When the Mind Lags

It goes without saying that the mind is a powerful tool for a writer. Everything word, every detail, every plot point — it all forms in the mind before it ever reaches anything resembling paper. It goes without saying then that when the mind refuses to cooperate with you, it can leave you in a bit of a pickle.

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Thoughts About Creative Works That Age Like Fine Wine

As a teetotaler, I can’t speak to this experience authentically, but I have heard about how the quality of a wine’s taste usually is significantly better in time. Lately, it has occurred to me that creative works can sometimes have the same thing happen.

A Time for Graphic Novels

It’s a time for graphic novels. That might come off as an odd thing to say in the midst of awards season, and yet, I can’t help see it everywhere I go.

Anyone who is in tune with comics and graphic novels already know how structurally, they are page-turning storyboards to film and shows waiting to happen. While we’ve seen that a lot akin the superhero franchises, it’s the one-offs, the standalone graphic novels, the visual stories tapped into communities, and worlds even, apart from what we’re already familiar with that are starting to manifest into something more than what their bookworm audiences already know them for.

What Did I Miss?: January 2023

Published Works

‘The Bad Batch’ Stars and Executive Producers Discuss Making the Second Season – For The Nerds of Color, I spoke with several of the creative forces behind the latest “Star Wars” animated series, ahead of its Season 2 premiere on Disney+.

Dante Basco Reflects on His Experience with ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ as Co-Host of Podcast – For the Center for Asian American Media, I interviewed the voice actor of the prince of the Fire Nation on what it’s like co-hosting the official companion podcast for this beloved animated series.

Review of Every Version of You by Grace Chan – For Goodreads, I briefly give my take on this thoughtful, sci-fi debut.

Thoughts and Reactions to Watching ‘John Wick: Chapter 2’ For the First Time – For The Nerds of Color, I (begrudgingly) go over my thoughts over, what I found to be, an unnecessary sequel to the Keanu-Reeves fronted thriller.

Appearances

Every Oscar Nom Reaction All at Once | Hard NOC Life – For the first time since 2020, for the first time as a co-host, and in the first episode of the year, I return to this podcast to discuss the Oscar nominations, trailers, Sundance, and Marie Kondo.

Finding the Words to Say…

This was not what I was originally planning to write about for today, and yet I struggle to find the words to express the emotions this country has felt over and over again. We’re not a full month into the new year. Heck we’re not even a full week into the lunar new year. And yet, I don’t need to be the one to say that as far as the United States go, we’ve been off to a rough start, by way of occurrences we’ve seen one too many times: gun violence and police brutality.

Thoughts About Writing Nuggets of Unspoken Parts of Yourself

There are a lot of components that go into the writing of a fictional story. It’s a fuse of everything from research, inspiration, imagination, and getting into headspaces apart from your own. It’s also well known that writers are often guilty of putting parts of themselves into the story that they are writing. Audiences who maybe know the writer on a personal level would be able to detect those parts.

9 Years of Lola By the Bay and 2022 Year in Review

It all comes down to this. The fanfare of the holiday season is winding down as champagne is slowly but surely being stalked up for the stroke of midnight tonight. Resolutions are being jotted down and vision boards are being crafted together, with the hopes of some of them actually manifesting by this time in a year. 2023 is now less so of a concept and now hours away from becoming our reality.

But before 2022 bows out altogether, I wanted to make sure I had my retrospective for this ninth(?!?!?) year of my website written down and ready to ponder for those who  may have missed any of what happened, or to read and go, “That happened this year?”

What Did I Miss?: December 2022

Published Works

New ‘Bad Batch’ Trailer Teases Action Packed, High Stakes Second Season – For The Nerds of Color, I give a glimpse at what’s to come from the upcoming season of the latest “Star Wars” animated series.

Bad Axe Director David Siev on the Making of His American Dream – For Mixed Asian Media, I speak with the director of this potential Oscar contender about how this series of home videos eventually morphed into the highly talked about documentary.

Thoughts and Reactions to Watching ‘John Wick’ For the First Time – For The Nerds of Color, I layout what was going through my head as I watched this Keanu Reeves-led flick for the first time.

Looking Back on A Decade of Writing (Part 2)

Note: The following is a continuation from last week’s post. To read the first part, check it out here.

Looking Back on A Decade of Writing (Part 1)

It’s around this time of year that retrospectives start to pop up. While I will be doing one for this past year a little later in the month, I did want to do a retrospective of a different kind starting today.