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.

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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.

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.

Believe in the Sun: Recommended Reading

Putting on my “Star Wars” hat for a brief minute, Princess Leia Organa has an empowering quote: “Hope is like the sun. If you only believe in it when you see it, you’ll never make it through the night.” You don’t need me to tell you that it’s been a hard year on everyone, and for the longest time, we weren’t sure exactly how long the darkness would last. But now there’s hope in sight; both in the change of administrations a month from now and recently with the vaccines that are starting to be administered around the country.

The End of BookExpo and BookCon

In this pandemic, it has been a common practice to cancel in-person events altogether and move them virtually. However, this week came an instance where an event that was held virtually earlier this year is being cancelled altogether. I’m talking specifically in this case about BookExpo and BookCon.

When Reading About Real People in Fictional Situations

I recently read the two novels that make up author Andrew Shaffer’s Obama Biden Mystery series: Hope Never Dies and Hope Rides Again. They both came out within the last two years, and while I’ve always been meaning to read them, I finally made the time and effort to sit down with them both as of recently, as we near the date of the upcoming presidential election.

Long Live the King: Recommended Reading… and Remembering

I knew that I wanted to write something regarding the untimely loss about Chadwick Boseman, but the struggle came in the form of figuring out what to contribute that hasn’t already been said. After a while though, for me, it ultimately came down to the exploration of actors who died well before their time, and are forever commemorated for their storytelling in the more significant roles they played.

6 Years of “A Moment’s Worth”

With each passing year since the release of my debut novel, A Moment’s Worth, the farther away we move from how life was at the time it was written. Not to say that that wasn’t already expected, but as indicated in past retrospectives, I never expected for the difference to have gotten as vast as it has.

Thoughts About Fiction in the Time of COVID-19

A few months ago, I read the latest novel from the thoughtful sci-fi author Mike Chen, A Beginning at the End. I won’t go into too much detail about it, but if I were to describe it in a very brief synopsis, it follows three adults from different paths of life and how they all find themselves coming together, in the aftermath of – wait for it it – a global pandemic.

“Stargirl”: A Movie Adaptation 20 Years in the Making

Every now and then, I expand my dialogue about storytelling by going beyond the boundaries of books and out into the mediums of TV and film. I do so by doing these analysis pieces once in a while about a TV show or film that has reached a significant time in its history (i.e. series premiere, series finale, film release, anniversary of a release, etc.). Previously, I marked the end of an era with a look back on the ABC series, “Fresh Off the Boat.” Today, to mark its premiere from yesterday, I dive into the world of Disney+ original content for the first time, as I provide my thoughts on the film, “Stargirl.”

(WARNING: There will be spoilers from the film, not so much on the plot specifically, but more so on the changes and additions that have been made from the book it is based on.)