2021: Striving During a Year of Hybrid Living

Last year introduced me to Zoom meet-ups and Zoom burnout. I spent the last days of 2020 sick in bed with the worst sinus infection of my life.

This year, I started feeling confident in how to live with one foot in the physical world and the other in the virtual world. I learned how to set goals and manage my energies as I stayed home to protect myself and my family. Writing-wise, I set goals and failed a lot. I learned about toxic perfectionism and I’m on the road to overcoming my propensity for it.

I had some big wins and I want to honor them, myself, and my community.

I’m so grateful for my fellow book club members, beta readers, family, and friends for supporting me. Here is a round-up of this year’s efforts.

Major Win

Selected for the LitUp Fellowship, offered by Reese’s Book Club. The screening process was led by Hello Sunshine partner We Need Diverse Books.

Book Reviews

• Heaven by Mieko Kawakami
• Infinite Country by Patricia Engel

Open Mic Readings

• FIYAHCON 2021 Open Mic
• “Librotraficante” Open Mic at the National Latinx Writers Workshop

Conferences Attended

Organized A-Z. Wow, I attended a lot of these! Virtual conferences really opened the way for me to learn more and even build a stronger community.

• AWP 2021
  • Highlight: Shrews, Foxes, Wallflowers: Metaphorizing Women, moderated by Kate McIntyre and featuring Karen Leona Anderson, Sarah A. Chavez, Carley Gomez, and Wendy Oleson. A spectacular conversation about the power and danger of metaphor, inspired by the 45^th president’s dehumanization of women into pigs and dogs, and the way literature transforms women into beasts in order to, at times, free them.
• 2^nd National Antiracist Book Festival
  • Highlight: Fantastic back-to-back conversations on knowing when you have a great book idea, developing a successful proposal, and finding a literary agent. I really appreciated the frankness in the conversations.
• DVCon 2021
  • Highlight: A robust, concurrent Discord discussion let participants collaborate in finding beta readers. I connected with an incredible individual!
• FIYAHCON 2021
  • Gold, pure gold. I can’t give enough praise to the team that put this conference together.
  • Highlight: The panel “Drift Compatible: Mechas & Gender” reminded me that I am, by virtue of having watching a ton of mecha shows, an inadvertent mecha fan. Turned me onto this incredible short story “A Stick of Clay, In the Hands of God, Is Infinite Potential” by Jy Neon Yang.
• Las Comadres 21^st Anniversary Comadrazo
  • Las Comadres is putting out generous content and hosting online events, and I want to give them a well-deserved bump here!
  • Highlight: A conversation with Lili Gil Valletta, board chair of the new American Latino Museum.
• National Latinx Writers Workshop 2021
  • A lovely sequel to 2020’s stellar inaugural conference.
  • Highlight: I had so much fun during Casey Ramos’s event, “Switching Code, From Poetry to Video Game Writing.” Her game (or interactive poetry experience) Unfolding is exquisite.
• Page Turner 2021 (AAWW Publishing Conference)
  • Highlight: I only attended one event, and it was so worth it: The New Editorial Vanguard. Yahdon Israel, senior editor at Simon & Schuster, recommended that everyone interested in publishing read Merchants of Culture by John B. Thompson.

Year in Numbers

Applications to Mentorship and Residency Programs: 4
Applications Accepted: 1

Books Read: 50 (and counting)

Dog walks: 700 (and counting)
Playdates: 19

Fit Hit Workouts: 150 (and counting)

Sinus infections: A lot. A lot.
Antibiotics courses for sinus infections: 8
Allergic reactions to medication: 1
Sinus surgeries: 1

This was my year of writing, working out, walking the dog, and enduring sinus infections.

2022 Goals

• Finish novel
• Run a 5K under 30 minutes
• Rest and play more! (Likely, this will be the hardest!)