Found out today that my story made the longlist of LitMag’s Virginia Woolf Award for Short Fiction.
It was speculative fiction. I took a chance!
That is all.
Made the Longlist
June 4, 2021 at 1:45 pm (Artists and Writers, Explorers, Filipino Writers, Surprises, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: COVID Writing, fiction, Fridays, happiness, literary awards, Literary Magazines, Marianne Villanueva, short story, speculative fiction
Coming Soon in Pembroke Magazine: A New Short Story!
May 14, 2021 at 4:28 pm (Artists and Writers, Filipino Writers, Publishers, Recommended, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: angst, Literary Magazines, short story
When the Chopard earrings were in my hand or, rather, in my purse, or — what am I talking about? I never owned a purse, only a little silk pouch my grandmother had given me when I was twelve and which was now significantly frayed and threadbare, a danger to the contents, particularly to Chopard earrings — anyway, when I had the earrings with me, I felt light. I floated through the air and down the stairs, even though I wasn’t actually taking another step. It was the way people moved in True Blood. Fast, and then still. Fast, and then still.
— from my story “Sand”
Thursday Trios
April 27, 2021 at 12:30 am (Artists and Writers, destinations, Explorers, Links, Lists, Personal Bookshelf, postaday, Publishers, Traveling, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: 1888 Center, art, Bath, Dublin, exhibits, Irish artists, short story, Small Press
This challenge is hosted by Mama Cormier. Every Thursday, you post a picture of a trio.
Self knows, it is Monday today. Nevertheless.
- Bath, England 2017
- Self’s three contributor copies of The Cost of Paper, published by 1888 Center in Orange, CA
- A trio of Mike Byrne ceramics, at an exhibit in Dublin Castle, May 2019
- Alan Meredith’s ebonised wood triptych, at the same exhibit in Dublin Castle, May 2019
Searching for trios can be quite addictive!
Stay safe, dear blog readers. Stay safe.
Western Humanities Review, Spring 2020
February 18, 2021 at 7:56 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: Asian American Writers, COVID Writing, first sentence, happiness, Just published, Literary Magazines, short story, The Philippines, Western Humanities Review, writing process
Self has a story in the latest issue of Western Humanities Review. She based it on a true story about a ferry disaster in the Philippine Sea. And it all began with the first sentence:
I didn’t like the blind woman.
Short Story of the Day: “Crocodile Teeth” by Donna Lee Miele
February 17, 2021 at 12:09 am (anthologies, Artists and Writers, Books, Family, Links, Personal Bookshelf, Recommended, short story collections, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: Asian American Writers, Events, Readings, short story, short story collections
Nine more days till the Redwood City Library online reading for ms. aligned volume 3! (Thursday, Feb. 25, 5:30 p.m. – 6:45 p.m. PST) Much thanks to the library outreach staff, who gave us the slot and prepared beautiful flyers. And much thanks to series editor Pat Matsueda for coming up with the idea of a series focused on women writing about men.
Super-excited. Register here.
One of the readers on Feb. 25 is Donna Lee Miele. Self has just finished re-reading her fantastic story, “Crocodile Teeth.” From her Contributor Bio in ms. aligned 3:
- Donna Lee Miele plays with characters, settings, and conflicts that evoke her mixed heritage and her parents’ experiences of war. While she also writes historical fiction, she finds greater freedom to explore (and greater fun) in stories with less concise settings, which was her intention with “Crocodile Teeth.”
An excerpt:
I was scared of Edward’s sister. After Edward’s parents got lost looking for work upriver, she took over their grandma’s house like she’d just been waiting for the chance. She bullied Edward, she bullied their grandma, and she even bullied the guys that started hanging around, who offered everything from repairs to the wornout old house to actual money for the chance to date her. They thought she’d be easy because she and Edward were orphans. She didn’t even pretend to be nice to them. She had a look so cold she could make the bag shrivel between your legs.
If you were one of those guys, and you tried to come up on her grandma’s veranda, she would stand on its edge, look down on you, and say something like, “Take yourself to the beach and remember me to your family,” meaning Last Beach, though even she wouldn’t say that right out. Last Beach is full of whores of every kind; and every one of them, of course, is someone’s family.
Angela Nishimoto’s “Sex Education: A Tragicomedy, Part II” in ms aligned 3, edited by Rebecca Thomas
February 6, 2021 at 1:38 am (anthologies, Artists and Writers, Books, Links, Publishers, Recommended, short story collections, Women Writers)
Tags: Asian American Writers, Events, Fridays, Readings, Redwood City, short story
ms aligned 3 is a collaboration between El Léon Literary Arts (Berkeley, CA) and Manoa Books, Hawai’i. More information can be found here.
Upcoming Online Event: Redwood City Library Reading, Thursday, Feb. 25, 5:30 p.m. – 6:45 p.m. Register here.
“Daniel attempted to lead me; I tried to lead him. We struggled. I pushed him on the shoulder; he pushed me back. I kicked him in the shin. Hunching, he grabbed my right hand in both of his and bit me hard.”
— Excerpt from Angela Nishimoto’s “Sex Education: A Tragicomedy, Part II” in ms aligned 3
#amwriting: a new short story
February 3, 2021 at 1:55 pm (Artists and Writers, Family, Filipino Writers, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: COVID Writing, short story
Illness (Working Title)
Sometime in the night, the sound of her eight-year-old’s coughing woke her. She went to his room and found, upon touching his head, that it was bathed in sweat. But her son bounced up, bright as a bird, his eyes shining merrily.
Grace Loh Prasad’s “Teddy” in Ms Aligned 3
February 1, 2021 at 9:51 pm (anthologies, Artists and Writers, Books, Links, Personal Bookshelf, Recommended, short story collections, Women Writers)
Tags: Asian American Writers, COVID Reading, Events, Mondays, Readings, short story
My whole life I’ve been a model of responsibility and good sense, and you know what? It’s not a recipe for joy. I follow the rules. I never eat more than half a bowl of rice because I’m diabetic, although lately I allow myself a small bowl of red bean soup, or a tiny piece of cheesecake, no bigger than two fingers. I deserve to live a little, don’t I?
— “Teddy” by Grace Loh Prasad, Ms Aligned 3, edited by Rebecca Thomas
Grace Loh Prasad was born in Taiwan and raised in New Jersey and Hong Kong before settling in the San Francisco Bay Area. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College and is an alumna of the VONA Workshop for writers of color along with residencies at Hedgebrook and the Ragdale Foundation. Her piece, “Unfinished Translation,” is in the new issue of Khora.
Grace will be reading with contributors to Ms Aligned in an on-line event hosted by the Redwood City Library on Thursday, Feb. 25 at 5:30 p.m. – 6:45 p.m.
Just Published: The Wolf Wife (Story)
December 30, 2020 at 4:13 pm (Artists and Writers, Filipino Writers, Links, Publishers, Recommended, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: Asian American Writers, COVID Writing, fantasy, flash fiction, Literary Magazines, short story
One cold February night, his wife began to howl.
The becoming was a long process. His wife had been a small woman, barely a hundred pounds. The wolf she became was massive, almost double her human weight. She had thickly furred ears and a long, dense, whitish coat
Read the rest of the story in Spacecraft 13, a literary magazine edited by Gillian Parish
Caroline Kim, Very Much on Self’s Mind
December 23, 2020 at 9:19 pm (Artists and Writers, Books, Conversations, Holidays, Personal Bookshelf, plans, Recommended, short story collections, Women Writers)
Tags: Asian American Writers, interviews, literary awards, short story, writing process
Dear blog readers, are you in for a treat.
Caroline Kim, winner of the Drue Heinz Literature Prize, and currently on the Long List for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection, has agreed to share with self her process for writing a short story.
The story we’ll be parsing is Mr. Oh, the first story in the collection. Among other things, self will be asking her why this story came first. Or, put another way, how does she decide the order in which to put her stories?
Caroline’s answers to self’s questions will be posted next week. But read her story first. Read her collection, the entire collection. If you think of any questions, you can leave comments here, and self will pass on to Caroline.
So excited! SQUEEEE!!!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
