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 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.

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?”

Looking Back on A Decade of Writing (Part 2)

Note: The following is a continuation from last week’s post. To read the first part, check it out here.

Looking Back on A Decade of Writing (Part 1)

It’s around this time of year that retrospectives start to pop up. While I will be doing one for this past year a little later in the month, I did want to do a retrospective of a different kind starting today.

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.

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.

A Few Degrees of Separation: On Scandals and Scapegoating

(Okay, I was looking to write this last week, but given everything that has been happening, I wanted to wait until I could properly, mentally process it all.)

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.

What Did I Miss?: August 2022

Published Works

New Looks and Release Date for ‘Andor’ – For The Nerds of Color, I share the new glimpses and news of the postponed release date for the upcoming “Star Wars” live-action series.

Samantha Futerman’s ‘From Here’ Explores Anti-Asian Hate From Korean Adoptee’s Lens – For The Nerds of Color, I spotlight this thoughtful and important short film from this Korean American actor and filmmaker.

Review of The Dawn of Yangchen by F.C. Yee – For Goodreads, I give a brief rundown on my thoughts about the latest novel set in the world of “Avatar: The Last Airbender.”

Dino-Ray Ramos Looks at Favorite Shows Through Fresh Eyes in New ‘Problematic Fave’ Podcast – For the Center for Asian American Media, I speak with the host of this new podcast about how it came to be, the discussion held in each episode, and long-term goals for it.

Livestreams

“Dasig” IG Live with Kristian Kabuay – Due to technical difficulties from last month, Kristian and I redo our conversation about our graphic novel-in-progress, this time for Instagram.

“Dasig” IG Live with Mixed Asian Media – I talk about the making of “Dasig” and the significance it holds for me with my friend and MAM chief editor, Alex Chester.