X. Ho Yen's Author Newsletter (02 Dec 2025)

Greetings Dear Subscribers,

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My substack articles & youtube channel replace social media, and contain fun and/or thoughtful material that would never fit into tiny SM posts.

If you like this, or just want to help, please forward/post the link! (see see the ‘How to Help’ section at the bottom) https://XHoYenAuthor.com/newsletter

=== Status ===

AotF
I’m over 42k words in the WIP MS, and it’s taking on a life of its own. It’s such a fun phase in writing! This book will probably be over 100k words, but we’ll see. (MSD was 86k words, for reference.)

We are less than a week away from my favorite multi-holiday, December 8th. On that day, I’ll be reposting my Substack ‘post’ about it in a substack ‘note’, but here’s a link in case you missed it last year.

== The Genre Association Issue — DEFEAT ==

Having discovered that world-famous Canadian author Margaret Atwood (of “The Handmaid’s Tale” fame) to this day resists the ‘science fiction’ genre label (despite urgings from Ursula K. Le Guin years ago) has pushed me over the edge. Even Atwood sees ‘science fiction’ as only space opera and such tropes. In interviews she can barely contain her hatred of that label. The distinction she makes, which I think is silly, sorry ma’am, is that ‘science fiction’ is always about things that cannot be, whereas ‘spec fic’ (speculative fiction), her preferred category/label/genre, is about things that could be.

For the record, it has been commonly understood that works set in the future, even ‘near future’, are science fiction. To set a story in the future requires many science-based projections, even if limited solely to psychological and sociological projections. To say that “The Handmaid’s Tale” is not science fiction is to assert that psychology and sociology are not sciences. No matter how “soft” you might think those areas of study are, they are in fact pursued and advanced through scientific methods. They are sciences, and they are about the real world. The complexity of the human world fools many into seeing these sciences as “soft” because they aren’t as A+B=C as, say, chemistry or physics. Atwood’s education is not in those areas, so she doesn’t see what she’s done as relating to psychology and sociology, but all that means is that she has believable intuitions and probably internalizations of psychology and sociology that have reached her through other pathways. But those fields make successful testable predictions about incredibly complex things, whereas Atwood’s fiction doesn’t make predictions so much as imagines scenarios that feel believable based on all we know about human psychology and sociology. That is, Atwood would be correct to say that “The Handmaid’s Tale” is not science, but that doesn’t make it not science fiction. A story set in the future is science fiction.

One of her other famous books usually considered science fiction, “Oryx and Crake”, is also set in a future, in this case a future post-apocalyptic world. I’m still reading it, but I expect it extrapolates in other scientific realms beyond psychology and sociology.

I’ve mentioned before that it blew my mind that even my fellow CAL authors (Colorado Authors League) tilt their heads and ask “well then what do you write?” when I explain that I write science fiction but not space opera, time travel, military, etc. standard Amazon categories.

It’s disappointing and frustrating, but if an entire world of fans of Margaret Atwood (via books or the tv series) are absorbing her definition, distinction, and disgusted dismissal, then I can’t keep fighting this battle of reeducation and inclusiveness within the ‘sci fi’ rubric. Even Ursula K. Le Guin met with failure in this battle.

Hollywood and George Lucas won. Now and forever, ‘science fiction’ has come to mean, to both the masses and to authors, fantasy with a science hook instead of a magic hook, and since the vast majority of readers now only want magical fantasy and ‘dislike science’, and, like Atwood, don’t see psychology as a science, I can’t keep using the ‘sci fi’ tag. The times have already changed. I need to get with the program. “Firefly” is the classic example of sci fi that people don’t consider to be sci fi, and it was way back in 2002! (“Firefly” is set in a distant star system after “the Earth-that-was got used up” and is about a crew of a spaceship struggling to survive and thrive on the fringes of a despotic regime. It is so unequivocally sci fi!)

So, I’m in the process of changing all references, book categories/tags, etc., from ‘sci fi’/’science fiction’ to ‘spec fic’. It’s disappointing and frustrating. The official definition of ‘spec fic’ is actually wider than all of sci fi and fantasy, and includes superhero stuff, so it’s an accurately all-inclusive yet imprecise label (which definitely includes many things that cannot be).

But Arthur C. Clarke’s “The Hammer of God”, for example, is science fiction, and it’s definitely about something that could happen. There are so many other great examples. I wanted to remain associated with that classically revered category, but it has become permanently sullied, and in order to find my audience I really have no choice.

If ever my books come up in conversation, do please refer to them as spec fic/speculative fiction. (Watch the difference in receptivity and duration of receptivity — I’d love to hear what you discover.)

== Holiday Gift-giving ==

I’m not a fan of holiday-based gifting, which is often performative, wasteful, and polluting. I like to give gifts whenever, and I usually do.

But this is the time of year the vendors have sales. My ‘Books’ page has DISCOUNT purchase links. Give them a whirl. Now that my book covers each tastefully show one award badge, you can feel less guilty about gifting my books — you’re not giving someone trash, and even if they don’t like it, they can probably find it a good home.

So, in keeping with standard protocol, I hereby explicitly and humbly request that you consider gifting my books, especially if you know any young people who are likely to enjoy “Puzzling Innerverse”. See Literary Titan’s review here for inspiration. And here’s Andrew G. Gibson’s review of “Minimum Safe Distance”, also rockin’. And The Wishing Shelf’s 5/5 silver-level award review of “Custodians of the Future” here.

Thanks for considering!

=== Standard Stuff === How to Help ===

Why help? Since I subvert pop genre expectations instead of pandering to them, and because of my autism and other isolating factors, it’s extremely difficult and expensive for me to reach out into the world to find my audience. I don’t have a team helping me. Just writing newsletters like this is an exercise in self-esteem suspension of disbelief (swirly thing alert!).

I truly rely on word of mouth and grassroots support. In case anyone assumes this is some kind of gravy train side hustle, I’m still thousands of dollars in debt on this, and every convention adds more red to my ledger. I’m in this for the long haul, but I must keep reaching out and pushing. This is not “write it and they will come”, that’s the erotic fantasy romance section (which sells itself).

How to help: Reading my books, writing reviews (if you liked them :), and passing the word would be great. If not that, then one could post my one-page ads (see below, or on each book’s page on the web site) on appropriate billboards and tell people about my web site, https://XHoYenAuthor.com .

Please help with discovery by posting this week (or maybe set reminders in your calendar for July and November?) something like the following:

Know someone who likes irreverent, inclusive, hopepunk sci fi? Check out this award-winning author: XHoYenAuthor.com/lauds

But here’s something very nice that anyone can do to help — request that “Minimum Safe Distance” be carried by your local library!

It’s usually as simple as going to your library system’s web site and searching for “suggest a purchase” or “submit a suggestion”. Usually, there’s a special page for that, and often it’s at the front of your dashboard.

They will want information like this:

Title: Minimum Safe Distance
Author: X. Ho Yen [please get the capitalization and spaces right, one after the period, another after ‘Ho’]
Publication year: 2022
Format: Book/Paperback
# of pages: 396
ISBN: 978-0-9766158-1-1
Publisher: Grand Unification Monastery
Audience: Adult
Language: English
Notes:
Good professional editorial reviews, including Kirkus:
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/x-ho-yen/minimum-safe-distance/
“…Ho Yen’s descriptions of advanced technologies should please fans of hard SF, but what really makes the book work are the questions it raises about what it means to be a person and a member of a species.” Our verdict: Get It
Carried in Arapahoe County Library System:
https://arapahoelibraries.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S115C2180350

and the Colorado State Library Book Club Resource (https://csl.catalog.aspencat.info/Union/Search?view=list&lookfor=minimum+safe+distance&searchIndex=Title&searchSource=local),

and Biblioboard (https://library.biblioboard.com/content/a3f3fc17-626b-428b-b6a2-5b5a9a44a494).

Author web site: https://XHoYenAuthor.com

This process usually takes only a few moments once you find the book suggestion/recommendation page. Thanks! Put a reminder in your calendar right now!

I haven’t been emphasizing “Custodians of the Future” as much as MSD, but only because MSD has more kudos (which is because I spent a lot more money on MSD, and that’s unsustainable). I’m hoping that interest in MSD will lead to interest in my other stuff.

Space Autistic Author

If you haven’t watched “Space Autistic Author”, Logs 1 to 3, yet, do check them out. They’re only a few minutes long, but they’re fun! Logs 2 and 3 demonstrate how SAA allows cross-promotion with other creatives without requiring anyone to vouch for anyone else’s work. Pass the word!

While you’re there, check out the other videos on my channel, especially the Galacticon ‘23 video (in 4 parts). That one’s longer, but it shows why my pen name is not cultural appropriation, and gives a fun overview of Mars exploration (since the late 1800s) with details of my participation in it, mostly on the Mars Global Surveyor mission.

https://XHoYenAuthor.com/media

Like, subscribe, and share!

Here’s a printable, one-page ad for MSD if anyone has a nice bulletin board/ad column nearby

Printable, one-page ad for CotF

All purchase options can be found here: https://XHoYenAuthor.com/books. Both sites include links showing how several of the big vendors allow you to gift eBooks.

Thanks for sticking with me! I hope it’s at least mildly entertaining to watch this author second career thing come together.

Please do share my page with fellow realism-based sci fi fans, especially anyone who enjoys Corey’s The Expanse, Older’s Infomocracy, Card’s Speaker for the Dead, Mandel’s Station Eleven, Suarez’ Delta-V, or movies like “Arrival” and “Don’t Look Up”. I'm convinced my books would appeal to the same audience, because I wrote them for me and I'm in that audience.

Thanks for your support!
XHY
https://XHoYenAuthor.com

X.HoYen https://xhoyenauthor.com