So what's been going on in my (Literary) world? Where do I start? Since the publication of OmStruck, I immediately dove (head first!) into a novel--an "experimental" novel. As in, it's totally my art, where I color outside the lines and make up my own rules along the way, remove my "journalist's hat" as well as my "editor's hat," and paint with words, experiment with Point-of-View and yes, add broad strokes of color, a.k.a. free verse into the mix. Is it an abstract, expressionistic, impressionistic, realistic, idealistic novel? It's sort of all of the above. That's why it's experimental! I won't go into too much detail just yet, except to say that it's told in four voices, takes place in the Bay Area and Boston and practically wrote itself all of 2011 and parts of 2012. I'll at least share the novel's working title: Pull. I shared excerpts of this novel in a class I took at Stanford,Winter 2012 and the critiques from my writing peers as well as from my professor Lynn Stegner, were decent and validated my decision to remain on this artistic course. Now, all I have to do is decide on a satisfying ending. Stay tuned!
I always encourage my writing students to "stay as committed as you can" to your long-term project, your baby, be it a novel or a memoir but don't be afraid to take a break from that long-term relationship with your project to delve into a few short stories. You may find you'll return to your project refreshed and ready to tackle it anew. That's what I did in late 2012. I started writing a slew of short stories, really getting into the lives of different characters whose lives all shared a common bond--they were all people practicing yoga. So, I stayed true to the yoga theme and now I'm nearly done with the editing and revisions of my manuscript and hope to publish Tadasana: Yogis Living and Loving On and Off the Yoga Mat sometime this year. In this collection of short stories, all the characters live, love, laugh, cry, fall, get up, fall again, get up again, cry some more, live, live again, love again, laugh again, and love some more! My wish is that readers can relate to most or all of the stories in some way, whether or not they practice yoga, because, I believe, all of life is yoga. We're all just trying to find a deeper meaning to our existence and discovering love along the way. Ultimately, the characters discover, that love, true love, heals not harms. And real love, not fear, prevails.
This May, I'll be celebrating five years of teaching Creative Writing (Yay!) since getting my MFA. I'm so blessed to have a core group of awesome students who've stayed on this writing journey with me since the beginning and we've garnered more writing "groupies" along the way! I'm proud to say that a group of my writing students are currently working on publishing an anthology of their literary pieces. Way to go Saturday Word Painters from Central Contra Costa County and the Diablo Valley area!
At some point, I'll finally start "putting pen to paper" on my writing memoir which will include writing exercises I created for my classes. Kind of like favorite recipes in a chef''s cooking memoir. Truth is, the writing memoir is being written as we speak (or write!) but it's all in my head. Now, if I can only get those words on the page already!
On the journalistic side of things, life is awesome! So blessed to have the support of my two editors, Catherine and Sam, as well as the freedom to write the kinds of stories that hope to inspire, educate and enlighten people because that's what our world needs right now...more love and healing light.
I have also had the honor of conducting two Yoga and Creative Writing workshops at The Yoga Company in San Ramon since getting my Yoga Teacher Training Certification in October, 2013. Looking forward to offering more. Stay tuned! My goal is to have a Web site up and running by the end of the year which will include my articles, literary works-in-progress updates, yoga and Pilates classes as well as Creative Writing classes and workshops I'll be offering.
Before I sign off, for now, I'd like to extend my gratitude to all those who attended my talk "Writing in Different Genres," last Feb. 8 at the California Writers Club--Mt. Diablo Branch in Pleasant Hill. Much love to you all for your support.
Namaste.
