IPPY AWARD WINNER FOREWORD INDIES BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD FINALST AMERICAN BOOK FEST BEST BOOK AWARD FINALIST PERMAFROST BOOK PRIZE FINALIST EYELANDS BOOK AWARD FINALIST CONIUM REVIEW BOOK PRIZE SEMIFINALIST SFWP LITERARY AWARD SHORTLIST LEAPFROG FICTION CONTEST HONORABLE MENTION "As far as I know, you can only die once..." But when Aetna Simmons disappears from her lonely Bermuda cottage, she leaves behind not one but ten suicide notes. Ten different suicide notes. And no other trace to speak of, not even a corpse, as if she'd never existed. Drafts of a Suicide Note  tells the tale of the darkly enigmatic love letter written by Kenji Okada-Caines, a petty criminal who once exposited on English literary classics and now, marooned on his native isle, nurtures an obsession with Aetna's writing. His murky images of a woman with ten voices and no face launch him into waking nightmares, driving him to confront his lifetime's worth of failures as a scholar, lover, and opiate addict. His wild conspiracy theories of Aetna as an impostor ten times over lead him to the doorstep of the Japanese mother who turned her back on him--and to the horrifying discovery that the great love of his life isn't who she seems to be. Kenji's is a story of dire misunderstandings and the truths we hide even from the ones we love. "Rife with innovativetextual experiments, touches of humor, and dramatic intrigue...Wong's debut novel twists conventions and wrings something new." James R. Gapinski, author of Edge of the Known Bus Line - "...charming and gripping and horrifying. Funny and sad and frivolous and dark...What a feat!" J.L. Crozier, author of What Empty Things Are These Bermudian Mandy-Suzanne Wong's internationally acclaimed debut novel, Drafts of a Suicide Note (Regal House), was a finalist for the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award,American Book Fest's Best Book Award, the Eyelands Book Award, and thePermafrost Book Prize as well as a Conium Review Book Prizesemifinalist, a Santa Fe Writers' Project Literary Award shortlistee, aLeapfrog Fiction Contest honorable mention, and a PEN Open Book Awardnominee. She is also the author of the essay collection and exhibition catalog, Animals Across Discipline, Time & Space (McMaster); the fiction chapbook Awabi (Digging), winner of the Digging Press Chapbook Series Award; the nonfiction chapbook Artificial Wilderness (Selcouth), winner of the Selcouth Station Environmental Chapbook Competition; and the essay collection Listen, we all bleed (New Rivers, 2021), a finalist for the Red Hen Press Women's Prose Prize. In addition to her regular column at Manqué Magazine , her work appears in Black Warrior Review, Entropy, Waccamaw, The Spectacle, Permafrost, Quail Bell , and several other venues. Her stories have been shortlisted for the AeonAward and taken first prize in the Eyelands International Flash FictionCompetition. She was a founding editor of the philosophical journal Evental Aesthetics , which she still serves as an editorial consultant. Mandy-Suzanne Wong was the winner of the Digging Press Chapbook Series Award ( Awabi , 2019) and the Eyelands International Flash Fiction Competition. Her work has also been shortlisted for the UK’s Aeon Award. Her stories and essays appear in The Spectacle, The Hypocrite Reader, Conclave, Sonic Field, Quail Bell, The Island Review , and several other venues. She is a native of Bermuda, where she’s writing a new novel and her first nonfiction book.   Drafts of a Suicide Note By Mandy-Suzanne Wong Regal House Publishing, LLC Copyright © 2019 Mandy-Suzanne Wong All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-947548-82-4 Contents AS1., I wonder what to call you., Missing Woman Leaves 10 Suicide Notes., AS2., AS3., AS4., AS5., AS6., AS7., AS8., AS9., AS10., Dear Nabi, dearest, dearest Nabi,, TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:, CHAPTER 1 Missing Woman Leaves 10 Suicide Notes. I found it in an email digest from Bernews. The Royal Gazette led with the same story. In connection with Aetna Simmons of Suffering Lane, St. George's, who was reported missing by her landlady last week Monday, a BPS spokesperson said, "Police can confirm that a stack of ten documents was found in Ms. Simmons' home. The content of these documents brings us to the unfortunate conclusion that Ms. Simmons chose to end her life." One suicide note is an unfortunate conclusion. Ten is no conclusion but the opposite. 10 Suicide Notes ? That's a provocation. As far as I know, you can only die once. What kind of gross excess is this: ten different suicide notes or ten replicas of the same? Vulgar excess or feverish excess? Is there a difference between vulgar and feverish? Say it's ten of the same. Like birth announcements. Invitations to a soiree. A newsletter for friends and family. Some people do that in lieu of Christmas cards. "The Bermuda Police Service extends our gratitude to those who may have considered assisting in the island-wide s