On March 30, CAA-Toronto is hosting a free event featuring writer Tonya Liburd.
What is postcolonial horror, and how does it differ from conventional horror? Join us for what what promises to be a fascinating session with award-winning horror writer and editor TONYA LIBURD, whose stories and poems have garnered recognition in Toronto and beyond.
What you’ll hear:
How Tonya approaches her writing career
How her work as a magazine editor has shaped her writing and her thoughts about publishing
Her thoughts about code switching, Black horror, and postcolonial horror
Since Mailchimp has increased in price, I’m trying out another mailing list program – SendFox. It’s attractive because it has a one-time lifetime fee for up to 5K emails which is a pro, however, the con is that it doesn’t have the latest bells and whistles. As well, sending out emails take a few hours. Other programs that charge monthly fees have better software, faster sending and archiving options but given I can barely manage one newsletter a month, I want to be frugal.
In this newsletter I have a link to a free event with postcolonial horror writer Tonya Liburd who is a writer and editor, a link to a female author reading group I have been part of for a while (Strong Women Strange Worlds), some artsy fun of creating rose cupcakes, my latest “emotional damage” design, DIY video to create rose cupcakes and of course, links to lots of free eBooks.
April is upon us once again and the NaNoWrimo (National Novel Writing Month) non-profit organization is encouraging people to enroll in its April writing camp which runs from April 1-30, 2023. It’s like a continuing education course with videos and links to resources, but it’s self-study style. At the end there are prizes given out by sponsors to people who have reached their goal.
Taking part in this April writing camp is free, however, the hardest part is committing yourself to write 50,000 words (or a smaller or bigger goal) by the end of the month. It is a test in perseverance to reach this goal because there are days when your head is blank but you need to pick up the shard of the last sentence to continue on. Also, there is no time to edit. I don’t understand people who claim they publish books immediately after this because so much editing is needed after a rush writing camp!
Regardless, having a goal tracker of words and “digital” badge awards will hopefully help me reach my goal of finishing another book. Every time I participate, I write about half of a book and will sit down for another few months to finish it. It’s been a while since I participated in this, so I’m a bit rusty!
For those interested in jump starting a book project in whatever style or genre you wish, visit NaNoWrimo at their site here: https://nanowrimo.org/
Finally a replacement for Windows Movie Maker! I was had been using Windows Movie Maker on an old PC and when it died, I wanted to install Movie Maker onto the new computer. You can still download it from non-Microsoft sites, but it no longer has support. I have mac access, but I always feel odd using apple computers so I like PCs better.
After doing some research I discovered “Clipchamp” from Microsoft which does the same thing as Movie Maker, but its interface it a bit different. The interface reminds me of Canva and other online graphic programs. Indeed, it’s a very visual way of editing video.
When you open the program there are a variety of templates to choose from or you can start by uploading your videos.
After you choose something, you go into the editing screen. The preview screen is quite large and on the sides are your tools. I found that the audio takes a while to load, so you can go make a cup of tea while that is happening. For video clipping there are scissors and you can just use the delete key to remove parts of the video you no longer want. Audio is editing is similar, everything is drag and drop or remove with scissors.
Right now I’m on the free plan. Paying the monthly subscription gets you more special effects and storage space on a cloud. Since I’m only starting out, I’m just going to stick to the free plan for now.
I downloaded the program versus using on the web because I didn’t want to upload videos all the time. If you do try out this program let me know how things go! Always open to tips and tricks to do better at video editing!
Just before Christmas in 2022, I was notified that the honorable MP Shaun Chen, Scarborough North, on behalf of the Canadian government will be awarding me and my team COVID-19 Humanitarian Service Medals for our work on anti-Asian racism during the pandemic. Our team had held a variety of anti-Asian racism events to discuss this issue in the workplace along with a seminar to discuss elderly care in the pandemic, created a newsletter and I made some of the graphics for promos.
I feel very grateful for the execs that pulled a nomination together and at the time, they said we probably won’t get it because so many other people deserve this medal, such as people working in healthcare. So it was a surprise that we were told that our group would be receiving medals.
There were a lot of group and individual pictures, but I’m just sharing the one with me. Sadly I see I have gained some pandemic weight and will think about not eating as much chips in the future. I could get an avatar for virtual meetings, but in person is another issue!
Many months ago I was booked for an interview on the Lurking for Legends podcast and totally forgot about it until the host Richard H. Stephens sent an email with the live podcast link! Since my last blog post, my 106 year old grandma passed, so I had been busy planning another funeral and dealing with over zealous relatives who all have opinions but at the end of the day only me and my siblings were paying for this funeral.
Having done a few interviews in the past, the biggest difference in live streaming is the lack of opportunity to correct mistakes. It’s similar to giving a talk in public. It’s a good exercise in practicing improvisation because there will be questions asked which are not scripted and you have to pull yourself together to speak clearly. There were also questions from the audience via the Facebook live feed and I had to answer these on the fly too. I always think afterwards about how I could have sold things better (my husband says I am the worst salesperson!) but every experience makes the next one better.
I haven’t written anything in a while, so I wrote a long personal essay called How COVID Affected the Care and Death of the Elderly In My Family. It’s a recap of what has happened over the last few months with my mother and grandmother before they died. Death is final and even conspiracy theorists can agree that such a thing will happen to all of us! Or maybe not…
Have a look at the essay here if you have time and please follow me on Medium if you can. To qualify for their partner program I need 100 followers but I only have 2. Yes, pretty sad, I know. In the near future I will be posting more on Medium and then mentioning them on my WordPress blog as larger pieces fit there better I think.
The Woman Who Wouldn’t Die is the name of a memoir I want to write one day about my grandmother. While planning mom’s funeral last October, grandma was hospitalized and I was told I will be planning her funeral in a week.
Flash forward, it’s February and she turned 106! She is still alive to the astonishment of the staff at the nursing home. At least they stopped telling me she will pass soon, which was getting annoying on a daily basis. Since the staff thought she was in trouble, they asked my family to feed all the meals since each meal takes 3-4 hours and their staff has fifteen minutes per person per meal.
However, last week, she was hospitalized again and it’s up to her if she wants to stay or go. We support her either way but draw the line at feeding tubes and other invasive measures.
Some friends have said I haven’t had time to grieve mom’s death because I am too busy with work and grandma. Mom always worried about grandma (her mother-in-law) starving to death from lack of attention in the nursing home, so I know mom would tell me to stop crying and take care of grandma and my child. There are other relatives around who have opinions but are not here…
Taking it one day at a time…shelved a lot of my writing projects for now. The only thing I published recently was my kid’s book series about marbles because of parental guilt since I am sacrificing time with my child to take care of grandma more. The marble books are whimsical stories about Fred the marble and his silly friends. Only a kid can write these type of stories! On Amazon here if you have marble crazed kids, talking marble stories are pretty niche!
My colleague and fellow Canadian author, Alice Weldon asked me to help her spread word about her mindfulness guide to overcoming dog anxiety. It’s free from 12:01 AM Tuesday November 9th until Thursday, November 11th at midnight PST. You can also pick up the beautifully illustrated companion journal for free once you download the book.
In our busy, stress-filled world, who doesn’t know what anxiety feels like? Just as we can become nervous or stressed, so can our dogs. Author Alice Weldon is mourning the loss of a long-time canine friend who “crossed the rainbow bridge” in October. To honour the memory of her beloved furbudy, she’s giving away copies of her eBook on Overcoming Dog Anxiety that’s especially helpful for people who are physically going back to work and who now leave their pets at home alone for a longer time period.
On Thursday, October 28, 2021 7:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. EST Via Zoom I will be hosting a panel called ” Book Marketing 101 with The Idea Shop.” Chris Houston, the Marketing Guru of The Idea Shop, has over 20 years of experience in the publishing industry. He’ll share his tips and stories about his best marketing campaigns, and explain why it’s important to let the world know that you have a unique book that they need to discover!
Nastasha Alli was born and raised in the Philippines and came to Canada in 2007. For her writing at the intersection of food and diaspora communities, she won a Food Sustainability Media Award from the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Her work has been featured on CBC Radio and her recipe published in a “top cookbook of 2018” by the San Francisco Chronicle.
She answers the question “Why is research important in your “Exploring Filipino Kitchens” podcast?” on the Artsy Raven podcast, Episode 12. This clip is an excerpt from the episode.
Musings of a Generic Asian 
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