Ty's Blog
I write about writing, mostly.
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...