Blog
Using Transmedia Storytelling to Connect with Audiences
It's no secret that black authors face unique challenges when it comes to making their work visible and connecting with audiences, but there are some agents and editors working to assist these authors by providing advice and support. Three key suggestions that...
Diversity Alone Won’t Solve Publishing’s Problems for Black Authors
The traditional publishing industry can be a challenging space for most black authors to navigate. As recently as 2019, a Lee and Low survey showed that the publishing industry was 76% white, with only 5% of the industry's staff being black. The lack of diversity in...
Work-life
Teaching full-time, tutoring on the side, wrapping up a Master's degree, editing a novel. It might sound like I have too many irons in the fire, but I'm actually doing well. Here's how. Marie Kondo those priorities Like the Japanese organizing consultant advises,...
An AI-generated Short Fiction Story & Artwork
With the advances of artificial intelligence, I wanted to see if creative writers were in trouble. So, I asked openai to write a 500-word sci-fi story about an autistic teenager who gets accepted to an elite tech academy in space dedicated to saving a dying Earth....
Sailor Moon Meets The Wheel of Time
My current WIP is Sailor Moon meets The Wheel of Time, a YA manuscript. It features a brown-skinned 16-year-old island girl who is a bit of a goofball, a hopeless romantic, and a certified scaredy cat. She's also a loyal friend and an unfaltering optimist who cannot...
2022: Five Journal Questions for the New Year
Instead of making resolutions this year, I'm going to accept Suleika Jaouad's invitation to reflect on the past year through a five-part series of lists. This activity prompts us to journal about five questions, in whatever format works for you: What in the last year...
Ritual Begets Habitual Creativity
Rituals. In her practical guide, The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life, Twyla Tharp, renowned choreographer, refers to these as "automatic but decisive patterns of behavior" (15). By thinking of an activity as a ritual, a rote behavior, you eliminate the...
Open Your Heart Before You Write
Toward the middle of my stay on the Big Island, I attended a yoga class at Old Airport Beach in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. It was phenomenal. (Above, you can see the view I had from my mat). I almost didn't go that morning, but somehow I did, and I managed to be in the...
5 Ways You Can Support Diverse Writers
At a panel discussion in 2015, editors gathered to discuss the lack of diversity in the publishing industry. Editors noted that "writers of color [WOC] face insurmountable challenges," acknowledged that "the game has always been rigged," and concluded that "publishing...