Hello again,
I am back with another weekly update.
It was fun having the Lunar New Year to look forward to this week. I am excited about it being the year of the rabbit as I am a fellow rabbit myself. Although I will confess that years ago when I first learned about the Chinese zodiac, I was disappointed that being born in January I wasn’t a dragon like most people my age but rather a fire rabbit. I have since come to accept my truth and fully embrace my identity as a rabbit. Recently, I learned that in the Vietnamese Zodiac they have a cat instead of a rabbit which is actually really cool because hello, who doesn’t love cats? Psychos that’s who.
It’s been fun seeing the various Chinese zodiac related products, my favorites have been the Kate Spade bags. When I visited The Huntington in Pasadena, California earlier this month I found a cute little rabbit zodiac pin in their shop and brought it home with me. I really like pins and have a small collection, so I was happy to add the little rabbit to my stash. But enough of all that, let me move on to matters of reading and writing.
Writing Update:
This week I worked on brainstorming ideas for act two, the middle section of my story. I had a lot of interesting thoughts that I noted in my notebooks but at some point, I began to get overwhelmed. I had a lot of different thoughts going on and so it began to feel like I was treading water, not really getting anywhere just running out of steam.
So, while I am happy with that progress and believe it was time well spent, I don’t quite feel like I had the kind of progress I had hoped for. My plan is to keep moving. I am thinking of moving on to the last section of my story – act three. I will try my best to trace out the end and then with the end in mind return to act two. I hope that this will be a good way to bring shape to the middle and make the whole story tie out better.
Currently, I am making my way through the different parts of my story making notes of important events and details. I plan on going over this process a few times before beginning to write out the first draft.
In other very exciting writing news this week, I received my typewriter on Wednesday! I have decided to name my new typewriter Estella, the storytella. I love it and think it is the perfect nickname, haha.
When I opened the package and pulled out Estella from her box I thought she was just beautiful so to commemorate the moment I played the song “You Are So Beautiful” by Joe Cocker. Strange? Perhaps, but it made the moment fun and exciting for me and it felt like the right thing to do. Next, I set out to test my new machine, so what did I do to accomplish this goal? I wrote a letter to Estella of course. Weird? I don’t know, maybe. But again, it just happened naturally. I didn’t have these ideas in mind, these weren’t premeditated activities they just happened organically so who am I to protest my own natural instincts? It was harmless fun and I really enjoyed it.
So now that I have my new writing companion, I am looking forward to writing alongside her in the coming weeks.
Weekly Reading:
Title: The House of the Spirits
Written by Isabel Allende
Published: 1982
Started: January 22, 2023
Finished: January 26, 2023
This is probably the fastest I have ever read a book, or at least the fastest in a very long time. It was great! I first heard about this book back when I was in high school. One of my history teachers was kind enough to give me a mass market paperback version of the book because she thought I would like the story. I wasn’t very impressed. The cover made the book look dated and boring. It had a woman in the front with hair blowing in the wind and an open bird cage in her hands and as a teenager I just didn’t care for it. I wasn’t pulled in immediately and so I set it aside and forgot about it.
In recent years (since late 2021) I have embarked on an earnest journey to becoming a writer and have been making my way again through various books. I have been very curious about Hispanic voices, being one myself and so finally reading this book felt like a necessity and I am so happy I did.
When I started reading this book, I immediately thought about the Disney movie “Encanto” not sure if anyone else has also felt like the two stories share a foundation and not just because they are both about Latinx families. As I read through the first couple of chapters I could see which “Encanto” characters could match up with different characters in Allende’s story. Maybe it’s all in my head, but I couldn’t help but wonder if Disney loosely based their “Encanto” movie on this book.
That point aside, reading this story was wonderful for many reasons. It is a story with depth and meaning and rich with the cycles of life. Furthermore, it feels very relevant to our recent political times, it is a great read that shows how quickly a country can take a turn for the worst.
On a personal level, this book struck an emotional chord with me because it made me think of my own family. I was able to better understand the relevance of magical realism to the Latinx community, to myself, and see how many of my own family’s stories come from this world view. It was quite eye opening a bit of a meta moment in that it allowed me to reflect on my family and personal existence through this fictional Hispanic household. It was quite satisfying to read something that felt so familiar, to see myself reflected in a work of written art.
Next on my reading list (TBR):
Maame by Jessica George. I got my hands on an advance reader’s edition (ARC) and am very excited to dig in. The book goes on sale February 7th and all signs point to a satisfying read.
Until next time,
Angelica Sophia
Angelica Sophia 
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