I just realized last night that I’ve strayed a little bit from the original reason why I began this blog. As a writer, I love meeting fellow writers, commiserating about the often difficult life devoted to writing, and sharing tips and ideas on the writing process, the publishing industry, and writing in general. I’ve met some great writers throughout the Web who have their own brilliant blogs and am humbled to be a part of such a great and diverse network.

I’m going to try and remain focused on the whole writing theme of this blog and will move all other posts of random subjects to my other blog, Pinay Journal. That particular blog also began as a writing project, specifically a print ‘zine that I had hoped to distribute at least quarterly to interested readers. Unfortunately, life got in the way, and although I’ve largely finished the first issue (about 36 pages!!!), I have yet to sit down and really complete the damn thing and get it out there. I still want to publish and maintain the Journal and will hopefully at least upload it for free on the blog, but for now, I’m going to use it to post on various subjects, mostly related to issues of interest to Pinoys and Pinays around the world.

As for my writing…well, it’s going very well!!! Woo hoo! I cut back considerably on my hours at my workplace so that I only work one day a week there now. The rest of the time, I write for the local paper and am querying a bunch of other publications. Some of my current projects include a feature profile in the upcoming issue of Bitch magazine; a forthcoming commentary on the Glorietta Mall bombing to be published this weekend in a Filipino-American newspaper based out of Southern California; an article on medi-spas for the local paper, and a big project writing features for a publication to be distributed around western Colorado to coincide with an energy conference in town scheduled for February. I’ve got a couple of other things I’m working on for other publications, which I’ll talk more about when they’re completed and published.

In addition, I continue to write my biweekly column for the local paper and, of course, juggling several blogs, including the aforementioned Pinay Journal.

Now you see why I had to cut back on the part-time job? It’s definitely been fun, but I love that I can do something I enjoy tremendously and get paid for it. I never thought I’d be able to do that — ever — but I’m grateful that I can now.

MRA