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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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.

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?”

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.

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.

Thoughts About Where I Am As a Creative

Ten years ago this month, I wrote, what would eventually become, the tenth chapter of A Moment’s Worth. While I didn’t make the conscious decision to write a book until a few months later, to me, I see it as the starting point of everything that has come since then for me, creatively.

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.