Moby Bytes: Dropping into Feral Flow
Letter #4: On murky waters, gumption, ball points, wet sheets, and sloppy pages.
I hope you are not paying for this (news)letter.
If you didn’t get that memo (to use the free subscribe option), please fiddle with your settings accordingly. Because I just want to write how and when I want to write, with no expectations.
I do also write climate marketing stuff for money (good money). And as the boundaries between literary and marketing writing can get murky, I’d prefer to drop some cement barriers into those brackish waters. Not just any cement. But the neutral-PH kind that grows feral with coral. The kind of cement eco-artist Jason de Caires Taylor drops into the ocean…
I am here to drop in and see what grows. To swirl amongst the paragraphs, whims, and all the negative space it has always been my inclination to explore. To adventure with some friends (you) who might be interested in similar immersions.
Recently, I’ve contributed to two interviews that will be published *soon!*, and I’ve noticed it IS my jam to get meta. To get all floaty with seagull or underwater perspective. And maybe I’m finally old enough to just get floaty on people without caring who follows and who jumps ship. (You can unsubscribe anytime and I don’t get alerts and will never notice—I promise!)
In commitment to a more feral Moby Bytes, I’ve decided to compose each news-ish letter by hand on actual born-of-tree paper. Because there aren’t thirty open tabs in my journal. There are no AI tools to suggest my sentence construction should be more culturally appropriate. No Grammerly underlining everything in red. Just flow. Which can be hard to keyboard-tap into. That tiny ball at the tip of a pen does more than you might think as it rolls itself along the page gathering its own steam!
Every word of MY OCEANS was written first by hand. And I have a sneaking suspicion that my WIP novel sucks because every single word was first typed. (Oh no. Do you see what this means? Gah. This is how a novel works: You type 70k, revise it four times, add a new point-of-view character, remove that POV, add a different POV, then are like: Hum. Maybe I should try re-writing the whole book by hand? Maybe I should also turn it back into first person, like the draft from two years ago?! I wish I were joking, but I think I just found my next round of revision—once I find, also, the needed gumption.) Anyway, all the type-y parts of writing make me lose touch with the voice I only find in my sloppiest handwriting. The handwriting that piles up on itself and forgets vowels. Do you know this handwriting? The kind so excitable it just stumbles over itself? It’s that cursive-ish tangle of letters I’m going to chase and follow.
If you choose to, thanks for sticking with me. :)
Five short paragraphs still seem like quite enough to clutter any inbox up with today. So onward with some ocean (both watery & metaphor) stuff. But I might be back sooner than expected. Because this was an *Orca’s breath of fresh air. And I need those.
*In case your imagination needed that snack:
in submersion,
christina
For the Writers & Readers
My essay “Your Kora” was published in full on the EcoTheo website. It was my attempt to process a great personal loss.
For writers, the workshops coming out of the Shipman Agency lately are just outstanding. I’m signed up for a few summer classes, but Laura van den Berg’s Craft Seminar: Roadmap to Revising a Novel was ALL the stars.
What I’m Reading & Loving this Month: Lydia Millet’s We Loved it All; Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips; Maria Semple’s Where’d You Go, Bernadette. (Or visit all my recs & lists on Bookshop.org)
*Note: All recommendations are unsolicited and authentic. Books, though, do have affiliate links.
For the Grievers
Thanks for allowing your hearts to open and feel all the feels and cry all the tears for those who can’t or won’t. I see and salute you. If you are feeling a little groundless this week/month/year/life, I so highly recommend flopping on the bed and letting the tears darken the covers as you listen to Joanna Macy’s beautiful 94-year-old voice in a gorgeous telling of the Buddhist-based prophecy of The Great Turning.
And if you are intrigued or want to revisit all of Macy’s work, feel free to start (with me) at the beginning of the We Are the Great Turning podcast series…
My Oceans Updates
My book baby got a new subtitle and it’s press-approved! Officially, it’s now MY OCEANS: Essays of Water, Whales, and Women. Thanks for helping me with all your candid feedback and survey answers on Instagram.
I think that means we’re moving on to book cover design?!?
Stay tuned!
Creature Feature
I mean, just stop. For this humpback soaring through a school of Brazilian Cownose Rays. Click through to watch the full video. Every second is full of ALL the feels…
Where Are You?
If you’re new to Moby Bytes, I’m Christina Rivera and MY OCEANS: Essays of Water, Whales, and Women is my debut book of sea-linked essays deep-diving the oceanic kinship of bodies of water and beings. MY OCEANS is forthcoming from NUPress/Curbstone Books in the Spring of 2025. Please share Moby Bytes with a friend who might want more pod in their life?
MY OCEANS Book Announcement & Short Description
Published Essays & Excerpts from MY OCEANS
Find me on your social platform of choice: Instagram, Threads, Facebook, TikTok, BlueSky, Twitter/X, LinkedIn
New website (also!) forthcoming: www.christinarivera.com
I love your writing here, it's my favorite. Maybe because you don't do it all the time - haha
I think getting out pen and pad is necessary.
"It’s that cursive-ish tangle of letters I’m going to chase and follow." I do feel that!
I can't wait to listen to "we are the great turning" yes, yes.
💛