The itching is insane. Every spot above his waist is unreachable fire.
Sentence of the Day: The Overstory, p. 105
October 31, 2019 at 11:58 pm (Books, Personal Bookshelf, Recommended, short story collections, Writing)
Tags: novel, reading lists
Aliens! The Overstory, p. 97
October 31, 2019 at 7:39 am (Books, Personal Bookshelf, Recommended)
Tags: novel, reading lists, speculative fiction
- Aliens land on earth. They’re little runts, as alien races go. But they metabolize like there’s no tomorrow. They zip around like swarms of gnats, too fast to see — so fast that Earth seconds seem to them like years. To them, humans are nothing but sculptures of immobile meat. The foreigners try to communicate, but there’s no reply. Finding no signs of intelligent life, they tuck into the frozen statues and start curing them like so much jerky, for the long ride home.
What the Archbishop Says to Self’s MC (18th C, Bear In Mind)
October 27, 2019 at 8:03 pm (Artists and Writers, Conversations, Filipino Writers, Philippine History, Sundays, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: advice, historical fiction, novel, The Philippines
My son, your disposition cannot be mild. Under the circumstances, we require you to be vicious. May God Give you strength! (p. 9 of 359)
Setting: Isla del Fuego
October 26, 2019 at 7:40 pm (Artists and Writers, Explorers, Filipino Writers, Places, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: Asian American Writers, fiction, novel, Saturday, South-East Asia, The Philippines
from self’s novel:
- It has a circuit of nearly a hundred leagues and a length of about fifty leagues, for it is very narrow. At the two extremities it is, at the widest place, about twenty leagues wide. All along the coast are to be found bays that curve in different directions.
This, dear blog readers, is self’s mythical island in the central Philippines. The place where her ambitious MC (a priest!) lives out his life, in the 18th century.
Stay tuned.
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Textures
October 24, 2019 at 12:16 pm (Links, Traveling)
Tags: Annaghmakerrig, Cee Neuner, Ireland, seasons, transitions, Tyrone Guthrie Centre
Seriously love this prompt, from Cee Neuner: TEXTURES.
Reminds self of the thing she enjoys most about FALL.
Sentence of the Day: from Blue Water, Distant Shores
October 24, 2019 at 7:47 am (Artists and Writers, Books, destinations, Explorers, Filipino Writers, Places, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: historical fiction, historical novel, Manila, novel, The Philippines
Going to be sending this out for query in the next few days.
p. 24:
- The soft breeze blowing through carried a scent of river mud and a tinge of something else, something pungent and rich, reminding him of the canals back home, the estuaries that carried effluvia from Murcia to the sea.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
Global Fund for Women: Statement
October 24, 2019 at 6:18 am (Calls, Family, Links, Recommended)
Tags: causes, medicine, politics
NOTE: Lest you confuse this with Ivanka’s Global Women’s Initiative WHICH DOES NOTHING, the Global Fund for Women has existed in Menlo Park for decades, and provided small grants to women establishing their own businesses, from small villages in India and Africa, to women’s clinics, all over the world.
22 October 2019
No politician should come between a patient and their doctor, no matter what country they live in — but that’s exactly what the Trump administration has done. This is about health and rights — which transcend partisanship and borders.
One of Trump’s first actions as President was to reinstate the devastating global gag rule, which denies funding to international organizations working on global health if they provide abortion service or even referrals. This means that 26 million women and families worldwide are denied access to contraception, cancer screenings, STI treatment, and safe abortion services. And just last month, the same laws were expanded to the United States under Title X, which will prevent millions of women from being able to access affordable reproductive healthcare.
Global Fund for Women supports women’s rights organizations that are expanding legal and safe abortion access for women and girls, and funds feminist organizations that are documenting the impact of the global gag rule.
You can read more about this excellent organization, here.
The Training in Miracles: p. 158 of Self’s Historical (Well, Maybe NOT So Historical After All) Novel
October 22, 2019 at 5:28 pm (Artists and Writers, Books, Filipino Writers, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: Annaghmakerrig, artists residency, novel, Tyrone Guthrie Centre, writing process
From 4:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., this group was kept constantly occupied with reading and rigorous forms of self-affliction: lying face-down on the stone floor of the chapel, or bathing from a pump in the chilly pre-dawn. This was calculated to prepare them for the rigors of an overseas mission. They dedicated themselves to the study of languages, such as Dutch, English, French, and German. They received medical instruction, for they would be required to run hospitals. Last, they received guidance in the writing of their own sermons, and in the performance of miracles.
(If indeed this turns out to be an ACTUAL HISTORICAL NOVEL, then self will have to cut out all the parts about miracles)
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
Sentence of the Day: Francisco Ignacio Alcina, S.J.
October 22, 2019 at 11:05 am (Artists and Writers, Books, Explorers, Philippine History, Places, Recommended)
Tags: history, The Philippines
- It is an established fact that these natives came here in boats and since all these are islands, they could not come in any other manner.
— History of the Bisayan People in the Philippine Islands, 1668
Opening, New Flash
October 21, 2019 at 1:59 pm (Filipino Writers, Great First Lines, Places, Surprises, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: flash fiction, Manila, Mondays, The Philippines, writing process
Living and breathing Philippine history for two weeks does have its advantages. Such as
HISTORICAL FLASH! HISTORICAL FLASH! HISTORICAL FLASH!
- In the city of Manila, on the twentieth of May, in the year one-thousand, five-hundred and eighty-nine, Doctor Santiago de Marquina saw a girl he estimated to be about fourteen years of age rising about a foot above the floor while she made her confession. This occurrence took place in the chapel of the convent of the Barefoot Saint Clares, situated by the Puerto Real in the old fort known as Intramuros.
Stay tuned.
