Stay Tuned!

I don't have any topics to blog about today. This is me getting my thoughts out.

These past five months have been a roller coaster. Things are changing so fast before I could even blink. I can't think of any place to start so I'm tapped out.

What I can say is I'm doing okay and ya boy needs a time out.

Stay tuned, cats!

Back for the First Time!

Hey! How's it going everyone?

Wow! Is it really 2018? Wait, where did the time go?

So what's everyone doing for this year? What are your goals/resolutions? I'll tell you what I'm doing this year.

Learn sign language. I'm thinking about adding something else to my forte as the year was coming up so I thought to learn a new language. You ask me, it's good way to expand oneself. 

Publish poetry. Believe it or not. I have one piece of poetry published in a lit magazine two years ago. Now I'm going to take another shot at publishing more of my poetry in a book or another lit mag.

Publish comic book series. This is something I hope to accomplish. After all the researching and contacting an artist, I haven't hit gold in finding a home for a comic book project I planned on pitching. Good vibes here, people.

Write to ten people. In the age of social media, one can only wonder: Who sends letters and postcards? To me it's something that's lost in this digital fishbowl. A handwritten correspondence is a simple way to communicate with people without logging online to say "Hello" to somebody on social media platforms and it's much better to say something in a letter than on the internet.

Sorry, internet.

Read the books on my bookshelf. I might as well say it, I'm a book hoarder. Being a big reader I buy books a lot more than I read the ones on my shelf. Admitting this to myself, I donated some books to a local library so they'd serve the community.

And that's all for you on the ninth day of 2k18, cats! Happy Resolutions!

What I'm doing for 2017.

Okay since everyone's got goals for 2017, I'd like to share what I'll be doing this year.

• Read Young adult fiction and comics.
• Make a budget plan.
• Reach out to five people.
• Volunteer at a community event.
• See a show at the Civic Center Music Hall.

And that's all for ya, cats.

How "Consider" opened me up to YA fiction.

Tonight's blog is part book review, part personal account.

I've made it a personal goal to read ten authors this year and on the list is my Writing Challenge tweep Kristy Acevedo and her debut novel Consider (Holo series #1). Recalling my humble opinion how reading makes you curious, I pre-ordered the book on that account. Truth be told it's been a long time since I read a book rated T for teens.

My thoughts on Consider? It won me over. Acevedo created something that's thought provoking with heart about the idea of Holographic messages forewarning the end of the world and facing a critical choice to stay or leave.

For the heart aspect of the book is how the main character is facing a unnatural event as well her own anxiety disorder which touches the humanity of the book, and how it resonates with anyone with mental issues. It's the kind of turmoil delves deeper into the concept Acevedo's debut.

From a reader's standpoint, I didn't just enjoy Consider but I'm touched by how human the story is. This is on par with the earnest honesty that S.E. Hinton addressed in her novel The Outsiders. With that being said, this book has opened me up to the YA genre for the first time in years.


    My overall impression on my writing compatriot's novel is very good debut for teens, adults who read YA fiction, or better yet, all ages.

Now's a good time to "consider" a good read.

The Final Countdown!

With five weeks remaining in the spring semester, I'm counting the days, the hours, and the minutes as I do plow through all my homework. Which is fitting for Europe's "Final Countdown" because the clock is ticking.

Right now I'm working on a psychology project which applies to my life that I hold dear to my heart. Bullying. Like any person around I know how it can affect people in the long run. I've been on the receiving end of the things bullies do. Name calling, harassment, the ridicule. Everything.

I think about the last time I was bullied everyday and the one moment my peers stepped in and said that's enough. To this day, I'm still very grateful for the intervention.

What's heartbreaking about the subject is how kids are taking their own lives because of school bullying and how it's spread to the world wide web. Bullies have become faceless and it's almost impossible to stop them.

These recent stats show how much the bullying epidemic has grown. Terrible, right? You never know who's child is being tormented at school or the poor joe who's new to the job that's getting horrendous emails, or better yet, someone who carries the scars from the experience.

If there's anything my bullying experience taught me is that someone out there cares. No one should suffer alone. Period.






 

My Very Personal Work.

As I'm taking part of the #WIPJoy hashtag on Twitter, I shared bits and pieces of my graphic-novel-in-progress. Then I started thinking about how I wrote it in 2009 with no idea of how to write comics & graphic novels and how I was just writing the whole thing from nowhere which is called "pantsering" (write by the seat of your pants).

Now that I think about it, my GN is very personal to me because it's a reflection of how James O'Barr created The Crow from his worst pain.

That's where it all came from. My worst pain.

When I was in my 20's I was in so much emotional pain from the turbulence of life. The loss of a friend. A relative being in prison. Where I was in life and my desperation to make something of myself after failing as an adult. I needed to do something with that pain.

So I sat down and wrote some lyrics and poems that reflected my state of mind, and later, my graphic novel. I spent days and nights working on it. Not stopping for anything; I just wanted to finish it.

And I did.

Six years and four drafts later...and it's still a work in progress. I haven't found an artist for my work and I'm putting it through every run through to get it polished up for the day my story would be told to the world.

My protagonist's fears and pain are a mirror of how I suffered those years ago. We've come a long way and I believe her story will resonate with anyone who has been through a degree of hurt from the world, and people would say "Man, I feel for this character. She's hurting in ways I can't imagine."

For me to write something to cope with personal dealings was quite a ride as it was therapy. Years from now I would look at my story as one the most personal things I've ever done because I can never forget where it all came from in the beginning. My worst pain.

Reconnecting with Myself.

At times like this, I can't help but think I let writing become a sole purpose in my life while forgetting other aspects of myself. Don't get me wrong I enjoy creating fictional worlds for comics but I do other things to maintain my sanity as well as the next person on Earth. For this week I'm going to touch base with what makes me a unique individual.

Here's what I enjoy doing.

Sketching. As long as I can remember I've had a soft spot for art especially since childhood. I can't exactly recall my first drawing but comic books had a great effect on me when I read The Death of Superman at the age of six. Recently, I did a random sketch as therapy over college studies and missing #FebWritingChallenege.

Cooking. Like any self respecting person I can make a really good dish in the kitchen like a Philly cheese steak sandwhich and shrimp lo mein. 

Reading. Comics. Novels. I read 'em all! Don't get me started on what book I consider really good.

And that's what makes up the man here. When you're a writer of any genre, you have to keep in touch with yourself or the hobby will consume you completely and you're at a loss on who you are an individual. 

Keep in touch with yourself, friends.

My Influences as a Writer

When I chose literature for a career, I thought of my influences and comic book writer Kurt Busiek came to mind. Kurt Busiek is one of the reason I chose my career path as a writer. As a teenager, I bought a copy of the comic book Thunderbolts which was written by Busiek and illustrated by Mark Bagley. After reading the book, I was overly impressed with the style of his writing. Originally, I was wondering what Hawkeye was doing with this particular group. After buying a few more issues of Thunderbolts, I was really into the title as well as my other favorites characters like Spider-Man, Captain America and Batman. Moreover, Busiek's style of writing amazed me along with other comic book writers and science fiction novelists.

I read up on his other works like Untold Tales of Spider-Man, Avengers, and Iron Man and I loved his work on those titles which were a treat. I didn't know much about Kurt, but I would spend my money on comics that were written by him and other names like Fabian Nicieza, John Byne, and etc. The other guys were good, but Kurt Busiek's ideas were what appealed to me as a reader and a writer. The comics books I collected were Marvel Comics dating back to the 1990s and 2000s. For science fiction and fantasy, my influences were Patricia Briggs, Kat Richardson, Jim Butcher, and Kelley Armstrong. They've appealed to me as well with what they've written for urban fantasy as of today.

Their stories were entertaining and I love them. On the matter of Kurt Busiek, his work on Thunderbolts was one of his best ideas to date having super villains pose as super heroes and now wanting to atone for their criminal lives made me add the title as my favorites even when Fabian Nicieza took over the reins of the comic book. Busiek became the reason I decided to be a writer. Among the writers that have inspired my career choice, Kurt Busiek is one of them.

(This was originally posted in 2013 at the Critique Circle website.)