Princess Creates the Thing

Idk if I'll ever get the hang of blogging on the regular; but since it's the middle of 2018, I might as well spring one up amidst all the ucky-mucky news cycle of the past 7 months. Looking at my 2018 writing goals from my last post, I'm proud to be accomplishing 2 of the 4: Re-worked my NING SANTOS WIP and am 11k into drafting, which isn't technically a lot...but it reads a lot better than what I had reworked back in January. Completed and surpassed my 2018 Goodreads Reading Challenge!!! Set myself up for 6 books and ended up reading 8: 5 Middle Grade books by Asian American authors 1 YA book by an Asian American author 2 poetry collections by Asian American poets. Currently on my 9th read: Nightbooks by J.A. White , my only non-POC/non-APIA authored read so far. Current poetry WIPs aren't quite yet ready for submitting, but I do have a forthcoming poem publication this year in Hay(na)ku Anthology #15  (they'll be having a book launch in Septembe...

Long time, no post. I really should figure out at least a semi-consistent schedule. Anyways, the past 3.1 years (translation: Nov. 2016-Jan. 2018) have been a big deal to me, having finally been published on 3 different occasions. It still hasn't hit me that there are readers out there who have gotten and will get to read my stuff, but nonetheless, it's definitely surreal to think about. 2016: A super busy year for me due to being part of the collective collaboration for  Princess Leilani and the Lanu Tree , which is the fifth installment of the GUARDIAN PRINCESS book series where I was also finishing up my internship and transitioning to a staff member for THE GUARDIAN PRINCESS ALLIANCE, A Division of S.T.R.O.N.G. Edutainment (501c3). While I'm not one of the co-authors, I wrote the "songs" for the Leilani story, as well as served as co-editor, researcher, and concept artist. To purchase a hardcover, softcover, or eBook copy of the book (and other GP books)...

June 12, 1898: an independence both permanent and short-lived amongst the budding and competitive and emerging empires of the West who play the rest of the world like an RPG strategy-based board game. They exchange fire, words, technology, infrastructure, dress, custom, labor, and assert complete influence and ownership. A day to honor a flurry of heroes and a people in a long and complicated battle. I spent the better part of my morning thinking about my grandpa, Agafino, whom I never got the chance to meet (neither my siblings), who served in the US Navy as a cook of various rankings. He was a hot-headed man too who had no qualms about stuffing you and your disobedience in an empty rice sack and tying you to a tree branch. As flawed as I've been told he is, he is still more a mystery, a myth, a laboring body in ships filled with sailors who don't look or speak like him (for the most part). I continually wonder what it was like for him. Was he ever called a "monkey...

Teen drivers be like: Go, go, go… do the jackrabbit start on the count of green of the stoplight tree!

Off-Balanced Legs in Bunches An appetite     for nothing is easy     when you're busy     foraging      on your brain for a day     for the perfect words     for what this "Nothing" is: food. "Nothing" takes all day to make     "Nothing" sits at the table on a holiday     "Nothing" wishes to sit in my stomach I lie     in my bed     like "Nothing" is nothing.     I stand     in the kitchen     off-balanced, bunched up in the legs     like it's nothing I know what I'm doing     like the uptight school binder that I am.     Muscles tingling     cold sweat     the blurriness of vision... My roommate notices nothing. Not me blindly stumbling to the bathroom, trip up and black-out  into the tub like a lazy-dead denim jacket; holding onto nothing ...

A zejel poem. My B-Day: In Which I Give Zero Bleeps About" Ugh, every year there comes that day I continue to age away And everyone's supposed to say That same old buttercream greeting Another year I'm completing It's designed to keep repeating Shouting, "Surprise! Happy birthday!" In the past, there was so much time To celebrate me in my prime Over presents and cake I climb Over fondant hills to my death day Tell me why I should be so glad For future layers of life to add Just to be eaten up? It's sad I'm too busy on my birthday