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.

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.

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.

Finding Solace and Validity in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”

Yes, it’s been a hot minute (a year, actually) since I’ve done one of these. The last time I did an analysis on a film to this extent was “tick, tick… BOOM!” This time around, I’m delving into the highly anticipated “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” but with a slight twist, as I’ll be relaying how much this story resonated me with what I’ve been going through as of late.

WARNING: The following contains light spoilers from the film.

A Firm Stance in Loving Memory

There is a lot going on in the world and in my personal life currently. The past 24 hours have been some of the hardest I’ve had to ever deal with. While this blog is, for the most part, about writing and storytelling, you should know by now that I’m not shy about taking a stance against the numerous levels of wrong that continue to poison this world — and in this case, my stances on what I’m about to touch on have been amplified by what I’ve been through recently.

Talking Transcendence By Way of Playing with Fire: Recommended Listening

Okay, I was planning to write about something completely separate, but due to time restraints on my end, I’m instead going to provide this latest round of Recommended Analyzing (and the first one since the beginning of the year):

Exploring Authentic Stories at the Filipino American International Book Festival

For reasons predictable by now, it’s been a hot minute since I last was at a book festival; whether as an attendee or as a participant. To have seen book conventions like BookExpo shut down in recent years, as well as a recent surge in book banning in different parts of the country, books feel particularly precious now more than ever — especially those authored by historically underrepresented communities.

Check out Mixed Asian Media Fest 2022!

Hey everyone! So clearly, I am posting this a few days earlier than I normally would on my blog, but the reason why is aside from this weekend being busy, the subject in which I’m addressing officially kicks off today.