Most days, it's as if my writing life exists in an alternate dimension. Work is busy and mundane items, from laundry to inflation, groceries to health scares, drain time and energy. This weekend, I carved an escape of sorts. Reflected on my progress. Slow, but progress much the same. Second draft for the second book… Continue reading Launching Magdaragat at Word Vancouver 23
Tag: creative life
Writer’s Retreat
I attended my first writers' retreat last month and what a treat it was! For nine days with Sage Hill Writing, I luxuriated in hours of quiet, getting the second draft of the second novel down. There were consults with the wonderful Yasuko Thanh, craft discussions with the fiction group, and meals I didn't cook.… Continue reading Writer’s Retreat
Childlike
It's still vivid, the memory. I was in fifth grade; I would have been ten or eleven. I had tied a corner of my handkerchief to the pointed tip of a ballpen, managed to secure the cap over the knot and twirled my instrument so that the fabric spun and wrap itself around the pen.… Continue reading Childlike
Twenty-nineteen, warmed up
I woke up one day to find myself living in a surreal-sounding year called two-thousand-nineteen, working three jobs. Three jobs! There's definitely truth to that saying that if you wanted to make God laugh, tell him your plans. I have always considered myself a specialist; I am only ever good at writing so that's the… Continue reading Twenty-nineteen, warmed up
Shorts
Keeping to short forms these days. Flash fiction, poetry, something in between. I got busy during the summer moving to another apartment. This was followed by a two-week stay in New York City where I had planned to luxuriate in daily writing sessions. Writing I did, but it wasn't as productive as planned. Something about… Continue reading Shorts
New and Old
New: Novel-in-progress. I smile as I write this because there isn't a word of it written down. It's all in the head at the moment. I'm taking a breezier approach with this one, not planning the chapters in advance, letting characters take shape and decide the course of things. I know their faces, their jobs.… Continue reading New and Old
Leah Ranada 