Category: Writing

Writing

A Slice of A Writer’s Life

Mona Alvarado Frazier

 

I Became A Writer-Unknown Mami
I Became A Writer-Unknown Mami

To my post title I could have added:

An Unpublished Writer’s Life

But too many words for a heading.

Most writers, like 95%, have another life besides writing: kids, pets, parents, cleaning, carpooling…

It can get kinda of like ….”What’s it all about, Alfie?” 

The writing happens before the other stuff gets started, which means I write in the early morning.

I’m lucky that I only have one big kid left in the home, so I get in more writing/musing time than most moms.

And sometimes, I just don’t feel like putting my one-hour self-imposed writing requirement (FB, Twitter, email do not count).

When I get in that Alfie state I look at my most ‘pinned’ graphic over on Pinterest, under “Inspiration to Write.”

This graphic is from the very witty, Unknown Mami, Claudya Martinez. Currently, it is at 310 pins and counting.

I’ve reviewed my “Inspiration to Write” pins at least 100 times. Keeps me going.

So do the ‘goodies’ that come from my writing life: nice blog post comments, critiques that go great (no red marks, hardly, on my papers), and my ‘bestest’ yet:

THE AMAZON BREAKTHROUGH NOVEL AWARD QUARTERFINALS

If I had a sound, for the above remark, it would be the booming movie premiere voice guy.

http://amzn.to/1kDIjNW Graphic by DigitalProduct
http://amzn.to/1kDIjNW Graphic by DigitalProduct

The free 17-page excerpt on my Amazon page has received two reviews, with a few more listed on my Facebook page and one on my LinkedIn page:

 

“Your excerpt is very well written and I love the figurative language you used. Lines I love: “Long narrow dirt rows with tiny roads of deep green leaves spin by in a brown arc like long legs running…I also loved the haunting quality of the narrator’s voice. ..Great title. It reminds me of Alice Walker’s “In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens.” Virginia Alanis

This review didn’t just make my day, it made three days.

And another bonus, from the ABNA news,

The M2the5th Google+ Community (Mostly Multicultural Mysteries, Memoir, and Myth) will host a Twitter Interview

on Saturday, May 10, 2014, at 9 Pacific time.

I hope I can meet you on Twitter and have a good discussion on writing, inspiration, and all that ‘writerly’ stuff.

Until then, keep reading, writing, and living well.

 

Books, Writing

Continue #WeNeedDiverseBooks Campaign

Mona Alvarado Frazier

 

Cute photo for a serious matter.

www.navdeepsinghdhillon.com
http://www.navdeepsinghdhillon.com

After BookCon, a major NY event for readers, listed their author’s lineup: 31 white males with one cat (Grumpy Cat), an article “Readers Deserve Better Than BookCon,”  made the headlines. 

The article inspired a grassroots effort, #WeNeedDiverseBooks (#WNDB), to call attention to the continuing lack of diversity in children’s and young adult literature. I can identify with this effort.

Nothing I read in my first 18 years, and I was/am a prolific reader, reflected my own experiences, setting, or ethnicity. I found a couple when I was in college but those were Mexican or South American authors, all male.

A few years later, I discovered Sandra Cisneros, and everything changed for me. That’s when I believed that my experiences had value and that they mattered.

The #WNDB campaign, initiated by a group of 22 authors, bloggers, and publisher Lew and Low, hoped to “raise [their] voices into a roar that can’t be ignored”. The NY Times, CNN, Guardian, Huffington Post, among others, picked up this issue. 

The social media campaign was launched on May 1-3, 2014. On Thursday, the campaigners set up the Tumblr We Need Diverse Books website – asking readers to take a photo holding a sign that says “We need diverse books because … ”

There are some thought provoking, inspiring, words from kids to adults. 

Father and child-Minorities are more than stereotypes #WNDB
Father and child-Minorities are more than stereotypes #WNDB

inhabit the soul

On Friday, a Twitter chat about the issue and why it matters using the hashtag #WeNeedDiverseBooks stimulated lots of conversation.

There were over 107,000 tweets and retweets during the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign. 

On Saturday, the “Diversify Your Shelves initiative encouraged people to buy diverse books and take photos of them. 

Today, Patrick Flores-Scott, author and public school teacher, wrote, “Let’s All Make the #WeNeedDIverseBooks An Ongoing Movement.” His suggestions,

“Members of The Movement need to request diverse books at their bookstores and libraries… post reviews on Amazon and Goodreads and library websites…advise book bloggers and to follow and support blogs like this one. We need to give diverse books as birthday presents and to talk about our favorites on the bus, at work, in line at the bookstore…” 

He makes several good points that anyone can take to enrich our life and those we care about.

The biggest reason we need to continue the #WNDB campaign is to change these statistics:

And to make this happen:

Multicultural, Diverse Books, Stories, #WNDB
Multicultural, Diverse Books, Stories, #WNDB

Finally, we need to cultivate globally knowledgeable, compassionate, literary children and adults.

For a great list of children and YA books, go to independent publisher, Lew and Low’s book list.

#WeNeedDiverseBooks facts and figures are compiled here.