Andrew on Medium: July 2021

So you may have noticed that there wasn't a "Successes and Failures" post for last month. Actually, you probably didn't as no one reads those things, but there wasn't one. As I'm no longer querying for anything and I don't write short stories with the same gusto as I was a few years ago, it seemed pointless.

Instead, I've been shifting my focus over to Medium, where I've been posting with a fury. So in lieu of talking about my failures, I'll be posting monthly digests of my works there. All of these links are friends links, which means you can read these articles even if you aren't a paying member. Of course, if you are a member, you can do me a huge favor by following me. You'll find it's an eclectic mix - everything from writing advice and short fiction, to personal essays on travel, video games and unexpected experiences.

So here we go: My best work for July:

Questionable Internet Acid: My First Psychedelic Experience

The package arrived on a Saturday, some sixteen hours after I’d given up hope of it showing up on my schedule. It was certainly discreet — just a plain white security envelope with the pseudonym I’d supplied printed across the top. My whole body tensed up as I eyeballed the package, and I wondered if I really still wanted this.

I Outlived the Mother I Never Knew

It’s terribly humbling to read about your own life and circumstances from the outside, especially when it’s written out in a manner as efficiently cold as you’ll find in the law. Here were endless conversations about the “illegitimate child” — unnamed, not yet breathing the air and yet stirring the pot all the same. I was a problem; I was a solution to the problem.

Through the Invisible Wall: Video Games in China

In an age of soft power and globalism, popular culture has special importance. Where music and television once unified the nation, they now unify the world. Video games have become a growing part of this, and an interesting one in that they allow us to interact across distance. Games aren’t going to bring about world peace, but maybe they can play a small part, moving the needle just a little toward a more stable tomorrow.

No, I Can't Help You Get an Asian Girlfriend

I know that, for most of you, none of these things are true. However, I also know that you are assuming that dating in this part of the world will be easier in some way than dating back home. Allow me to break this down, because you’re not entirely wrong, but you’re also far from right.