Author: helene

Categories
#amreading #amwriting

Thoughts about "The Street-Smart Writer"

Since I flew through reading my previous book, I cracked open The Street-Smart Writer this week to finally check out what Jenna Glatzer has to say. One of my sisters mentioned this book to me since I was growing confused about how to go about with publishing/sending my work out.

I have to admit, reading this book has made me feel depressed over what I had hoped to do with my novels (self-publishing). I’m not saying I’ll completely rule out that option yet, but the advice/tips in the book have been big reality checks for me. All of it has made me wonder what it is that I want to achieve out of becoming published. It’d be nice to have a bestseller, but that’s not the sole reason why I want to be published. I want others to enjoy my work, to be able to understand how my characters feel and whether or not they can relate to those characters.

When I embarked on this mission late last year, I wasn’t being foolish; I knew that the road to getting published/building my foundation in the writing world would be a long and sometimes frustrating journey. However, that’s how most things are like in life, no matter how different the subject matter may be: job hunting, establishing a romantic relationship, etc. It’s not all different from the life of an unpublished writer striving to become published. We all go through the same kinds of hardships, but in the end, if it’s something important to us, it’ll be worth all the tough times.

So, even though some of the topics listed in this book have made me feel slightly discouraged, I know it’s just a bump in the road, and that, by reading this book, hopefully I will prevent too many mishaps from happening to me in the “preditor” world.

Categories
#amreading #amwriting

Muse Gone MIA; flying through books.

All weekend long, I wasn’t able to feel much inspiration to work on Novel 4 nor move along the progress in Novel 1’s editing/revision stages. I suppose my muse has gone on vacation for the time being, but I only hope he or she will come back to me soon enough.

During this past week, I have been flying through some books that I checked out from the library. I finished reading Shirley Fong-Torres’ The Woman Who ATE Chinatown and am currently wrapping up Martha Brockenbrough’s Things That Make Us [sic]. Both books have been insightful and good breaks from reading fiction (Stanley G. West’s Blind Your Ponies was a huge project to finish up anyway…). However, as my habit has become, I’ll need to get back to reading some more fiction soon since I’m feeling slightly burnt out from reading nonfiction (is that the correct classification for those kinds of books?). I’m trying to cut down on adding any more books to my “to-read” list on Goodreads since I’ve hit 300+ on that list…there’s no way I’ll be able to read all of those books if my list continues to grow. Gotta slow down.

I continue to receive notifications about people adding my story “Riches to Rags” to their favorites on Scribd. It’s amusing to me to see how my other story, “Tight Jeans”, hasn’t received nearly as many hits and nobody has added that story to their favorites. What is it that has drawn readers to Ivan instead of the anonymous bakery shop owner? It’s something I’ve been pondering; is it because of the POV? The voices of the stories themselves? What can be improved upon “Tight Jeans” to make it more appealing?

Perhaps my answer will come to me soon enough. In the meantime, I will need to really get working on my other short story revisions. Until next time….

Categories
My San Francisco Chronicles observation reflection

All-American: Pillow Fight Club, San Francisco

Last night, I was dragged along to attend the Pillow Fight set at 6 p.m. in the Justin Herman Plaza aka Ferry Plaza. I didn’t participate in the event, but I did observe the frenzy and took pictures and videos of people hitting friends and complete strangers with pillows. It seemed stress-relieving and just overall fun; at the same time, though, I kept thinking about who was going to clean up the mess and whether there was a risk in injuries.

The preparation for the outing was already amusing enough: going into Ross was like Christmas shopping all over again, except everyone was shopping for pillows, not gifts. The line for the register was insanely long, with some people grabbing more than one pillow, and some settling for couch cushions since the selection on pillows had run low/sold out.

Then, walking towards the Ferry Building, I just saw a ton of people walking/running/hopping along carrying their pillows. Many onlookers weren’t even aware of the event, and those who were interested had to scramble for an extra pillow of their own. Others just kind of looked for a moment and then continued on with their Valentine’s Day festivities.

Once the clock struck 6:00, the crowd walking towards the Ferry Plaza soon became a running mob; I arrived at the scene to a ton of people hitting each other with pillows and feathers already flying. Some people were perched atop the trees in the plaza, watching safely from above, while the other observers and I stood in the outer realms of the plaza and took our pictures with abandon. Feathers, feathers, everywhere.


Photobucket Photobucket
Photobucket Photobucket
While observing the organized chaos, I felt quite a bit of emotion within me, mainly over the fact that something like this could only really happen in San Francisco. A pillow fight event elsewhere? Maybe in New York, maybe not…maybe in other places? Maybe not. This was something I felt I had to experience at least once, and I was glad I was able to go, even if I didn’t actually partake in the frenzy. It was a good change of pace from the mundane ways of life.

Categories
editing Novel 1 Scribd

Moving Forward on Novels & More

Happy Valentine’s Day; what are your plans for the day?

This past week has been another busy one, but I’m happy to say that I’m still making strides in my writing. Just this morning, I reached 10,000 words on Novel 4, which is pretty good for writing this outside of NaNoWriMo. I also finished shuffling my plot in the original manuscript for Novel 1 and completed some character worksheets. The next step is to write character sketches/background stories for the main characters; then, it’s time to rewrite.

It seems that I continue to receive more hits on Scribd for my short story, “Riches to Rags,” which is very great publicity. Stay tuned for more updates over the course of the next few days.

Categories
#amreading public library

Book Events This Week.

I attended two different book events this week: one for Shanthi Sekaran’s debut novel, The Prayer Room; the other event for Yiyun Li’s novel, The Vagrants. Both were insightful for me, since I was able to see how authors organize their book events differently. Of course, the venues weren’t the same either: at Book Inc., Sekaran’s event was held in the back of the bookstore, a somewhat more cozy atmosphere. For Li, she held her event at the public library in one of the community rooms, so it was more like a lecture hall.

Shanthi Sekaran appeared to be nervous since it’s her first book tour; however, the excerpts she read from her book were promising and strong. I briefly chatted with her, and it was flattering that she recognized me from goodreads. I wish her the best of luck on the rest of her tour.

Yiyun Li read fewer excerpts from her book, but nonetheless they were also captivating. The story seems to lean more towards political themes from China, so it may take me some time to read through the book. I was more interested in the tips she was giving to the audience during the Q&A; the bits I liked the most was about her “literary heritage” (she aspires to write like an Irish author), and about how “a novel is like a marriage, while a short story is like an affair.” Both insights made me think more about my own background, and what I seek with writing. What kind of literary heritage do I have? Have I even established it yet? It also amused me when Li mentioned that one of her favorite hobbies is eavesdropping.

I’m looking forward to reading both books and also attending more book events in the future.