Comic Books (specifically, The Kamandi Challenge)

This might come as a shock to some people, but comic books are not foreign to me. I blame my dad. He read them while he was growing up as a kid, faded away from reading them once he grew older, and then picked them back up again once I was born (and he has been buying them regularly ever since).

Therefore, I have all sorts of memories about comic books in general. When I was in elementary school, my dad would buy me and my sister red Swedish fish candy in a small brown bag that the store would sell next to the register. (It was super cheap and what kid doesn’t like candy? I used to look forward to these trips just for these sweets.) I’ve been recruited countless of times to assist my dad in stuffing the comics into their protective plastic covering. For the past few years, I’ve also been roped into categorizing all the comics into their particular series so that they can be grouped together in their cardboard boxes. (It’s like my family knows I like to organize things…)

Do I actually read any of these comics, you ask?

Well, I’ve occasionally picked up one or two here and there. Usually, it was just a thing my dad and brother did. It really wasn’t until fall 2015 when I started reading The Walking Dead series. And, yes, I have read all 164 issues. I look forward to the first Wednesday of every month in order to get my greedy hands on the next installment.

But last month, my dad recommended a particular series that just came out. And if you already read the title of this post, it’s called The Kamandi Challenge.

The story itself is intriguing: it follows the last man on Earth (Kamandi) and his journey during a post-apocalyptic world where animals are humanoid and in charge.

But what made me pick it up is the challenge of the actual series. Basically, there are 12-14 teams of artists and writers. Each month, one team creates the issue and builds off of the cliffhanger from the last team. Then, in the editorial letter in the back, the previous writer will explain how they would have gone about moving the plot forward and removing Kamandi from harm’s way after the cliffhanger. The challenge is being done in honor of the legendary comic, Jack Kirby, to celebrate what would have been his 100th birthday this year.

For me, it’s super fun to try and guess what kind of direction the next writer will send Kamandi into. My dad and I also discuss which ending we prefer (the actual one or the one the previous writer would have done). It’s also cool seeing the variety of artwork in each issue.

I think it’s a really neat writing exercise, working on one particular story and making your own spin on it for a segment of it. (It reminds me of my role-playing days back in junior high and high school, haha.)

So if you’re not a comic book reader, I think you should take a journey to the nearest comic book store at least once and browse the shelves. The world-building that these writers do for these books is mind-blowing at times.

The only down side to comics is that they’re so short, so as soon as you finish the issue, you’re ready for the next one. But instead, you have to wait another week (or month) for the next one. The agony! How dare you make me wait!

Struggles of My Writer's Itch

I’m going to be honest with you guys…

I haven’t written anything creatively (i.e.: stories) since NaNoWriMo ended in November.

I tend to always take December off, but by the end of January, I’m usually back to writing again. It’s now the middle of February and I’ve actually been in the mood to write for the past couple of weeks. However, I’ve found that I’m really good at making excuses for myself on why I shouldn’t write just yet.

For a while, I didn’t really have any story/plot calling to me. I even have a Word document of possible opening lines and it still did nothing for me. There was a time where I doubted myself and wondered if I’m not an imaginative person after all and I’ve just been lying to myself for years.

Last week, I finally managed to jot down a few ideas in a notebook. But I’ve reached the point where I believe these ideas aren’t good enough and I don’t want to explore them further. Which doesn’t make sense because no one would read these stories, so who cares if they’re good or not?

This is when I know it’s been too long since I last wrote something. I become fearful that, maybe in the past three months, I lost all my writing skills and I’ve now regressed to where I was three years ago.

Sigh. I put too much unnecessary pressure on myself.

But to go back to what I was saying about story ideas…

A few weeks ago, I thought about all of my major writing projects that I have worked on throughout the years. And I realized, generally speaking, I’m writing about the same thing over and over again. The central genre, the organizations within the stories, and even certain personality traits found within my protagonist. (Although, I’ve noticed that over the last two and a half years, my protagonists are beginning to evolve into anti-heroes. I don’t know what that says about me.)

I’ve been told that this is common among other writers/authors. Some people are okay with this about themselves; others, they’re bothered that they’ve boxed themselves in. For myself, I’m not sure what to think. The fact that I’m basically writing the same thing, time after time, must mean I’m still trying to work the idea out. Obviously something about it must still interest me. But on the other hand, I wonder how it’s challenging me as a writer if I’m not working on new ideas.

Blah.

So anyway, to sum my ramblings up, I’ve been itching to write but I don’t know what stories to work on. And I think too much.

But what else is new?

A Busy Month (Another Life Update)

January signals the beginning of the year. Sometimes, I like new beginnings. It’s nice to get a fresh start in your life once in a while; things become exciting and new. Adventure blooms before your very eyes. (Can you tell that I’m ready for spring already?)

But if you’re experiencing the start of something new, then it signals change. Sometimes change isn’t fun. It’s difficult and anxiety-inducing. Sometimes you’re forced into this new beginning, not feeling very prepared, but you have to do it anyway.

As you may remember, I graduated from college again last month. Once the new year started and everyone began to trickle back to their work/school obligations after the holidays, I only had to return to my internship. I quickly churned out my manuscript reading for them due to my increased free time and simply because I missed the act of it.

I have also agreed to help OAR (Oakland Arts Review) out for the semester. Despite the fact that the class ended and I graduated, I hate seeing projects unfinished. I wanted to see it through before bowing out. I originally told myself that I’d pitch in with the little tasks, like mailing the booklets out in March. However, once our first meeting of the semester concluded, I was dumbfounded at how I managed to pick up extra roles. Hello, more submission readings! (For the record, I’m not complaining about my additional tasks. I was just very surprised that I ended up with more work for myself than expected.)

And between all of that, I’ve also been stalking job search websites and applying to a couple of places. It’s tiring work, crafting cover letters and whatnot. But I’m determined to find something. (Oh, if I only lived in New York. Then I could apply to work in a literary agency office.)

But that’s not all! I have also been more involved in my church this month because, for most of last year, I had to take a step back due to school getting in the way. It’s nice meeting new people again (and this is coming from an introvert).

So basically, contrary to what some (real-life) people may think, I’ve actually been pretty busy lately. But I don’t mind being busy. I find that, if I spend a lot of time doing nothing, I get too content and end up being afraid to step outside of my comfort zone for a while.

I just hope I can carry this momentum into February.



Randomness: I managed to read an entire novel this month, too. THE POISONED BLADE by Kate Elliot, in case you were wondering. I’m also about a third into THREE DARK CROWNS by Kendare Blake. (It’s so good, from what I’ve read so far!)

Maybe I’m on track to read more than nineteen books this year? I’ve already read more than I did last year around this time, so that’s reassuring.

Super Quick Post! (aka: Go Check Out My Guest Post)

Happy 2017 everyone!

Just wanted to share with you the guest post I did for the Oakland Arts Review. You can find it HERE. I talk about ways on how to tackle your jealousy toward another writer’s work.

The Oakland Arts Review is an international undergraduate literary journal from Oakland University. (So, yes, now you know where I earned my second degree.) I had a great time working with my class last semester, trying to get the second edition of the journal off the ground. I can’t wait to see the final product this spring.

If you’re an aspiring writer and also an undergrad, we would love to receive a submission from you! (It’s free, after all!) Unfortunately, I won’t read anymore entries due to the fact that I’m a graduate, but it’s a great experience as a writer to get your work out there. The act of sending your stories/poems/essays teaches you how to write cover letters, along with dealing with rejection (which is inevitable in the writing world). Plus, if your work is accepted, it’s a nice thing to include on your resume.

So hop over to read my guest post on the OAR blog. And if you have the time, read some of my classmates’ blog posts as well. They’re a talented group of people, discussing a variety of topics involving writing and books. I hope you learn something new.



P.S. Happy Martin Luther King, Jr Day! For those of you who had school or work cancelled today, I hope you enjoyed your day off and made the world a little brighter.

Superlatives for the Books I Read this Year

It appears that I’ve reached the end of another year already. Earlier today, I looked back at my yearly book log and was disappointed to discover how I only read 19 books. Nineteen! I understand that, to some people, it’s quite an accomplishment. But not to an avid book reader, like myself.

I’ve been recording all the books I’ve leisurely read since 2012 (I know, I’m weird) and it was so disheartening to see how I only got around to less than twenty books. Last year, I read 34 books. And the year before that were 49. In 2013, it was 39. In 2012, I was a reading machine with a total of 64 books (I had a few nice trips to the library that summer).

Despite my measly amount of books this year, it’s not like I wasn’t doing any kind of reading. I had two semesters of school, so I read: nine novels, three literary magazines, and countless of short stories and manuscript submissions.

But because I read so little for myself this year, I decided to have some fun with it and make some superlatives!

Head’s Up: Sorry there are a few spoilers when I’m talking about the books below. I couldn’t get around it. :/




Most Creative

TALES OF THE PECULIAR by Ransom Riggs

     I was blown away by how dedicated the creative team was at trying to make this look like an antique storybook. It had a felt cover with embedded gold lettering, a bookmark, pictures, and occasional footnotes in the voice of the “author” (a character from the Miss Peregrine series). I even loved the little touch of having the colophon related to the narrator’s world.

     Favorite two short stories from the collection: The Splendid Cannibals and The Girl Who Could Tame Nightmares.





Best Sequel

THE HUNT by Megan Shepherd

     The way the first book ended (their escape plan became ruined), I was really interested in how they were planning on escaping this time. Most of the main characters were thrown into a new environment, one of them dies at the end during their second escape, and they land on a new alien planet. Now I’m left wondering how Shepherd plans on finishing the trilogy with her last book.

Runner-ups for Best Sequel:

     THE ROSE SOCIETY by Marie Lu. I was deeply sadden when Enzo died in the first book, so I was fascinated on how he somewhat came back in its sequel. But most importantly, I loved how Adelina finally got to become queen by the end. You go, girl! (Even if she’s technically the villain.)

     THE RULE OF MIRRORS by Caragh M. O’Brian. Since Rosie’s (the main character) consciousness was split into two by the end of the first book, I loved how I was given alternating chapters of each part of her consciousness in the sequel. To be honest, as I was reading, I was more interested in Althea’s perspective than Rosie’s.



Best Stand-Alone

Strangely, I didn’t read many stand-alone novels this year. They were mainly parts of a duology or trilogy. I did read three short story collections, but I won’t count those.

 WHEN by Victoria Laurie earns this superlative. I read this book in two days because I was so intrigued by the plot. It’s kinda a sci-fi/fantasy (because the main character knows the exact date of when everyone dies based on the set of numbers on your forehead), but it was also a mystery (there’s a murderer out on the loose in the town!). And it earns brownie points because the main character’s best friend is a boy and neither of them have romantic feelings to one another. Yay for platonic friendships!








Longest Book

SIX OF CROWS by Leigh Bardugo

It clocked in at 462 pages. In the grand scheme of things, it’s not really a whole lot compared to other giant books. It’s just the largest book I read this year (the physical book in of itself is also large, but that’s beside the point). But the novel was so good and it was worth every word on its pages.





Best Books I Had to Read for School

What? You didn’t think that I’d actually include the books I was forced to read this year? Ha! I actually enjoyed a few of them, so I decided to share the title between two books:

WHITE TEETH by Zadie Smith. I loved the interconnectivity between the various characters. I also enjoyed the humor.

PARABLE OF THE SOWER by Octavia E. Butler. This dystopian world is right up my alley and I liked how it was written as if the main character was writing in her diary.








So there you have it! Hopefully I can read more than 19 books in the coming year. (The fact that my current tower of books stands at thirteen – thanks to my four new books from Christmas – might motivate me.)

NaNoWriMo '16 (aka: No Sleep For Me)

It has officially been ten days since NaNoWriMo ended. Guess how many words I wrote during the entire month of November?

The grand total was 51,891 words.

That’s right! Third time winner, right here!!

This was my second best year in terms of word count. My record was in 2014 with 52,119 words. And, yeah, I was only 228 words from surpassing that record, but whatever. I had finished writing a scene and didn’t want to start a new one. Plus, I didn’t want to write almost 2,000 words on that last day because then it would screw with my monthly average. Especially since I technically hit the 50k mark on the 29th.

But look at how pretty this bar graph is! (No one can say that I'm not a consistent writer.)

I ended up writing a total of six stories this year, which was the same as last year. I didn’t even plan that.

Looking back, Story 1 was a poorly written short story. It was so dialogue heavy (but the concept still interests me). But, hey, it was a good warm-up. When I started writing Story 3, I thought that it would carry me for a majority of the month. Turns out, I only spent five days writing it and then hit a brick wall with it. So I moved on.

On November 9, I had already written five stories (or the beginnings of stories) and I had no idea what to write. So in a fit of panic, I reached for the top book on my pile (see my October blog post for the book tower) and opened it to page 49. I took the first full sentence on that page and it became the very first line of my next story.

I was totally making things up on the spot, but somehow, by the end of the week, I was beginning to see the entire story arc. Eventually, I wrote two charts by hand to organize my ideas. It really didn’t surprise me that I worked on this story all the way up to the end of NaNo.

But guys, despite me winning, this year was tough for me to make time for writing. I had a workshop class, a literary magazine class, and an internship. I already had to do a ton of reading and writing, which is all time consuming. Writing for NaNoWriMo took sometime between 2-2.5 hours daily. During that first week, I think I regularly only got 3-4 hours of sleep because I was trying to cram everything that I needed to get done in a day. My new bedtime is now 4am (which, unfortunately, has stuck since the beginning of November). Luckily, I can sleep in. My whole sleep schedule is terrible, basically.

So when December 1st rolled around, I was relieved. Mainly because I could then concentrate on my final projects for school.

But at least I have something to show for my sleepless nights…

^I feel like I say this every year, but I'm sorry for how grainy the photo is. My webcam is the only thing that can take such a wide shot of myself without having to physically get someone to take a picture.



P.S. Also, as of December 8th, I am officially finished with school! And I don’t mean that I’m finished with the semester (which is true), but I’m done with my second degree. I won’t be attending the graduation ceremony (once was enough), but all I need now is for my actual degree to arrive in the mail.

And a job. I’ll be continuing my internship for another 3-4 months come January (which I’m excited to read more submissions), so I guess that’s something to hold me over in the meantime...

Life Update

Like I predicted, it has been a hectic month for me. I feel like I’m all over the place. And because I like lists, I’m going to use them to explain what I’ve been up to since the last blog post.


1.) I’ve been sick.

I got sick with a bad common cold (as in, I got all those “rarer” symptoms from the common cold virus…like pink eye). I lost my voice for a week and a half. My throat hurt. Half the time, I couldn’t breathe through my nose. I lost my appetite for two days. I’ve been coughing a lot. It was a rough ten days. Thank goodness for Dayquil for keeping me somewhat functioning during the worst of it. The sad part is, I’m still probably only 98% healthy now. (My right tonsil has not been normal for three weeks and I’m still occasionally coughing. Pathetically, I strained my back from all the coughing.)

Much to my family’s dismay, I’ve been stubborn at not seeing a doctor. What’s the point when there is no antibiotic/cure for the common cold? Eventually, the virus will run its course…which is always the hardest part.


2.) My birthday

I turned 24 years old in the middle of the month. Unfortunately, I didn’t do anything fun and exciting that day. It rained all morning and this was the time when my sickness was at its peak (the day after was the pinnacle of my entire common cold suffering).

Although, it made me realize that I’m basically halfway through my twenties. What in the world have I been doing with my life? The answer: Clearly not enough.

Also, look how much my stack of books has grown!

Yes, I did indeed get eight books for my birthday. And look at those pretty red pages of CROOKED KINGDOM! Sadly, I probably won’t read any of those novels until the semester ends.


3.) School

Trying to balance schoolwork while being sick is tough. You just don’t have the energy and would rather sleep. I feel like I’m still trying to play catch-up.

But at least I don’t have to read so much for my internship anymore. We have our own projects now rather than read submissions.

Also, I will have a guest blog post on my university’s literary magazine website! I don’t know when it’s scheduled to go up (if I did the math correctly, it might be late December/early January). I’ll let you know when it happens so you can head on over there and check it out.


4.) NaNoWriMo 2016

Yes, I’m crazy enough to participate once again this year. I literally have no plan of action. (I’ve been too focused on trying to get healthy and dealing with homework.) I guess I’ll resort to my usual…start by writing short stories and once something sticks, I’ll write that story for as long as I can.

Plus, there’s no point in trying to talk myself out of it. I got a taste of being a winner for the last two years and I’m determined to win again. Even at the sake of my own sanity.

At least I can finally stop feeling so guilty in my workshop class. When we meet up every Monday, at some point, my professor wants to hear how our writing has been going this past week. And every time, I tell her how I haven’t been doing much writing except for this class. (I do enough reading and writing for school. If I have any free time, I’d rather watch tv or something to give myself a break.)



I don’t know how some people do it. I’m a young, single person without a full-time job or responsible for kids (or any other big responsibilities). How do you get everything done without permanently raising your blood pressure? Either I need better priorities or I work too hard at being a perfectionist.

And speaking of being busy, don’t be surprised if I don’t post anything on this blog next month. NaNoWriMo will be occupying whatever free time I have. Not like I have a huge following for this blog anyway, so you probably won’t even notice.



P.S. Happy Halloween!