I knew that writing Chapter 3 would be the hardest because this is the character I know the least. I need to go back to the drawing board and write a total character description on her and really get to know her. I’m procrastinating working on Chapter 3, even though I’ve already started it. My sister made a surprise visit to us this morning from California so that threw off some of my writing today because my day didn’t really go as planned. I’ll have to get back on track soon because I only have 3 vacation days left plus the weekend.
My other sister brought me the cutest little glass yesterday. It has that old pop art on it with two women and it reads, “Smart Women THIRST for knowledge.” It just cracked me up. This one in particular is supposed to be an antique but I love it when I see art that imitates this era.
One artist in particular creates some hilarious art with these old sayings. You can check her out at http://annetaintor.com/. She has funny quotes like, “Spill it sister!” and a picture of a woman with a cigarette. You have to see them to see what I mean.
I watched “The Stepford Wives” tonight, the new version and it was pretty funny. Not great cinema, but it was cute. It reminded me of that crazy era when women wore frilly aprons and were domestic goddesses.
Okay it’s really late and I need to get to bed! I told my dad and sisters to come over for breakfast and I bought eggs, bacon and biscuits to cook for them. Who’s the domestic goddess now?? Huh? Huh?
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Tuesday, December 28, 2004
Compliments
Today (or should I say yesterday since it’s after 12) I received a compliment from someone whose opinion means a lot to me. She’s a co-worker and she read these blog entries and told me that I should devote myself to writing.
This came from someone that is a writer herself and an editor. I was very touched by her belief in me. It’s comments like this that keep us all going and makes me feel like this is all worthwhile. We all need to compliment one another, tell each other that we believe in each other and that in turn makes us all stronger.
This came from someone that is a writer herself and an editor. I was very touched by her belief in me. It’s comments like this that keep us all going and makes me feel like this is all worthwhile. We all need to compliment one another, tell each other that we believe in each other and that in turn makes us all stronger.
Iris Chang It
I just read a really moving article about journalist and writer Iris Chang by Paula Kamen. http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2004/11/30/iris_chang/
I first heard of Iris Chang the day she killed herself in November. I was driving home from work and I heard about it on NPR.
I must confess I had never heard of Iris Chang and was sorry that I hadn’t, once I heard about the brilliant work she did. It made me wish I knew about her when she was alive, as if that would make a difference in whether she lived or didn’t. I knew so little about her that I forgot her name and I had to ask my sister to remind me. She was driving to my house that day and heard the same report. She too was moved by the story.
Her story haunted me and I kept thinking about her. She was only two years older than me and she left behind a two year old son. I kept asking myself how her sadness could be so great that she would want to leave her child behind. It baffled me.
The more I thought of her I wanted to know more so my sister and I Googled. That’s when I came across the article about her on Salon.com. It is such a sad and moving piece. It’s a eulogy written by a friend and colleague so it’s very bittersweet.
Reading it made me see what the writer meant about Iris Chang becoming a verb to her. To “Iris Chang” it meant to reach high. To go for it because that’s what Chang always did. So now whenever I want to say that I’m going to give something all I’ve got and I’m going to go for the best, whatever the consequences I’m going to say that I’m going to “Iris Chang” it.
Some may argue that she didn’t strive for the best because she killed herself but I believe that none of us can judge a person who is mentally ill or suffers from real depression. We don’t know what occurred in her ill mind. We should see how she lived.
On that same note, on my list of people who inspire me I’ve already written a list of the agents I’m going to send my manuscript. I have three listed that are my top three choices. I’ll send it to each of them and I’ll see which one is interested in my book.
I definitely “Iris Chang’d” it before ever knowing what the term meant. The top three choices are agents that represent three of my favorite authors. I figured why not start at the top? That’s the sales person in me.
When you sell you always ask for a large amount first, for the big contract. The mentality is that you can always start by asking a lot and you can come down on your price, but you can’t start low and then ask for more. So in the same sense, I’m going to start at the really top agents first and then work my way down to the less known agents.
When I was in middle school I was a pretty average student in a Vanguard program. I wasn’t one of the top students but I didn’t let that hold me back. I applied at three top high schools, well only two were really coveted schools, but the third was a really good school too. I say that because it’s the school I chose and even though it wasn’t as prestigious as the other two they ended up having an excellent English program, which is where I really found my love for literature.
The point is this. I applied at all three high schools and I was accepted at all three. So I “Iris Chang’d it” way back then too. I applied to Bellaire to the Foreign Language program, to HSPVA, and to Waltrip’s IB Program.
In reality my first “butterfly effect” happened then. I was accepted into the Creative Writing program at HSPVA. If I had accepted and attended HSPVA I would have been in the last class to go through that program. I would have graduated with Helen Childress, the young woman who wrote the screenplay to “Reality Bites” at 23. Isn’t that weird? That’s what I really wonder. What would have happened if I’d gone to HSPVA? Would I still be interested in becoming a writer?
SO the moral of this story is that we should all “Iris Chang” it. It drives me crazy when I hear parents say that they don’t want to send their kids to special programs, like Vanguard or IB, because the school is too far or they don’t want to send their kid off on a bus too early or have them coming home too late. It just drives me crazy! Especially when they send their kid off to some bad ghetto school and their child is a gifted child. That drives me crazy.
Okay if they already live in an okay area and the school is decent or if their child is just average and doesn’t excel to do more. But if they are above average or the school is an opportunity to get them out of a bad environment and the parent doesn’t want to because it’s going to be an inconvenience THAT drives me mad.
I also can’t stand when people are destined for greatness and they don’t believe they are, so they just settle for whatever life gives them. I hate to hear people say they aren’t going to apply for the top job because deep down they don’t think they will get it so they just don’t try.
So many people choose to live their life on medium. I don’t want that for myself and I hope that all of you don’t want that either. Let’s live our life on “great!” Let’s “Iris Chang it.”
I first heard of Iris Chang the day she killed herself in November. I was driving home from work and I heard about it on NPR.
I must confess I had never heard of Iris Chang and was sorry that I hadn’t, once I heard about the brilliant work she did. It made me wish I knew about her when she was alive, as if that would make a difference in whether she lived or didn’t. I knew so little about her that I forgot her name and I had to ask my sister to remind me. She was driving to my house that day and heard the same report. She too was moved by the story.
Her story haunted me and I kept thinking about her. She was only two years older than me and she left behind a two year old son. I kept asking myself how her sadness could be so great that she would want to leave her child behind. It baffled me.
The more I thought of her I wanted to know more so my sister and I Googled. That’s when I came across the article about her on Salon.com. It is such a sad and moving piece. It’s a eulogy written by a friend and colleague so it’s very bittersweet.
Reading it made me see what the writer meant about Iris Chang becoming a verb to her. To “Iris Chang” it meant to reach high. To go for it because that’s what Chang always did. So now whenever I want to say that I’m going to give something all I’ve got and I’m going to go for the best, whatever the consequences I’m going to say that I’m going to “Iris Chang” it.
Some may argue that she didn’t strive for the best because she killed herself but I believe that none of us can judge a person who is mentally ill or suffers from real depression. We don’t know what occurred in her ill mind. We should see how she lived.
On that same note, on my list of people who inspire me I’ve already written a list of the agents I’m going to send my manuscript. I have three listed that are my top three choices. I’ll send it to each of them and I’ll see which one is interested in my book.
I definitely “Iris Chang’d” it before ever knowing what the term meant. The top three choices are agents that represent three of my favorite authors. I figured why not start at the top? That’s the sales person in me.
When you sell you always ask for a large amount first, for the big contract. The mentality is that you can always start by asking a lot and you can come down on your price, but you can’t start low and then ask for more. So in the same sense, I’m going to start at the really top agents first and then work my way down to the less known agents.
When I was in middle school I was a pretty average student in a Vanguard program. I wasn’t one of the top students but I didn’t let that hold me back. I applied at three top high schools, well only two were really coveted schools, but the third was a really good school too. I say that because it’s the school I chose and even though it wasn’t as prestigious as the other two they ended up having an excellent English program, which is where I really found my love for literature.
The point is this. I applied at all three high schools and I was accepted at all three. So I “Iris Chang’d it” way back then too. I applied to Bellaire to the Foreign Language program, to HSPVA, and to Waltrip’s IB Program.
In reality my first “butterfly effect” happened then. I was accepted into the Creative Writing program at HSPVA. If I had accepted and attended HSPVA I would have been in the last class to go through that program. I would have graduated with Helen Childress, the young woman who wrote the screenplay to “Reality Bites” at 23. Isn’t that weird? That’s what I really wonder. What would have happened if I’d gone to HSPVA? Would I still be interested in becoming a writer?
SO the moral of this story is that we should all “Iris Chang” it. It drives me crazy when I hear parents say that they don’t want to send their kids to special programs, like Vanguard or IB, because the school is too far or they don’t want to send their kid off on a bus too early or have them coming home too late. It just drives me crazy! Especially when they send their kid off to some bad ghetto school and their child is a gifted child. That drives me crazy.
Okay if they already live in an okay area and the school is decent or if their child is just average and doesn’t excel to do more. But if they are above average or the school is an opportunity to get them out of a bad environment and the parent doesn’t want to because it’s going to be an inconvenience THAT drives me mad.
I also can’t stand when people are destined for greatness and they don’t believe they are, so they just settle for whatever life gives them. I hate to hear people say they aren’t going to apply for the top job because deep down they don’t think they will get it so they just don’t try.
So many people choose to live their life on medium. I don’t want that for myself and I hope that all of you don’t want that either. Let’s live our life on “great!” Let’s “Iris Chang it.”
Sunday, December 26, 2004
My Book
I know you all are probably wondering what my book is about and I really haven’t given you much detail.
It’s a novel about three cousins and their mothers. The three cousins are related because they are the daughters of two sisters and a brother. So the third mother isn’t blood related like the other characters. All of them have mother-daughter issues of some kind and that is the challenge each of them is trying to overcome. Each of them is trying to understand her mother and therefore will only then really understand herself.
It deals with the real life drama that happens in a lot of families and this one just happens to be Hispanic. The girls are second generation Americans and the mothers are first generation Americans but two of them grew up in Mexico so they are still very much in tune with their culture. The third mother is a second generation American so she speaks more English and is more liberal than the other two mothers. She is a very different character all together and is the one that’s not really related to the other two women.
Each chapter is written in the first person so you meet each character and then meet her again when it’s her turn to speak again.
That’s pretty much the plan. I’m not afraid of talking about it because the detailed story is so unique no one could ever duplicate it. It’s really a story that’s different and really out there. It deals with some major skeletons in the closet. I can’t wait to finish writing it so you can all read it!
It’s a novel about three cousins and their mothers. The three cousins are related because they are the daughters of two sisters and a brother. So the third mother isn’t blood related like the other characters. All of them have mother-daughter issues of some kind and that is the challenge each of them is trying to overcome. Each of them is trying to understand her mother and therefore will only then really understand herself.
It deals with the real life drama that happens in a lot of families and this one just happens to be Hispanic. The girls are second generation Americans and the mothers are first generation Americans but two of them grew up in Mexico so they are still very much in tune with their culture. The third mother is a second generation American so she speaks more English and is more liberal than the other two mothers. She is a very different character all together and is the one that’s not really related to the other two women.
Each chapter is written in the first person so you meet each character and then meet her again when it’s her turn to speak again.
That’s pretty much the plan. I’m not afraid of talking about it because the detailed story is so unique no one could ever duplicate it. It’s really a story that’s different and really out there. It deals with some major skeletons in the closet. I can’t wait to finish writing it so you can all read it!
Saturday, December 25, 2004
Inspiration
“Waste no more time talking about great souls and how they should be. Become one yourself.” This quote by Marcus Aurelius sits on my desk as a reminder that the only way I can achieve greatness in all that I do in my life is to keep working at it.
I am trying to get inspired to start Chapter 3. I’ve already finished Chapters 1 & 2 and the plan is for 9 chapters total. So when I finish Chapter 3 I will be 1/3 of the way through with the first draft of my book! Of course the plan is for 9 chapters but now that I’ve really started writing I’m finding that plans do change as you go along. Sometimes it’s as if my characters change their mind about what they are going to do and the take off independently from me. I’ve already had one character change my outline.
I’m writing in my room right now. My in-laws called a little while ago and said they were coming over. My mother-in-law is coming over to make tamales. I love my in-laws but when they come over I never get any writing done, needless to say. I feel like I have to entertain even though they come over all the time.
I’ve tried to set up my room to inspire me. I’m surrounded by all my books. Julia Alvarez, Isabel Allende, Angelou, Baldwin, Bronte, Camus, Sandra Cisneros, Poe, Dante, Melville, James, Shakespeare, Amy Tan, Hemmingway, Hawthorne, Hardy and Neruda. I try to keep all of them in alphabetical order.
Honestly, I haven’t read all the books on my shelf but I’ve collected those I know I want to read someday. I’ve read all these writers and I know I like their work, but maybe not specifically the book on my shelf. I have a goal to one day read everything on my shelf and I tell myself I won’t buy any more books until I do, but inevitably I always buy more.
My desk faces a wall and I have a calendar of Frida Kahlo to my right. She too is an inspiration because of her spirit. Despite all her physical problems she was a great artist.
On top of my desk sit photos that inspire me. A photo of Rey holding Miranda, a small photo of me and my mother when I was a teenager, and a photo of Rey and me kissing when we were dating.
Three framed pictures my friend Liz gave me when I graduated with my Master’s sit on my bookshelf to my right. Each one has a beautiful quote from Maya Angelou about success. And then there’s the Three Graces. They remind me of the Prado and Spain. One of my favorite places in the world!
My desk has books that inspire me on the shelves and some writing magazines. I also have every paper I’ve ever written, 6th grade- my undergraduate years. I was an English minor so I have a lot of papers on various authors. I have them here in case I ever want to read one of them as an inspiration.
I wrote papers on works like, “A Farewell to Arms,” “The Death of Ivan Ilych” and “The Metamorphosis,” among many others. I have papers from two of my favorite classes I took at UH, Women in Literature, and American Fiction. Women in Lit introduced me to wonderful authors like Amy Tan and Zora Neale Hurston.
I’ve even written a list of people who inspire me to write and to finish my novel. People on this list include Elizabeth Berg. I read an article written by her in New Woman magazine over ten years ago where she discussed having cancer and how the cancer inspired her to finally write. I was inspired by her and then I came across the article recently and I decided to Google her. She’s still alive and she’s written many books since then.
There’s also Blak, a writer I heard interviewed on NPR who was a drug dealer and he overcame all kinds of adversity to write. He would be writing in his house, would stop to sell drugs and then would continue to write. There’s JK Rowling who was so poor she had to write in a coffee house to save on heat.
An LA actor and agent, Manny Jimenez, left life on the streets to open his own talent agency for thugs and “typical” looking Hispanics. Some people may say he’s exploiting his people but I say he has the last laugh all the way to the bank.
All these people inspire me to finish my novel and to believe that all that I dream is possible. When I get down on myself I think about these people and how they are ordinary people like me who believed in themselves and just did it.
I’ve created a nook for myself I guess you can say. Now only if I will allow all this inspiration to filter through to me and get me to write. Write write write! Start on Chapter 3!
I am trying to get inspired to start Chapter 3. I’ve already finished Chapters 1 & 2 and the plan is for 9 chapters total. So when I finish Chapter 3 I will be 1/3 of the way through with the first draft of my book! Of course the plan is for 9 chapters but now that I’ve really started writing I’m finding that plans do change as you go along. Sometimes it’s as if my characters change their mind about what they are going to do and the take off independently from me. I’ve already had one character change my outline.
I’m writing in my room right now. My in-laws called a little while ago and said they were coming over. My mother-in-law is coming over to make tamales. I love my in-laws but when they come over I never get any writing done, needless to say. I feel like I have to entertain even though they come over all the time.
I’ve tried to set up my room to inspire me. I’m surrounded by all my books. Julia Alvarez, Isabel Allende, Angelou, Baldwin, Bronte, Camus, Sandra Cisneros, Poe, Dante, Melville, James, Shakespeare, Amy Tan, Hemmingway, Hawthorne, Hardy and Neruda. I try to keep all of them in alphabetical order.
Honestly, I haven’t read all the books on my shelf but I’ve collected those I know I want to read someday. I’ve read all these writers and I know I like their work, but maybe not specifically the book on my shelf. I have a goal to one day read everything on my shelf and I tell myself I won’t buy any more books until I do, but inevitably I always buy more.
My desk faces a wall and I have a calendar of Frida Kahlo to my right. She too is an inspiration because of her spirit. Despite all her physical problems she was a great artist.
On top of my desk sit photos that inspire me. A photo of Rey holding Miranda, a small photo of me and my mother when I was a teenager, and a photo of Rey and me kissing when we were dating.
Three framed pictures my friend Liz gave me when I graduated with my Master’s sit on my bookshelf to my right. Each one has a beautiful quote from Maya Angelou about success. And then there’s the Three Graces. They remind me of the Prado and Spain. One of my favorite places in the world!
My desk has books that inspire me on the shelves and some writing magazines. I also have every paper I’ve ever written, 6th grade- my undergraduate years. I was an English minor so I have a lot of papers on various authors. I have them here in case I ever want to read one of them as an inspiration.
I wrote papers on works like, “A Farewell to Arms,” “The Death of Ivan Ilych” and “The Metamorphosis,” among many others. I have papers from two of my favorite classes I took at UH, Women in Literature, and American Fiction. Women in Lit introduced me to wonderful authors like Amy Tan and Zora Neale Hurston.
I’ve even written a list of people who inspire me to write and to finish my novel. People on this list include Elizabeth Berg. I read an article written by her in New Woman magazine over ten years ago where she discussed having cancer and how the cancer inspired her to finally write. I was inspired by her and then I came across the article recently and I decided to Google her. She’s still alive and she’s written many books since then.
There’s also Blak, a writer I heard interviewed on NPR who was a drug dealer and he overcame all kinds of adversity to write. He would be writing in his house, would stop to sell drugs and then would continue to write. There’s JK Rowling who was so poor she had to write in a coffee house to save on heat.
An LA actor and agent, Manny Jimenez, left life on the streets to open his own talent agency for thugs and “typical” looking Hispanics. Some people may say he’s exploiting his people but I say he has the last laugh all the way to the bank.
All these people inspire me to finish my novel and to believe that all that I dream is possible. When I get down on myself I think about these people and how they are ordinary people like me who believed in themselves and just did it.
I’ve created a nook for myself I guess you can say. Now only if I will allow all this inspiration to filter through to me and get me to write. Write write write! Start on Chapter 3!
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