After four long years, Charades is finally completed.
Let the storytelling begin!
I started this blog with big dreams and high hopes. My words would garner followers who would grow interested in what I had to say. My novel would then be received with eager anticipation. My dreams of entering the publishing world would be realized.
Want to know the crazy thing? It actually happened. Kind of. Read the rest of this entry »
I am a passionate advocate for yoga. Not just for the physical benefits, but also for how it promotes mental and emotional wellness. I practice it because I have a very busy mind that constantly looks back and looks forward; this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but when it gains too much momentum, it becomes exhausting.
Yoga helps calm my ever-busy mind, reels me back from dwelling on the past and makes future worries seem a just bit more off in the distance. I can take inventory of what’s around me, express gratitude and refocus my perspective. And when I’m there in that present moment, I can listen. 
Yes, I just admitted that. Backstreet was back (alright!) in Vancouver last night, and I was singing along to nearly every song. I was admittedly a bit secretive about attending, but once I was there, I had no choice but to sing (sing, croak, whatever it was my vocal cords attempted to do) – and I had a lot of fun.
While I did watch the boy band (“boys” who are now pushing 40) recap their wide catalogue of Top 40 singles and get down (and move it all around) to the original choreography, I spent most of the night looking around at the audience – mostly made up of millenials like myself along with many middle-aged women (my wife even saw one of her college professors busting it to “Larger Than Life”). Nearly everyone was singing, swaying and smiling to every line of factory-produced cheesiness in the songs. Read the rest of this entry »
Brutal, ugly, horrific. Eloquent, beautiful, inspiring. Those are the conflicting emotions conjured up while reading this novel. Sapphire’s thoughtful and innovative prose brings Precious Jones – an illiterate 16-year-old with two children from her father – to life, draws you into her tragic world and carries you through her journey of making her life her own for the first time.
Here’s the premise: “Relentless, remorseless, and inspirational, this “horrific, hope-filled story” (Newsday) is certain to haunt a generation of readers. Precious Jones, 16 years old and pregnant by her father with her second child, meets a determined and highly radical teacher who takes her on a journey of transformation and redemption.”
Similar to Hubert Selby Jr.’s Requiem for a Dream, Push ignores conventional grammar and spelling rules so as to give the reader a first-hand account of Harlem life through the eyes of Precious. This approach is extremely effective, and I highly recommend this novel. The story is grim and real, but incredibly hopeful. Certainly not for the faint-hearted, but a powerful testimony to the life-changing power of language.
Hello, world. I’ve missed you.
I’ve definitely neglected this blog lately, and for that I am sorry. However, I have a (somewhat) decent excuse: I’ve been reading far too much!
Novels have taken up the majority of my time, but I also love reading up on advice from other writers. Today, I stumbled across this gem from David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker: Read the rest of this entry »
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