Life

#StopAAPIHate

/ dianathormoto

Hi, all. So this isn’t my usual Saturday Short post, though I do hope to be posting some more soon. Instead I want to take a bit of time to share something personal that has been weighing on my heart and mind. The murders in Atlanta were almost two weeks ago now, but I couldn’t sit down and write about them and their effects until now. The pain in community and in my heart has been too great.

It’s not like Atlanta was an isolated incident. AAPI (aka Asian American Pacific Islander, the initialism API [Asian Pacific Islander] is also sometimes used) hate in this country has a long history and violence against AAPI people also has a long history. And this last year with the COVID-19 pandemic has brought such an increase in hate and violence against the AAPI community that Atlanta was just…there aren’t words. And it isn’t just Atlanta, it’s in my beloved Bay Area where our elders are getting harassed and killed and our children are getting taunted or worse and all of us are on edge.

It needs to end. We need to stop the hate reigning down on the AAPI community and on all BIPOC communities.

But what I wanted to share is more personal and a way for you to help if it feels too removed to simply donate to AAPI organizations or you don’t have the means to do so. What everyone can do is check in with their AAPI friends, colleagues, and family members–especially if you aren’t AAPI. I only had one non-AAPI colleague check in with me after Atlanta and I know I’m not the only one who has had that experience. And it is painful and it is isolating and it makes us feel even more invisible than we already often feel.

So reach out. It’s not too late to check in, to show you care, to show we matter.  Don’t worry about saying the perfect thing or writing the perfect thing. Just reaching out is what is important. We’ll remember that you did.

If you want to do more to help and can donate, check out the Support the AAPI Community Fund GoFundMe or the NAPAWF (National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum), among many others. Or buy a shirt to show your support and have 100% of your donations go to AAPI orgs.

If you want to learn more about what’s been happening check out, Stop AAPI Hate.  Not only is this site used for reporting hate incidents, they also have produced reports and have lists of resources.

And I want to leave you with this powerful statement by Daniel Dae Kim. If you haven’t watched it yet, you should.

Thanks for reading. Thanks for listening. I’ll be back soon with more writing. Until then, take care, be safe, and reach out to let someone know you care.

Looking Ahead to 2021

/ dianathormoto / 2 Comments

Hello, dear readers! Happy Boxing Day to those who celebrate it. Happy almost 2021 to everyone. It is hard to believe we are at the end of another year, but even a year as odd and hard and exhausting as 2020 must come to an end. And this is the week of looking towards the new year. So, let’s look ahead, not behind, and not get maudlin, but instead get ready for another new year for us to create and to learn and to grow.

While the turning of a calendar page won’t make things magically better or create more time in the day to write or to do anything, it does always seem to me o be a fresh start. There is hope at the beginning of the year. Another 365 days to play with, to create in, to live through, and to make better. I don’t do resolutions anymore, a bit too much pressure to make grand statements and, let’s face it, I have no desire to have any more guilt in my life.

But I do find setting some goals or intentions and making sure my schedule reflects them to be useful, not only for writing, but for every aspect of life. In the new year, I want to ensure I hold time for family and friends. (One of the few upsides of the pandemic, and let’s be honest there have been very few, has been more time with my immediate family). I need to continue to make time in my schedule to write, even if it means getting up early to have a few minutes to myself every day. And I need to continue to learn so I can show up and be in community with others doing work I believe in.

And, at the end of this year, I’ve found that it is so important to have time to exercise so I can keep up my energy to do everything else. I know it isn’t for everyone, but breaking a sweat is one way that I keep balanced and calm (even more than meditating, which I’m horrible at, but keep trying). I hope you’ve found what keeps you balanced, even through this year.

So what does any of this mean for this blog?

Expect some short (very short) stories in the new year and other posts as I work to be more intentional about not letting this blog atrophy. And hopefully we all create something we’re excited about in this coming year.

I wish you all the peace, joy, and energy you need to create and care for and be in the new year. Thank you, as always, for reading and I’ll see you in the new year.

In Solidarity

/ dianathormoto / 1 Comment
Yellow Peril Supports Black Power

“Yellow Peril Supports Black Power” by Monyee Chau

Hello, my friends. I hope that you are staying healthy and safe. That you are fighting the good fight and writing the good write. I’m straying today from posting a new short story or updates on writing and reading, to say on this site what should be obvious to all, but seems to still be falling on some unwilling ears: Black Lives Matter, violence against peaceful protesters is unacceptable, white supremacy needs to be dismantled in our country along with structural racism and the militarization of our police forces that support this continued inequality and inequity. It is ridiculous, shameful, and immoral that we have continued to allow the state of affairs to continue for so long and that we still have people who are more concerned for their own privilege and comfort than for their neighbors’ very lives.

I stand in solidarity with the Black community and with my other siblings of color in wanting and working towards a world where white supremacy and institutionalized racism no longer exist. Where we have equity and justice and peace. These are hard days and hard times, but those of us who have privilege, in whatever form, need to use our voices, dollars, and actions to support, uplift, and affirm the work and very lives of our siblings who are being threatened.

As writers, readers, creatives, people,  we have the responsibility to use our voices, our words, our actions to uplift each other, support each other, and challenge each other to do better. In the words of Maya Angelou, “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”

I want us all to know better so we can do better.

It is incumbent on us to see our everyday lives as the space where we need to continually challenge ourselves and each other to become anti-racist allies. To educate ourselves, instead of forcing BIPOC to expend more emotional labor to educate us. I say this as a mixed race woman who is of Japanese and German descent. I have both been on the receiving end of racism and received the privileges of “passing” as white depending on the mood and makeup of the white people around me. I work to use my relative position of privilege not to keep others down, but to work on myself and to work with others to use that privilege, in whatever (small) ways I can, to work to end white supremacy and create the kind of world I want for my daughter and for all children of color.

There are many, many creatives, activists, organizations who know so much more and do so much more and I want to highlight just a few things that may resonate with you as a creative, as a writer, as a reader. Read Ally Henny’s post on how to begin to decolonize your bookshelf.  Read, watch, follow, or all of the above, any of the resources/sources listed on this Forbes article, “First, Listen. Then, Learn. Anti-Racism Resources for White People.” I have to point out especially, Dr. Jennifer L. Eberhardt’s book, Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice that Shapes What We See, Think, and Do as an amazing resource among so many others.

While we, as writers and creatives, may create worlds of fantasy and daydream about distant galaxies. We all live on this one planet, in this one world. We cannot be apart from it. And we can use our creativity, our solidarity to make it better. To say we are sorry for our complicity in these structures that we all live in and to help shape new structures that uphold the dignity and humanity of us all.

Thank you for reading. Stay safe, stay healthy, and stay kind. And use your talents for the good because at the end of the day, it’s up to each of us to do what we can for the good to squash the insidious evil that wishes we didn’t see it for what it is.

Happy 2020!

/ dianathormoto

Happy New Year! Yes, I’m well aware we are already more than a week into 2020 so I’m a bit late to the well-wishing game. But, really, can you have too many good wishes for a good year? I think not.

It’s been quiet around this blog for a bit, for which I’m both sorry and not at all apologetic for because life happens. And when we say life happens, we usually mean all shit hits the fan and blogging is the last thing on our minds. Which is true, so very true.

It’s been a bad cold season here with everyone getting sick, except the cat. She’s fine, thank you very much, and has enjoyed people wanting to only sit on the couch and sip tea while napping. Though she has been very much annoyed by a cough I had that lasted over 5 weeks.

Then the end of the year rush came, much of it lovely and fun, but still tiring and little writing happened between the end of NaNo (which I hope treated everyone well) and the beginning of the year.

But now things have settled, as much as they ever do, and I’m back to writing my way through things and especially through the ending of my story, Close Enough. So expect new parts to it coming as Saturday Shorts and it wrapping up soon. How soon? I don’t know. I was asked by a dear friend and writing buddy if I knew the stories’ endings I serialize on this blog before I started writing them and the answer is no. I have only a vague shape when I begin writing them and they evolve their own ways. I find it exciting and if I already knew the ending, there’d be no point in writing it down, at least for me.

So we shall find out together how the story ends and where the next story leads.

I wish you all the best in 2020. Thank you for reading and I wish you inspiration, fortitude, and luck in the year ahead. May your creative works be a force for good and may you always have a cup of tea, a good book, and a friend nearby when you need them.

Welcome 2018! (Or, plans for the new year)

/ dianathormoto

Happy New Year! Happy 2018, dear readers!

Well, can you believe it? We’ve made it to the start of another year. Another 365 days around the sun to do some things. It’s exciting and terrifying. Like a new journal with 365 pages and we have to come up with something awesome to do. That’s a lot of pressure to make something wonderful, important. You know, not to waste the year just by having fun. But I think having fun is part of the point of creating, instead of trying to compete with people’s perfect Instagram or Twitter posts.

So what are you planning to do this year? What do you want to accomplish with your art or work or anything in between?

I always have super-audacious plans. Always. And I don’t accomplish all of it, even if I get a lot done. I seem to think that there are always more hours in the day than 24 and that I’ll never get sick or burned out or tired. But life has a way of bringing a reality check to any plans. However, I try not to let that get me down.

So what am I planning on doing this year?

I’m going to do a lot more calligraphy for the sheer joy of it (and because it’s important to remember that not every hobby has to become a hustle). I received some amazing gifts of new ink, nibs, and a whole ream of practice paper for Christmas and am looking forward to practicing and creating beautiful writing. I’ll probably share some photos, too, but I’m doing it for the joy of it and not for any hustle.

I’m going to continue writing with intention (check out Chuck Wendig’s post on this for inspiration). I’m still writing the first draft of what I started before NaNoWriMo and worked on through November (in between travel and getting a truly awful cold) and I’m hoping it will wrap itself up in the first couple of months of the year so I can let it sit and I can revise it later in the year. It’s the slowest I’ve written a first draft, but I also feel it is probably the most intentional writing I’ve done in fiction, too. It’s been frustrating sometimes to write slowly, but it feels like the words are coming out better, truer, with meaning. I’ll let you know how it looks once I get into the revising.

But I want to continue writing with intention, even if it is slower. I’m going to continue writing Saturday Shorts, which feed my need to play with fiction writing and satisfy my desire to complete a project. I hope you’ll continue reading them and hopefully enjoying them.

I want to read more books this year. I keep track of the books I read throughout the year and books I want to read. I have a healthy list and will hopefully get to read a lot of them in the coming weeks. I may share some thoughts on them from time to time and hope you’ll share books you love with others, too.

I’m looking forward to a year of continued creativity and art, with work and activism knit up into it all, too. Plus many cups of tea, naps in the sun with my husband and cat, talks with dear friends, and some travel for inspiration, too.

I hope you have a wonderful plan for 2018 that brings a smile to your face and keeps you buoyed through the inevitable difficulties of life that lay ahead for us all. I hope you have a supportive community, full of friends and family, that keeps you going. And I hope this year we make the world a better place in anyway we can. As Desmond Tutu wrote, “Each time we choose good, we add to the human treasury of goodness.” And that’s something I think we can resolve to do in our art and life. Let’s increase goodness in the world this year. That’s a plan worth resolving to accomplish.

Happy new year, dear readers. 🙂

Thoughts at the Start of NaNoWriMo

/ dianathormoto

Happy November! Can you believe it is already November? I feel like part of the year has gone missing, like it’s rolled under the couch and now we can’t find it so the year has been ridiculously short (and yet also feels like the longest year ever. Time is weird and wibbly wobbly, too.). So you know what November means. No, not quite turkey time here in the United States, but it is the start of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).

I quite love NaNoWriMo. This is my fourth year of participating and it really is a lot of fun. It’s frenetic, too, because how could it not be? It is the start of the holiday season after all. But it is a wonderful month for writing amongst others here, as the days grow too short and the nights grow too long. For me it is hibernation weather, so having an outside impetus to get me out of the house after work is a happiness and getting out of the house to be surrounded by other writers is a joy.

It’s a slightly bonkers and wonderful thing to attempt to write 50,000 words in a month, crammed between life and work or school/work and life or any other combination of things we have on our plates. But it is fun and it is community-building and I love it.

I love the sound of keyboards clicking and pens scratching as we race to get in our world count for the day. The word sprints where our hands might actually get ahead of our thoughts, instead of the other way around. The laughter that only comes when everyone is just on the cusp between elation and despair that only other writers, other creatives, other people trying this mad thing can understand.

For most of the year, I’m a solitary writer. I prefer silence when I write as noise and music distracts me. I like the quiet of morning and evenings to write, when the cat curls up asleep next to me and my tea is still warm in my mug. I set deadlines and goals just for myself and keep them, more or less. But in November it’s my time to break out of that routine, to find comfort writing in a group, and to learn from others even if it is only by diffusion as we all lean over laptops and notebooks scribbling until our hands can’t take any more. But in November the ideas and compassion and encouragement swirl freely and I only have to reach out my hand to grab some to last me through to the next writing session.

So if you’ve never tried NaNoWriMo before, or you are an old-hand, I hope you’ll join us on this journey this month. Find your home region, go to a write-in or two, and be amazed at how much fun writing with your community can be. You never know what inspiration may come only when you are in the final stretch, typing as fast as your fingers can fly. It’s November 1st and anything is possible, dear writer, anything at all.

Saturday Short: The Community Bookstore

/ dianathormoto

photograph of two polaroids of bookstores

It used to be, back when your mother and father were young and there were still such things as penny candy and magic, there was a bookstore in every town and every one was different. Some were so small that you would have sworn it could have fit inside a shoebox.

Yet the proprietor always managed to find the exact book you needed, when you needed it, even if you had no idea that particular book was going to make your heart sing.

Others were so large that you could lose whole gaggles of children amongst the stacks. Some did, only to be found at closing time by the store cat, asleep with picture books open in their laps.

Nowadays, when people live next door to each other for years, yet still can’t rightly tell each other’s name, there are fewer bookstores and less magic, too.

But if you’re lucky enough to find one in the town where you hang your coat at the end of the day, go in and say hi. Put your phone in your pocket and gaze around in wonder as you step over the threshold into a place of joy and welcome.

Find that book you’d forgotten, which made you brave when you were young. Pick up a slim tome, on the recommendation of a handwritten sign stuck precariously between the spines, that may just save your soul. Buy the fat novel with a title that tickles like déjà vu at the base of your neck on the advice of the bookseller whose smile crinkles the corner of her eyes when you say yes and who whispers that the book is one of her favorite friends.

There’s still magic in the world, though it’s hidden more often than not. But you can find it wrapped up in the pages found in bookstores owned by people whose veins flow with prose and poetry. Don’t be shy, come on in, and if you listen closely, you’ll hear the books call your name, too.

~~~

Dedicated to Renee on the occasion of the Grand Opening of Books on B. Thank you for bringing back magic, warmth, and community into our downtown through your bookstore. May all the pages of your days be blessed.

Why I’m a Hobbit (and not an Elf)

/ dianathormoto

I know, I know. I’m not really a hobbit either, I’m simply a human. But of the two, I’m more of a hobbit than an elf (even if I really, really am enamored of the elvish interpretation of Art Nouveau). Why does this even matter? Well, because I was thinking about how what we believe is a good life, a worthwhile life, a life to strive for influences what we create.

Okay, I know that seems like a bit of a stretch, but I can explain. First, I love Tolkien’s writings and his worlds. I love Peter Jackson’s interpretation of Lord of the Rings (I mean, really, who can hear Sam’s speech near the end of The Two Towers and not get misty eyed?). And I really, really love Hobbiton. I grew up in a small farming town and I love villages. I love the countryside and gardening and tea and community and everything about it. I love the idea of having a simple life, a rooted life. I’m definitely a Baggins though because I love to have an adventure or two, too, but then I want to come home to a place that feels like home.

I sometimes wish I were more like an elf, but I’m not. I’m not graceful all the time and I’m sure not wise (yet) and I definitely can’t walk on snow. But perhaps that’s not the point and that thinking I should be like an elf is a way of perpetuating the idea that a life needs to be extraordinary to be a good life, while research tells us that joy is found in the small moments of what can appear from the outside as an ordinary life. (I highly recommend watching Brene Brown’s talk that touches on this idea, which got me thinking about these intersections between life and writing and meaning more deeply, again as her work usually does. Not to mention, having the courage to be vulnerable and keep sharing what I create and write, even when it’s scary.)

So what does any of this have to do with my writing? My love of Hobbiton and a hobbit’s life shows up in my writing even when I’m not conscious of wanting to put themes such as home and belonging and peace and good tilled earth into it. It shows up in my writing worlds that feature great open spaces and rolling countryside and people on reluctant adventures and the belief that people can create a better world, a just world. Thinking about what is meaningful to me allows me to more fully embrace the stories I’m writing, dig deeper and write what’s true (even when it cuts a little more closely than what seems fully comfortable).

I get to choose what’s a good and meaningful life for me and you do, too. And it’s fine for me to be a hobbit and for you to be an elf or a ranger or whatever else floats your boat and gets you home to where you need to be for your writing and creating. So if you need me, you’ll find me in my hobbit hole and I’ll put the kettle on for tea. Until then, watch your feet…(you know the rest). 🙂

Goodness is What We Do

/ dianathormoto

Sometimes words fail. I don’t know about you, but after getting past “Nazis are bad” and “hate is bad” it can be difficult to know what to say or add to the conversation. Sometimes we have to act for good, giving of our time, money, and creativity to make the world a better place in whatever way and space we can, but still can’t find the words to represent or contain our emotions and reactions and all that messy stuff we try to work through in our art, our writing, our living. So I’m rather thankful this week for the quote I found in the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Ten Ways to Fight Hate: A Community Response Guide and I wanted to share it with you.

Goodness has a First Amendment right, too. Southern Poverty Law Center

First, go read the guide. It is full of useful tips and actions that we can all take to make the world a better place, a place of goodness and welcome, a place where everyone is valued and safe. That’s a world that I want to help bring about and I want to live in.

Second, remember that goodness has a right to be in the conversation, too. (And, whenever you need it, there is always the PSA from xkcd about free speech, too.) We can spread goodness, at work and at home, in our communities and across the world. One person can only do so much, but together we can do a lot. And while it is really, really difficult to continue creating art in such a time, we need to do that, too. It can sustain us so we can continue fighting and it can be used, as we’ve seen for resistance.

Also, if you’re like me and a lot of your creativity takes the form of writing, it can be helpful to know you are not alone in finding it difficult to write now and good to read other writers who also all about getting art done at the same time as working to better the world through their activism and support of various causes and organizations. For a bit of cheer and something concrete you can do, go read the guest post from Michael Damian Thomas on Terrible Minds then go support Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction. Also, check out the 10 Things for Good from Janine Vangool, the publisher, editor, and designer of Uppercase. 

I hope you find some way to help spread goodness today in the world and whatever kindness you can. I hope you find it in you to create and share your art because we need it, always. And I hope you find some joy in whatever small things you can because we need joy to continue our work, our art, and our lives. Let’s smother the hate of the world with goodness in speech, action, and art. I know together we can do it! 🙂

Ordinary Heros

/ dianathormoto

Well, here we are in the second half of 2017 already. It’s been a year, hasn’t it? I don’t know about you, but I’m definitely ready for a bit of a break during summer. Some slower days, longer nights, and time to work on some of my non-work projects sounds lovely to me. Life becomes a slog if you can’t find the time to sit back and unplug every once in a while.

But we still have to interact with the world and try to make it a better place, through our work and our art. So in that spirit, I wanted to share this quote:

I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles. Christopher Reeve

I think this may be one of my favorite definitions of a hero. It is something I can aspire to do, even if I don’t face overwhelming obstacles. I can continue to persevere and endure and help others to, too, even when it seems like everything is going up in flames.

Plus, if we manage to persevere together, we have the potential of not just enduring but thriving and kicking those obstacles in the butt. And that gives me hope, which gives me the strength to continue to take action. I think we all need that these days.

Also, if you need some inspiration to keep writing (or doing whatever creative acts you do), I still can’t recommend reading Chuck Wendig’s blog enough (sample motivation post found here). It can definitely be NSFW sometimes, but it doesn’t mean it isn’t still a great read. It helped me take the holiday yesterday and start writing fiction again. And to me, that’s a great win.

I hope you find ways of being an ordinary hero (just don’t start calling yourself one, that’s a bit pretentious), of creating your art, and of sharing it with the world. Let’s help each other and let’s make some great art. Be kind and I’ll be back with a Saturday Short this weekend. 🙂