Lena Corazon

Flights of Fancy

Month: August 2011 (page 1 of 3)

ROW80: And the Winner Is…

August 31, 2011 / / 53 Comments

Well, friends, here we are at the end of August, and I have all sorts of lovely news to share.  For starters, I did find out that I didn’t win the SheWrites contest I mentioned a couple of weeks back, although there are five absolutely amazing folks who did. However, there are lots of other things that have happened that give me warm fuzzies:

1. I WON CAMPNANO!

Eeep, it's so shiny!!!

Ahem, you will forgive me a wee bit of excitement.  There were some days this month when I wasn’t sure if I’d ever reach 50,000 words, but somewhere in the small hours of the morning, I reached my goal.  I can hardly believe that I did it, and I am soooo grateful for everyone who’s provided me with encouragement over the past few weeks (EmWantstoWrite, I’m looking at you — those tweets of yours have been wonderful!).

In honor of this success, I’ve posted the first scene of TELL ME NO LIES.  It’s the version that I polished up for the SheWrites contest, though it will most likely end up getting pulled apart and tweaked later on down the line.  Check it out if you are so inclined. 😀

2. Blog Love!

The second piece of awesome news: Last week I received my first-ever blog award!

I was given the Liebster from both Emilia Quill and David A. Ludwig, two bloggers and writers that I had the wonderful opportunity to meet during the 7 Virtues Flash Fiction Challenge earlier in the month.  In addition, Isis Rushdan, a new friend that I’ve made through the Writers’ Platform-Building Campaign, gave me an honorable mention.

I’m incredibly grateful, especially because I started blogging back in May without any real expectations, beyond trying to be accountable for my writing goals through ROW80.  Somewhere along the way, however, I have met some wonderful people who I am quite proud to refer to as friends.

More exciting than receiving the Liebster is the chance to pass it on.  These are the rules for the award:

THE RULES:

  1. Show your appreciation to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.
  2. Reveal your top five picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
  3. Post the award on your blog.
  4. Bask in the camaraderie of the most supportive people on the internet—other writers.
  5. And best of all—have bloggity fun and spread the love.

With that in mind, here are my top five picks, chosen for their overall awesomeness and supportiveness. Ladies, you’re all wonderful!

  1. EmWantsToWrite (@EmWantsToWrite)
  2. Nadja Notariani
  3. Elizabeth Anne Mitchell (@lapidaryprose)
  4. Marie Andrews (@marie_andrews)
  5. C.M. Cipriani (@crystalcip)

Swing by their blogs, add them on Twitter, leave them lots of love. Ladies, I look forward to seeing who will receive the Liebster to next.

On the topic of friends, I’m looking forward to going out to the Castro tonight to celebrate the 26th birthday of one of my closest buddies, Chris.  We’ve known each other since 3rd grade, and still fondly reminisce about our “puppy love” days, even though he came out a couple of years ago.

My bestie and me, 5 years ago

Now that NaNo’s behind me, I think I’m going to take a few days off, as I’m feeling slightly frazzled and brain dead.  I need to focus my attention on my thesis, since I haven’t gotten too much done on that front.  I’ve also got a hefty stack of books on the TBR list, so I’m going to tackle those as well.  I’ve also been a little swamped and missed Monday and Tuesday’s blog posts, so hopefully I can take some time to queue up a few posts this weekend. With roughly three weeks left until school starts back, I want to make the most of my remaining free time.

Don’t forget: Today’s the last day to jump aboard the Writers’ Platform-Building Campaign!  It looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun (and I’ve seen some friendly ROW80 faces as well), so check it out.

ROW80’ers, we’ve only got a couple of weeks left of Round 3!  How goes your progress?  Swing by to check in on everyone here.

Excerpt: Tell Me No Lies, Scene 1

August 31, 2011 / / 13 Comments

In honor of winning CampNaNoWriMo for the month of August, here’s the opening scene for tell me no lies, the steampunk romance/thriller I worked on.  It will, of course, probably end up getting edited and tweaked again somewhere down the line, so feedback and gentle critique is most welcome.

-oOo-

Tempest Dumont was no lady.

The art of feminine sweetness was lost on her, and the thought of pursuing the refined arts that were deemed appropriate for young women of quality made her want to retch.  Luckily, she had been born on the streets of Stockton to a penniless washer-woman, rather than in some gleaming Nob Hill mansion where she certainly would have been imprisoned by the trappings of propriety and respectability.

As a result, she knew enough about machinery to fix her secondhand cleaning-bot, Mrs. Three-in-One, with little more than a well-placed hat pin and the flick of a wrist, and she could beat out even the best poker players down at Roarke’s Tavern.  Better yet, she could swill cheap liquor down her throat without incurring too terrible a hangover, throw darts with the accuracy of a sharpshooter, and talk her way out of an arrest, no matter what the offense.

Of all her prodigious talents, it was her skill in flirtation and self-defense that she treasured most.  As the star singer of The Belladonna, the glittering saloon where San Francisco’s wealthy playboys gathered to sample the delights of the Barbary Coast, such strengths came in handy.  She was the Siren of the Coast, luring men to her side with the entrancing power of her voice.  They flocked to her shows, eager for an invitation back to her dressing room, where they waited like gallant swains paying homage to a fickle goddess.

At least once a month, however, one of those eager devotees made the mistake of breaking The Belladonna’s iron-clad rule: look, but don’t touch.  When they did, Tempest was always ready to put them in their place.

Exhibit A: Leander Ward, one of the wealthiest bachelors in the city and the latest in a string of fools to press himself upon the hot-headed chanteuse without permission.  Bleary-eyed and intoxicated, he accomplished little beyond tangling his fingers in the laces of her heavily-boned corset.  Pathetic, really.  Had it not been his third offense Tempest would have let things slide, but rules were rules.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

Continue reading

Flash Fiction: Tuesday Tales, Round 4

August 31, 2011 / / 4 Comments

I finally got the chance to participate in Glitterlady’s awesome Tuesday Tales.  The prompt included one word, “dissemble,” as well as a photograph that can be seen here.  This 100 word drabble was a lot of fun to throw together, especially since it features the first vampires that I’ve written about in roughly 10 years.  There were some phenomenal entries, as usual, so be sure to scroll down and read through them.

“Dissemble”

Balloons bobbled in the sea breeze, garish against the sunset’s beauty.  Maggie scanned the half-empty patio, eyes alighting on the couple seated by the shore.  A celebration, she decided, lips twisting cynically. How precious.

A low growl caught her attention, and she turned to see Philip eyeing the couple, fangs flashing in his bloodlust.  She tugged on his hand in warning.

“Behave yourself.”

Philip licked his lips, unrepentant.  “I thought you wanted dinner.”

“Remember the Master’s instructions? ‘Fit in, dissemble.’” When he scoffed, she squeezed his hand harder, sharp nails digging into flesh. “Wait, brother. Our time will come.”

ROW80: A Rose by Any Other Name…

August 28, 2011 / / 33 Comments

It’s been a jam-packed few days, dominated by helping my sister move in to her new apartment in time for the school year to begin.  I spent most of Thursday and Friday either packing, driving, or unpacking, but in the midst of everything, I snagged a few spare moments to work on my NaNo tale.

I’m happy to report that I have less than 6.5K to write before CampNaNo ends on the 31st. While the story is in no means complete, I have an amazing foundation in place.  I’m looking forward to crafting a world around my characters, beefing up my use of steampunk technology, tightening the mystery/thriller elements of the plot, and weaving in bits of backstory and alternative history.  Editing, I think, might end up being more fun than writing the first draft.

The other thing that has been on my mind is the question of choosing a pseudonym. I’ve been pretty lax about keeping my writing and non-writing lives separate. With the school year looming before me, however, the urge to protect my writing activities from Google-obsessed colleagues and students has become much stronger.

Adopting a penname is a difficult decision to make because I like my name.  Granted, it’s a name that is often butchered and mispronounced, so I’ve learned to respond to countless variations (“Jamz” is the most recent, bestowed upon me by my grad school colleagues), but all the same, it represents who I am.

Most importantly, my name feels like an almost-tangible link to a rich tapestry of family history, one that is made all the more complex by my multiracial heritage. Jamison, my mother’s maiden name, connects me with a family tree that has been traced back to the Civil War, when the Emancipation Proclamation freed my many-times removed great-grandmother from slavery.  Sinlao, my father’s last name, connects me to the Philippines, where my dad lived until he was 15.  I feel strongly about being both black and Filipina, and the thought of discarding name and identity is troubling.

Still, a pseudonym is necessary.  I want to write, I want to publish, and I want to build a presence on social media that won’t infringe upon my professional career.  The only way I can do this without stressing out is to just pick a darn penname and move on.

To stem the inevitable existential crisis, I’ve crafted a name that hearkens back to my roots.  I’m adopting “Lena Corazon” as my writing name, “Lena” after my maternal great-great grandmother, and “Corazon” as my private homage to Corazon Aquino, the first female president of the Philippines.

I’ve spent the past couple of days trying it out.  Slowly but surely, I’m making it my own, scribbling it in my writing notebook, setting up Gmail and G+ accounts, and, er, dropping it in conversation whenever I can (I think my mom is getting sick of hearing about it. :p).  Once I can set up WordPress’ site redirection service, I’ll switch over my blog address and Twitter account name as well. The thought is a little scary and rather bizarre, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it. 😀

So that’s me for the week!  I will be traveling most of Sunday, heading back to SF, which means that comments and whatnot may be sparse from me over the next day or two.  In the meantime, I wave my pom-poms of encouragement for all of my ROW80 compatriots as we near the end of Round 3. Keep up all the wonderful work, friends!

Thesis Thursdays: Emily Post, the Voice of the 1920s

August 25, 2011 / / 14 Comments

It’s time for another round of Thesis Thursdays, my weekly discussion of the topics related to my MA thesis, a study of US etiquette texts published in the 1920s.  For any new visitors, you find the two part introduction to my thesis here: Part 1 and Part 2. Today, we turn to the name most closely associated with etiquette: Emily Post.

Thus Best Society is not a fellowship of the wealthy, nor does it seek to exclude those who are not of exalted birth; but it is an association of gentle-folk, of which good form in speech, charm of manner, knowledge of the social amenities, and instinctive consideration for the feelings of others, are the credentials by which society the world over recognizes its chosen members.

So concludes the opening chapter of Emily Price Post’s 1922 classic, Etiquette: In Society, In Business, In Politics and at Home.  The book was immensely popular upon its debut, reaching the top 10 bestsellers list of 1923 and positioning Post as one of the foremost authorities on etiquette within the United States.

Emily Post, Source: Library of Congress

Born in 1872, Post was brought up in a family linked to wealth and privilege.  Her maternal grandfather, Washington Lee, had amassed a fortune in coal fields, and while her paternal family had little by way of wealth, they made up for it in terms of reputation.  The marriage of Post’s parents, Josephine and Bruce Price, was noted to be “an equitable swap, great lineage for great wealth” (Claridge 2005:12).

With such a background, Post led a charmed life, one that allowed her to mix with influential members of New York society, granting her an early glimpse into the world that she would later write about. At age of 20, she married Edwin Post, a prominent New York banker.

Emily Post on her honeymoon, 1892.

After 13 years, their marriage ended in divorce after the scandal of Edwin’s affairs hit the gossip columns.  It’s here that Post’s life took an unexpected turn.  Though she was able to fall back on the money from her mother’s legacy (she opted not to press for alimony from Edwin, as his company had experienced some financial problems), she began to write, penning short stories that were sold to magazines, as well as travel columns and novels.

Continue reading

ROW80: A Ray of Sunshine

August 24, 2011 / / 23 Comments

I write this after having a day of unplanned relaxation.  It wasn’t my intention; Sunday and Monday were epic workdays where I made major headway on framing the arguments for my current thesis chapter, as well as outlining tell me no lies.  However, I woke up to sunshine streaming through my windows.  Given that the past few weeks have looked like this…

That is rain on the window. Yes, in AUGUST.

and this…

Mid-day, and already dark and dreary. Ugh.

…it’s little surprise that I abandoned working for laying out in the backyard with a book.

As a result, I’m slightly behind on my writing goals, which means I need to write roughly 3200 words today to catch up. I’m a little worried about how things are going to go this weekend, as I’ve been tapped to drive to Los Angeles so I can help my mom move my sister into her new apartment before school starts.  We’ll be staying at my apartment in Santa Barbara to help break up the trip a little bit, which is definitely exciting — I miss my deck garden, and I left a few things behind that I’d like to pick up.  Still, I’m not sure exactly how much I’m going to get done, so I am resigning myself to the fact that I might not make 50K by the end of the month.

However, not all was fun and games today!  I wrote a silly blog post about my first story, and more importantly, I finally battled the mess of my Google reader.

Continue reading

Things I Love Tuesday: My First Story

August 23, 2011 / / 7 Comments

Welcome to Things I Love Tuesday, my weekly post where I get to showcase the things that tickle my fancy.

One of my favorite things about visiting my parents is the chance to dig up treasures from my youth.  I know, I know — I’m only 24 years old, so we’re not talking a huge span of time.  Still, I am inclined towards nostalgia and I have a tendency to save things (though nothing on the level of Hoarders folks), which means that when I dig through the storage bins in the garage, there’s always a chance of uncovering something precious but forgotten.

I’ve saved the normal sorts of things, like old report cards, essays that received high marks, awards from elementary school, but what I really treasure are the books that I’ve kept, especially the ones from when I first learning how to read.

Today’s find: my copy of Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham, a present for my 5th birthday.  What makes these books extra special, however, is that it’s also where I wrote my first story.

The front page has an inscription from my mom, written in red crayon.  It still smile whenever I read it, because it brings back memories of the day she wrote it for me.

"Jamila will have a birthday soon! She will be 5 years old. Jamila will go to an ice show with her mom and dad."

My mom taught me how to read and write before I got to kindergarten.  I’m her first-born, and she thought that I would need the skills when I started school.  For the record, I ended up incredibly over-prepared.

The reading bit was an accident; she read to me every day, and eventually I started reading back to her.  Once I mastered that, she taught me letters, words, and sentences.  When I had those building blocks in hand, there was no stopping me.  I wanted to make stories of my own.

Granted, they’re a little silly, disjointed, and short, like the above: “I am Jamila on a big cat.”  Still, I tried for a little complexity:

One thing I had down by this point, quite clearly, is my name.  One thing I didn’t have down, and that was the whole “books go from left to right” business.

On the right, we have the start of the story: “Jamila story book by Jamila Jamison Sinlao.” (No grasp of possessive nouns, either.)  As it continues,

the story. [I am] 4 and I will be 5 next year and my TV…

The fox ate the rabbit and the lamb.

the end of the story

What I really love?  The fact that my mom wrote out, “The end of the story” so I could copy it down myself.  Gotta love parents who encourage their children’s endeavors.

Really, what we have here are my first attempts at flash fiction. :p  But what I also think it shows is that for me, my love of reading and writing fiction sprang up together.

When did you start writing fiction?  Was it an early hobby, or something that you adopted later?  Any fun stories about your first stories?

Writers’ Platform-Building Campaign

August 22, 2011 / / 91 Comments

Okay, I know I should’ve posted a Monday Inspirations blog today, but I spent two days straight working on my thesis, and my brain was way too close to short-circuiting to even consider penning one.  So Monday Inspirations will resume next week (and hopefully I’ll come up with a topic by then!  I was considering a post on robots, but we’ll see where the muse takes me).

However, I did want to highlight Rachael Harrie’s Writers’ Platform-Building Campaign, which begins today and goes through October 31st.  As Rachael describes, the Campaign is “a way to link writers, aspiring authors, beginner bloggers, industry people, and published authors together with the aim of helping to build our online platforms.”

I’ve signed up for a few groups on the list of campaigners (you’ll find me under Adult Fiction, Fantasy, and Paranormal Romance), and I’m excited to get to know my fellow Campaigners.  Writing friends, I encourage you to get involved as well!


ROW80: Trying to Shake the Panic

August 21, 2011 / / 19 Comments

I’m trying to reconcile myself to the fact that August is rapidly coming to a close.  The thought fills me with a bit of melancholy.  My younger sister will be headed back to LA for her sophomore year of college at the end of the week, and I’ll be leaving for Santa Barbara in about a month.  In the meantime, I have a lot of work to do on the thesis, and I’m feeling that familiar wave of panic over getting this first draft completed.

I’m also starting to stress out about the workload that I’ll have to tackle in the upcoming quarter: finishing and defending the thesis, taking two seminars, and teaching two discussion sections is a lot more than I’ve had to deal with in a while.  I haven’t taught a discussion section in over a year, and while I love being in front of a classroom, I’m definitely a little rusty.  Add this to the fact that I’m actually just tired of taking classes (only 4 left till I’m free of them!), and it makes for a fair amount of trepidation.

Anyway, onto some positive things. The highlights for the week included:

  • Catching up on my CampNaNo word count.  tell me no lies is now 32.5k long, and I am slowly imposing structure upon the mad tangle of scenes that I’ve written.  Only 17,438 words to go!
  • Diagnosing the plot problem that has plagued Path to the Peacock Throne for the better part of two months.  The solution, however, means that the story is going to be a two-parter, but for the saga and adventure that I have in mind, I’ll need two books to tell Liandre’s tale.  It’s a lofty goal, but one that I can’t wait to tackle.  This might just be one of my Round 4 goals. 😀
  • Overhauling the “Novels In-Progress” page on the blog and adding new synopses for the three stories that I’m juggling.  This has been a goal for a while now.
  • Following the #ASA2011 twitter feed for the annual American Sociological Association meeting, currently happening in Las Vegas.  The venue of course means that there are many pithy observations about consumption and commodities, along with highlights from the sessions.  Someone has also gone and made twitter accounts for social theorists Emile Durkheim (@emiledurkheim) and Talcott Parsons (@talcottparsons), which are hilarious, and filled with lots of nerdy soc jokes.  For example:
  • Finally, I read a book!  This has been on my to-do list for a few weeks now. I devoured Elizabeth Redfern’s Music of the Spheres, which is a murder mystery that takes place in 18th century London.  It actually reminds me a fair bit of what I’m trying to do with tell me no lies, so it was both entertaining and useful.
Today is a hard-core work day, so I’m off to make some headway on the thesis, and hopefully add another 1600 words or so to my WIP.  Have a wonderful week, all!

Friday Free-for-All: Books, the Precious Life-Blood

August 19, 2011 / / 6 Comments

For this week’s Friday Free-for-All, I’ve had books on the brain.  The wonderful and amazing Jenny Hansen posted yesterday about the way writers read, and today about her love affair with books, and it set me to thinking about all the reasons why books are awesome.

One of my favorite quotes about books comes from John Milton’s pamphlet Areopagitica, a treatise denouncing censorship and Britain’s Licensing Order of 1643.  It’s a stirring defense of freedom of speech, and contains some of my favorite invocations of the power of books and the written word:

For books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are; nay, they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them… Who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God’s image; but he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself, kills the image of God, as it were in the eye. Many a man lives a burden to the earth; but a good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on a purpose beyond life.

Milton’s words are eloquent and grandiose, his arguments lofty and soaring. Areopagitica is worth a read, and is available on the public domain from Project Gutenberg.

I love the idea that books contain the “living intellect that bred them.” Indeed, whenever I read a book, I feel connected in some small way with the person who wrote it. Reading allows me to traverse time and place, to commune, if only for a few hundred pages, with the mind that gave birth to the book in my hands.


« Older posts
August 2011
S M T W T F S
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031  

© 2024 Lena Corazon

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox

Join other followers: