January 19th, 2026 - Kim's Game

Dear TNY,

I apologize for the lateness, but it was actually planned.  “Kim’s Game” was not worth the wait.

Monday I left for an overnight on Hawai’i Island because Kīlauea was erupting with 900 ft geysers of lava.  Pretty cool, right?  Yeah, we missed it by about an hour.  There was lava to be sure, which was incredible to see at night, the vog looming over an orange city.  But no spewing.  And that’s okay.  I had never seen lava before.  Now I have seen lava.  I also got to go to my favorite town on The Big Island, Waimea.  Worth it just to hit up the butcher shop.

Overall it was a good trip.  I fear, though, I am doing more harm than good here.  I’m not going to get into it.  But I’m certainly forced to reconcile some things with myself and reevaluate what I think being a good human is.

This story was wildly predictable.  While some of the descriptions were good, overall it lacked life.  None of the characters were fully fleshed.  The only interesting character was barely in the story.  And this is one of many stories you recently published that suffer from “amateur hour” when it comes to POV and psychic distance.  While we are in third person limited (Helen) with a medium distance, we get information that can only be known to Kim during some of their interactions.  These little slipups create inconsistency and force the reader to note the structure of the build vs overall art.

Anyway, it’s fine.

I’m fine.

I don’t really have the energy for this today.  I think I’m going to go for a walk.  I think climbing will happen later today.  I have some future plans unfolding in the next three to four months.  There is work to be done.  Bodies to move around.  Mainly my own.  Hopefully, sleep to be had.

Either way, this letter is pretty weak.  But sometimes that’s the thing, isn’t it?  Not everything can be all best, all the time.  I fall down, these letters fall down, we all fall down.

Nick