The Incompletionist: So It Begins

Entry 001

May 01, 2025

It is finally time for the first installment of The Incompletionist! As I stated in my previous post, I want us to read (or listen) in ways that feel best for us, with no need to complete a certain number of books in a certain amount of time unless that’s what we want for ourselves. We can read books for pleasure or utility, for guidance or inspiration, or even just for curiosity. It is time we read honestly and joyfully as we strive to enjoy our lives the best we can.

In that spirit, I am sharing the books I open and what I gain from them. There is no page count or timeline around ever finishing these books. If I complete a book, you will not find out about it in this series.

In preparation for starting The Incompletionist, I gallivanted around buying and borrowing books, allowing whimsy and curiosity to guide me to each one. I stared at the books on my bookshelf, and then the books enveloping my table, trying to decide if I should open one of them just to spice up the list I’d share today. I had many books to choose from, but I needed to decide how each entry would be formatted. I didn’t want this to be flexible and allow me to easily organize my thoughts and feelings about the books I chose.

So I decided to share the books I started based on my motivation in choosing them. My motivations will likely change month-to-month, and I hope each entry provides perspective on my interests and my process as a writer.

Research: Non-Fiction

On the left is the cover of Assata: An Autobiography. The title overlays a photo of a young Assata Shakur with a large afro looking over her shoulder directly at the camera. On the right is the cover for Foxy: My Life in Three Acts featuring a full portrait, black and white photo of a middle-aged Pam Grier sitting with legs crossed. She is wearing a dark jacket with a large fur collar, a dark skirt and shiny dark boots. — The "smart-cropping" on this platform isn't great, so I had to crop the covers so that the most important aspects of them weren't lost. I'd have preferred to have included the whole cover, but alas...

Assata: An Autobiography by Assata Shakur and Foxy: My Life in Three Acts by Pam Grier with Andrea Cagan

I started reading these two books last year after a question came to mind: what were the similarities and differences between the woman who embodied imagined Black power on the silver screen versus the woman who embodied it in real life. Presently, there are state-sanctioned kidnappings, imprisonment, and extrajudicial deportations happening while media conglomerates work to misdirect, misrepresent, and miseducate revolutionary politics of people trying to make a positive change in this world. Examining Black revolutionary and media history from the 70s is invaluable to me because so much of that time mirrors what we are experiencing today.

Reading about the lives of these two women affirm to me that not so much has changed despite the passage of time and who has come to positions of influence. Their experiences mirrored those of many Black girls at the time and even today: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Sometimes when we talk about Assata Shakur and Pam Grier, it is hard to remember that they were first Black girls. Regardless of their talent or purpose, they still faced misogynoir and sexual violence from men and boys, Black and white. We like to believe that those who are exceptional among us were above the unexceptional cruelties and evils that plague those who share their identities. This belief is only a coping mechanism to distract us from the fact that until everybody is free and until every body is safe, no one is.

I don’t know what I’ll write once I finish these two books yet, but it feels like they are part of something larger for me to consider. It is likely I’ll be pulling from these books for multiple writing projects.

Research: The Craft

On the left is the cover of The Black Fantastic. Underneath the title are three abstract illustrations of a Black woman's face filled with patterns African textile patterns looking to the left, the colors around their braids pouring down into waves at the bottom of the cover. In the middle is the cover for Before the Coffee Gets Cold. It is an illustration of a simple, wooden café table with chairs of similar material at both ends. Ceramic coffee mugs rest on saucers atop the table, where a coffee-colored cat sits beneath. and the title further down the bottom right of the cover. On the left is the cover of The Artist's Way. On the left is a painting of a mountain with a line of herons flying around its peak. On the right side of the cover is a large block containing the title.

The Black Fantastic: 20 Afrofuturist Stories edited by andré m. carrington, Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, and The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron

I want to continue to hone my craft when it comes to short stories, and an important part of that is seeing how other authors are approaching the form. The Black Fantastic is a collection of short stories by contemporary Black authors, so I’m able to see what my more accomplished peers are doing. Before the Coffee Gets Cold is a collection of novelettes that was recommended to me by a friend. It has a concept similar to one I have in mind for a fiction project I’m currently outlining.1

Haven’t gotten far in either, but it feels good to demystify what feels worthy of publishing and translation.

As for The Artist’s Way, it’s surprisingly Christian. Not in the evangelical sense, but in the chosen language of it. I usually don’t take well to books that present a step-by-step process or approach to the writing process. This wasn’t an exception. I much prefer to bang my head against the wall until my knees buckle, then crawl over to the open door right next to it.

General Interests

On the left is the cover of Ghost in the Shell: Man-Machine Interface. It the center is a woman with long straight hair curled into a somewhat fetal position wearing a skin-tight body suit with a cropped leather jacket and boots. Behind her is an assortment of circular machinery, reminiscent of a computer motherboard. To the right is the cover of Blood Meridian. It is a faded photo of a person walking alone in the distance through a desert, with dark clouds ahead. The title is written in handwriting above the photo. — Though I know there are much better covers for Blood Meridian, I'm sticking to the covers of the books I have in my possession.

Ghost in the Shell Vol. 2: Man-Machine Interface by Shirow Masamune and Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

I have consumed many iterations of Shirow Masamune’s Ghost in the Shell over the years. Some are great, some are not, with all of them bearing their own merit in some unique fashion. Despite my copious consumption of the manga that would go on to influence my taste in storytelling, I had not read volume two (or 1.5) prior to this year. Already being a fan of the first volume, I’m a bit disappointed by how everything has started.

The first chunk of the volume is in color, which is usually a treat when so much manga is exclusively in black and white. Unfortunately, it ditches the bright and textured watercolors of the first volume for an early 2000s, quasi-3D style that looks oddly smooth and washed out. This can be discounted as a relic of its time, but I’m also getting more techno-babble than I remember getting in the first volume. I’m still trying to settle into the first arc, but I’m hopeful I will be rewarded for my persistence. So far, though, it seems like I’ll sort this into the same lot as Ghost in the Shell: Innocence: a sequel that attempts to do more of what made the first one work without the other ingredients that brought it all together.

As for Blood Meridian, I came across it when the YouTube algorithm decided I’d be interested in video essays about it. While it was correct, I decided to skip them for the book after reading the titles to some of those videos. As someone who has read Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (I’m not using the word “enjoyed” because that feels like an odd word to use), is a fan of Kentaro Miura’s Berserk, and willfully played Miro Haverinen’s Fear & Hunger, I feel like it will satisfy my taste for a certain style of horror. Haven’t gotten far in this story, but I’ll be patient for this one.

And there you have it! The first installment of The Incompletionist is out and proud in time for Black Pride Month. I’ll likely be experimenting and fiddling with this series as time passes, but so far preparing for this has been fun. Coming up soon is an essay on a horror movie that isn’t Sinners (I started working on it before the movie came out and haven’t seen it yet), and hopefully another short story.

As always, thank you for reading, and I hope to share more with you soon!

Support Queen's Muse!

Read more from Queen’s Muse!