The Education of Sumire Min is a previously unpublished novel by S. Jae-Jones. Chapters will be emailed every Friday at 5PM EST. If you do not wish to receive the next chapter, but want to remain subscribed for other updates, you may unsubscribe from the book here.
NOTE: Apologies if some of y’all receive this twice. There was a bit of a snafu in the creation and publication of this newsletter section.
I’ve already given y’all the backstory to this book, so I suppose all that remains is to provide you with a table of contents, some context, and a trigger warning.
table of contents 📃
Part I: Soon-Yee
一
The Nipponese Demon
二
The Burden of Beauty
三
The Martyrdom of Pastor Giraffe
四
The Price of Disgrace
The Darker Path
Part II: Sumire
五
A Favor
The Diplomat and the Prince
The Karyukai
Koi No Yokan
——— BEHIND PAYWALL BELOW ———
六
The Pain of Epiphany
All Travail is Worth the Effort in the End
The Cure for Grief
Tenkoku Nichi-ei
七
Honne and Tatemae
The House of Genkai Blossoms
Ai Shiteru
The Heir to Morita Okiya, Part One
Proof
The Cure for Grief (Reprise)
Part III: Lady Min
八
Unwanted and Unloved
Owakare Da
The King is Dead, Long Live the King
Cruel to Be Kind
九
Acolyte
The Darker Path (Reprise)
The Heir to Morita Okiya, Part Two
A Favor Revisited
A Conspiracy of Women
Sparrow Child
The Day Sumire Died
some context 📊
The structure of this book is admittedly rather strange—instead of the traditional arrangement of acts and chapters, I wrote this story entirely in scenes. It was only after I had finished the whole book that I went back and imposed some structure on it. The book clearly had three parts, but I wanted to further organize the book into smaller acts. It turned out there were nine acts. I liked the number nine; it reminded me of cat lives. I labeled these acts—or lives, as I began to think of them—with kanji numerals.
Within some of these acts are smaller chapters, and these are the chapters I will be sending each week. The length will vary, and some might even be too long for Substack, so I might break them up. If I have to break them up, I’ll send all the parts on the same day.
a trigger warning 🚨
Sexual violence and assault are a huge part of the novel, especially in the beginning and towards the end of part two. In addition, there are racially insensitive and offensive things spoken by characters in the book, as well as less-than-enlightened views on gender and sexual orientation. I was 25 when I wrote this, and far less educated than I am now. The characters in question are also terrible people. It is set in an alternate (but might as well not be) 1895-ish. The book is also ABOUT how white colonialism is bad. I don’t say this in order to defend myself, only that I will not be revising this as it goes out. I would rather keep it as a record of the writer I was then.
I will provide content warnings before each chapter as necessary.
The first nine chapters will be available for free, after which the content will go behind a paywall. July is my birthday month, but presents came early this year, so I am currently running a promotion on yearly subscriptions. Grab it while you can!