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Mary Soon Lee

@marysoonlee.bsky.social

380 followers 76 following 940 posts

Author, cat owner, and book addict. Website: https://marysoonlee.com/

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Mary Soon Lee @marysoonlee.bsky.social · Nov 24

Hello, this is Mary Soon Lee entering stage left.... Hoping to find some of the folks I used to follow on that other social media platform....

For anyone wondering who I am, I write poetry and fiction, much of it SF and F.

I also have a cat, Pilot.

And I like to post about books I've enjoyed :-)

Photo of Pilot, a ginger cat with a white bib and white paws. Pilot is sitting on the box of the board game Terraforming Mars; he is staring up to his left. Behind him is an orchid, mostly hidden, and windows looking onto trees.

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Mary Soon Lee @marysoonlee.bsky.social · 3h

Very glad the beach outing was fun.

I also had a fun day, spent with my daughter. Yes, we did spend over four hours driving to and from a DMV so she could renew her license (we needed to get to a DMV in her home state) but it was (very) nice being together and we had other fun later

Mary Soon Lee @marysoonlee.bsky.social · 4h

#TSOTD_note Bowl

- first published in Ship of Fools

- "how the willow was drawn
in air as much as brushstroke."

- this poem doesn't contain any major moments, but I am fond of it

- Meqing is large and contains many lives we never see

- I'm not at all good at drawing/art, but my daughter is

✏️📖🐉

Mary Soon Lee @marysoonlee.bsky.social · 1d

#TSOTD_note Way-Fort

- Yang Du went inside to shovel more horse shit....

- I like Yang Du, who appears only once (quite a few point-of-view characters are seen only once)

- I enjoy Leong being alarmist about his health

- I enjoy Leong in general

- I perhaps enjoy my own book more than I should

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Mary Soon Lee @marysoonlee.bsky.social · 2d

Update! I am one chapter into The Tainted Cup and already it is deeply appealing. I want to crawl further into it, but there are Things That Must Be Done.

More book suggestions very welcome, since your recommendations are typically books that I end up loving.

Mary Soon Lee @marysoonlee.bsky.social · 2d

As our family says, soup is nice.

Bubo! Firstly, a striking name for a rat, bringing the worst associations of rats and plague to mind. I thought he was a fine and bold fellow. [Snuff is my favorite, however.]

Weather in these parts is cooling, but not yet properly cold.

Mary Soon Lee @marysoonlee.bsky.social · 2d

#TSOTD_note Bridge

- A war that did not come.
Days gave way to weeks,
weeks to months

- this is partly because I added a year to the course of the story, so everything unfolds a bit more slowly

- first time readers may be impatient, but I wanted Xau to have that year

✏️📖🐉🐴

Mary Soon Lee @marysoonlee.bsky.social · 3d

"HELL no" absolutely should have been an option on that ballot....

Mary Soon Lee @marysoonlee.bsky.social · 3d

Thank you :-)

Mary Soon Lee @marysoonlee.bsky.social · 3d

Thank you! 🐈‍⬛🐈

Mary Soon Lee @marysoonlee.bsky.social · 3d

For the curious, the October update of my newsletter may be read here:

mailchi.mp/f72546af2d84...

It includes poetry news, a photo of me with Pilot (my cat) on my 60th birthday, and book recommendations.

✏️

Mary Soon Lee @marysoonlee.bsky.social · 3d

!!!! 🐉📖🐉!!!!

oboist73.bsky.social @oboist73.bsky.social · 3d

The first part of the r/fantasy readalong for The Sign of the Dragon by Mary Soon Lee is up today! www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/s/...

From the Fantasy community on Reddit: The Sign of the Dragon by Mary Soon Lee READALONG — Part 1: Crown

Explore this post and more from the Fantasy community

www.reddit.com

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Mary Soon Lee @marysoonlee.bsky.social · 3d

#TSOTD_note Recruits

- first published in Mirror Dance

- "Do not spend their lives lightly" - many horses die, trusting Xau, who never spends their lives lightly

- the phrase "shadow and darkness" also appears in the earlier Donal/Xau poems Training: Shield + Two Kings + Allies

✏️📖🐉🐴

Mary Soon Lee @marysoonlee.bsky.social · 4d

Thank you very much for publishing such a beautiful edition of this lovely book :-)

Mary Soon Lee @marysoonlee.bsky.social · 4d

Update from the reading front: finished Jamie Lackey's novella The Forest Gods, a sequel to her wonderful novella, The Forest God. This one is wonderful too. (Read them in order.)

www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

📖📚

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Mary Soon Lee @marysoonlee.bsky.social · 4d

#TSOTD_note Oath

- this poem had 5 rounds of revision

- the final round, suggested by F. J. Bergmann, was to indent the opening/closing stanzas

- I had indented them in my first draft and later un-indented them

- ah, the glamorous world of poetry revision!

- I do prefer the stanzas indented :-)

Mary Soon Lee @marysoonlee.bsky.social · 5d

The magic show sounds great :-)

Your glass pattern looks lovely but very ambitious!

Mary Soon Lee @marysoonlee.bsky.social · 5d

Serendipity! I'm very glad that worked out well and I hope you are back in touch with them soon :-)

Mary Soon Lee @marysoonlee.bsky.social · 5d

Update from the reading front: finished Sub-Majer's Challenge, the 25th book in L. E. Modesitt Jr's Saga of Recluce. This is the third book about the rise of Alyiakal through the ranks, and I enjoyed it very much. I greatly admire Modesitt's worldbuilding.

www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

📖📚

Mary Soon Lee @marysoonlee.bsky.social · 5d

On the poetry front, my poem "Andy Warhol's Many Cats" has just been published by Uppagus :-) 🐈🐈‍⬛🐾

uppagus.com/poems/soon-l...

For the curious
- first draft written 4/2019
- this draft written 2/2025
- rejected 8 times
- accepted in 58 days
- this is my 51st poem to appear in Uppagus!

✏️📖

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Mary Soon Lee @marysoonlee.bsky.social · 5d

I'm honored and delighted that my poem "What Moon Rabbit Reads" was nominated for the Best of the Net by The Sprawl Mag :-)

N.B. The poem may be read here:

www.thesprawlmag.ca/vol-2-2#moon...

The Sprawl Mag @thesprawl.bsky.social · 6d

Announcing our Best of the Net nominees! Congratulations to @paulvermeersch.bsky.social @marysoonlee.bsky.social @salempaige.bsky.social @ianli.bsky.social @ziggyschutz.bsky.social @clarissagrunwald.bsky.social

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Mary Soon Lee @marysoonlee.bsky.social · 5d

#TSOTD_note Target

- it took me two days to write this poem, after which the only revisions were to format it to look okay on ebook platforms

- my own version is like this:

DONAL Horse shit.
Unless you're looking to be killed
that wasn't a risk worth taking.

✏️📖🐉

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Mary Soon Lee @marysoonlee.bsky.social · 6d

Not that I could permit
the purloining of cats,
but we came to an understanding,
the blackthorn and I.
In its shelter, I planted
catnip, valerian, oat grass,
such things as please a feline,
and now, of an evening,
I watch how the cats linger there,
the small warm weight of paws
against its roots.

🐈‍⬛

Mary Soon Lee @marysoonlee.bsky.social · 6d

I took myself away.
I thought.
I thought about the witch,
how no one mourned her,
except, perhaps, this garden
and its various denizens:
a porcupine, shadows,
trees pining for company.

Mary Soon Lee @marysoonlee.bsky.social · 6d

The blackthorn bristled its leaves savagely
but set the tabby down,
and something in that setting-down
so soft,
so far at odds with its wild rages,
that I felt abashed
for witnessing its lapse to tenderness.

Mary Soon Lee @marysoonlee.bsky.social · 6d

The worst of the trees, an angry blackthorn,
entrapped the neighborhood cats.
The fourth time I found it
in flagrante delicto,
a tabby stuck in its clutch,
I told it, firmly,
that either it would desist immediately
or I'd fetch my saw.

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