Writing to Insanity

A Valentine for my Valentines

2012-02-14T10:00:00.000-06:00

From Flickr

As I am in deep graduation mode, I thought I'd dig up a blast from the past.

Back when I actually had more time in my life (think pre-MFA and when only 12 people in the whole world read this blog) I use to do serials. Think Charles Dickens but with a blog.

One of the serials I did was called The Last Single Girl (this was also the time in my life when I wrote women's fiction.) So I dug this up especially for you, in case you needed a Valentine themed story.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6 and final

#MotivationMonday Seven reasons why writers should love Valentine's Day

2012-02-13T15:19:00.000-06:00

I'm not a fan of red around this time of year.

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day and by this time every year I become disgusted with the heart shaped boxes and the stuffed animals. But as a writer, this is a great time of year. The stories write themselves. Love is the single most reason that characters do what they do. Even the other motivators like greed (i.e. the love of money) have its roots in love. First love, love at first sight, love gone wrong -- all of these themes are great building blocks for epic stories.

Don't believe me? In 2010, Romance Writer's of America reported that romance book sales were at $1.35 billion. That's billion with a "b". And this was during a recession!

So here are seven love themes for the writer needing to get some writing done between the candy and flowers.

First love/ puppy love

This is probably one of the most common love themes to write about. Think of your first crush, that feeling of mushiness when you saw him or her. Remember how you would smile and butterflies tumbled around in your stomach? What makes this so popular is that that feeling is universal. Every person, every culture, every language understands this feeling.

Love at first sight, aka boy meets girl

Just about the same thing as puppy love but more mature. This is when the couple sees each other across a crowded room and something sparks. It can be a cliche but there are things that writers can do to make the cliche less, well, cliche. Change the setting, the circumstances. Change the characters. Writers can have lots of fun with this, they just have to be creative.

Boy meets girl but girl loves another boy or girl.

Ahh, the love triangle. The vortex of angst for every teenage poet. But it's still good stuff. Jane Austen built a career on it. Again, the feeling that comes from this is universal and because it is, it can also be a cliche. How to avoid the cliche? Make the triangle into a square or a pentagon.

I love you but you're crazy

This has to be my favorite one. A cross between Fatal Attraction and well, anything else. The protagonist is in love with Character X but they are one card short of a full deck in someway. It could be dangerous crazy (again Fatal Attraction) or they could be funny crazy. I like this love theme because it already has built in conflict and hasn't been done nearly as often as the others to be a complete cliche. It's also the most flexible.

I don't love you at all so stop calling me
.
This is the other side of Fatal Attraction, when one side of the relationship wants to break ties with the other. This has to be my least favorite because there really is only one way do can go with this.

I use to love you but now I want you dead (or hurt in someway)

The ultimate in you-done-me-wrong plots. Boy meets girl. Couple falls in love. Something happens. Chaos ensues. The typical thought with this is that it ends in tragedy. But does it always have to end that way? My challenge to everyone is to write about this aspect of love where it doesn't end in the typical way.

True love

By far the more difficult thing I've had to write is two characters honestly falling in love in a way that wasn't sappy but endearing. I've used as examples Garcia Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera and Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. (actually Anna K could work for the I love you but you're crazy category.) What's the best way to handle this? I haven't yet discovered it but what I can say that as a writer, you have to come to those true love scene with a pure heart and a sense of wonderment.

These seven love themes can be inserted into any story. It's up to the writer to decide how best to use these. Are there any that I may have missed?

Don't quit your day job. Writing with a 9 to 5

2012-02-09T15:32:00.002-06:00

Gabriel Garcia Marquez was a journalist while penning his tales.

I tell myself that once in a while. When the days are hectic and there is little time to write, I tell that to myself to make me feel better and less guilty for not writing as often as I would like.

Let's face it. We have day jobs. We have to have day jobs. We have bills. But that doesn't mean we don't chase down our dream in our spare time, even if the spare time is five minutes.

One of the best comments I've gotten from this blog recently came from someone commenting on one of my Motivation Monday posts. I syndicate my Motivation Monday columns on SheWrites and the comment came from fellow member Allyson Whipple.She said that she uses her work for fodder in her stories. I thought that comment was perfect! Yes! Work is the fodder for our stories. and it's free fodder. Perfect fodder. That makes it the story only we can write.

So why not write it? Why not use what you have in front of you for inspiration? Fiction, as you've heard me say before, is truth and what's more true than where you work.

So how do you cultivate this wonderfulness? Well, that's what I'm here for! Let me give you some ideas.

Characters galore!

Think Office Space. Every character there is in every office, even yours. What makes those characters so memorable is that everything about what they do, say, and act is true.

So who are characters in your office? The boss? The front desk clerk. The coworker who keeps stealing your pens? All of them are character gold! Watch them. Take notes. And make use of them.

Heroes and Villains

Every story has them--the hero or villain, the protagonist or the antagonist. Which one are you? Which of your coworkers are heroes or villains? By asking these questions, you start to develop some characters and are well on the way to finding a story.

Plot ideas

So a secretary tries to get her boss fired because she wants her friend to have his job. Interesting, no? Sometimes fact is stranger than fiction and the work place is where this is most true.

Job, offices, etc. are microcosms, meaning they are their own world. Just like it has it's own unique characters, those character have their own motivations. Their motivation advance the plot of the workplace. Who wants what and why? And most importantly, what are they doing to get their heart's desire. I'm sure you'll find the basics-- greed, power, etc.

Conflict

What's plot without conflict! It's everywhere in the workplace. That's especially true when there are outside factors at work. Upcoming layoffs, a man or woman having a baby, a opening with more than one qualified candidate, a new boss. All of these are agitators to your story and makes for good fodder.

Hope this helps with the guilt of not writing and makes the 9 to 5 a bit easier to take. You may not look at your coworkers or gig the same way but oh the stories you'll tell!

Here's some more thoughts on writing with a day job from Joanna Penn at The Creative Penn. And here's another writer's thought on the subject.

Write On!

Am I happy?

2012-02-07T22:49:00.002-06:00

Today, I am one year older.

It's tradition for me to reflect on my life of the past year in the days leading up to it. What did I do right? What did I do wrong? Am I where I want to be? Am I happy?

That last question, made of three words, have always been something of an enigma. Who really is happy? I'll tell you who. Happy people are happy. But am I one of them.

There was a time in my life when the answer was no. It was four years ago in my 30th year. I lived in a place I didn't like, worked with people who didn't like me, and I was trying to hard to cling to something I should have let go of a long time ago. I think about that time now, on my birthday, and those same questions pop up -- what did I do right? Wrong?

What I did wrong was not listen to who I wanted and needed to be. I forced myself into a corner. Lived myself into it. I had help but ultimately it was my decision to live the way I did. I know that now.

And so here I am four years later asking those same questions. What did I do right? I left that situation. What did I do wrong? I let other people tell me who I was. Am I where I want to be? Not now but I'm working on it.

Am I happy? Am I happy? Well, am I?

On Saturday night my best friend and her boyfriend hosted a graduation/birthday party for me at their home. I was surround by a handful of happy, shiny people. We conversed. We drank. We enjoyed each other's company.

In all my travels and in the cities I've lived in, that moment was the moment I wanted to have. To finally be at the point in my life where no club or bar or entertainment could out do the conversations and laughter of people who genuinely care for you. People live a lifetime and never enjoy that. I am lucky. Bless.

Am I happy? No. I'm happily content. The contentment come from the renewal of knowledge that I am not alone. And for now that's enough.

Next year, and in the years following, I expect to answer that question differently.

#MotivationMonday 5 ways to find story ideas

2012-02-06T12:25:00.001-06:00

Isn't it always the way? You sit down at the computer, a rare and precious hour at your disposal, and you go blank. You have no ideas to write about and, if you think back, you haven't had any ideas for quite a while.

Don't worry, it happens. Sometimes you're overwhelmed with stories to write and other times you draw a blank. Not to worry. These five tips are designed to get your mojo flowing in no time.

1. People watch
This is one of my favorite things to do when I'm in a new place. I sit and watch people interact with either their surrounding or other people. A popular thing I do on my Twitter account is @Starbucks watch. I literally will go to a Starbucks, sit down with my white chocolate mocha, and tweet about the people inside. Soon, I'm creating stories about them -- who's on a date, who's breaking up, who's arguing, who's having a good day or a bad one. Just by watching people, stories will start to jump out at you.

2. Read
I've often harped on the notion that writers can not be writers unless they read. This is especially important when it comes to finding story ideas. It's not that you are reading to re-interpret the piece that you are reading, it's that you're using the words to help jostle an idea. Sometimes while reading our brain does weird things, it thinks on its own and a story pops in from the ether. Thank the Muse and get writing!

3. Prompts
This is a classic because it works. There have been many a time where I've used prompts to get me going or to start a new story. There are a million ways to do prompts -- from apps to download on your phone or tablet to books filled with them. Ironically, today Writer's Digest has an article on prompts on their front page.

As far as books, I'm a fan of The Pocket Muse. This is a great book filled with interesting prompts. I've tried a couple of these prompts with my creative writing students and they have been extremely helpful. As you can see there are TONS of prompt books out there but how to chose which one? Think of a prompt book as an investment in future stories. It should be one that will challenge you, keep you interested, and ask you to think differently. You want a prompt book that will keep you on your toes and excited.

4. What's in ~~your~~ their wallets?
This is one of my favorite exercises I've done with my creative writing classes. Take a wallet or a purse (you can use what's around the house or what you find) and fill it with stuff -- credit cards, money, lipstick, etc. That is the purse/wallet of your character. Who are they? What is their life like? What's their biggest worry? What do they want the most? That will jump start your brain down the trail of an amazing story. For the best effect, have someone else prepare the wallet/purse for you.

5. Newspapers
Now, I am partial to reading the newspaper since I am a working journalist, however, that doesn't mean it's not a good idea. My favorite place to dig for stories is the crime page or the blotter. There, you can read about the latest crimes --- burglaries, homicides, etc. Soon you'll see an entry that will peak your interest. How did the person do that crime? How are the police stumped/ how did they catch them? Asking these questions lead to searching for answers which lead to a story.

My other favorite place in the newspaper to look for story ideas is the world/nation page. That'll get your mind moving quickly.

As you can see, there are stories everywhere. You just have to look for them. It could be your neighbor walking his dog or the latest big trial in your area. All you need is just a curious mind to ask the questions that will make you go down the rabbit hole.

What are your favorite ways to find stories?

Smuggling books back into Arizona..LibroTraficantes!

2012-02-03T09:46:00.001-06:00

The man in this video is my friend Tony Diaz, author of Aztec Love God. He and my other friends from Nuestra Palabra are doing something some may think is radical but it's necessary.

They will drive from Houston to Tuscon, AZ armed with books by Latino authors in an effort to smuggle them back into Arizona after school districts there boxed up such books. Why were they boxed? Ethnic studies has been dismantled.

The powers that be ruled that all ethnic studies programs in k-12 across the state be banned. Tuscon was the last to obey this law. That's when Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal commanded that 10 percent of that district's monthly state aid be withheld until they fall in line.

In this case, 10 percent is a $1 million.

As an education reporter I know what a $1 million means to a school district. For some, it's the difference between existing or not.

And so teachers had to pack up books like Sandra Cisneros's House on Mango Street. Some teachers had to do it right in front of their students.

So my friends are going to help out Tuscon. They are going to bring the books back that have been packed up and placed in storage. These books, these authors, are part of the American literary landscape. You can not have the Bronte Sisters without the Aguero Sisters from Cristina Garcia.

For a schedule click here.

This event shows the importance of words and story. The threat they give is hope, ideas, like air in a stale environment. This stops short of burning books, which in reality is done out of fear.

What is this fear? Why are the powers that be so afraid of these books, these thoughts, these words? Because they drip with truth and expression. And people fear what they can not and do not want to understand.

So I ask all my readers, even those from across the pond and in the furthest corners of the globe, to help with the cause. Tweet about this caravan. Facebook it. Join them if you can. Donate books.

This is the cause of not just writers but of everyone. Words matter. Story matter. Ideas matter.

Here's some details about the caravan:

Name: The Librotraficantes Banned Book Caravan

Leaving: Houston, Tx

When: Monday, March 12

Arriving in Tucson: Saturday, March 17

Where will it stop: Cities in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona.

The caravan is intended to:

Raise awareness of the suspension of the Mexican-American Studies Program and the removal of banned books.
Promotion of banned authors and their contributions to American Literature, Non-Fiction and Poetry.
Celebrate diversity: Children of the American Dream must unite to preserve the civil rights of all Americans.

Guest Blog Post: Lessons from Self-Publishing

2012-02-01T11:48:00.000-06:00

Editor's Note: Cody T. Luff is the editor of Soul's Road: A Fiction Collection. He is a graduate of the MFA program at Goddard College. In this guest post, he talks about the creation of Soul's Road and what it was like to self publish the collection.

Editors of the next volume are currently accepting submissions. They are looking for pieces in fiction, non-fiction, drama, comic, art, and photo. Send no more than 20 pages (.doc, .docx., .rtf) to Nate Chang - senti.gen(at)gmail.com.

~~~

So, I was reading this book. You know the kind. 99 cents for Kindle. Self-published. The cover a few splashes of primary color and a vague human shape with a huge head. The protagonists were cribbed from Star Wars and the plot had holes that devoured entire characters. I couldn’t finish it. I said adieu to my 99 cents and made a mental note to never buy another novel from that particular author.

And there is the rub. I have no idea if this was the author’s debut novel, self-published in that magnificent rush of creativity that leads us to share our stories. What I do know is that the book wasn’t ready even if the
author was. Something so very common in self-publishing.

As a writer, I understand that burning need to share your novel, to bring the story out of the darkness of your mind and into the blaze of public recognition. But I also understand just how terrible we are at judging our own work.

Of course the plot makes perfect sense to us, we created it, we know all the secrets, the twist and turns and why the hell doesn’t the reader see that? Of course we know what we meant in the midst of all those misspellings, completely forgivable, I mean come on. Art doesn’t have to be perfect. Does it?

Maybe not perfect but it does have a job to do and if it can’t do that job, the reader will walk away. And worse still, they will walk away and tell other readers to follow them out. After publishing Soul’s Road, I obsessed over details, misspellings, formatting, all those bits and pieces that I had missed in many, many copyedits. Six months of editing wasn’t enough to smooth it out entirely and to this day I know there is a grammar purist reading the book right now, red pen conducting a punctuation pogrom.

The idea of course is not to dwell on the mistakes so much as learn from them. Soul’s Road has its foibles but they are not legion and when putting out another self-published collection, I believe I can convince readers to return for another go round. So how did I know it was read? How could I trust myself? After all, I wanted desperately to get the book out. Truth of the matter is, I didn’t trust myself and THAT is the lesson here.

I had a slew of editors check it over. Copy editors, story editors, friends, relatives, the owner of my local bookstore, the lady at the Copy Stop. I was not satisfied with my own opinion. I had to give it time. And review.

My example in the beginning of this piece released a work of love. I am sure the author obsessed over every detail, over every piece of minutia. But without review, and a tremendous amount of it, the only thing we truly secure is our own vanity.

#MotivationMonday On the wings of adventure

2012-01-30T10:00:00.000-06:00

As I stepped into my hotel room and flicked on the light, I knew that the past six trying hours would melt away the second my head hit the down pillow.

But what an adventure!

There comes a time in every writer's journey where a brisk walk or running errands is not enough to clear their head. It's probably because you are so full of thoughts in your head and you're overwhelmed by everything...or nothing. And it usually around the time where you get stuck on a story (not blocked, stuck. Writer's block doesn't exist.)

That's when you get in the car and drive. Somewhere. Anywhere. Far. Or at least a couple of hours away. I remembered this little rule this past weekend when my tire went flat in the middle of Mississippi.

What was I doing in Mississippi? It was a work thing. (which is why the blog was a bit light last week. Sorry.) I didn't fly, I drove all six hours to the location where the work thing was. So there was a lot of me time, which means there was a lot of thinking time.

Writers sometimes need that quiet time away from their keyboard and pens. The rhythm of traveling gives you dedicated time to do nothing. And so, the act of doing nothing somewhere else can help trigger some inspiration for what you're working on.

Oh, and you know what else can trigger inspiraton? An adventure!

That brings me back to the flat tire in Mississippi at night. I was 10 minutes out of Jackson when I stopped to put gas in the tank. I noticed that my tires looked a bit flat and so I thought I would just place some air in them and keep going.

To make a long story short, something happened to the tire and I ended up getting a flat and I was still at least three hours from my destination.

That's when the adventure happened. An older gentleman came to the rescue (Southern hospitality). Yes, I had my guard up since, again, I was traveling alone. But I'm glad that this person in particular helped me.

It ended up that he knew a tire man that fixed my tire but while we were waiting for him to do so, this gentleman, (in his late 50s) and I had a lovely conversation. He spoke with a thick Southern, country accent with its own rhythm and pattern. I caught myself just listening to him and asking questions to prompt responses. I didn't really understand why until I drove away.

Here's the why: I'm working on a short story set in the 1960s South. This man grew up during that time and his stories about his life and his family gave me an insight of that era that I never had before. I'd been having trouble getting the voice of the character right on the page. I knew, since my character was from that era, she would sound different than any character I'd written before. So, I tried to remember the man's speech pattern, which would be similar to my character's.

That would not have happened had I not had tire problems.

Without knowing, the drive and the adventure did more good to me as a writer than staring at a computer screen for a day. I go exactly what I needed, the voice of my character, implanted in my ear at the ready. By the time I entered my hotel room, I was grateful for the experience.

So for this #MotivationMonday I urge you to take a drive, even if it's a short one, or a train or a plane, and just fly on the wings of adventure. Sometimes, the universe gives you what you need even when you don't know you need it.

#MotivationMonday FYI Writer's Block does not exist

2012-01-23T10:00:00.000-06:00

Here's a secret that few writers know:

There is no such thing as writers block.

I know. Shocking. However, I say it with a caveat: there is such a thing as not knowing what's going to happen next in your story, or being afraid of writing what happens next. But that is different from what most folks believe is the definition of writer's block .

What is writer's block?

So what is this thing they call writer's block and is it only for writers? I totally Wikipedia-ed the meaning.

Writer's block is a condition, primarily associated with writing as a profession, in which an author loses the ability to produce new work. The condition varies widely in intensity. It can be trivial, a temporary difficulty in dealing with the task at hand. At the other extreme, some "blocked" writers have been unable to work for years on end, and some have even abandoned their careers.^{[citation needed]} It can manifest as the affected writer viewing their work as inferior or unsuitable, when in fact it could be the opposite. The condition was first described in 1947 by psychoanalyst Edmund Bergler.^[1]

An interesting phrase in that definition "an author loses the ability to produce new work" -- I've heard horror stories about writers who can't write for days, months, even YEARS because of extreme writer's block.

It's not a physical ailment, this writer's block. Bones aren't broken and, as far as I know, no one has gone blind from it. So therefore, it's all in your head.

Why writer's block doesn't exist

If you write everyday...and read...writer's block doesn't exist at all. Yes, it's that simple.

Maybe my defiance of writer's block comes from being a reporter. Writer friends have asked me if being a reporter is good for a writer. Usually I say no EXCEPT in a couple of instances and this is one of them. As a reporter, you don't have time to have this thing called writers block. You HAVE TO produce. Deadlines loom. The paper (or website) has to be done/updated. So you learn tricks to do this-- you write as you go, you think about the theme of the story, you interview, you write the most important thing first.

We do this everyday.

It's the same for the writer. Practicing your craft every day means you are focused on what you are writing. You're not focused on how you don't have anything to write. That's why it's important to have a regular writing routine. And when you can't write anymore and need a break, you need to read. Inspiration comes from reading and other art. That is how the Muse is fed.

It's all in your head.

So how does this dreaded "block" happen? When you feel like your work isn't good enough. So let me solve this for you....get over yourself. Just write!

There's this thing called revision. Maybe you've heard of it? Your first draft is suppose to be absolute crap. You will not make it pretty or even interesting to read your first time around. Why? Because you're figuring it all out as you go. So tell your internal editor to shut it. They'll get their chance during revision to be annoying.

In extreme cases, when you doubt yourself and your abilities, go back and read something you were proud of or do something that makes you feel good. Get that good feeling back, anything to help you realize that you are better than what this hurdle has done to you.

So what happens if you don't know what to write next?

This is one question I know a lot about so I can answer. If you are stuck in the middle of a writing project....do something else.

Anything else! Take a walk. Go for a run. Read. Watch tv. Take a nap. And if all that doesn't work. Write a short story or work on a prompt. Something you can turn around quickly. This should clear your head enough to keep going.

A note on exercise: I once attended a workshop about writing and the actions in the brain. The same chemical released during exercise and that makes you happy-- endorphins--are the same released while writing. So don't underestimate the gym time.

So now that you know there is no such thing as writer's block, get thee to your writing station. Because, in the long run, the best way to write is just to sit down and do it!

Edgar Allen Poe and a writer named Icess

2012-01-19T10:00:00.000-06:00

The delightful Mr. Poe, never more.

Today is Edgar Allen Poe's birthday.

I've celebrated his life on this blog before. Poe for me will always be one of my first teachers in the craft of writing. And, looking back to the humble beginnings of my life, I'm surprised that I was able to gravitate to him.

I grew up in East Harris county in the 1980s and 1990s. Back then it was all suburbs. Perfect houses, manicured laws, shaped trees, quiet stillness, devoid of culture. At that time there were no bookstores. Even now, the area has shopping centers and even a Starbucks but no bookstores. For someone like me, who lived from books, escaped to them, it was difficult to find books to own. (Unless you took them from the library but that's something else entirely.)

Fiesta Supermarkets and eventually Sam's Club sold books in the area. The books at Fiesta were the small, fit in your hand, condensed version of the great books. This was how I was introduced to Edgar Allen Poe.

I read A Tell-Tale Heart in the same speed as a thirty man would drink a Big Gulp. By the last page, I thought that whoever wrote the book was a genius. The tick-tocking under the floorboard? The guilt? Fantastic. This may have been what jump started my imagination.

Later on, as I grew up and read more Poe and learned of his life, I learned we were both born in Boston. We both were dark. We both love deeply.

Now, as an adult, I see more similarities. How, because we love deeply we mourn deeply. How we are both tormented by our demons (though I think I deal with the better than he did.) How our lives bleed onto the page.

Without knowing it, he taught me how to be a writer both on and off the page, through his mistakes he became a tale of caution. Through his successes he modeled for me the simplicity of story telling and that the root of a story is simple -- envy, greed, death.

So Happy Birthday and I hope someone shows up with a rose this year.

What's in a identity? A call to arms!

2012-01-18T10:00:00.000-06:00

For a writer, identity is everything.

We explore it. We question it. We challenge it.

And when we are faced with it, truly faced with it, it are confused by it. Sometimes even haunted by who are.

If you're me, you spend a life time struggling with it, accepting it, and working to balance it against the mainstream.

I am, for the new readers of this blog, Afro Latina. My dad was Cuban. My mother is Guatemalan. I speak Spanish but have dark skin and curly hair. And when I watch my favorite novelas on Univision, I don't see myself.

I am not what the mainstream or even some of my friends think of what a Latina looks like. The kinky in my hair and the fullness of my lips says African but the roll of the "r" off my tongue, my customs and culture are Latino.

So what am I? I'm both.

As a writer, that search for identity creeps into my work. My thesis-so-to-be-novel has an Afro Latina protagonist. She deals with identity. She tries to balance it against the backdrop of her reality. Yes, you write what you know and I know about being, well, me.

But I've always felt, even as I continue my art, that identity for me is more than a search for balance. Perhaps its acceptance I seek. Acceptance, but not in the way that makes it okay to exist. I strive for acceptance in a way that requires no explanation.

I want the world to know what a real Latina looks like! We do not all come from Mexico. We do not all have olive skin and dark hair. We are not all walking sex. I want acceptance of the true form of being Latina.

And so, it is with pride that I announce that I will soon start a new tab on this blog. On the top, under the banner, will be a new tab called About AfroLatinos. It will become a resipicle of videos and links to articles and people on Twitter that promote and inform the public about AfroLatinos/Black Hispanics.

This, my friends, I hope begins a new dialogue. In addition to this, I propose that in a few short weeks, just when Black History Month is about to begin, from Jan 30 - Feb. 3, we honor Afro Latinos. I call on other bloggers to highlight Latinos of African decent on their blogs so that the public can learn about them. Only this way can we strive for the acceptance that doesn't require explanation.

Who's with me?

#MotivationMonday Being Productive

2012-01-16T10:00:00.000-06:00

Let's assume you've put together your writing calendar for the year or maybe for the next couple of months.

You have a story idea and you sit down to write. Then the phone rings. Then you get an email. Then your favorite show is on and then when you look up the clock says it's bed time and you have only written your name on the page.

Sound familiar?

Yes. You don't have the luxury to write. Guess what? Neither do I. True that I am a newspaper reporter so I write all day but I do also write fiction and wish, like my fellow writers, that I had time to just write.

But that isn't that case and quite frankly, it shouldn't be. Very few writers have a chance to write all day but, then again, at one point they all had day jobs before they became best-selling authors.

I'd like to think that's where we are now. We are in that phase before we join that inner circle of writers who have all day to write. But until that happens, we have to squeeze it in. We have to be productive with the time we have and work diligently toward our goal. How do we do that? Here's some tips I've collected through the years and have seen in articles and other blogs. Not all of these may work for you but there is no harm in trying.

Be specific, have a goal

With the rare pockets of time that writers have, there needs to be a game plan. The more specific the better. What has worked for me is telling myself that in those 30 minutes I have between interviews, I will edit the scene I wrote last night or that chapter I wasn't happy with or I will write dialogue, etc. One of my other writer friends divided her time so that she would write in the morning before work and then spend some time editing at night. Over time, she developed a habit and the pattern helped her finish her novel.

Usually when I know I have a pocket of time, I look forward to it because I know that those 10 minutes will be more productive than the 1 hour I have spent staring in the screen wondering what to do next.

Get rid of everything you don't absolutely need

By this I mean everything--email, voicemail, cell phone, PDA (people still use these?), tablets, etc. For that limited amount of time you are out of pocket for everyone in the world. Hide if you have to but concentrate on what you're doing.

Worried about angering people? Let them know that that concentrated time is off limits. But you have to stick to your guns on this. For example, on Mondays when I work a later shift, I do not answer the phone or respond to text messages. That's because that is my writing time and those who need anything from me know that that is not the best time to reach me. Guarding the limited time you have is important. If you don't, you may not have any time at all.

And while we're at it, get off of Facebook.

Location, location, location

If you have a short pocket of time to get some writing done and you're at work, don't do it at your desk. Being at your desk gives license to your co-workers to come talk to you or for folks to come find you or any variety of scenarios. Location is key.

The same happens at home. You're at the computer and the kids need something, the spouse has a question, and that dog also needs attention.

So what do you do? Move. Leave. Go somewhere else where you are not easily accessible. The washroom, the laundry room, the break room, your car. The measure may seem extreme but when you have ten minutes to get something done, interruptions are your enemy.

Above all watch the clock

It happens. You have 20 minutes so you decide to do a character sketch. You become so enthralled with it that you look up and you're late for your next appointment. (Can not tell you how many times that has happened to me.) The best solution is an egg timer or for you super techie folks the timers on your phones or tablets. That works, too.

It's important to stick to the schedule since you are not yet part of the inner circle who writes all day. The laundry still needs to get done, the meeting is still happening, etc. So honor what is still important in your world and balance it with what's important to you. One way to do that is to watch the clock and be mindful that, while the world revolved around you for the brief time you had to write, it has to return to normal. In this way you are a super hero with a secret identity.

So how is the writing going so far this year? Done with a chapter or short story? Click the comments link and tell me how it's going!

Reading to write or how book clubs are awesome

2012-01-11T09:00:00.000-06:00

The Book Group. A TV show from across the pond.

In the past, I've written about the importance of writer reading habits. In fact, it's so important, it's the first thing I tell starting writers to do.

Read often and read good writing.

It's only through the act of reading that a writer in training can see how prose comes together. My advisor called it becoming an apprentice to books. Like walking or talking, we do not come out of the womb with the ability to write well. We read, reflect, learn, and then try it ourselves. Reading, my friends is fuel.

With that in mind, don't underestimate or under-appreciate the role of a book club. Yes, a book club. Didn't see that one coming, did you?

Book clubs are great ways to socialize with people who have similar interests but at the same time enjoying lively discussions about writing. A typical book club will talk about how the book impressed them (or didn't) and whether they thought it was good or not. All valid things to hear. For the writer, however, a book club is important because:

You will always have something to read
You will always have a variety of things to read
Expands your book knowledge and your exposure to different writing styles and techniques.

As a writer, read with a pencil in your hand. (Or if you're on a Kindle or Nook, know how to make notes on your machine.) As you read, be aware of the parts where you have a reaction to the prose. For example, do you like a turn of a phrase or description? Did something make you cry or gasp? Where in the prose were you surprised?

Circle, or underline, or highlight the parts that gave you a reaction. That's when the learning begins. Ask yourself how did the writer do it? How did this writer get you to gasp or smile? How did this writer come to write that peculiar phrase?

When you start asking questions of the prose, you're learning the craft of writing. It's not about whether one enjoys the book (though if you do like it, it's easier to learn from the book) it's about what you learn from the prose.

Think of each book as a writing lesson. The good ones will have several lessons. Once you start tapping into them, you can apply it to your writing. But you have to learn the lessons first, which is why reading is important.

Let's do an experiment. Before writing for the day, read a chapter of a book. Take notes of some of the things we discussed earlier. Think about how the author did what they did and why. Then return to your writing and see how it goes.

So what about me? With graduation in next month, I don't have anymore lists of books to write. I've joined a book club as well. We're reading Salvage The Bones by Jesmyn Ward. You're welcomed to join in.

All the blog that's fit to +

2012-01-09T14:30:00.000-06:00

My Google+ page

See the picture above? That's the official fan page to this blog! There are no others, just this one. There's not one on Facebook. So if you'd please add me to your circle that would be great. Why?

Glad you asked! This Google+ page has everything we need to do some insane writing and it's a chance to get to know some of the followers of this blog. For the past couple of months, I've seen where the traffic to this blog comes from. Although most of my followers are from the United States, some come from Germany, China, Japan, and even Moldova. This is a chance for us to get to know each other and even...later on...if you're good...I may even activate Google hangouts! Gasp!

Who knew! Anyway, please add me to your circle and I'll add you back!

So where else can you get more Writing To Insanity? Well, there is always the Twitter feed and the Tumblr page called Untitled is a good place to get pictures and articles as I find them.

#MotivationMonday Setting the calendar

2012-01-09T09:00:00.000-06:00

The beginning of my calendar making

It's Monday, folks. In fact it's the second Monday of the year. And if this is the year you promised yourself that you were going to get your writing off the ground, this is a good time to put some sort of game plan together. After all, the game plan is nearly everything and can give you the boost and motivation you need. So let's start off this first of many #MotivationMondays off with a bang.

Let's make a calendar!

Wait! Before you start taking out the magic markers, know that this is not about actually making a calendar. You can use Google calendar, the one on your tablet, computers, or, yes, if you want an excuse to use magic markers go ahead.

First step, go through publications such as Poets and Writers, Duotrope.com, and even Writer's Market (online or print) to look for writing contents. There are a TON of them and most of them require a fee. So be judicious on which ones to enter because it can be expensive. Sprinkle a couple of the contests in your calendar for the year.

BEWARE! Some of the contests maybe bogus. Though they are advertised in legitimate publications, not all are what they seem to be. Do your research. You want to see how long the contests have been around, who the judges are, who are the past winners, and just ask around to some writer friends to see if they have heard of the contest. If the prize is too good to be true, watch out.

Now that you have those dates on your calendar, let's look at literary journals, magazines, and anthologies. Before putting dates on the calendar, research the publication. Are they simpatico with your style? Are they the type that require a reading fee? Do they give feed back? How often do they publish? Is it a online journal or a paper publication? What happens if you do get chosen, payment with money or subscription? How about rights, first or serial? Answering these questions and others will help you decide which publications to place on your calendar.

How about your personal projects? Are you writing a book? Short story? A chap book? Give yourself a deadline for the first draft. Remember to be logical and realistic with your self-imposed deadline. If you've started writing a book Jan 1, it's unrealistic to have a deadline of Feb. 15. If you want to give yourself chapter deadlines that's fine. Unrealistic deadlines don't get met and, essentially invalidates your efforts. Remember, the goal is to succeed.

This next step is probably the most important out of the entire exercise, write in, everyday, when your writing time is. It is extremely important to write everyday. That's the discipline of writing and separates the writers from the hobbyists. Writers write. And we do it every day. But let's also be realistic, you probably have a job, kids, school, and other responsibilities. I get it. I'm there but they aren't excuses to write. You want to write, you need to find time but thankfully not a lot of time. One of my favorite mystery writers Nancy Pickard, said she would plot out part of her novel as she was waiting for her kids to be done with soccer practice or work on dialogue while washing the dishes. Another mystery writer, Walter Mosley writes in the morning, for an hour and a half, even on vacation. At one time poet and prose writer Chris Abani would write after his work day ended which was at 1 in the morning, penning pages at the Denny's. Face it, none of us have the luxury of time so we have to make it work with our schedule and, yes, sacrifice a little. Maybe you skip an episode of Grey's Anatomy or you don't go home right away after the gym or work. Maybe you write on your lunch hour. The important thing here is to write, every day, constantly. It's a habit, folks.

By now you should have a full calendar. Look it over. At this point you can add or take away events based on your schedule. Remember to give yourself time to revise a piece several times before submitting.

There you go! A very concrete step toward your writing goal. Hope this helps! Let me know how it's working for you

"The dream is the truth" Happy Birthday Zora Neale Hurston

2012-01-07T17:40:00.001-06:00

On this day, 121 years ago, Zora Neale Hurston was born in Alabama. She would go on to create some of the most memorable, incandescent, truthful prose any American writer has ever set on paper. She would inspire and teach, through her art, generations of writers. She is the example of how to write the bare truth on the page without apologies.
I learned of her birthday today, shamefully, on Facebook and I couldn't let this day pass without writing something on my blog about her. She is one of the voices that helped me with my thesis and I owe her a great deal of gratitude.

So how did Ms. Hurston help? With the second paragraph of Their Eyes Were Watching God.

"Now, women forget all those things they don't want to remember, and remember everything they don't want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly."

The dream is the truth. The dream is the truth. These five words rocked my world. Let me explain.
I read Hurston at the beginning of my MFA program. In fact, she was in the first pile of required reading. When I started the program, I was lost. I sought the voice that went away when my dad passed away. I know now that part of that journey to find my voice was to find the truth, face it, embrace it, and soak it in.

The dream is the truth.

My dream at the time was to be okay, to find some calm in the middle of the storm I had gotten myself into. I had lived myself into a corner because I did everything I was suppose to do. I wasn't happy. I lost a large piece of who I was and what was left was rapidly decaying. I wanted a peace that I only found on the page, in worlds created by my pen where no one could tell me what to do.

My dream, my truth, lives in the written word. Hurston gave me permission to believe it, face it, embrace it, and soak it in.

That was how this part of my journey started and she was there with me, along with Clarice Lispector. Eventually we picked up others--- Cristina Garcia, Isabel Allende, Gabo, Chandler, Mosley, Green, Danticat, and so many others. These writers encouraged and taught and, above all, gave me permission to be just who I was. They were my breaths in an airless tank. I survived and I am because they were.
Hurston was the first burst of fresh air.

So, on this 121st birthday, I say thank you, but not to Hurston, an African American writer or woman writer. To Hurston, the writer. Gracias.

There's no resolution here

2012-01-07T12:27:00.001-06:00

This year I have decided there I would make no resolution or promises to myself that I haven't made already.

Yes, I know that it's a popular thing to do. Writing resolutions is the first step of making a new life and a new year. Sure. I get that. But, here's the thing...everything i would have promised myself to do, I've already promised to myself in one way or another. My promises have ranged from losing weight to finding a new job. All of them were made and most were broken or achieved on a technicality (if you lose five pounds because of the flu, you technically lost weight).

The new no resolution rule goes double for my writing. Nope. No writing resolutions here. Some writers have made some great resolutions to themselves. I applaud them. I wish them well. For me, however, I don't find those useful for my writing. At least not at this stage. I know what my next step will be and I just have to do it. I know that I have to write more, read more, turn my thesis into a novel, submit to magazines and contests, go to literary events, and feed myself as a writer.

So you see, I already had goals in mind before the clock struck midnight. It's not that I don't have resolutions, it's that I have focus. More focus now that I've had in years past. And that, my friends, trumps every promise I've made and broken to myself since my first new years many moons ago.

My desk today...actually yesterday

2012-01-04T22:27:00.001-06:00

As I sit here mulling over my next blog post, I am procrastinating, Such is my process. I consider procrastination so much a part of my process that I actually plan for it. Sad? Perhaps but why deny something that will happen.

Any way, for today's post (which is not the post I'm working on) we have another desk picture. Two, actually. However, these pix open the door to another part of my process--revision and planning.

Early draft of State of Waiting

This picture show's my draft and edit marks for my Christmas story State of Waiting, which was on the blog during the Holiday Blog Tour. I wrote it in a matter of a couple of hours and only had time really to edit it one time. Here's what it looked like. I expect to edit this story again in the future and it will probably be dripping with ink. This was just a drive-by

New board

This is by brand new, just put up cork board. It's above my desk and just gives my area a nothing-but-business feel. I love it. So here is how I plan to keep up with several projects I have going on including this blog. (the editorial calendar is in the top corner.) For me this is bare but it'll be filled soon enough with contest and submission guidelines for different publications.

That's it! My desks are interesting. Just like you can tell a lady by her purse, you can tell a writer by their desk. It's ever changing and so am I.

Writing resolutions from writers

2012-01-01T12:32:00.001-06:00

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2011/12/25-literary-resolutions-for-2012.html

Sorry for the basic post. I'm on my iPad and the blogger app isn't great on inserting links.

Anyway, the LA Times did a fantastic article on writing resolutions from today's contemporary scribes. If you need an idea on how to jump start your writing this year, this maybe a good read for you!

Wipe away breast cancer

2011-12-28T18:00:00.001-06:00

Meant to share this earlier on here and my tumblr but somehow it didn't work. I totally want a pair on my car.

As seen at the dollar store

2011-12-28T17:50:00.001-06:00

Oh Houston how I miss you.

For Libraries and Publishers, an E-Book Tug of War - NYTimes.com

2011-12-26T20:57:00.000-06:00

Will be interesting how ebook lending will be solved. Will this change or end the library as we know it?

For Libraries and Publishers, an E-Book Tug of War - NYTimes.com:

'via Blog this'

What's in store for 2012?

2011-12-26T20:22:00.004-06:00

The State of Waiting

2011-12-24T18:27:00.005-06:00

My dad

Hello all,

Sorry for the delay of the final story from the Holiday Blog Tour. After working through some technical difficulties, I'm finally able to put this story up for everyone to read.

Thanks for joining us on this tour! Hope you were able to find new favorites while enjoying new material from the authors you've already fallen in love with.

For this story, the inspiration came from this question: If I had five minutes with my dad for Christmas, what would we say? Now, our conversation wouldn't be the same as Ernesto and Yesenia's but the feeling would be the same -- love and laughter.

So from my family to yours, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and enjoy.

~Icess

The State of Waiting

Ernesto unfolded the white clothwrapped around the fragile, wooden frame with the care a father hasfor a newborn. He relished in the emotions evoked by the photographand for that moment, before the heartbreak of reality set in, she wasthere again, away from the fraying memories of his mind. She wasthere in the permanency of black and white, the endless window intoa still moment.

In her wedding picture she work a dressof satin, her mother's pearls and a smile. My little girl. Married. Pride bubbled inside hischest. He wished he was there for that moment when the girlbecame a woman, watched her grow, fail, succeed.

Re-wrapping the picture, he returned itto the nightstand's drawer and finished dressing. Soon, he would heara knock at the door—a signal of the end of purgatory—a fittingChristmas gift on the anniversary of his death. For seven years, he'dstayed in one place, one room with one bed, a locked door, fourwalls, and a vast view of nothing from his square window. After hisdeath, he thought the room was Hell without the fire and brimstone.Standing still was his version of eternal damnation but when hesuddenly discovered the picture of Yesenia on her wedding day, heremembered that Hell was a loveless place and that he was in aperpetual state of waiting.

What he was waiting for he did notknow.

A knock. An open door. A dark, longhallway of doors. Then a light, bright and pure , the absence ofcolor and emotion.

The voice of God rumbled.

“Ernesto.”

He bowed his head and uttered a“Señor”. Warmth andlove filled Ernesto; it seeped through his pores. The waiting wasover. Now what?

“Yesenia needs you. Only the love ofa father can help her today.”

“Señor,but you are so great, how can I help her?”

“She mourns you still many yearsafter your death. She will give birth soon and her husband is awayin the war. She yearns for five more minutes with you. She has waitedso long to be healed.”

The idea of becoming a grandfatheroverwhelmed Ernesto with a new sense of pride for his daughter.

“She needs her father. I will sendyou back, but only for a short while.”

“But how can I help her? Won't shethink me a ghost?”

“She's been waiting for you a longtime.”

***

Yesenia's home was filled with holidayessentials – a trimmed tree, a roaring fire, and glitteringdecorations. But with these items, the house was cold and stoodstill, as if it held its breath. Ernesto was lost and confused inthe lavish home -- there was no reason for sadness or for the wallsto creek with the chill of mourning and yet, crystals had formed inthe corners of the house like cobwebs. Over the dressed and frostedwindows were thick sheets of ice attached to the inside, obstructingthe view.

Ernesto searched for his daughterbehind every door. Behind each one was a disappointment. The doorleading to the kitchen was made of heavy iron and was difficult toopen. The disappointment behind it was the many meals he missed withYesenia since his death. The flimsy plastic door leading to thegarage was the gateway to over flowing cardboard boxes filled withshredded paper, and left no room for what was important. The door toone of the bedrooms, the one his grandson would soon occupy,shattered when he knocked on it, its fragility hidden by its beautyand its beauty mistaken for strength.

The door to the master bedroom was madeof paper and before Ernesto knocked, he ran his hand over its thinsmoothness. Here, he decided not to knock and instead called out forhis daughter. She emerged, moving the paper aside, her belly extendedto the point of becoming a burden. Her face was wet with continuoustears and her long black hair was soaked in them.

Yesenia was not surprised to see herfather. She knew that one day, he would visit when it was time forhim to move on, however, she was surprised at his appearance.

“Papá,why are you so pale? You're almost translucent.”

“I didn't know you could see throughme.”

Father and daughter sat in the room,daughter on a rocking chair and father on the bed. Ernesto wassurprised at the room. In contrast to the rest of the home, the smallbedroom was simple--four gray walls, one bed, a window without aview. He stared at Yesenia and touched her belly.

“I miss you,” she said. “I missyou and I don't know how not to miss you. Your death still hurts,Papá.”

Ernesto nodded. “I didn't want thisfor you. You have so much to live for and the birth of yourchild...it should be a happy time.”

“I'm scared, Papá.What happens if I forget you? I have already forgotten the sound ofyour voice and the color of your eyes.”

“I'm not a ghost to be remembered inthat way.”

“How should I remember you?”

“You should remember me like thatrocking chair you are in. It's the same one I rocked you to sleep in.It's not the chair that's important but the fact I had you in my armsand loved you more than life.”

Inside Yesenia's chest something rippedopen and from it and a sadness flowed, the same sad from the firstday of mourning.

“Papito, I wish you were here. I wishyou were at my wedding day. I'm about to be a mamáand I have no one here to help me.”

“Mi'ja.” Ernesto wrapped his armsaround Yesenia. “Do you remember the first time I brushed your hairafter tu mamá died?Eventually, I was able to make the ponytails even.”

Yesenia and Ernesto laughed and theroom grew warmer. Ice from the windows began to melt.

“I remember the knots,” she saidthrough tears.

“And I didn't understand the clips.Why do little girls like to wear so many clips?” Ernesto laughedharder remembering Yesenia's school pictures with lopsided ponytails.

The color of the room's walls began topeel in the corners, exposing a happy light purple color. In themiddle of their memory, the room had expanded by ten feet.

“Papa, how is it like to die?”

“Mi'ja, the dying is frantic butdeath is peaceful although nothing like the movies. What is it liketo live? I've forgotten.”

“The same, I guess. Living is likebeing in the middle of a beehive but life...life can be peaceful, tooif we allow it to be,” Yesenia paused. “At least I hope it is.”

“Mi'ja, it can be.” Ernesto kissedhis daughter on the forehead, just like he did when she would hurther knee. “All will be well, Yesenia.”

A prickly feeling inside Yesenia'schest, from the same place that opened up earlier, told her that thevisit would soon come to an end, and so she asked a final question.

“Will I ever see you again?”

“Not like this. But I'm always withyou, mi'ja. I'm always watching. I'm still taking care of you.”

Yesenia hugged her father tight andkissed him on the cheek. “I want to give you a present, Papa.Afterall, this is Christmas.”

Ernesto, already hearing the angel'sstrumming their harps rapidly said: “The best gift you can give meis to have a good life. Live without fear, and without mourning.”

“I love you, Papa.” Yesenia blurtedout.

“I love you, mi'ja.”

And with that, the house took a deepbreath. The ice melted and the doors returned to their former state. Yesenia, still with tears in her eyes, sighed and laughed and criedbut from happiness. He is okay, she thought to herself. Heis still here and I haven't forgotten.

Hours later, Yesenia gave birth to herson, Ernesto.

My desk today

2011-12-22T17:29:00.001-06:00

Working from home for the rest of the day. Isn't it cozy?

Gifts for writers, part 3

2011-12-20T00:02:00.001-06:00

Hello all! Welcome to the third annual post on gifts to give writers. I know that this year I am a bit late with the gift ideas but there are some shopping days left and it's not too late to grab one of these goodies. So let's get started.

Nook, Kindle, Ipad, etc
This is a fantastic idea for the writer. mostly because of the many uses of a tablet/e-reader. The most obvious use is, of course, that downloading books is snap. Though be forewarned, not every book is available in electronic form. Lots are though, enough to make this a worthwhile investment. Both Amazon and Barnes and Noble have tablets / e-readers that are handy and useful. I actually own what is now a vintage nook and I love it. I also own an iPad which is nice because I can not only use the nook and Kindle apps to read but also, with an additional keyboard, can use my Ipad as a computer. In fact, I wrote this post on my iPad.

A subscription to a writing magazine
Like other professions, writers have to keep up with the news from the publishing industry or from certain writing circles. I suggest a subscription to Poets and Writers, which has always been extremely helpful in the past. So helpful in fact that I have suggested it in other blog posts. Here's a new suggestion, the Writer's Market.

The book, which should cost right around 30 dollars, lists publications looking for freelance pieces and short stories. There is also one that has publishing houses looking for novelists. I suggest getting the online subscription which is updated constantly.

A copy of On Writing Well.
Every writer should read this book several times, and most especially when beginning the process of revision. I picked up my copy when I was a couple of weeks into my revision for my thesis and wished I had taken somedays to re-read it before beginning. It's more than just a grammar book, On Writing Well is the handbook to clear and concise writing. It lessons worth relearning and experimenting with. I highly recommend it.

Proof reading service.
And speaking about revision, offering to proof read a writer's piece for the annoying grammar mistakes we make is not only nice but the most useful and amazing thing that a person can do for a writer. Yes, being a writer does not mean being a grammar hound. Writers are about the story, the rhythm, the characters, the plot, etc. Grammar is the least of our worries and the thing that makes us shudder the most. I had an editor once tell me that copy editing makes his eyes bleed. I'm the same way.

Don't have time to grammar check a piece? Then pay for a professional to do it. Depending on the person, it could run some where between $2 a page to $100/ hour depending on who it is and what skills they are bringing to the table. I'm currently building a database of editors who will can either line edit and/or critique. More info on this later.

Candles
Yes, I know. This seems like a cheap, I-couldn't-think-of-anything-else gift. Seriously, you might as well get them a gift card. BUT, in the past two years, candles were the fastest way to get me into a scene. The senses are powerful

Get an "Afterlife" -- writing advice from Ryan Boudinot

2011-12-18T23:53:00.000-06:00

Ryan Boudinot

Confession: When I first started the MFA program at Goddard College, the guy in the picture intimidated me. Word on the playground was that he made his advisees read really thick books and had a due date that was a week earlier than the rest of the advisors. With a full time schedule at work, I thought adding that to my plate was going to kill me. (I was so naive when I started.)

But naivete (yes, I know there are accents in this word) aside, I still learned from Ryan Boudinot. Before he was the second reader to my thesis, a surprisingly limited role, his workshops were helpful. Uber helpful.

If you don't know who he is, here's his bio from Amazon:

Ryan Boudinot is the author of BLUEPRINTS OF THE AFTERLIFE (Grove Atlantic/Black Cat, 2012); MISCONCEPTION (Grove Atlantic/Black Cat, 2009), a finalist for the PEN USA Literary Award; and THE LITTLEST HITLER (Counterpoint, 2006), a Publishers Weekly and Amazon.com Best Book of 2006. His work has appeared in MCSWEENEY'S, THE BEST AMERICAN NONREQUIRED READING, NERVE, BLACK BOOK, and other anthologies and journals. He teaches creative writing at Goddard College's MFA program in Port Townsend, Washington, and blogs about film at therumpus.net. He lives in Seattle.

And just like his workshops, his notes as a second reader got down to the nitty gritty of writing. Here are two of the many tips I found useful.

"Blueprints of the Afterlife" comes out Jan. 3.
Click the picture to pre-order.

1) Overly physical language. I come from the world of telling. As a reporter, I tell everything -- the color of the shirt, the temperature of the day, the wind, the sun, the rain. So switching from tell to show is easier said than done. This is one way to do it. How does this happen? Readers want to be inside the character, they want to be inside their skin. Something like "my heart beat faster" or "my eyes welled with tears" now takes the reader outside of the character's skin. And by the way, those phrases tend to be cliche. We all know why we use cliches -- they are easy to use, they tend to be true and well, we're lazy sometimes.

Now, I won't admit that I used overly physical language in my writing but...what do I do for a living?

2) Avoid instances of "could"when you can. "Could" is like the word "that", most of the time you can do without it. I particularly love this piece of writing advice because it promotes clear writing. So for example:

"I could talk as fast as a madwoman."

Taking out "could" and going straight to the verb "talk" makes the sentence more direct.

"I talked as fast as a madwoman."

Not bad, right? Now that "could" is out of the way, I'm sure the writers in the crowd can see how to further revise this sentence. I'll leave you to think about the various draft of this sentence and if you want to share, hit the comment button.

There are other writing tidbits he's shared but let's just focus on these two for now. These two pieces of advice may seem small and to some a rehash of a lesson learned earlier but, just by using them, the prose pops. That nearly instant fix is enough to unstuck the stuck writer and/or to jump start a lengthy revision process.

As writing advice goes, this ranks up with there with White Collar creator Jeff Eastin and Diahann Carroll offerings.

Ryan's latest comes out Jan. 3. Pre-order it here.

My Desk Today

2011-12-15T00:07:00.000-06:00

My work desk

With the completion of my thesis, I have been in overdrive at work. My work desk shows it. Here's how it looks today. Yes, a hurricane hit my desk. It shall be clean soon.

Holiday Blog Tours Starts in 3...2...

2011-12-01T00:56:00.001-06:00

...1. Well, actually two.

The Holiday Blog tour is upon us!

Starting TOMORROW you can read some up-and-coming, some bestselling and some soon-to-be best selling authors. And they'll get you in the holiday spirit!

We have something for everyone, from poets to fiction writers and some memoir folks are coming to party too.

And if you're a really good reader, some will have a present for you. And if you're a super good reader, and read all the stories, there's a present for you, too. But you have to wait until the end.

First one up is Julia Amante, author of Evenings at the Argentine Club and Say You'll Be Mine. If you leave a comment on her post, you can be entered to win one of her novels.

Here's the full list:

Dec. 2 Julia Amante

Dec. 3 Radames Ortiz

Dec. 4 Deborah Grace Staley

Dec. 5 Zoraida Cordova

Dec. 6.Danielle Klenak

Dec. 7 Lupe Mendez

Dec. 8 Natasha Oliver

Dec. 9 Maria Ferrer

Dec. 10 Sidney Williams

Dec. 11 Toni Plummer

Dec. 12 Mayra Calvani

Dec. 13 Kristy Harding

Dec. 14 Thelma Reyna

Dec. 15.Sylvia Mendoza

Dec. 16 Regina Tingle

Dec. 17 Teresa Dovalpage

Dec. 18 Mirta Espinola

Dec. 19 Kim Brown

Dec. 20 Gwen Jerris

Dec. 21 Paula Altschuler

Dec. 22 Caridad Pinero

Dec. 23 Teresa Carbajal Revet

Dec. 24 Icess Fernandez Rojas

What is revising? The question to ask while revising.

2011-11-26T18:41:00.001-06:00

As I was cleaning my desk off today, I came upon a note to myself I wrote during the last part of my draft.

"Revision is the dividing line between hobby and craft."

I reflected on this thought. Is this the definition of a writer? Essentially, anyone with a pen and a piece of paper can write. So what makes something like a to-do list not art and something like A Tale of Two Cities literature? What is the difference between a grocery list and my thesis?

Revision is the difference, I believe. Revision with the purpose of creating something valuable and with direction to create art. No. Not editing. There is a difference.

So what is revision? I wrote a good how-to post earlier in the semester. That post is a good draft-by-draft instruction on how best to edit your copy.

This post is more about the purpose of revision. Why we revise--and that's just more than the we-have-to answer. Again, I'm not talking about editing.

What I am talking about is purpose. What is the purpose of your revision? Answering this comes after a series of questions the writer has to ask themselves.

Here's how:

After you've put the piece your revising away (space is extremely important) you need to ask yourself and answer honestly what the piece is about. Place that summary in one sentence. Is that the focus? Does your plot and characters reflect that sentence. If it doesn't, its time for you to re-evaluate your piece. It maybe time for a rewrite or to cut out everything that doesn't have anything to do with what you wrote in the sentence.

These are hard cuts. Really hard cuts.

It's during this time that you have to think about what you and your story are actually saying. That's easier said than done, that's for sure. But the decisions that you make now can help the arc of a story. This is also the time to ask yourself the hard question, is what I wrote the truth to the story and the characters? You may not know the answer to this question, which is okay.

Revising, like the creative part, is its own process. Just know that you're not done with revision until you know the answer to these questions.

Top 10 Literary Cities -- National Geographic

2011-11-18T15:53:00.000-06:00

So in reality, these are the cities I need to figure out how to live in. Soon!Now my only question is how can I formulate that cool Scottish accent. Hummm. Must think about this more later.

Top 10 Literary Cities -- National Geographic

Oh, Holidays! Here we come!

2011-11-13T18:58:00.001-06:00

Now that the thesis has been turned in and I've had one night of restful sleep, I have some work to do. And I'm completely excited for this!

I am organizing a Holiday Blog Tour! I'm so excited about it. It's 23 writers -- prose writers, essayists, memoirists, poets, etc.--each writing about the holidays.

So what's a blog tour? Well, I'm glad you asked. The it's a series of tours linked together by a common theme. Each day, the author a blog posts a story. Then the next person in the link posts a story, and so on and so on.

I first learned about blog tours when I was a brand new member of Nunca Sola, a list serv for Latina/o writers to support and network with each other. I read the stories Mary Castillo and Alisa Valdes and other writers posted and thought to myself that one day, if I tried really hard, I would also be invited to be part of a tour.

What was so interesting about this was how readers can both read their favorite authors and find news ones. And that's important. New authors means new points of view, new stories, and an opportunity for new favorites. And for the authors you love, a blog tour is also an opportunity for new readers. The opportunity to be discovered is like a child's wonderment during the holiday season.

So I have found 23 writers in both fiction and non-fiction who are both up-and-comers and forever favorites. They will post brand new stories about the holiday season. This tour is all inclusive and I am so proud of that. We have Jewish writers participating and I can't wait to read their work. We also have some romance writers who I'm sure will brighten your season. The mystery writers have been cooking up something wicked mixing tinsel and egg nog. The poets are perfecting their verses and the memoirists are choosing just their memories with care.

Below is a list of writers and their blogs. The tour begins on Dec. 1 with Julia Amante. As we get closer to the tour, I'll share update on this blog. There will be a new section of the blog, a tab above, that will be dedicated to blog news.

I urge you follow the tour (some of the writers have presents) and get to know some new writers. I promise you won't be disappointed.

Happy Holidays!

Dec. 1 Julia Amante

Dec. 2 Valerie R.

Dec. 3 Radames Ortiz

Dec. 4 Deborah Grace Staley

Dec. 5 Zoraida Cordova

Dec. 6.Danielle Klenak

Dec. 7 Lupe Mendez

Dec. 8 Natasha Oliver

Dec. 9 Maria Ferrer

Dec. 10 Sidney Williams

Dec. 11 Toni Plummer

Dec. 12 Mayra Calvani

Dec. 13 Kristy Harding

Dec. 14 Thelma Reyna

Dec. 15.Sylvia Mendoza

Dec. 16 Regina Tingle

Dec. 17 Teresa Dovalpage

Dec. 18 Mirta Espinola

Dec. 19 Kim Brown

Dec. 20 Gwen Jerris

Dec. 21 Paula Altschuler

Dec. 22 Caridad Pinero

Dec. 23 Teresa Carbajal Revet

Dec. 24 Icess Fernandez Rojas

Naming the Child

2011-11-08T21:44:00.001-06:00

This post comes from a whirlwind of procrastination. My thesis, which I should really start calling my novel again, is nearly done with its second draft. (Yes, I realize that the construction of that sentence makes it seem like the thesis drafts itself...doesn't it?)

But I am not in the mood to race down that track to the finish line. In reality, I want to drop to the ground, roll up into a little ball, and eat chocolate until I explode.

I don't have a title for my novel.

It's T-minus three days until this thing needs to be in the mail and I'm ready to just call it quits. Who needs an MFA any way. I do. I need one. I want one. And I'm so close.

But what to call my child? Already I finished it, ended my discovery phase, which I enjoyed. Now I have to name it? But, but, why?

Naming it makes it all real. Like naming a child while it's still growing in its mother's belly. Another level of reality sinks in, nesting among the growing, festering doubt. I name this thing, truly name it, it's real.

And it's not because its a book. I've written a book before. A bad one. A really, really bad one. Afterall, writing a book only shows that you can finish a project and I am a finisher, which is why I will finish this degree. No, it's because this marks so many things in my life--the beginning of the next step in my life whatever that may be, the right to call myself an artist, the ability to allow myself to think big because sometimes bigger is better.

This also marks the ending of an era. I have no more excuses. I can write well enough for some amazing college to give me a degree. There are no more excuses, You are not playing at writing, you are a writer.

Naming my thesis means I'm naming my future. My life's about to change and it both excites me and frightens me.

Literary journal that gives back? Say what?

2011-10-18T23:03:00.000-05:00

Facebook is a great place to find new places to publish. Literary mags need to advertise and the cheapest way to do that is on social media.So I came across an interesting journal that makes sure everyone gets something.

Our Stories is a journal that gives feed back to every submission submitted. No joke. For every contest or submission for the journal, the writer best written feedback. Here's an explanation from their website.

For every submission we receive year round, we give personalized feedback. We’ll give our general impressions, point out the strengths and weaknesses and give you suggestions on how to fix your story. Submitting to Our Stories is free –and worth it. We have staffed Our Stories with short story writers and novelists to help you because we know what it’s like to send manuscripts off into the void, only to be rejected, never knowing what went wrong or how to fix it.

How awesome is that! Now, from what I see on their site, there are some contests that require a reading fee but if you're a writer working in a void (who isn't) then this is money well spent.

So the video above is their video on how they do what they do. Enjoy.

My desk today

2011-09-25T13:25:00.001-05:00

So now that I have comments rolling in on my thesis I've moved to my kitchen table. More room and closer to the coffee pot.
Happy writing!

Book cases, e-readers, Kindles, nooks, Ipads, oh my!

2011-09-15T00:55:00.000-05:00

Oh bookcase, my bookcase, where for art thou?

In my tiny apartment, (if I called it a flat would it be more exotic?) there is a space for a bookcase.

And if you saw my post from the other day, I obviously need one. I've needed one for a very long time but waited to be able to get the exact right one. But if I don't hurry, I may not be able to get one at all.

A casualty of ebook wars is the book case. According to an Economist article, Ikea is redesigning its popular bookcase because people are buying less books.

Less books, less bookcases?

I've known for a long time that I was the rare child who wanted her room to look like a library. I wanted bookcases of books rather than plastic, yellow haired Barbies. Books are my friends and I wanted them to have their own dream house--sharp, decorative book cases.

Even now as an adult and MFA student, books are still my friend. They revived me at a time when I was lost and confused and unhappy--my Lifetime movie moment brought to you by Junot Diaz, Cristina Garcia, and Roberto Bolano.

Despite this kinship with pages bound together with glue or thread, I took to the Kindle and nook instantly, wanting the Kindle back during its $400 days. I considered selling something, jewelry or soda cans, to get my hands on one. Eventually, and fairly recently, I purchased a nook. Then an Ipad. Then I had the Kindle and nook app. Yes, this writer and lover of books embraced technology and nearly abandoned the book.

Why? Space. No bookshelf. Ironies never cease. But also for the other myriad of reasons, better to transport, fits in my purse better, quick book download, etc.

But can't I have them both? Can't I have my wonderfully delicious nook (I actually like reading better on the nook than the Ipad though taking notes is easier on Apple's machine.) with its easy to download books and free book Friday and cute, decorative covers, and super light weight design for my carry on? And can I also have my worn, bold typed, I can still smell the glue, love it like Christmas morning paper book that just makes me smile?

And my bookcase. Can I have my bookcase too?

In my bibio-utopia there is room for everyone. There is room for technology and for book version 1.0. I love them both like a mother loves her children, equally. However, it looks like I am in the minority in that view. The move in this chess game is digital and if the publishing world has learned anything from its red-headed cousin the newspaper industry, the rule is change or be left behind. Checkmate.

And so the bookcase must come along and await other thing to proudly display. That thought is depressing enough to make me cry and short circuit my e-reader.

What of my plight? If not a bookcase what will fill my bookcase size space in my apartment/flat? The world may never know.

Reporters notebook

2011-09-12T22:20:00.001-05:00

Got to cover a fire today on the Texas/Louisiana border. Here's some shots.

My desk today

2011-09-12T15:08:00.001-05:00

I need a bookcase stat!

The road toward revision...such nightmarish loveliness

2011-09-11T17:46:00.000-05:00

What the first copy of my thesis looked like many moons ago.

You hear those crickets? Yes, that's the sound of nothing happening on this blog. And why? Because I was working on my thesis. And not just working on it, finishing it!

Yes, the first draft of my thesis for my MFA program is complete and is making its way toward my advisor and second reader's homes as we speak.

Now that I have some free time (I still have six books to read, five annotations, and a 10-15 page essay to crank out) I wanted to take this time to give some revising tips. Though these tips are aimed specifically for those in my MFA program, every writer can use these lessons to their advantage. Seriously, revision is revision and we all have to do it. As one advisor said to me, "revision is a pleasure." It is. And sometimes it's about as pleasurable as a root canal. But I digress since I actually do like revision. So let's start.

1) Just finish the darn thing.
If you're in a low residency program like the one at Goddard College and have to turn in something in your fourth semester of publishable quality, finish the thesis first. In fact, finish that darn thing before the residency of your fourth (and hopefully final) semester. It doesn't have to be perfect. Hemingway isn't reading it. Just finish it. You can't revise something that doesn't exist.

If you're not in an MFA program, same thing. Finish it.

2) Walk away.
Yes, I understand you are elated about step one. Congratulations! You are in no way done with this monster you have just created. But let it breathe. You will want to go back and start tinkering with it. Don't do that. Stop it. It's like the boyfriend/girlfriend that you love but are kinda tried of so you need a break. Take a break from your boyfriend/girlfriend.

3) And while you're taking your break...
Get into the revision mindset. Workout. Read books. Watch reruns of Friends. But mostly read books. For me it was helpful to read William Zinsser's On Writing Well. More than just a grammar type book, it's a craft book on writing clarity. Listen, if you're a writer worth anything you know every rule in this book. Hell, you've broken every rule in this book. Probably twice! But reading it once in a while reminds you of the epic fail festering in your prose. This book puts everything in perspective for you and gets you in the mind frame to go back into the work and make it sing. I also recommend Strunk and White's classic The Elements of Style. (These two books need to be in your reference library anyway. Right next to the dictionary.)

4.) Also read...
An honest to goodness novel. If you're in an MFA program, you've been doing this the entire time. But you're about swim in a sea of words without any order and reason (maybe). Read something that does have some reason and rhythm to it. May I suggest something with the tone you want to achieve in your novel/thesis. Another advisor said to me she would read books that were like a playlist for her novel. So if she's working on something gritty and mysterious some Raymond Chandler would make it to her night stand. Or if she's coming upon something symbolic in her prose, Barbara Kingsolver would be read.

5) So it starts
Now you're ready to start revising but don't go in there without a plan of action. For MFA students, time will dictate the action plan. For those without such a tight deadline, you will have a lax process. Note how much time you have until the thesis has to be in the mail, MFA students. Then work backwards, giving yourself some time to revise JUST for grammar. Nothing will irritate you more than getting notes back with a notation on grammar. If you're anything like me, you write first and don't focus on grammar until the end. This is the end. Focus part of your time on grammar. Also, think about how many drafts you want to get in before you mail off the thesis. I wanted three. There was no time for three, so I adjusted accordingly.

6.) Print it out.
DO NOT EDIT ON THE SCREEN ALONE. Your eyes will become tired. You will miss something. Print it out, take out a pencil, and have at it.

Remember when I said decide how many drafts you'll have? That's because each draft will be to read for a specific item. For example, draft one can be read for just story arc. I suggest this first because if there are holes that need to be filled, you will have time to fill them. Draft two can be ready for imagery, dialogue, etc. Draft three can be read for word usage and precision, etc. The goal is to go from macro to micro.

TIP: Something that helped me was after reading for story arc, I went back and read things out of order. I was able to focus on words better, some foreshadowing, and redundancies. I also tried reading the chapters backwards, sentence by sentence.

7.) Keep reading
There will be a point where you will be overwhelmed. This sense of blah will come over you and you will want to quit. DON'T. Set the thesis aside for at least a day. Pull out that book you're reading. Lose yourself in that prose. Then go out with some friends who by know think that you are dead because they haven't seen you since you started down this rabbit hole. Then sleep. Eat. Workout. Shower. Watch whatever ridiculousness is on the telly. Then come back to the thesis fresh.

You have to remember that this process is a marathon, not a sprint. So if one day you don't feel like looking at the thesis, don't. If you want to sleep in instead of working, then sleep in. The goal is to no burn completely out cause if you do, you're useless.

8.) The last week.
By now you've done a couple of drafts and you're nervous. You're looking at the calendar and you think, "how am I suppose to get everything done I want done!"

Sit down and let me break this down for you--YOU ARE NOT GOING TO GET IT ALL DONE. There. I said it. Calm down. This, my friends, is a "first draft". You want this perfect but it's not going to be perfect.

So in your last week think about what little things you can fix. I'm not a fan about writing anything new the last week. Small things okay, but whole scenes...nah. New chapters? Forget it. Others may think differently, however. For me, writing a final scene that last week wouldn't have given me enough time to tweak it and give it breathing room. So think smaller -- grammar, formatting, spelling, mechanics, etc. You will already be stressed so doing the smaller things will help keep the stress from bubbling up. But as you tweak this last week, give yourself a cut off deadline. For example, tell yourself "I will be done and will stop looking at this sucker by 2 p.m. Friday." After all, you do need to print two copies and mail them off.

9.) Celebrate cautiously
You are done! Kinda. Now, it's the waiting part, which is (since I'm currently waiting) the worst part. I want to know what my advisor and second reader think. I want their notes in my hot little hands and I want to start working on "draft two", which is due before Thanksgiving.

Stop doing that. Go out and celebrate because essentially you wrote a book, kinda (Thesis and book are different. I'll get into that in another post.) Also, you still have those pesky annotations, the process paper, and other array of stuff to write. Keep your head in the game. You're close but not quite there yet.

But do celebrate! It is quite an achievement!

If you're not in an MFA program, then you actually did write a book. Might I suggest you get someone else to read it now. Let them have a crack at it and have them give you notes.

10.) Is it too early for a draft two strategy?
I don't know yet since I'm still on number nine. I'll get back to you on that.

So there is it. My advice to MFA-ers and non MFA-ers. This is what I did during my revision process for the most part. It was quite a ride with the limited time I had but the goal is to stay focused. Revise line by line, page by page, chapter by chapter. Slow and steady wins the race...or something like that.

Happy revision!

This is what it looked like before I sent it.

This is me...now

2011-08-21T22:00:00.001-05:00

"You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And we edit to let the fire show through the smoke."

Arthur Polotnik

Soul's Road is published!

2011-08-02T22:21:00.000-05:00

A special vlog to celebrate my first publishing credit

What's on tap for this semester

2011-07-29T17:40:00.008-05:00

OMG, it's my final semester of grad school.

And yes, well, it's all about to come to a beautiful end. However, I have so much work to do I kind of wish I had an assistant with swift nimble fingers to type all the stuff I have to type in the coming months.

I digress.

Here I have for you lovely reader the final reading list I will have as a grad student (God willing).

No Telephone to Heaven, Michelle Cliff
The Invisible Mountain, Carolina De Robertis
Memoria De Mis Putas Tristes, Gabo
The Autobiography of My Mother, Jamaica Kincaid
The Hour of the Star, Clarice Lispector
Butterfly Burning, Yvonne Vera

Let's get this semester rolling shall we?

Gracias a los que me leen!

2011-07-06T21:59:00.003-05:00

Gracias a la audiencia internacional! Especialmente Mexico, Peru, y Espana! Los amo!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to my international readers!

2011-07-06T21:56:00.002-05:00

Thanks so much you guys for reading! Love you!

Thought of the Day

2011-07-06T10:00:00.000-05:00

Our lives are merely words that form a very long sentence. It is up to you to tell how it ends -- a period, an exclamation point, or a question mark.

Think about it and get back to me.

The Dream of Freedom

2011-07-04T12:29:00.002-05:00

Proudly displaying both on my desk everyday

It's July 4 and I'm proud to be an American.

It's not that arrogant American pride that makes the rest of the world cringe. It's that, wow-we're-still-a-country pride since America's roots were, in reality, an experiment in the theory of democracy.

But here we are a democracy for better or worse. We have rights that other countries wish they can guarantee to their citizens. Among the ones nearest and dearest to my heart is the first amendment which gives me the right to even think about having this blog and writing these words. It reads:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

So when I look at freedom and I think about how the press exercises and challenges these freedoms therefore making them stronger, I think not about those who are using it but those who don't have it.

I think about blogger Yoani Sanchez. She is a journalist, writer, blogger from Cuba. She blogs from there. She gives us snap shots of life in Cuba, the real life, the truth without the veil of nostalgia.

Cuba is a closed island and has been since the late 50s. The Castro government has ensured that their word is law, has ensured that their citizens have free healthcare and education but at the cost of their basic rights. Or in this case, their basic writes.

As we have ensured that the experiment of democracy survives, so has the Cuban government worked toward the experiment of communism.

There is no speech that originates in the mind of a free people. There is no religion that is not monitored. There is no free press that does not cost more than the news stand price. No peaceful demonstrations, no petitions for redress of the government; that is paid for with life.

Therefore something as simple as internet access is monitored, filtered, and slow. She is limited by the screeching sound of a dial up connection.

Then this makes Yoani's blog and its role in the blogsphere more powerful. We know how social media helped bring down a government and the power it gives people, the primal lust for freedom. Her blog stands for freedom of speech, of expression, and thought. Her blog criticizes the government for all it's faults though it has come to great determent to her personally And above all, it tells her story.

Her blog is American.

Her blog is what our founding fathers had in mind. Yes, of course they did not know that blogging would be such a big thing in 1776 but the safety of saying what comes to mind is. This is what they had in mind and this is what Yoani is exercising everyday. And by exercising she, in the small island of 90 miles from our border, is making democracy stronger.

So yes, I am damn proud to be an American. We have faults, we hate each other, we love each other, we love to hate each other but that doesn't matter. What is freedom to us is a dream to others. The American dream isn't a house with a white picket fence and children and a car. Our dream is the reality of our Constitution, the soul of our Bill of Rights, and Yoani.

She writes the American dream everyday.

New Words: Unconditional

2011-07-02T00:07:00.003-05:00

Unconditional
By Icess Fernandez Rojas

Bury me in the memories of your arms, protected by the strong crevasse your chest and shoulder,
So close to your heart I can hear it whisper, it’s tiny voice growing bolder.

It speaks to me of love, gained and lost and regained.
It tells me secrets of truths and lies and who’s to blame.

A hurt-lined path, a regret, and a climb to redemption.
A run, away from a memory having its way with you, without exception.

The spaces between the beats, hidden conversations.
I am the priest to your confession. Tell me your sins and imperfections.

You have lied, you have coveted, you have lusted.
You have betrayed those you have once trusted.

You say you are not worthy of love in all its forms -- admiration, respect.
Your cross, your burden, your penitence is all you will accept.

But your confessor forgives and I love you beyond my reason
Bury yourself in me, a second chance, the spring of your season.

Because I am a sinner in search of love on a path not yet traveled
I am in need of company, to carry the burden not yet unraveled.

I’ve been reckless, dangerous, in a world made of glass.
Balancing between loving you and loving me and me loving you in our personal Mass.

Forgive me Father for I have sinned, my confession lies within my memory.
I have no recollection of how I got here. No shame. I do not repent the metaphor of my tragedy…

To love one man, as I love myself, despite his flaws…
Because of his flaws, with his flaws, flaws and all.

He and I make a perfect part of sinners. Smile.
Among the crowd of pointing fingers, go ahead and put us on trial.

No. We are no better than each other. We read from the Bible of Mistakes.
We speak the same faulty language of fuck ups and forsakes.

So you and I have traveling to do, a road not taken
Filled with excuses, explanations and apologies. Frost-bitten

We’ll share the weight of our crosses and let the burdens lead us where they may.
I am your imperfection, a mirror of your transgressions, wherever they lay.

So let me bury myself in the memory of your arms, my role is traditional
It carries me down this path of our love. A path toward unconditional.

Editing story for Soul's Road

2011-06-19T23:57:00.001-05:00

It's late on Sunday night and I'm just about done with some edits for my story in Soul's Road, the short story collection coming out soon. Like REALLY soon.

I owed you another desk picture so here it is. This one is of my desk at home, the printer area. Those books, most of them, are ones I've read for school. That peach binder is my teaching binder and under all those papers somewhere is my printer. Ironically, it needs ink. I ran out a couple of days ago.

For the fans of this blog, the white board in the picture is....my murder board, which currently has an unsolved murder for my character Detective Jennie Manning to solve. I miss her. She will come back soon and you guys will read her story. I promise. It's just going to take a minute.

Hope you guys had a great day. Tomorrow is Monday, i.e. one day closer to the next weekend.

Write On!

The view from my desk...well, one of them

2011-06-13T15:55:00.016-05:00

A writer's desk is like a home base. Sometimes it doubles as a kitchen table or an entertainment system. Despite it being a multi-tasking alter, a writer's desk has lots of personality.

I am lucky enough to have two.

I guess it depends on what your definition of lucky is. I am a reporter at a newspaper in Louisiana so I have a desk there. And there there is my desk at home. Both look like a tornado ravaged it. Papers are everywhere. Books are stacked up high and my latest article or short story or novel has completely taken over any left over desk space.

So I thought I would share occasional pictures of my writing desks because, and let's face it, they are a metaphor for my life right now.

Today's is pretty tame. A picture of my pen cup at work, with an American flag that I got from a recent story assignment, a picture of my dad, and a postcard from my recent trip to the Bahamas.

Enjoy the window into my soul.

Down the Soul's Road

2011-06-09T11:30:00.025-05:00

I have been holding on to a tidbit of information that I haven't shared with the entire world yet. Well, my Twitter family knows. And my co-workers know. And I think I told my sister.

Okay, I just haven't blogged about it.

I have a short story coming out as part of a collection called Soul's Road. The book will be out soon and is written by my fellow Goddard students. In fact, all of the authors and even the person who wrote introduction, have ties to Goddard College. Cody Luff, an alum and good friend (and AMAZING writer. Sweet Jesus!) is the editor of the collection.

I'm excited about this. This is good. So why haven't I shared this info on my writing blog? I think it's really a bit of tunnel vision. My focus is school and getting packets done. So I got my story for the anthology done in between packet work. After that was off my plate, it was vacation time. That's when I found out, when I was waiting for a plane to return from vacay. But then I was too tired and my deadline for the story wasn't until the next month.

Not an excuse but an explanation.

Now that school is almost over and the deadline for the short is near, I'm thinking about this awesomeness that is this project and how lucky I am to be included in this. Who am I to even be considered for this?

But who am I not to be? That really should be the question. I have been a story teller nearly all my life and I'm still refining my craft, working on technique, creating stories, and observing the world. And that's what this collection is about-- observing the world, writing the truth through art.

Sound familiar?

I am darn goosh lucky to be part of this. The writers in the collection are heavy hitters and craft masters. They know and understand their art and they tell their stories, their truth, as they see it.

It's gonna be a great collection. I'll give you a heads up on publishing dates. But for now, like the Facebook page for more details.

Write on!

The Writing Process: An exercise in characters

2011-06-07T17:19:00.042-05:00

So here's an exercise that will help you learn about your character or at least help you create a new one.

I saw this picture from Life of these four girls playing in a wind storm. They look happy, as if the time of their lives was this very moment. What is in a picture? What can be determined about life and it's truth from what we see?

When writing, one of the most important things I do is question my characters, who they are, what they want, how did they get there? Yes, it's the motivation that drives the character, the thirst for the goal. But what about things that are not as abstract, things that tell me more about the character than just their goal of world domination or winning the pageant?

That's when things like pictures come in handy. A picture like the one above is perfect because it creates a moment. In this moment, everything from body language to expression tells the truth about what is going on. What is the truth behind this moment? I argue that that is where the story truly begins.

So let's take this exercise a bit further. What else can tell us about these four young girls and about who they are and what they want? Where are they safe to be true to themselves?

How about their bedrooms?

What type of things could you find there? Do they share a room with someone? What does the space under the bed look like? Or do they sleep on the floor? Where do they keep their clothes? If they wanted to keep something private and special in a place that was public, where would it be and how would they safe guard it.

This is the joy of characterization. It's more than what a character wants but why they want it and what drove them there. Could one of these little girls want world domination? Maybe. If that's the case, what is their world like now.

So I leave you with this piece of advice when returning to your characters, go beyond what you put on the pages. Know them inside out. Your prose will thank you.

It's well, you know, a tradition

2011-06-01T12:46:00.018-05:00

My silence in the blogosphere has come with a price -- brand new shiny pages. Yes my friends, my thesis/novel is moving along nicely and will be (more like has to be) done by September. So when the leaves begin to fall, the last dot on the page will be typed and I will, with any luck, be sipping on a martini.

Why a martini instead of a glass of champagne? I guess it's a tradition, actually. Back when I finished my first book (which now sits in a desk drawer where embarrassing things should sit) I didn't have enough money for a bottle of bad champagne. Oddly enough, I had some gin, vermouth, and apple pucker. (Yes, I don't know why I had these things but alas, when you're a journalist living in the middle of the country with nothing to do you gain interesting things in your pantry.)

So then, at 11:30 in the morning after crying my eyes out, I mixed myself up a cocktail to celebrate. And since then, when I finish a book I must drink a martini...and then buy myself some nice jewelry. In fact, I have my eye on a necklace from Tiffany's.

All this to say that I can taste a martini in my near future and a sparkly newness around my neck.

Hence my explanation for my silence online. But I hope that silence will end soon.

Hold tight everyone. We're almost done!

New Vlog!!!

2011-05-25T23:24:00.001-05:00

I owe you a post and I'm WAY late so here it is!

2011-04-26T08:43:00.000-05:00

Afro Latino writers...here's a list to get your started.

2011-02-23T14:58:00.001-06:00

Last night, I was on the Nuestra Palabra radio show with my good friends Tony, Liana, and Bryan. We talked about being AfroLatina in America and about a recent post I wrote about being such.

It was a great time and I had a great time. Unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to get into the list of AfroLatino writers. Liana was kind enough to expand on a list I sent her and has allowed me to post it on my blog.

I'll admit, I've only read one person on this list - Evelio Grillo whose book I read at the beginning of my education as a writer many moons ago. I will definitely check out the others on this list.

Enjoy!

Nicolas Guillen - n Afro-Cuban poet, journalist, political activist, and writer. He is best remembered as the national poet of Cuba.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolás_Guillén

Nancy Morejon - She discusses the mythology of the Cuban nation, and the relation of the blacks of Cuba within that nation. She also voices the situation of women in her within her society, expressing the feminism (as well as the racial integration) of the Cuban revolution by making black women central protagonists in her poems, most notably in the widely anthologized Mujer Negra (Black Woman).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Morejón

Quince Duncan - He is regarded as Costa Rica's first Afro-Caribbean writer in the Spanish language. His works typically concern the Afro-caribbean population living on Costa Rica's Caribbean coast, particularly around the city of Puerto Limón. His novels and short stories have been awarded Costa Rica's Premio Nacional de Literatura and Premio Editorial Costa Rica. He has also published a novel in English, A Message from

Discipline: Fiction (novels/short stories)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quince_Duncan

Eulalia Bernard - born in 1935, represents "the historical trajectory of the experience of West Indian blacks in Costa Rica – Poetry

Carlos Guillermo Wilson - Black Cubena's Thoughts (Coleccion Ebano Y Canela), Panama, Fiction (novelist/short story)

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/728892.Carlos_Guillermo_Wilson

Virginia Brindis de Salas - was a poet of the black community of Uruguay. Her writings made her, along with Pilar Barrios, one of the few published Uruguayan women poets. Poetry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Brindis_de_Salas

Nelson Estupiñán Bass - the renowned Afro-- Ecuadorian writer, winner of national and international honors and awards for his outstanding and voluminous interpretations of African culture in the American diaspora and nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1998, died in Hershey, Pennsylvania, on March 1, 2002. In response to an invitation by Penn State University, Capital College in Middletown, Nelson and his wife, the novelist Argentina Chiriboga, traveled to that campus to give a series of lectures on Afro-- Ecuadorian culture and to interact with the Hispanic community of the region. Poetry, essay

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-240118741.html

Evelio Grillo - Evelio Grillo, author of BLACK CUBAN, BLACK AMERICAN (Arte Público Press, 2000) - Memoir

http://www.latinoteca.com/news/community-leader-mourned

Piri Thomas - Born Juan Pedro Tomás, of Puerto Rican and Cuban parents in New York City's Spanish Harlem in 1928, Piri Thomas began his struggle for survival, identity, and recognition at an early age. The vicious street environment of poverty, racism, and street crime took its toll and he served seven years of nightmarish incarceration at hard labor. But, with the knowledge that he had not been born a criminal, he rose above his violent background of drugs and gang warfare, and he vowed to use his street and prison know-how to reach hard core youth and turn them away from a life of crime. Cuba and US by way of Puerto Rico. Memoir

http://cheverote.com/bio.html

Arturo Alfonso Schomburg (1874 – 1938) Puerto Rican historian, writer, and activist in the United States who researched and raised awareness of the great contributions that Afro-Latin Americans and Afro-Americans have made to society. US (Puerto Rico). Historian and general badassness with a pen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arturo_Alfonso_Schomburg

Taking a breath. Accepting the fear.

2011-02-19T13:52:00.000-06:00

I am tired. It's a tired that only my week long residency can produce. I'm toward the tail end of it now and I'm excited about the possibilities of the semester.

But this residency is different, extremely different from the last two. This is the residency where I was faced with my demons.

I knew it was coming and that this head on collision would be my test -- fight or flight. I'm still making up my mind about that. So what's the demon? What's making me consider not continuing down this path I so longed to be a part of.

I'm afraid of succeeding.

Yes, I know it's cliche. Extremely, textbook cliche but it's true. I've talked about how I've come across scenes in my writing that have made me stop writing for a few days. I've written through the fear and I've written about the fear but this time, I'm not sure if the written word will cure it.

I'm afraid that after my MFA, I will be come a master storyteller. That I will be read. That people will like what I have to say and that I will do well.

I'm scared shitless and I don't know what to do about it.

So far during my program, my writing has been compared to Garcia-Marquez, Allende, and Castillo. I've read twice this residency and each time my fellow students and faculty have commented on how great it was...how strong the voice is...how much they enjoyed my piece...how it would be part of a bigger piece. Each class, each assignment, each interaction with faculty reminds me how close I am to achieving my goal. It's like smelling cookies baking in the oven. They're almost done. I've started my 3 out of 4 semesters, I'm almost done.

I realized why I'm still a reporter after all these years, after the pain and experience of American journalism. Most people would have left. Most people would have found another job. I know it's for two reasons: 1.) I'm meant to write so I'm wired a certain way 2.) Being a reporter allows me the freedom of boundaries. I don't have to feel. Sometimes, I don't have to care. I can plug in a formula. I can get away with not slaying the dragon.

And even with know that, the thought of leaving also scares me shitless. I can't imagine not being in a newsroom. I love being in a newsroom. I love being a reporter when the truth comes down to it. But I also love writing, and reading. Can those two co-exist? Can I stop hiding behind the reporter cap long enough to embrace the fear and face just the possibility of being successful?

Only time will tell. And right now, that scares me too.

Third semester reading list...

2011-02-17T16:12:00.002-06:00

For those lover of books or for those curious about what I'll be reading this semester. Here's the list!

Allende, Isabel, and Margaret Sayers. Peden. Island beneath the Sea: a Novel. New York: Harper, 2010. Print.

Capote, Truman. In Cold Blood: a True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences. New York: Random House, 1966. Print.

Danticat, Edwidge, ed. Haiti Noir. Consortium Book Sales & Dist, 2010. Print.

Garcia, Cristina. The Lady Matador's Hotel: a Novel. New York: Scribner, 2010. Print.

Greene, Graham. The Power and the Glory. New York: Penguin, 2003. Print.

Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. [New York]: Vanguard, 1946. Print.

Marquez, Gabriel Garcia. "Chronicle of A Death Foretold." Collected Novellas. New York, NY: HarperPerennial, 1991. Print.

Oates, Joyce Carol. Give Me Your Heart: Tales of Mystery and Suspense. Boston [Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010. Print.

Ondaatje, Michael. Coming through Slaughter. New York: Vintage International, 1996. Print.

Pizzolatto, Nic. Galveston: a Novel. New York: Scribner, 2010. Print.

Rachman, Tom. The Imperfectionists: a Novel. New York: Dial Trade Paperbacks, 2011. Print.

I may get my brown card taken away but...

2011-02-09T11:30:00.000-06:00

Today's post is to set the record straight on several items that have been rattling in my brain for a longtime -- my Latinaness, essentially my identity as a writer and a person.

When I started this journey three years ago to find out who I was, I should have known that part of that journey would dispel some of the theories I was conditioned accept. These theories I accepted as fact for so long.

So what's the theory? All Latinos are created equal. Truth? They aren't.

We are all bound by language and customs. We have the same values. Most of us are Catholics. Most of us know the sting of a chancelta.

But that is where it all ends my friends because I am AfroLatina. My skin is darker, my hair coarser, my hips wider. I am made of different stuff and that makes me different. And that has taken me more than 30 years to accept, painfully.

When it comes to other racial or ethnic groups demeaning my fellow Latinos, such as the folks at Top Gear or the folks who developed these marvels of modern technology, they are poking fun at Mexicans and their diaspora here in the U.S. Appalling since no other group is superior to another and has no right to take their viewpoints this far. Are they jokes? Yes they are but don't jokes turn into stereotypes which makes it harder for that group to overcome once they achieve levels of affluence?

Despite these deplorable examples of modern racism, I can't help but feel a detachment. That's because the same folks who are being demoralized are the same ones that give me "the look" that's suppose to put me in my place. They are from the same country that not only doesn't recognize that it INDEED has black people but also allows them to ONLY be housemaids on their novelas and looks at interracial marriage with disdain.

At one point in my life, I would have been outraged about the Top Gear situation as if it was about me. After all, I grew up in Houston and am considered by most folks more Mexican than Mexicans, though I am of Cuban and Guatemalan heritage. But now, I am outraged not because I am Latina but because I am a person.

You see, not all Latinos are created equal. One of our own magazines, Latina, features lighter skinned Latinas on its cover 95 percent of the time. When it does have an Afro Latina, it's because Zoe Saldana or Christina Millian is promoting their latest project. (Zoe who plays primarily African American roles and Christina who sings pop and, if you didn't know she was Latina, is claimed by African Americans as "one of ours.")

How can we as a people expect folks to not make game applications about border crossings if we can't even acknowledge our own brown folks as brown? How do you expect AfroLatinos like me to fight the good right along with our fellow brown sisters and brothers when we're only claimed for the purposes of numbers? When times are good, we're made fun for our accents, our hair, and the fact that we speak with our hands by the very people who want company in rallies and marches. We are looked at as the exotic Latinos, the exceptions not the rule. We're Latino by circumstance and not really regarded by most as an actual brown person.

What does this have to do with writing? Tons. Part of writing is learning and figuring out who you are. Identity has fueled writers for centuries. It's why we write what we write and sometimes the how of writing.

So yes, all Latinos are not created equal. We are barely labeled the same. I may get some negative backlash from this but I don't care. It needed to be said and acknowledged. Sometimes ignoring the issue for the greater cause creates another cause later on.

So I want to hear from y'all. What do you think? Who disagrees? Let's have an open discussion about this. I think it's about time.

Book giveway number TWO !!!!

2011-02-02T23:43:00.000-06:00

To continue celebrating my blog-a-versary and now my birthday, which is next week, I'm giving another book away.

What can I say? I love books!

This time it's Belinda Acosta's Damas, Drama's and Ana Ruiz. To learn more about the book, click here.

You know the drill. Make a comment but this time, tell everyone who's your favorite author and why! No need for Twitter or Facebook this time, though I wouldn't mind if there was some Twitter and Facebook action.

I'll chose the winner Feb. 11. Good luck!

As for the last winner from Eduardo Santiago's book, Chuy a.ka. Mirta Espinola...email me your addy to icess(at)writingtoinsanity.com! If I don't hear from you soon, I'll pick someone else!

Writing class!!!

2011-01-29T14:29:00.001-06:00

Hello all!

I'm teaching a writing class at the Bossier Parish Library in Bossier City, LA. If you're near by, come learn the beginnings of writing. Here's the registration. Classes are twice a week--Wed and Sat --and begin March 2.

Yeah, take this class and don't look like this guy.
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BLOG-A-VERSARY Giveaway!

2011-01-20T16:28:00.001-06:00

Hello all!

Well with so much stuff and all the preparation I'm doing for my next residency, I completely forgot...

it's my BLOG-A-VERSARY!

Three years ago I started on this path to find out who I was. I was 30-years-old, unhappy, away from family and I didn't even know who I was. Now, I'm happier, just a hop-skip-and car ride from the most important people in my life, and wiser -- knowing that I'm on a journey of a lifetime. I'm learning more and more about myself everyday and I'm creating. I'm writing some of the most interesting things I've ever written and I'm in grad school getting my degree in creative writing.

What a difference three years make!

So to make the anniversary special I'm going to be giving away from stuff. First thing up for grabs is this book from Eduardo Santiago:

Tomorrow They Will Kiss is one of the books I read this semester. For me it was a turning point novel that helped me realize an important plot point -- it's okay to give away the secret on page 82 because the real story is the fall out from the secret.

Important lesson for me! So now you can see the importance of this and other things.

Here's the summary from Publisher's Weekly:

Scandal catches up to the Cuban émigré community in America circa 1967 in this fresh, relevant first novel by TV writer Santiago. The story switches point of view among three women who grew up in Palamagria, Cuba, and now ride to work together every day at a Union City, N.J., toy factory. Single mother Graciela is a kind, insecure romantic hoping more than anything for the same true love that redeems the beleaguered women on the nightly telenovelas. Caridad, a vain gossip, and Imperio, bossy and sharp-tongued, share a lifelong indignation ("Imagínate!") over Graciela's nerve: in Cuba, marrying above her station and cheating on her desirable husband and in America learning English and catching the eye of the factory foreman, Mr. O'Reilly. So it's with barely contained envy—and a comical penchant for over-justifying their bitterness—that the two try to interfere in Graciela's attempts to better herself in America. Though the two antagonists can grate—their vitriol against Graciela is constant—the detailed immigrant community is vital and entertaining.

To win, you gotta do the following:

1) Tweet out the following phrase: "I entered the Blog-a-versary giveaway at @writin2insanity -- http://bit.ly/dQrDjH "

Don't have a Twitter? Facebook it. Or text your friends. I trust you. We're on the honor system here.

2) Then in the comment section of this post write what is your favorite book and why.

I'll pick a winner Jan. 28 from the folks who posted below! Good luck everyone!

Talking about Edgar...

2011-01-19T22:27:00.000-06:00

And here are the nominations for the Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America.

Lovely.

Awards are in April. Enjoy!

BEST NOVEL
Caught by Harlan Coben (Penguin Group USA - Dutton)
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin (HarperCollins – William Morrow)
Faithful Place by Tana French (Penguin Group USA - Viking)
The Queen of Patpong by Timothy Hallinan (HarperCollins – William Morrow)
The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton (Minotaur/Thomas Dunne Books)
I’d Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman (HarperCollins – William Morrow)

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR
Rogue Island by Bruce DeSilva (Tom Doherty Associates – Forge Books)
The Poacher’s Son by Paul Doiron (Minotaur Books)
The Serialist: A Novel by David Gordon (Simon & Schuster)
Galveston by Nic Pizzolatto (Simon & Schuster - Scribner)
Snow Angels by James Thompson (Penguin Group USA – G.P. Putnam’s Sons)

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
Long Time Coming by Robert Goddard (Random House - Bantam)
The News Where You Are by Catherine O’Flynn (Henry Holt)
Expiration Date by Duane Swierczynski (Minotaur Books)
Vienna Secrets by Frank Tallis (Random House Trade Paperbacks)
Ten Little Herrings by L.C. Tyler (Felony & Mayhem Press) 2

BEST FACT CRIME
Scoreboard, Baby: A Story of College Football, Crime and Complicity
by Ken Armstrong and Nick Perry (University of Nebraska Press – Bison Original)
The Eyes of Willie McGee: A Tragedy of Race, Sex, and Secrets in Jim Crow South
by Alex Heard (HarperCollins)
Finding Chandra: A True Washington Murder Mystery
by Scott Higham and Sari Horwitz (Simon & Schuster - Scribner)
Hellhound on his Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for
his Assassin by Hampton Sides (Random House - Doubleday)
The Killer of Little Shepherds: A True Crime Story and the Birth of Forensic Science
by Douglas Starr (Alfred A. Knopf)

BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL
The Wire: Truth Be Told by Rafael Alvarez (Grove Atlantic – Grove Press)
Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making
by John Curran (HarperCollins)
Sherlock Holmes for Dummies by Steven Doyle and David A. Crowder (Wiley)
Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and his Rendezvous with American
History by Yunte Huang (W.W. Norton)
Thrillers: 100 Must Reads edited by David Morrell and Hank Wagner (Oceanview Publishing)

BEST SHORT STORY
"The Scent of Lilacs" – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine by Doug Allyn (Dell Magazines)
"The Plot" – First Thrills by Jeffery Deaver (Tom Doherty – Forge Books)
"A Good Safe Place” – Thin Ice by Judith Green (Level Best Books)
"Monsieur Alice is Absent" – Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine
by Stephen Ross (Dell Magazines)
"The Creative Writing Murders" – Dark End of the Street by Edmund White (Bloomsbury)

BEST JUVENILE
Zora and Me by Victoria Bond and T.R. Simon (Candlewick Press)
The Buddy Files: The Case of the Lost Boy by Dori Hillestad Butler (Albert Whitman & Co.)
The Haunting of Charles Dickens by Lewis Buzbee (Feiwel & Friends)
Griff Carver: Hallway Patrol by Jim Krieg (Penguin Young Readers Group - Razorbill)
The Secret Life of Ms. Finkleman by Ben H. Winters (HarperCollins Children’s Books)

BEST YOUNG ADULT
The River by Mary Jane Beaufrand (Little Brown Books for Young Readers)
Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King (Random House Children’s Books – Alfred A. Knopf)
7 Souls by Barnabas Miller and Jordan Orlando (Random House Children’s Books – Delacorte Press)
The Interrogation of Gabriel James by Charlie Price
(Farrar, Straus, Giroux Books for Young Readers)
Dust City by Robert Paul Weston (Penguin Young Readers Group - Razorbill) 3

BEST PLAY
The Psychic by Sam Bobrick (Falcon Theatre – Burbank, CA)
The Tangled Skirt by Steve Braunstein (New Jersey Repertory Company)
The Fall of the House by Robert Ford (Alabama Shakespeare Festival)
BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY
“Episode 1” - Luther, Teleplay by Neil Cross (BBC America)
“Episode 4” – Luther, Teleplay by Neil Cross (BBC America)
“Full Measure” – Breaking Bad, Teleplay by Vince Gilligan (AMC/Sony)
“No Mas” – Breaking Bad, Teleplay by Vince Gilligan (AMC/Sony)
“The Next One’s Gonna Go In Your Throat” – Damages, Teleplay by Todd A. Kessler,
Glenn Kessler & Daniel Zelman (FX Networks)

ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD
"Skyler Hobbs and the Rabbit Man" – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
by Evan Lewis (Dell Magazines)
GRAND MASTER
Sara Paretsky

RAVEN AWARDS
Centuries & Sleuths Bookstore, Forest Park, Illinois
Once Upon A Crime Bookstore, Minneapolis, Minnesota

THE SIMON & SCHUSTER - MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD
(Presented at MWA’s Agents & Editors Party on Wednesday, April 27, 2010)
Wild Penance by Sandi Ault (Penguin Group – Berkley Prime Crime)
Blood Harvest by S.J. Bolton (Minotaur Books)
Down River by Karen Harper (MIRA Books)
The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Live to Tell by Wendy Corsi Staub (HarperCollins - Avon)

Happy Birthday Homeboy!

2011-01-19T16:02:00.000-06:00

I was introduced to Edgar Allen Poe formerly in high school. Some how, the Raven and I were one. Totally felt raven-like. What can I say? I was a dark chick at one point in my life.

But then, back during high school, I got a hold of those little mini books that gave abridged versions of stories. In Houston, you could buy them in Fiesta supermarkets and in East Harris County that was one of the few places you could buy books. I loved the adaptations of The Tell-Tale Heart and The Cask of Amontillado.

I didn't know then how much Poe would shape me. He's the grandfather of the modern mystery, a genre I adore and hope to master one day. A twisty bastard whose mind was home to all things light and dark. There was no gray with him and that is what makes him epic.

He's made it okay, even cool, to be twisty, dark, and sinister -- a great model for a young Icess. He also lead me toward this writing path. He's Boston born. Close enough to my birthday to almost be an Aquarian. Tough life. Consumed with the word.

He was one of my first teachers and I didn't even know it.

So Happy Birthday, homeboy! Hope I do you proud.

The procrastination is at an all time high

2011-01-18T10:02:00.000-06:00

People on the outside think there’s something magical about writing, that you go up in the attic at midnight and cast the bones and come down in the morning with a story, but it isn’t like that. You sit in back of the typewriter and you work, and that’s all there is to it.

HARLAN ELLISON

I WILL get back to work. Really soon. It's coming. I promise.

What's in a Latino Lit class?

2011-01-17T20:53:00.000-06:00

The other big news out of Arizona lately is on the education beat, which is what I cover at work. After nearly eight years on this beat, reading that state officials want to can a Mexican American studies program in K-12 floored me.

Really?

Of course then I wanted to know what the curriculum is like. What is being taught? What book is being used? How is it different from African American studies classes.

But then the I remembered that one day I may be teaching such a class. My friend and writer Tony Diaz is teaching a Mexican American literature class at the college level. I took one during my undergrad.

So if I were to design my own course, what would it look like?

First of all, mine would be a true Latino Literature class. Yes. There is a difference between that and the Mexican American studies class. But more on that later.

My Latino Lit class would focus more on literature from Latin America rather that U.S. born authors. Why? Because U.S. born authors are, for the most part, influenced and taught from Latin American authors. You have to know where you come from before you know where you're going, obviously.

So who would I teach? All the authors that I discovered by chance. Because, see, here's the thing. I didn't know people like me existed in literature. If you look at Texas English classes in K-12 or lit classes in college and universities it was rare to study someone with a Spanish surname. And if you did and took the Mexican American Lit class like me, they were all, you know, from Mexico. Where are the Cuban writers? The Guatemalans? Where are the Puerto Ricans?

That's the importance of representation of curriculum because sometimes in an act of being inclusive exclusivity happens.

So my class would have Octavio Paz, Laura Esquivel, and Juan Rulfo from Mexico. May throw in some Sor Juana for fun.

From Cuba I have my pick! Obviously some Jose Marti, Reinald Arenas, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Santiago, and Daina Chaviano to balance it all out.

From Guatemala: Rigoberto Menchu (not a writer but an activist with lots to say), Jose Maria Bonilla, Julio Serran Echerverria (because he's been doing some interesting things lately) and Francisco Morales Santos.

And that's just three countries. We still have Spain, Argentina, Puerto Rico, and the rest of Central and South America to dig into. And of course the BIG ones you have to teach like Garcia Marquez, Allende, Neruda, and Vargas Llosa. Just looking at this list makes me swell with pride. There are so many to choose from and it's overwhelming.

Then I would follow the class with a part two Latino Lit class focusing on American born writers. A two semester class! Que padre!

Yup, my class would kick butt. Now to find a college or place that would allow me to develop it and teach it. Any takers?

What I did over vacation...

2011-01-16T14:51:00.000-06:00

Let me start by saying that the title to this post is a bit misleading. I wasn't on vacation. Far from it. But I was on break from school, which is about to gear back up in the next couple of weeks.

I took this break from packets and readings to do more reading and writing and reflecting. Ironic, isn't it, that the thing that stress me the most is the thing I want to do the most during some much needed downtime.

I reflected on two authors: Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Isabel Allende - the masters of what some call magical realism or what I call, how we learned to tell stories. (That's another post for another day.)

I downloaded Gerald Martin' biography of Garcia Marquez on my Nook and was so surprised at the insight of this master. Gabo's rise to literary domination was no accident. He was guided there by experiences and situations that shaped him and his art.

What also surprised me were the similarities of our lives. I'm not saying I'm in anyway like Garcia Marquez but knowing that we were both born with our umbilical cords around our necks gives me an strange peace. Our birthdays are exactly a month a part and both our lives are anchored by a strong male presence that somehow creeps into our art. In fact, his art, like most art, is autobiographical and this fact gives me the most peace. Yet, it also excites me. It tells me that I'm not strange or odd for wanting this writing life for myself (though some days I think it'd be easier to just not create). It also tells me that I'm not alone. He's been where I've been. If I just keep on going, I'll find my own way and blaze my own trail.

Allende spoke to the art of sitting down to the freedom of writing. Re-reading The House of the Spirits reminded me of the joy of creating of telling a story worth telling. Allende taught me that although characters can do evil they are still worthy of space on the page. To write what's difficult is to birth good art. After all, like she says, "fiction comes from the womb."

I can see all the reading and reflecting in my thesis pages, the influence of Garcia Marquez and Allende pulsing through and giving it life. It's exciting and yet, it still sounds and behaves like me.

So what did I do over my vacation time from school? I worked. Hard. And I loved every minute of it.

I'm not writing THAT post...

2011-01-10T16:40:00.000-06:00

After a sickness of New Yearly proportions, I have come back to the blogosphere pumped and itching to write a post.

But I don't want to write THAT post. You know the ones that are like this and like this. I'm boycotting posts like those and I'm boycotting doing what leads to said posts. I refuse. And you can't make me!

I will say this though. This is going to be such a busy year. Lots of writing. Lots of reading. More self discovery. And more insanity. I resolve to do it!

D'oh! Eh well. Maybe I can NOT make resolutions next year?

Owning your Latina-ness

2010-12-26T00:08:00.000-06:00

Me and my sorority sisters. We belong to a Latina sorority

I don't write a lot about being Latina on this blog. When it does appear, it's in passing or it's in conjunction with a decision I have made. Personally, saying I'm Latina every five minutes does nothing for me.

My mantra is simple: I am one. It's in my blood. We do we need to talk about the obvious.

I consider that owning your Latina-ness. When someone can be comfortable enough in their own skin to just exist that's when you own what others may see as, well, a reason to be considered different. To quote a word I hate when it comes to the description of being Latina -- "spicy". (Like really? There are no other words to describe me and my fellow Latinas but spicy. How about intelligent? But I digress.)

So a fire storm erupted a couple of days ago. A script reportedly based on Alisa Valdes Rodriguez's NY Times bestseller "Dirty Girl Social Club" was leaked to the writer from a lower level employee at NBC who was considering it. The author entered into an agreement with Ann Lopez from Encanto Productions for rights to produce the show but Luisa Leschin not Valdes wrote the script.

Valdes is not happy (putting it mildly) with the script and has said it's the bastardization of her concept, most especially her characters who are Afro Latinas.

As an Afro Latina myself, sadly, I'm use to Hollywood and others in the business of images saying that I don't exist because the American public can't understand how a black girl can speak perfect Spanish. And I can't even get mad about it anymore because even media outlets that have marketed themselves as Latino publications do the same thing. Even our own Latino people don't really understand how a person like me can exist. Usually when someone is asking me about my background, it's the folks who are suppose to be my brown brothers and sisters.

But again, I digress.

So this is my point. Valdes' book is her Latina-ness. Regardless of what you think, Dirty Girls Social Club (DGSC) is the first book she wrote and sold and it's the one she identifies with most.
And having someone take your Latina-ness from you and making it into something that goes against who you are to fit a stereotype is the horror of horror for writers and I deal with that in my writing everyday.

Cubans come in all colors. And so do Cuban writers.

Yes, me -- the Afro Latina herself -- is super careful how she writes her characters who happen to be Latino. I don't want my readers to read a Spanish word and get an instant idea about how people behave and what they look like based on harbored stereotypes I had no hand in creating. I want them to read the story because it is a story that's worthy of consideration.

This is something that my grad school advisor and I work on all the time. I hold back on all the italicized Spanish words and images and think about the story first. How will italicizing Papa or Mama help my story? How will it aid in characterization? Will it make it a better experience for the reader? Should I even italicize them? These are the questions that are only answered by me, the writer. No one can or should answer them for me. That's because at the core of the answers to this and other questions like them is my Latina-ness. I own my Latina-ness. No one else does.

And that is the issue here with Valdes and the DGSC script. In addition to all the other issues, the big one, the one that probably stings the most is that they stole her Latina-ness. And that is unforgivable. It's like stealing someone's soul and no one has that right. What's more unforgivable is that it was another Latina who did it.

Which reminds me about the story about a bucket of crabs...but that's another post for another day.

Here's the latest.

Sometimes, I wish I worked at Google

2010-12-23T09:52:00.000-06:00

Aimee Bender on writing. Enjoy.

Writing is like...

2010-12-22T10:30:00.000-06:00

Ray Bradbury

From the Blog: Advice to Writers:

Writing is like sex. You have to save your love for the love object. If you go around spouting about your idea, there’ll be no “charge” left. You can’t father children that way.

RAY BRADBURY

Just thought I should share. Happy, uh, writing?

Last minute holiday gifts for writers

2010-12-21T22:47:00.001-06:00

By zharth

Oh Christmas! You are nearly here and knowing my family and friends like I do, they are worried about the perfect gift for me. So in helping them out, I will help out others whose squirrelly writers have given them worries lines this holiday season. Here for all to read is my list of perfect writer's gifts ideas ... part two.

1) Nook, NookColor, Kindle, or something similar.

A writer isn't worth their salt unless they read...a lot. Although having tons of books in a nice bookshelf is nice, if they are anything like me they ran out of shelf space along time ago. So reward your favorite writer on your list with a Nook or Kindle. I personally own a Nook (the original) and I adore it. I'll write another post about why I chose Nook at a later date.

As a writer, it's nice to know that a book (or nearly any book) I may want is in electronic form and I can download them when I want and, more importantly, when I need them.

2) Apps, apps, apps

There are tons of apps on both Iphone and Android formats that cater to the writer. Some cost nothing but most cost at least .99 cents. There are several apps to keep your writer happy--from organization, to plotting, to prompts to help jump start their brain in the morning. An Itunes card and a list of such apps is useful. The app I used to write my two most recent prompts came from an app called Writer's Hat.

3) Itunes card, playlists, photos, and such

Not all writers are like this but most of the ones of the ones I talk to use their senses to get into their character and story. Among some of the tricks we use are creating a soundtrack to the story or character. If you know what your favorite writer is working on (a theme, an emotion, etc) try to create a list of songs that would help them get there and an Itunes (or similar) card to help them pay for it.

In addition to audio, lots of writers are visual. If they have a specific setting in mind, a picture book from your favorite bookstore will be helpful. Another more creative way is a trip through Flickr. Using only photos with a specific Creative Common's license, you can put together a slideshow or book that will help your writer gather atmosphere quickly.

4) Netbooks

Mini and relatively inexpensive laptops may seem like an odd gift to give but think about it. They are lighter than conventional laptops, they don't have a lot of frills -- mostly the basics for Internet connection and Word, and they can fit in a purse or book bag. It's just perfect for the writer who doesn't want to sit in the coffee shop and would rather go to their favorite park bench and type from their lap.

5) Membership to their genre organization of choice or convention of their choice

Writers need to join clubs. If they say they don't, they're lying. At the very least they need to network. My first pitch to an agent happened because I went to a mystery writer's convention that I didn't think I should go to because I had written a women's fiction novel. Odd? Yes. But it paid off. The agent asked for a partial just because I networked at the mystery writer's convention. Networking with agents, editors and other writers are important. Writing is a solitary event but the writer doesn't have to be alone and, actually, shouldn't. But by purchasing convention fees or memberships, it opens doors for the writer to network and to get some pretty interesting perks like writing contests and online classes given by award-winning members.

That's all the new gift ideas I have for now. Hope this helps the procrastinators. Remember everyone, it takes a village to raise a writer.

Write On!

Badassness and the directions to it.

2010-12-21T10:27:00.001-06:00

Edwidge Danticat

If I had to chose the theme derived from my reading this past semester it would have to be the following:

How to develop the path to your own badassness?

What is badassness? It's a state of being so comfortable in your skin, in your art, in your brain and your voice that it is strong, confidence, natural. Your voice has been through the wringer of life and has nothing to prove to anyone, it can just be, i.e. badassness.

On the road to finding my voice, I find there are lots of guides helping me along the way. I call them guides because they help keep me on my path, challenging me at every turn. Of course, as a student you do the heavy lifting: the writing, the reading, the thinking, the blogging, rise, lather, repeat. But the guides are there to remind you that where you have traveled they have traveled. They found their voice, their Muses, their path. You will find your own.

That's easier said than done obviously. I lost my voice once before. It was a slow process but it was lost, I traded it for the easy path. (More on that at a later date). Getting it back again...not as easy as I thought. Of course I made no delusions of regaining my voice within the course of a semester. But I would think that it would come back in small increments like how children grow.

The path to badassness fixed that for me. It's not about regaining to the voice but about taking that voice by the hand and having it come along the path with you. It is about growing and experimenting and being okay with it all. It's about acknowledging you're different, you always were, and that's okay. And it's also coming to terms with the fact that maybe everyone else is different and you are probably the only normal person left on the planet.

But above all else, the path to badassness is taking that difference and slapping it on paper. That's what makes you you, kid. You are not Cristina Garcia or Edwidge Danticat though they are your guides down this path. You are not Isabel Allende or Walter Mosley though you love them. You are you. Every annoying, perplexing, deranged, awe inspiring, awesome, surprising thing about you is you. You make not like something about yourself but it's there, asking to be written and explored. That thing you find so annoying and are trying to avoid is the truth. And from there, fiction, good solid storytelling, begins. There is where you're path lies. The only question now is do you chose to follow it?

Did I chose? I think we all know the answer. Am I better for it? Absolutely. Am I in the badassness level? Not yet. It's coming. I know it is. And when I arrive at that level, I will pay it forward and guide other writers who have lost their way. For I will know the direction to the kingdom of Badassness, and I mean to be its ambassador.

Write On!

Audacity of 'austerity,' 2010 Word of the Year - Yahoo! News

2010-12-21T09:42:00.000-06:00

By BarbourM Barbour

From my friend and AP reporter Russell Contreras. This year's word of the year is....

Audacity of 'austerity,' 2010 Word of the Year - Yahoo! News: "Austerity,"

Reading an addiction. Nah, I'm in an MFA program

2010-12-21T00:21:00.001-06:00

By Theophilos Theophilos Papadopoulos

You would think that at the end of a semester that all I would want to do is veg.

I do. But I really want to keep reading books. Good ones. And not so good ones too. After all you can learn from any teacher put in your path.

I've been spending my time writing and reading. It feels divine without the pressure of a deadline. So what am I reading during the break? I'm re-reading Allende's House of the Spirits. Lots to learn from that book. Also a biography of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I may end my time off with some A Tale of Two Cities.

So when do I write? In short spurts. In the morning. Late at night. In my head. On pieces of paper. In the shower. In my dreams. While I'm reading.

This will be a busy semester. The preparation will be intense. And I relax by doing exactly what will be stressing me out in about a month. Why?

Uh, have you noticed the name of this blog yet?

Writing, outlining and paying the piper

2010-12-19T14:13:00.001-06:00

By StarbuckGuyGene Wilburn

I owe you guys a blog.

Yes. I. Do. I also own you an explanation. So here it is. I've been busy writing. Not an excuse by any means but it explains my here-I-am-no-I'm-not presence.

I am excited about what I'm writing. My thesis is coming along and as of an hour ago it's been properly outlined. And I love knowing what's going to happen next and how it will end (well, officially).

But that doesn't mean I'm done at all. It's the opposite, actually. Now that I know where all the pieces fit, I have to put the pieces together...and make the prose nice and true and fresh. Does plotting allow the writer to focus on words? Eh, maybe. Knowing that the next step of the story has already be sketched out certainly helps with keeping things in line but, to quote a cliche, the writing is in the rewriting.

So while I know loving and outlining my thesis is the first step, I still have to write the darn thing so I can really write it.

Make sense? I hope so.

Now, I know I owe y'all a story. That will be worked on soon. Really soon. Like you may get a treat for Christmas. Until then, keep writing. I know I will.

Write on!

A challenge to my readers: Tell me what to write

2010-11-18T19:28:00.002-06:00

By Pink Sherbet Photography D. Sharon Pruitt

As the deadline for my final packet of the semester looms and the procrastination stage of my process goes into high gear (Ipod right next to me, cat sleeping under the chair, and I am REALLY considering catching the midnight showing of Harry Potter later) I've realized that my posts on the blog have been entirely TOO serious.

Yes, my dear readers, I am in grad school and what I'm writing about (my thesis) is not funny. It's actually quite serious. But that doesn't mean I can't have fun! I am fun a lover after all. Me and the fun, we're like PB&J-- we make sense! And as we ALL know, I have tons of fun on my Twitter account.

Anyway since it's about to be the end of the semester and my schedule is loosening up I thought I do something fun for my readers. Two previous posts (number 1 and number 2) were prompts that were given to me by an Ipod app. (more on that app later) and names given to me by my Twitter followers.

So here's a challenge to all my readers-I will write a short, short story 250-700 words based on info you give me. Submit in the comments section of this post some details of what you want me to incorporate in my story. Fill out the following:

Who: (give names and a characteristic)
Where: (a place)
What does: (what action)
The secret: (what big reveal or small reveal needs to be in the story.)

I'll pick the best one from the comments and I'll write a story and post it Monday, Nov. 29.

So I dare you to post some suggestions and see if I pick yours. The winner will win something fabulous that's yet to be determined but it'll be ~~cheap~~ GREAT.

Go ahead. Tell me what to write!

Beaten to print

2010-11-13T19:20:00.000-06:00

Leave it to my high school choir teacher to beat me to print. Mr. Harris*, how could you?

*Not really Sam Harris, choir conductor and bad ass GPISD administrator but some other dude named Sam Harris. Same name but not quite as awesome.

Prompt 11/13/2010

2010-11-13T12:05:00.002-06:00

Prompt:
Who: A girl who has recently become vegetarian
Where: An abandoned car in the ditch of a county road
What does: Checks out the correspondence accumulated for days
The secret: Already knew that she could not back down now and must go on although she knew it would not work.

My kingdom for a piece of meat! My kingdom for a piece of 16 oz prime rib, medium rare with A-1 steak sauce and a Coke the size of my right arm. That's all I need really. Forget breathing or shelter. Hell, forget sex. Just give me a T-bone steak!

I hate salads. And tomatoes. And beans. And anything that can't be fried or breaded. I was okay with that lifestyle but when I saw fine-ass Lucas it was over for me. See, he was an Adonis, arms like sculpted masses of soft rocks and an ass that begged to be slapped. He had hair that I wanted to play with and skin so smooth I swore was made of velvet. I wanted him...bad. Here's the problem, Lucas was a vegetarian who only dated vegetarians. So...you know know how that went. I total him I was a vegetarian virgin and bam! Instant boyfriend.

Three months. Three long meatless months with out a chicken breast or a wing. Torture! (Oh but watching Lucas wake up in the morning is poetry in motion.) So to celebrate by bunny-food eatin' boyfriend decides to take me on a romantic weekend getaway. Great, huh? Yeah, until this fool told me where we were going.

"We're going to Mt. Max."

"What's Mt. Max," I asked naive to what was about to go down.

"A yoga retreat."

"A what?"

"A yoga retreat for couples. I thought it would help with your stress, Jenai."

"Lucas, I'm not stressed. I'm hungry."

Then he proceeds to hand me a granola bar.

I went on the damn trip anyway. I grabbed my mail from the mailbox on the way out and thought, if push came to shove, I'd read my mail on the trip. I am nothing if not productive.

So there we were, 200 miles out when the car begins to cough like an old lady on an oxygen tank. And then steam starts to bellow out from under the hood. Lucas pulled over.

"Oh darn. I just had this worked on."

Begins to tinker under the hood. Lucas doesn't cuss at all so the next thing I hear are a string of "goshes" and "darns" "dang its". When I finally hear doggoneit in a tone most people would say "damn", I rolled down the window.

"Lucas, you okay?"

"Everything's fine Jenai. I think I'm going to have to get us some help. I saw a gas station a couple of miles back. You going to be okay by yourself?"

I nodded and Lucas began to hike back toward the gas station.

After awhile, I grabbed for the pile of mail I brought with me. And there it was. A coupon for the annual all you can eat steakfest at Brandy's. I loved their steakfest. All kinds of cuts. All kinds of grades. All meat, all the time. It was the only other time besides Thanksgiving that I wore the big pants. Oh for the love of the cows in Texas, why do I have to be a vegetarian right now!

My mouth began to water. Lettuce never made me feel this way. Salad dressing never made my mouth water. Soy and tofu never tastes as good as a freshly grilled hamburger with toasted buns. Ugh! Being a vegetarian was so un-natural like seeing cats and dogs get along or watching the ugly guy get the girl. It was an alternative universe.

That's when I knew, it wouldn't work out between me and Lucas. But I just couldn't give him up. It was the best sex I ever had and walking away from that is its own alternative universe.

A knock at the window bolted me from my thought. A rotund and greasy man with dark blue overalls motioned for me to roll down the window.

"Are you Jenai?"

I nodded.

"Your boyfriend, Lucas said to come fetch you. He's trying to get everything squared away with the dealership."

His shirt said Darcy and I nearly laughed. Another alternative universe. Wouldn't Jane Austin be proud.

The truck smelled like the number six from the Wendy's menu and to me it was perfume. We chugged along the highway toward the gas station when I spotted a Whataburger.

"Do you mind?" I pointed to burger joint.

As I bit into a double cheeseburger, I thought to myself: What Lucas doesn't know won't hurt him.

Prompt 11/12/2010 i.e. Lauren and her new neighbors, the Campbells

2010-11-12T23:38:00.002-06:00

Prompt: A scammer who pretends to be blind is in the long line at the supermarket. She takes note of all the thing she needs to buy. Her secret: Couldn't believe that night was the third one she/he couldn't sleep because of the weird noises come from the neighbor's house.

Lauren adjusted her dark sunglasses but tried to keep herself from fidgeting. Being at the all night grocery at 3 a.m. can bring out all the weirdos from the town. She was use to the weirdos from her own town but the town 15 miles up the road had different weirdos. They looked funny. They acted funny. And yes, some of them smelled funny, like when you walked into a room right after someone just sneezed. That smell. That's how the weirdos in this town smelled like.

And it's not like Lauren had a choice to be at the grocery store in Ellington, 15 miles away from her warm, safe bed. Since the Campbells moved into the apartment next door a month ago, it was more and more difficult to sleep. And it was getting more difficult to find things to do while she was waiting for the sweet relief of sleep. All the knobs in her tiny one-bedroom apartment had been polished. The carpet vacuumed. The clothes washed, folded and hung by season, color, and yes, size. Bills were paid and paid early. She had made enough advanced meals to save her from cooking for the next couple of weeks. Indeed, her apartment and her life we were already lived in.

So she decided to have adventures. It started off innocently enough. The occasional five finger discount at the Wal Mart. The pump and drive at the gas station. One time, just because she was tired of the noises from the Campbells' apartment, she relieved herself on their welcome mat. "Welcome this, you freaks." She'd say under her breath before chuckling, zipping up her pants, and scurrying back into her apartment. But that proved problematic when the police were called and all the neighbors were questioned. Damn those Campbells.

But after the adventures in Westchester dried up (the final being the first and last time she flashed an officer of the law) she decided to go some place new and where no one knew her.

Ellington had no Wal Mart, no all night gas station, and no patrolling police officers in the market to see exposed nipples. But they had an all-night grocery and she was food less since she cooked all of it and placed the creations in neat, plastic containers.

She so went shopping but midway through she had forgotten something.

"Damn it, my wallet's at home."

But instead of going back home and returning to her warm bed that sat next to the wall that separated her from the noisy Campbells, she picked the darkest sunglasses she could find on the rack---nice pair of aviators--- and started walking, pushing her cart into things and people. She knocked down a display of soda cans, and another of potato chips. She ran over one of the weirdos who smelled like day old cheese and another that smelled like day old feet. She asked random strangers for guidance with her grocery list -- ham, cheese, spaghetti sauce, hamburger helper, etc. She did all this until finally she was in line, her cart being emptied and sacked by the check out boy.

"That will be ninety-dollars, madam."

"Okay."

Lauren reached for her purse and pretended to look for her wallet. She handed the cashier her library card.

"This isn't it. madam."

"Oh, I'm sorry. It's just that I can't see."

"How long have you been blind?"

Lauren began to cry. "Ever since the accident. My husband...my children...."

Her heavy sobs soon became uncontrollable until finally the person at the cash register said: "It's okay. I'll just get rid of the receipt. You get on home."

Before they had a chance to question how a blind woman was able to drive an F-150 in the middle of the night, Lauren was already on the interstate, the aviator glasses tossed out the window, and the beckoning warm bed only minutes away.

Now if the newlywed Campbells were done consummating their union for the night, Lauren could fall asleep quickly and be up in time for work.

What is the truth anyway?

2010-11-08T23:41:00.000-06:00

Me at grad school

Lately, my stress levels have been reduced. I attribute this decrease in blood pressure to the last packet of the semester being due in a few weeks. Yes, I am one packet away from being half way done with my master's program.

What have I learned so far?

Oh, it's been a journey of searching for truths. There has been crying and such. There has been questioning and there has been reading and writing. Lots of it.

So what have I written. Brand new pages of a new thesis. These are so different from my original thesis. There is a truth there that wasn't there before and an undercurrent of me, my experiences, my life. I think that's what makes every writer unique. You can study and read and practice all the techniques in the world but what makes the writing pop is you and what you bring to the page. That's why I can never been Henry Miller or Zora Neale Hurston or Cristina Garcia. I enjoy these writers. I've studied them. I've marveled. But at the end of the day, my story about life will be different and I think we're all better for it.

I say this after much reflection on my thesis. I reflected on the type of author I don't want to be, what I don't want to be classified as by critics, readers, and the chap at Barnes and Noble who will eventually stick my masterpiece on the shelf. I've considered changing my name to something more generic. I've purposefully wrote a certain way and omitted parts of a story because it made it sound too ethnic.

My nightmare is being labeled a Latina writer. That's not because I am ashamed. That's just silly. It's because I've seen how that label can pigeon hole a writer and can bring with it a stereotype that the literature is not as good or that the novel is just for people with Spanish surnames. Also with the stereotype comes caricatures, people's perception of who the characters are. That's too much for me to bear. To have the reader assume that my characters all have accents and are somehow not as worthy because of it. That breaks my heart.

But I cannot write about about a character unless I know them. It's the curse of the writer --- writing what we know. Who knows more about me than me. Writers are very narcissistic. We have to be, our art depends on it.

So, my dear readers, in truth, it breaks my heart that readers would stereotype my characters because they stereotype me, the under estimate me, they generalize me. That is hurtful .

However, I can't control that no more than I can control the rain or the stars in the sky. I can only be me. I can only write what I know, who I know, question my characters in a way that brings out the truth. That is, and should be, my only endeavor. Everything else be damned.

And so, amid the writing, rewriting, reading, annotating, and long critical paper, the truth was defined and sought. Where I found it was in the pages of my thesis where it currently sits like a happy baby recently changed.

Why writing crap is important

2010-10-29T23:29:00.001-05:00

One of my very good friends called me courageous the other day for following my dream of writing. She also asked me about how she would start down this path.

The answer I gave her was probably the most profound thing I've written about the writing experience. It tells me that perhaps I've turned a corner and that I'm not as crazy as I think I am...I'm crazier.

This is what I told her: writing crap is important.

I'm not joking, the most important things are the things people should not read or see or examine. The stuff that's on your desktop that you've gone back to read and may have tinkered with that makes you shudder, that piece of awfulness, that is the most important thing you've written. Forget the stuff that got into a literary magazine or got published. That's polished and nice and great but that couldn't have happened without the crap you have hidden away like a red-headed step child.

One thing I've learned in my MFA program is the importance of play and experimentation. This is really important especially with new writers or those trying to find their voice. You don't know if what you're thinking about writing and how you plan to write it will work unless you do it. It's like any artist, there's the painting or the song that just isn't all that great but they kept going an viola! Art worth noticing.

It's part of the journey to fall on your butt as many times as possible. The more you fall the better. It's part of the evolution of you and your art.

So crap is good. Crap is needed. Crap will set you free. Crap, crap, crap.

Now go forth and write the worst thing you've ever written.

What I did today or a reporter's frustration

2010-10-11T00:55:00.001-05:00

In the past, I have been on the other side of frustration and have lost.

Talk to any reporter and they've felt that, lived, struggled with that frustration at least one time. It comes from feeling the story, wanting to cover the story beyond the doubts of editors and naysayers.

I'm familiar with that feeling.

So today, I did a thing. Smart? I want to say yes. I donated $20 to help another reporter cover an important story.

A website called Spot.us helps connect reporters and average citizens. Folks pitch a story and if accepted, folks donate money to help make it happen. It's like a reversal of the boss/reporter relationship.

This isn't a way for those doing the reporting to get rich. In fact, there are some projects there that I think are underbid. That tells me it isn't about money but story and that's what I'm about.

This is the story I contributed to:
Luis Eduardo Ramírez Zavala, a 25-year-old undocumented Mexican immigrant, was beaten to death in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania in July of 2008. His death was at the hands of four white teens who targeted and beat him simply for being Latino.

Two of those implicated in the killing got a deal from authorities while the other two faced a state trial. On May 1 of last year, a Schuykill County jury acquitted the two teens charged with third-degree murder and ethnic intimidation despite several witnesses testifying they had been the ones who killed Ramírez Zavala while yelling racial epithets and punching and kicking Ramírez Zavala in the body and head so severely it caused the victim to foam at the mouth and sustain two skull fractures.

I don't know the reporter doing this or the publication that will run the story. In fact, the story doesn't take place anywhere near me. I just know I've been there. I know.

Not only have I offered my money but my time and skills as a peer review editor. Just like I really didn't have the money, I really don't have the time. But again, I've been there. And if they'll have me, I'd love to help them how best I can.

So this is what I did today. Stupid? Not at all. Just wish I could do more.

To give to this project, or to know more, click here

Def Poetry Friday -- Mike Check

2010-09-10T22:34:00.000-05:00

For Sept. 11. We don't forget. It's with us everyday.

Being a good alumna!

2010-09-08T14:49:00.000-05:00

Yes, this is my first post in a while and it's not a writing post. That's because I came across this Facebook post from one of my acquaintance, Russell Contreras, about the UH-UTEP game. My beautiful Coogs are scheduled to beat the Miners on Friday. Beat, yes. Like they owed them money.

Right or wrong, win or lose, I'm all about my alma mater. GO COOGS!

Here's his list. (And I GUESS there's a writing connection cause Russ does have an MFA from Columbia U in non-fiction.)

Checklist for UTEP Miners going to Houston for UH-UTEP game.

1) Get in El Camino or Cutless Supreme for long drive on I-10. After 500 miles, wonder why you haven't seen the New Mexico/Texas border yet. Then you remember: Oh yeah, El Paso is in Texas…not New Mexico.

2) Come across the big city of San Antonio and look in awe at a place that has more than one highway.

3) Pass the River Walk and wonder what all that blue stuff is. It's called water.

4) Pass Seguin and wonder what all that green stuff is. It's called trees and grass.

5) Stop at Flatonia gas station and wonder why you all of a sudden get sweaty every time you get out of the car. It's called humidity. (And it will get worse.)

6) Hit traffic just outside of Katy, Texas and complain that this isn't the bridge to Juarez, why should there be this much traffic?!

7) Drive in confusion that you've seen more than one Barnes and Noble on I-10. Hey! You thought this was an El Paso bookstore!

8) Look at Houston skyline for the first time and get scared until friendly man with his window down in traffic tells you not to worry, King Kong was about New York.

9) Stop at Ninfa's to eat and get shocked that the Mexican food is so much better in Houston. Get laughed at when you ask for green or red chili. Look at awe of such "imported beers" like Shiner Bock and Sam Adams.

10) Go to UH-UTEP game, watch UH’s Case Keenum break passing records and complain that a football team shouldn't be allow score more than 100 points in one game.

GO COOGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Def Poetry Friday -- 40 Emcees

2010-09-03T22:30:00.003-05:00

One of my faves from back in the day. I got 40 emcees on my block...

Def Poetry Friday -- We Are Men

2010-08-27T19:36:00.002-05:00

So funny until the last line. But then I said, I am a woman and I can just do a new Google search. Ha! Enjoy it. Happy Friday

Guest blog: Following the writing bug, no matter what

2010-08-24T09:36:00.000-05:00

Margo Candela

Editors note: Our guest blogger is Margo Candela. She has released her fourth novel, Good Bye to All That, is available now. She was recently named by LA Magazine's Best Beach Read of 2010. To know more about her, click here to go to her site or here to see her Twitter page

I don’t recall ever taking a vocational test in high school. You know the test guidance counselors used to figure out what a teenager should do with their fast approaching working life? Even if I had, I doubt my answers would have pointed toward author. At that time, I was just an avid reader with horrible penmanship but with great typing skills. (Hand’s down, typing was not only the best elective, but the most useful class I ever took.) I was never worried about graduating, but was slightly concerned about what I’d do with myself afterward. In any case, I made it through high school without ever seeing a guidance consoler or anyone asking me what I planned to do with my life.

My parents, though, did expect me to do something that involved some form of honest work that paid enough for me to eventually move out of their house. They assumed I’d get an office job like my older siblings had done before me and be content with the security of steady employment. Instead, I enrolled at my local community college, figured out that I didn’t want to be a pre-school teacher or a social worker and went on to major in journalism.

It took a while, but I knew I wanted to write and that I needed to get a job. Journalism merged the two for me and, as my parents weren’t paying my college tuition, they had no say in my decision. After getting my degree, I wrote for magazines and websites and did well enough to pay my rent and go out to dinner once in a while, but things like health insurance and someday retiring were out of my reach. When I’d visit my parents, they’d invariably ask at some point when I planned to settle down and get a real job. And each time I’d tell them that I would as soon the one I wanted opened up.

You’d think with four novels published, my parents would worry less but, if anything, they worry a whole lot more about me. They’ve realized that having a daughter who insists on writing means she’s committed to a risky way to make a living. They’re proud of me and what I’ve achieved, but I’m no more special than my siblings who’ve settled into jobs that they’ve been at for years, if not decades.

I, on the other hand, never kept a job longer than six months during the height of the dot.com boom and I was never happier. And I was happiest yet when I committed myself (and my future) to writing even knowing there were inherent risks and uncertainty in my choice. I always assure my parents that I have no plans to retire and will keep on writing until there’s nothing left type. What I do makes me happy and, in the end, it’s what parents want for their children.

Look who's coming to visit tomorrow?

2010-08-23T18:14:00.000-05:00

So I am excited to have Margo Candela as a guest blogger to my blog tomorrow.

How excited am I?

Instead of finishing some work, I'm writing this post and I really don't have to.

I know, right? Whoa!

Margo Candela has written four books with her latest, Good-bye to All That, picked as a 2010 best book in L.A. by Los Angeles Magazine. To read an excerpt, click here.

I had the pleasure of being able to read a copy of the book before it was released. After a semester of reading Kafka and Kerouac, I was excited to read something just for the pleasure of it. No annotation. No circling key phrases unless I wanted to. All pure fun.

And it was. This book is pure fun. Margo lives up to her slogan, writing modern women's fiction the old fashioned way.

Here's her bio. And don't forget to come back tomorrow when she ~~highjacks~~ guest blogs on my site.

She's awesome. You've been warned.

I was born and raised in Northeast Los Angeles and moved to San Francisco to attend college. I ended up staying there for a decade before moving back home in 2005. My first three novels, More Than This (Touchstone, Aug. 2008), Life Over Easy (Kensington, Oct. 2007) andUnderneath It All (Kensington, Jan. 2007) are set in San Francisco.

More Than This was a Target stores Breakout Book and an American Association of Publishers national book club selection at Borders Books with Las Comadres. My current novel, Goodbye To All That (Touchstone, July 13, 2010) is my first novel set in Los Angeles and is the only novel picked by Los Angeles Magazine for it's 2010 Best of L.A. list.

Def Poetry Friday -- Penny For Your Thoughts

2010-08-20T10:26:00.001-05:00

Single ladies, this is what we hold out for. Whoa! And sigh.

Def Poetry Friday -- What teachers make

2010-08-13T10:23:00.002-05:00

I love me some teachers. The positive ones. I am here because of them. Hells yeah!

Conversation: Chris Abani & Walter Mosley

2010-08-10T09:13:00.000-05:00

Looky what I found through my friend Kristy's blog. Sweetness!

Why workshopping (before its time) is evil

2010-08-10T08:52:00.000-05:00

Writing is a labor of love. It really is. Writers toil and labor and think and read. It's what we do on our path to become master storytellers.

But sometimes we don't know what the story is. Seriously. When we start telling our stories we may know a couple of scenes, maybe we know the ending, but that's it. Some of us (points to self) work it out on the page. That's why it's important to do one REALLY important thing...

DO NOT SHOW YOUR STORY TO ANYONE BEFORE YOU'VE WORKED IT OUT.

I'm not kidding. I workshopped something that wasn't ready and it was not good times. The day I violated this rule, I was blocked for like a week and it took lots of coming to Jesus talks to get out of it. Then I had to change the direction of my story because what I thought would be the story had been tainted.

But I do enjoy workshopping. I think it's important. So often writers are so in their heads that they need a second or third pair of eyes on something.

So how do you know its time to workshop something? When you know the characters and the story enough to take the heat from it. People's opinions are wrong about 90 percent of the time. So if during a workshopping of a piece a jealous fellow writer gives you "suggestions" about where the story should go or what you should do, you need to know your character well enough to say, "they wouldn't do that" or "that's not what the story is about."

That leads me to my next point. Don't workshop, EVER, NEVER, with people you don't trust. Good workshop participants know how to give criticism. It's an art form really because its about building a relationship of trust. They'll need to start off by giving the criticism with gentle suggestions (real ones) asking questions, and listening. Eventually, a good group will be able to give you comments directly in one sentence and you'll know what you need to work on. They'll know your patterns and would have known how the story evolved. Your critique/workshop group will know the story as good as you and will see sentences and words that don't go with it.

So, that's my two cents on it. I'm coming back from the brink myself from a non-productive workshopping experience. If I can save you from the grief I went through, than this post has done its job.

Write on!

Def Poetry Friday -- Mayda Del Valle

2010-08-06T12:00:00.005-05:00

Swagger wagon!

2010-08-04T12:01:00.003-05:00

So not a writing post but I can't stop listening and watching this video. Hilarious.

PREVIEW: Snippet of what I'm working on

2010-08-03T00:04:00.000-05:00

I've been reading a lot of mysteries lately because of school. I've had this character I've been tinkering around with, Jennie Manning, that I thought needed a new adventure.

So influence by what I was reading, I have the bones of a short story here to share. It's rough but I wanted to share a snippet of what I was working on to see what y'all think.

This is today's mantra...

2010-08-02T10:01:00.003-05:00

Writing is SCARY!

2010-08-01T19:13:00.001-05:00

Walter Mosley's Devil In a Blue Dress was my first book this semester and I'm so thankful for that. He's the perfect mix of literary and genre. He believes in the heat of writing. Write what is passionate and true but he's also about the production side and advises to write an hour and a half every day.

I don't know about an hour and a half every day but I do believe in the daily practice of writing but that's not what this post is about. I'll write about daily writing habits later.

This post is about fear. Writing is a scary business and Mosley addresses that in an interview with NPR in 2007. Stop Reading and Start Writing : NPR He was promoting his book "This Year You Write Your Novel." In the interview he says that writers are afraid of writing. The more and more you write the more real material starts to bubble up. By real he means from the unconscious, the stuff you push down to function (yes, the correct word here is function). When that starts to bubble up, it's frightening.

Writers also write what they know. It's an old adage, I know but if what they know is tied to the people around them--mothers, fathers, friends, co-workers, bosses, cat, etc--that also tends to come out in the writing.

Walter Mosley

He's smart that Mosley fellow.

I had a friend of mine tell me I needed to leave a city because it upset me so and that it would come out in my writing. However, that is one of the most productive periods of my life. What came out on the page was experimental dribble that to this day I love because it wasn't what I expected.

Those surprises for a writer makes for some interesting self awareness and fuel for self discovery. Who are we really? Not even our mothers know us and we hardly know ourselves. The way to find it is through art. For some, it's on the page after daily reflection and work. Some it's in a song. Others it's through painting or sculpture.

So being a writer is more than just sitting down and putting pretty words on the screen. It's about exorcising demons you didn't know were there and finding the truth of their existence. Why are you writing about your mother? Why does that character ironically look a lot like your boss? And why is your favorite paragraph about planting flowers? Who are you? Find out. Pick up the pen. Keep writing until it hurts. For Mosley it takes an hour and a half a day to figure it out. For me...well I don't know yet. I haven't hit the truth but I know it's on its way.

Write on!

You're good but that stinks

2010-07-30T16:15:00.001-05:00

I can write a book about criticism.

I won't but after seven years reporting and living in Houston for most of my life I think I'm a bit of an expert in this area.

When hearing/taking criticism it's important to know one important thing...

Only 10 percent of what they're saying is true. The other 90 percent needs to be filtered to make the other 10 percent make sense.

It's important for a writer to have a group of folks they can trust to tell the truth about their writing in a way that doesn't wound the writer and at the same time makes sense. It needs to be a safe space. Sometimes though that safe space is infiltrated by folks who are about as suave as a brick. Personally, if a person critiquing my work can't give me specific examples of what doesn't work and then verbalize it effectively, I ignore it.

So here's how to deal with criticism:

* Listen, nod, smile, ask questions. Although this person who is telling you that what you've just written sucks probably has one solid point. But it doesn't suck. They suck. They don't know enough to not use the word suck in a critique. They probably write bad angsty poetry they thought was REALLY deep but is just desperate.

*Be polite. Just because that person is, at this point, the most horrible human being on the planet doesn't mean that you need to stoop down to their level. Actually, you should really feel sorry for them because they're so jealous of your prose.

* When they something interesting and probably true get them to give you ideas on how they would fix it. If their fix ideas are good they probably know what they are talking about. You should listen to them. Buy them coffee. Offer to fix it and then send them to revision. If they don't offer any good ideas on how to fix it, they don't know a pen from a pencil.

* When they're done, smile and thank them. Then, in your head or on a voodoo doll, cuss them out, rip out their eyes, whatever. You are suppose to feel angry and rejected. They are natural feelings so don't suppress them. Give them space to be. After its all done, walk away from the project for a bit. Then with a clear head and heart look at it and re-evaluate. Some of what they said is true. That's the ten percent.

*Criticisms are suggestions. This is how other people saw your work. But realize, however, at the end of the day YOU are the creator of the art. YOU make it do want it wants to do. Not other folks. So take the suggestions that will make it better and everything else throw it away. Who cares? It's your piece, right? Unless they're an editor, don't worry about it.

Hope this helps! Happy writing!

Def Poetry Friday -- To All the Boys I've Loved Before

2010-07-30T12:00:00.000-05:00

I've always loved this one.

When meeting literary heroes...just don't be a dork.

2010-07-28T01:08:00.000-05:00

Me getting writing advice from Denise Chavez

One of the highlights of my second semester of grad school residency has to be meeting two of my literary heroines and gaining another one.

Cristina Garcia is artistic director of the Prt. Townsend Writer's Conference, which overlaps the summer residency. When I saw her on the schedule I made plans to go. No way I was missing her. Dreaming In Cuban got me through Corpus Christi and is one of the books instrumental in guiding me down this path to being a writer. I usually describe Dreaming in Cuban as chocolate cake. That's because it's delicious and thick with meaning and beautifulness. The book is short but took me six months to finish. It scared me at first, to feel something that deeply for words on a page. Reminded me of when I feel in love with words in the first place. Her book told me to not be afraid to dream. The spiral began with her.

Cristina Garcia is amazing, amazing, amazing. So nice. So gracious. And not at all alarmed at my fan girlishness. She was so welcoming and nice. So awesome to meet her.

Cristina Garcia, me, and Ana Menendez

Also awesome to meet...Ana Menendez. I cried when she left the Herald. She got me through Wichita. Another author that was instrumental in getting me down this writing path. I would read her column twice a week when things were particularly rough in Kansas. She and Junot Diaz reminded me of myself, that I was more than what they said I was, more than what they thought I was. I was more. They were the proof of what I could be, that I could step out and claim this crazy, nutty, idea of being a writer. Proof that people would like what came from my fingers and my mind even if my bosses didn't.

Me, Cristina Garcia, Denise Chavez

Denise Chavez reminds me of Houston. She's not from there but she reminds me of the part of me that grew up in H-town's east side, the way the heat plays with your mind, the way beer tastes the first time, the way the mother language rolls off your tongue...like that. She's all that's good and true and right. She is why writing is an art and art is a gift. She is magical. And it was a privilege to not only see her read, but talk to her and get some writing advice from her.

This was truly something special for me. Not something I will soon forget. These women, these writing Goddesses are the goal. They make me aspire to write, to find my voice, craft it, and deliver it to waiting eyes. I hope one day to do them proud.