Hey there!

Last week I promised you that I'd tell you the second big reason I started writing the Danica Burns series—and trust me, that's still coming.

But I needed to take a quick detour, sorry.

I promise it'll be worth it!

I’ve been on a Murderbot binge over the last couple of months. (Did you see that the TV show will be out in May on Apple TV? Check out Murderbot's amazing helmet in the second article image!)

I’ve been sneaking Murderbot novellas in between the thriller and mystery books that I’ve been reading for research as I plan out the Danica Burns series, and they're such tasty little treats.

If you haven’t read the series yet, it's about an artificially intelligent security unit (SecUnit) who has hacked its governor module. In theory, the governor module keeps SecUnits from going rogue and murdering all the humans. In practice, the now-rogue SecUnit who calls itself Murderbot just wants to watch its favorite media shows and figure out the mystery of what happened in its past.

Sure, Murderbot still keeps its humans from getting eaten by terrifying alien fauna. But mostly it wishes they would stop being so headstrong so it could watch soap operas and veg out in peace.

The Murderbot books are written with a delightful wry sense of humor, from the perspective of somebody who really doesn't understand why humans do what they do—but must still work in close proximity with them. The charm of the books is getting to see humans from the perspective of an outsider, and I'm here for it.

A few years ago, I started to realize how frequently I tap into that same perspective. A lot of my short stories are from the points of views of outsiders trying to figure humans out. My novelette, After the Tide, is also written from the perspective of an outsider who's trying to understand what it means to be human.

I mean, aren't we all trying to figure that out sometimes?

I really enjoy slipping outside the human perspective. It allows me to ask questions like, what is friendship? Why do humans fall in love? And what would happen if an elder being who was sent here to destroy the earth had to endure several hours hanging out with a bunch of teenage girls at a sleepover?

Once I realized that I had a bit of a theme in my writing, I told myself that I would collect those stories into an anthology someday.

Well, folks, today is that day.

Meet Outsiders!

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Outsiders by Jessie Kwak From demon carpet salesmen to outer-dimensional beings to ancient and terrifying monsters, these creatures hail from beneath the mirrored surface of the lake and just past the glare of the moonbeam. They slip through the shadows of our peripheral vision, and sit beside us in the coffee shop. Some want to befriend us. Some have fallen in love with us. Some are trying to destroy us. Some just think we look tasty. All of them are looking forward to meeting you. Launching MONDAY on Kickstarter! Check it out!

I decided to launch this book as a Kickstarter because it allows me to do some extra fun things, including sending out postcards (like I did with the Bulari Saga Travel Guide), and bundling up this collection with some of my other offbeat stories that few people have read.

I’ll tell you a bit more about the reward tiers and all of that next week after the project has officially launched, but if you want to make sure you don’t miss anything, please click the link below and don't forget to hit the “notify me on launch” button.

Having a handful of followers ahead of time really helps get the Kickstarter algorithm juices flowing. :)

​So theck out the Kickstarter here—and don't forget to hit Notify Me on Launch!

Happy reading,

Jessie