I want to start off by referring back to an announcement I made earlier this week on Instagram. For those who don’t know, a VR animated project I was involved with during its early story development, “Reimagined Volume II: Mahal,” will be having its world premiere next month at the Tribeca Film Festival. I want to acknowledge that the work I did for it took place last year, well before the current writers strike that has been going on for almost two weeks at this point. Continue reading “In Support of the WGA Strike and for the Future”
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. Continue reading “Thoughts About Creative Works That Age Like Fine Wine”
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?” Continue reading “9 Years of Lola By the Bay and 2022 Year in Review”
6 Years of “An Absolute Mind” and the Future of that Universe
Ideally, I would have liked to have written about this earlier in the month. However, due to occurrences that I’ve made known by now, it just didn’t feel right. But I didn’t want the month of November to come and go without acknowledging it at all either, as there is more to be said about it than a year ago. Continue reading “6 Years of “An Absolute Mind” and the Future of that Universe”
Thoughts About Being Multi-Talented
If you follow me on social media, you might have noticed the following phrase in my bio: “master of talents of surprise.” Aside from wanting to take ownership in all that I am capable of doing, I also have grown to see it as a bit of a curse in a way. It’s admittedly a strange choice of a word that I wouldn’t have considered associating that part of the bio as such when initially writing it out, but as time has gone on and with different life experiences along the way, I now do. Continue reading “Thoughts About Being Multi-Talented”
About the Journals Pt. IV: 20 Years of Journaling
Say it ain’t so, but it’s very much true. As of yesterday, I’ve been writing in journals for 20 whole years. Continue reading “About the Journals Pt. IV: 20 Years of Journaling”
Book Bans and Reconstructing a Book’s Role: Recommended Reading
Back in 2016, I wrote a blog post at the tail end of Banned Books Week, where I analyzed a list a books I saw in a bookstore that have been banned or, at least, challenged, over the years. I mention this as we see a rise in even more books being challenged or banned; several of them for reasons where if such bans are successfully, can lead to some dangerous, long-term consequences for the audiences for whom said books are being taken away from. Most notably in recent time, Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel, Maus, which centers on the author’s family’s experiences living through the Holocaust, was unanimously banned by a school board in Tennessee from its eighth grade curriculum.
Continue reading “Book Bans and Reconstructing a Book’s Role: Recommended Reading”
8 Years of Lola By the Bay and 2021 Year in Review
For those who celebrate Christmas, Merry Christmas! For those who don’t, I hope you have a really good day anyway.
I can’t believe it’s been this long since the formation of my little corner of cyberspace already. It’s grown to be the virtual hub that I’ve always wanted for myself, and then some. I created the website to make it easy, for those who don’t already follow me on social media, to keep up with writing projects I have going on, as well as what’s on my mind on a (mostly) week-to-week basis. Looking back on my posts over the last 11 months, I think I’ve started to notice just how blatant and honest I’m becoming about both where I am in my journey as a writer, as well as the things that I truly care about. Continue reading “8 Years of Lola By the Bay and 2021 Year in Review”
Looking Back on “An Absolute Mind” 5 Years Later
Well… here we are. Two days from now will mark five years since the release of my second novel, An Absolute Mind. Half a decade has passed since I made this work of mine available to the world, and I continue to be astonished as to how relevant some of the themes and topics covered in the novel have and continue to become. Continue reading “Looking Back on “An Absolute Mind” 5 Years Later”
7 Years of Lola By the Bay and 2020 Year in Review
A part of me has always found it perplexing that I chose to start up my website at the end of a year. I sometimes wonder, “Why not have waited one more week until you were in the new year before finally starting it?” Well, seven years later, I look back on that decision and I think it worked out, actually. I get to both acknowledge the formation of this constantly growing website and look back on the past year in one go… and… well…. needless to say, this is quite a year to look back on. Continue reading “7 Years of Lola By the Bay and 2020 Year in Review”