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.

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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?”

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.

Ukraine: Resources and a Reminder

This is obviously outside of what I would normally post about, but I found it necessary given the most recent circumstances with the invasion Russian President Vladimir Putin enacted in Ukraine. I promise you, I have more of my usual content in March, but for today, here are some resources for how to help the citizens of Ukraine:

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.

5 Years of Playwriting

There is a series from PBS called “The First Twenty,” where it explores significant, altering events within the first two decades of the 21st century. One of the episodes, “20 Years of Asian American Playwriting,” interviews playwrights – from David Henry Hwang to Lauren Yee – about how Asian American playwriting has evolved.

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.

How Playwriting and Screenwriting is Making Me a Better Writer

Nearly five years ago now, shortly after releasing my second novel, I started making the journey towards writing for both the stage and the screen. A Christmas gift of the word-processing program, Scrivener, jump-started my expansion into other creative writing mediums. Within that time, I have since written multiple stage plays, a few spec scripts, a few pilots, a few short films, and even a feature-length screenplay. Oh, I also upgraded to Final Draft earlier this year, because I felt that it was time to up the ante.

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.

Thoughts About Speculation in Storytelling

Warning: The following contains a few light spoilers from “Raya and the Last Dragon.”

Last night, I took part in a bi-coastal virtual watch party of the latest Disney animated film, “Raya and the Last Dragon.” The world of the Kumandra and the conflict that’s imminent across the land played out before all participants of that party, and with that came the all too timely lesson of finding the will and openness to trust others.

After the film, we all hopped on a Zoom call and shared our thoughts about it, and when talking about the characters themselves, the following question came up: Do you ship Raya with Namaari?