Elissa C. Nysetvold's Blog

I know I'm late to the party with this one, but we're not a Netflix family (it happens) and my husband and I saw KPop Demon Hunters in a brick and mortar movie theater last week. And I’m pleased to say that I loved it.

Because we saw it the day after Halloween, I didn’t fully appreciate the multitude of purple-haired little girls out trick-or-treating. While I reflexively cringe at this kind of pop culture hero worship, I’m cringing significantly less hard over Hunterween than over Elsaween. And...

Fun fact: I’m half-Chinese. My mom immigrated from Hong Kong as a teenager. One of the best things about this is my sister and I grew up eating the best food in the world—food that doesn’t always come from western grocery stores.

Often when I tell someone I’m going to an Asian market, their response is either, “I didn’t know we had one around here!” or “Can I go with you sometime?” And while I’m always happy to give tours of my favorite haunts, it occurs to me that the general population might be...

Dear Elissa,

You said you'd write a blog post about your upcoming book, The Magician's Metamorphosis, if I sent you some questions. (I've read the draft, and I loved it.) Here's what I want to know.

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The Magician's Metamorphosis involves fairies: lots of fairies, interacting with people. They aren't scary amoral fey, or cute tiny fairies--maybe a little more like Tolkien-elven fairies? Is that the right way to think about them?...

I’m the first to admit I know almost nothing about technology, and this has always been true (although I served an honorable stint as the resident turn-the-computer-off-and-on-again-when-Dad’s-not-home specialist in my youth). Still, for some reason, I had the audacity to write a short story about the dangers of AI when I was fifteen.

It was deep. It was heart-wrenching. It was written with a BIC crystal pen in a Mead notebook with a red, plastic cover. It was only about 5 pages long, because I h...

Did anyone else ever use NationStates? It’s a nation-building simulator that allows you to inflict your political views, unopposed, on a defenseless populace. My friends all used it in middle school, and it was enjoyable—until my budding-conservative middle-school self became frustrated that despite my best efforts, my nation kept slipping into liberal socialism.

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I’d completely forgotten about NationStates until an indoctrination session riveting conversation about politics with our...

We just finished up our second term of this homeschool year, and things are largely going pretty well. Here are my notes:

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Still haven’t done any dictation since my last entry…I’m committed to doing better in term 3.

I may have also forgotten to do grammar with Curdie. Mayhaps that be why he don’t talk good.

We took a field trip to Stephen F Austin-Munson Historic Park for their homeschool day. Kids learned a lot, Faramir got to hold a musket (dream come true!), and we all suffered some...

Once in a while, it’ll come up in conversation that I got a bachelor’s degree in chemistry. Sometimes people will respond with something along the lines of, “Wow, you must be really smart,” whereupon I respond by laughing myself into a coma while they back away slowly. Good times.

The truth is, I was never smart enough for chemistry. But I pursued it anyway—or more accurately, it pursued me. Here’s why.

Unlike other individuals in my Storytime series, my high school chemistry...

It’s time to address the big, rainbow-emblazoned elephant in the room: Renarin's and Rlain’s romantic relationship in Wind and Truth.

Once again, major Wind and Truth spoilers ahead. And if you missed Part 1, read it here!

I wanted to write this post separately because there’s so much about the book that I love, and I don’t want my concerns about this one element to dilute my overall positive feelings—or vice versa. Because while I continue to love Brandon Sanderson’s work, this isn’t an issue tha...

Okay, guys. It’s been two months. It’s finally time to talk about Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson.

I realize this book is a behemoth and people are still reading/listening to it. If this describes you, what are you doing reading my Substack? Go finish the book!

(Seriously. though, this post will be full of spoilers. You’ve been warned.)

Wind and Truth is the fifth book in the Stormlight Archive, a planned ten-book series divided into two five-book arcs...

We just passed the halfway point for term 2, and the school year as a whole. It’s been rough, but also good.

Thanks for reading The Fairy Lab! Subscribe to keep tabs on just how close I get to re-enrolling my kids in public school.

Remember when Curdie was supposed to be doing dictation this year…and then we forgot about it for half a term? (Facepalm) We should probably get back to doing that…

Handing off some of the math grading to The Tom is one of the better ideas we’ve had. And by we, I mean To...