-love, empathy, and resilience have touched many people around the world.

Whereas True Creators are genuinely there for the art, for the healing, and for the community, clout-chasing wannabes are just there to present themselves as an artist for external validation and admiration. These people may dabble in whatever creative discipline that they choose to exploit for their ego-driven purposes, but ultimately, they do not make anything meaningful because they are not there to create in the first place. They are there to feed on the vulnerabilities of artists and those who support the arts. They stir up drama and project their toxicity on True Creators, aiming to undermine the wonderful writers and musicians and many others who are genuinely giving their all to make a difference. These clout-chasing wannabes cannot stand on their own. Thus, they try to imitate the compassion of True Creators while spreading rumors in an attempt to control the narrative and turn everyone against the True Creators. When the True Creators and their supporters call out the wannabes, the wannabes shift the blame, refuse to take accountability, and accuse the True Creators of doing the things that the wannabes themselves are always doing.

After much research on what exactly is a narcissist, it made sense as to why “A” did all those terrible things to me. After all, narcissists lack empathy. Narcissists seek to sabotage good people to make themselves look superior. Narcissists are constantly frothing at the mouth for external validation. Narcissists cannot create. They sabotage to gain control over other people. They are empty on the inside, but instead of choosing to rejoin the Light, they seek to drain others through emotional manipulation, smear campaigns, character assassinations, narrative distortions, gaslighting, triangulation, and projection. Narcissists do not love themselves. Narcissists project their own narcissism onto good people. Above all, narcissists want to silence their victims so they can feel good about their toxic egos.

Self-Love, on the other hand, is different. People who love themselves radiant an internal and self-sustaining Light that brings a smile to everyone around them. People with Self-Love will respect themselves and others, but will not tolerate disrespect toward themselves and their loved ones. People with Self-Love have a strong sense of empathy and compassion. People with Self-Love do not live on social media, manipulating others behind a fabricated digital persona. People with Self-Love do not seek attention from external sources because they know who they are, and they are comfortable with themselves. Everyone wavers every now and then, but people with Self-Love will always return to their Soul-Core.

So at the end of the day, I will keep loving myself, and I will keep speaking the Truth.

I encourage you to love yourself. And I stand by every True Creator who has been subjected to the heinous crime of cyberbullying. Please know that you are not alone. Please know that you have inherent worth no matter what. Please know that you and your art are innately enough. Please know that you deserve to speak yourself. Please know that your self-expression is not wrong or bad or “too much” or “oversharing.” You deserve to speak yourself and shout your truth. Please know that you are wonderful the way you are, and that people who insult you are really just talking about themselves and their own lack.

Please keep making art, and please keep being you.

You can choose to just log off and do your own thing. Set strict digital boundaries with social media. Move forward and preserve your peace. Focus your energy on your own life. Time is too precious to waste on the irrelevant. Write about your feelings. No feeling is ever too messy for the pages of your journal. Confide in family, partner, friends, or even resources at work or at school if home life feels unsafe. Definitely don’t hold it in. You deserve to be heard and be taken care of.

But if you want to fight back as a part of your healing process, know that you can absolutely take actions against cyberbullying, digital threats, and social media harassment. After all, if someone were to harass you in school or at work, you can always report the bully for them to be expelled, fired, or prosecuted.

I am not a legal expert. If you do choose to go this route, talk to the people you trust offline and consult a legal expert. But remember, a lot of the times, fighting back against cyberbullies is more trouble than it’s worth, and the real healing happens when you reclaim your sovereignty and self-expression.

But also remember that cyberbullying is illegal in most parts of the United States including California. Depending on state laws, the cyberbully can either be expelled from their school or put into prison. Furthermore, if your state does not recognize cyberbullying as a criminal offense, a civil lawsuit can be filed for defamation, slander, libel, intentional infliction of emotional distress, or wrongful death.

As for people who think that they can hide behind a screen, the Internet is never truly anonymous. Your IP address can be easily found and be traced back to you, especially if law enforcement were to be involved. And since all of those cyberbullies lurk on social media, their IP address have already been recorded countless times.

While I do still have the evidence needed to bring “A” to court, I have decided against the hassle given the fact that she is not worth my time and energy. She is already getting back what she had put out. Everyone does. It is called Karmic Justice (报应). You get back the suffering that you had put out with no remorse at least a thousandfold.

And good people who continue to do good from a genuine place will receive abundance more than a trillionfold, even if such reciprocated good may not be readily apparent or even in the material.

The people who matter will always be able to discern the Truth and stand with the Light. I am so grateful to be surrounded by so many wonderful people who do see me and who stand with those like me.

Therefore, I will keep choosing to spread the Light, to uplift underrepresented voices, to preserve nuanced thinking, to stand for artistic integrity, to empower oppressed communities, and to express gratitude for my loved ones.

I will never stop speaking.

I will always choose self-love.

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A Call To Action

If you are a writer being bullied by digital mobs, an artist being told to shut up, a musician being commodified against your will, a woman stuck in an abusive marriage, a young man being told to kill your feelings, a young person being harassed for your authenticity, and even just someone in the process of unlearning the insidious miseducation of division that sought to weaponize you against other humans, I encourage you to speak yourself.

Let us stand together. Let us speak up.

When we are divided and try to slaughter each other, the 1% at the top benefit from our blood and our trauma. Listen to different viewpoints and challenge the programming that the industrial simulation had forced into your mind. Reconnect with your inner child. All of us deserve better. All of us are just people at the end of the day with the same needs. We all have dreams and feelings and families and friends who we want to protect. We all want to leave an impact on this world, hopefully for the better.

So ditch the label of liberal or conservative. Listen to the people around you instead of the liars on social media and on the television. They made their choice to deceive, manipulate, exploit, and harass.

We make our choice to uplift, to speak, to honor the Truth, and to create.

All of you do not deserve to be used by the weak ones standing on manmade ladders who want to suck you all dry and leave your children to die. As long as all of us choose to take a stand, then one person becomes two people, and two people turn into twenty, and twenty multiply exponentially into thousands and millions.

But remember, let us remain civil because killing a king only crowns his political rival. We must tap into our inner creative spirits and create a new system, a new mode of societal organization that will empower our youth and take care of our elderly, that will honor our women and not shame the sensitivities of our men, that will accept all forms of love and identity, that will help us remember that each and every one of us deserve to be treated with fairness and kindness.

All of us just want love. And as soon as we start listening to each other instead of propaganda and conspiracy theories, we will create a loving and sustainable society. We will coexist with Nature in peace and harmony.

And if you are looking for a new book to read, here are some gems authored by amazing writers from diverse backgrounds. Read through the list and explore the titles that you feel called to.

Listen to your Soul and embrace the Serendipity.

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Book Recommendations

Essential Readings

1. Remembering Shanghai: A Memoir of Socialites, Scholars and Scoundrels by Isabel Sun Chao & Claire Chao

2. Hope For Cynics: The Surprising Science of Human Goodness by Jamil Zaki

3. The Evening Party by Hannah Cao

4. Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman

5. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson

6. All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks

7. The Essential Rumi by Jalal al-Din Rumi

8. Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts by Crystal Wilkinson

9. Laozi's Dao De Jing: A New Interpretation for a Transformative Time by Ken Liu

10. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

11. My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem

12. Coyote Wisdom - Healing Power in Native American Stories by Lewis Mehl-Madrona

13. The Pain We Carry: Healing from Complex PTSD for People of Color by Natalie Y. Gutierrez

14. The Cycle: Confronting the Pain of Periods and PMDD by Shalene Gupta

15. Beyond the Story: 10-Year Record of BTS by BTS & Myeongseok Kang

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Books For Adults

1. Memory Piece by Lisa Ko

2. The Real Story of Ah-Q and Other Tales of China by Lu Xun

3. The Tea Girl Of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See

4. The Inheritance Of Orquídea Divina by Zoraida Córdova

5. Babel by Rebecca F. Kuang

6. The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri

7. The Unbroken by C.L. Clark

8. She Who Became The Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

9. The Women by Kristin Hannah

10. Sea Of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

11. Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel

12. Girls Burn Brighter by Shobha Rao

13. Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers

14. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

15. Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

16. Real Americans by Rachel Khong

17. Cafe At 46 Old Street by Hannah Cao

18. Queen Of The Conquered & King Of The Rising by Kacen Callender

19. Natalie Tan’s Book Of Luck And Fortune by Roselle Lim

20. Annals by Tacitus

21. A Song To Drown Rivers by Ann Liang

22. Daughter Of The Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan

23. Empire Of Sand by Tasha Suri

24. Jade City by Fonda Lee

25. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

26. Crying In H-Mart by Michelle Zauner

27. The Priory Of The Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

28. Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo

29. The Singing Hills Cycle by Nghi Vo

30. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

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Books For Young Adults

1. Children Of Blood And Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

2. On The Come Up by Angie Thomas

3. We Set The Dark On Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia

4. Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley

5. Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley

6. The Ones We’re Meant To Find by Joan He

7. Girls Of Paper And Fire by Natasha Ngan

8. Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake

9. Kingdom Of The Blazing Phoenix by Julie C. Dao

10. The Red Palace by June Hur

11. Jade Fire Gold by June C. L. Tan

12. The Astonishing Color Of After by Emily X.R. Pan

13. Crier’s War by Nina Varela

14. Patron Saint Of Nothing by Randy Ribay

15. The Effigies by Sarah Raughley

16. Song Of The Six Realms by Judy I. Lin

17. Song Of Silver, Flame Like Night by Amélie Wen Zhao

18. The Kingdom Of Back by Marie Lu

19. Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

20. You Should See Me In A Crown by Leah Johnson

21. Salt To The Sea by Ruta Sepetys

22. Between Shades Of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

23. Outrun The Moon by Stacey Lee

24. The Boy In The Black Suit by Jason Reynolds

25. The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

26. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

27. When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon

28. The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar

29. Messy Roots by Laura Gao

30. Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova

31. War Girls by Tochi Onyebuchi

32. The Dragon Warrior by Katie Zhao

33. Flame In The Mist by Renée Ahdieh

34. Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand

35. A Clash Of Steel: A Treasure Island Remix by C. B. Lee

36. Echo After Echo by Amy Rose Capetta

37. Coldwire by Chloe Gong

38. The Boneless Mercies by April Genevieve Tucholke

39. Last Night At The Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

40. A Scatter Of Light by Malinda Lo

41. Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

42. With The Fire On High by Elizabeth Acevedo

43. These Rebel Waves by Sara Raasch

44. Miss Meteor by Tehlor Kay Mejia and Anne Marie Mclemore

45. A Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Joseph White

46. Midnight At The Electric by Jodi Lynn Anderson

47. Colonization And The Wampanoag Story by Linda Coombs

48. Stronger Than A Bronze Dragon by Mary Fan

49. We Hunt The Flame by Hafsah Faizal

50. The Girl Who Fell Beneath The Sea by Axie Oh

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Books For Middle Grade Readers

1. Other Words For Home by Jasmine Warga

2. The Tryout by Christina Soontornvat

3. New Kid by Jerry Craft

4. Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee

5. Pandava Series by Roshani Chokshi

6. Tristan Strong Series by Kwame Mbalia

7. Momo Arashima Series by Misa Sugiura

8. Team Chu Series by Julie C. Dao

9. Percy Jackson And The Olympians by Rick Riordan

10. The Storyteller by Brandon Hobson

11. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

12. Ruby Lost And Found by Christina Li

13. Clues To The Universe by Christina Li

14. When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller

15. Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older

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Picture Books For All Ages

1. We Are All Connected: Taking Care Of Each Other & The Earth by Gabi Garcia, Illustrated by Natalia Jiménez Osorio

2. Powwow Day by Traci Sorell, Illustrated by Madelyn Goodnight

3. Say My Name by Joanna Ho, Illustrated by Khoa Le

4. All The Way To The Top by Annette Bay Pimentel, Illustrated by Nabi H. Ali

5. C Is For Country by Lil Nas X, Illustrated by Theodore Taylor III

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Bonus: Music Recommendations

Here are three recent albums released by some of my favorite musicians.

1. The Awakening by Iniko

2. Hackberry by Donnie Dre

3. Happy by Jin

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Here are some more blog posts on my publication journey and emotional healing, I have linked them here.

“A Letter To Writers Of All Ages Who Want To Publish” (19-minute read)

“Returning To My Soul-Self And Gratitude To My Loved Ones” (55-minute read)

I hope that you are all taking care of yourselves, and that you continue to speak your Truth, and that you love yourself, and that you keep spreading the Light.

Enjoy the recommendations. Enjoy your day or night.

Speak yourself. Do not yield.

You matter.

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The cover photo of this blog post (White Gardenia In The Rain) was taken by Feifei Z in October 2023.