writing – Musings of a Generic Asian

Submissions open to Once Upon Our Time: Fairy Tale Retellings

anthology, dark helix press, shortstories

Dark Helix Press is open to submissions for a short story anthology – Once Upon Our Time: Fairy Tale Retellings (tentative title) that will be published in 2027.

Editors Jen Frankel and I are seeking short stories (1,500–5,000 words) that breathe new life into classic fairy tales. Retellings can be dark, hopeful, subversive, futuristic, or culturally reimagined—whatever sparks your creativity. Whether your story is set in a dystopian city, a forgotten village, or an alien world, we want to see how you reinterpret the old tales for a modern audience. Stories must clearly draw inspiration from an existing fairy tale, folklore, or myth.

Deadline: May 31, 2026, midnight EST.

Details: https://darkhelixpress.com/submissions/

LiterASIAN Vancouver 2025

asian, publishing, ricepaper magazine

This month I’ll be going to Vancouver as part of the LiterASIAN festival. The cost of hotel and travel has gone up, but I guess everyone is starting to travel these days post COVID.

Exactly 10 years ago I was invited by founder Jim Wong-Chu to participate and now 10 years later I find myself returning. It’s bittersweet because Jim isn’t with us anymore, but he did plant a seed in me to
volunteer with Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop which I continue doing to this day!

For those interested in learning more about the past (1923 Chinese Exclusion Act with historian Catherine Clement) to more current stories (Rachel Phan’s Restaurant Kid, Eddy Boudel Tan’s The Tiger and the
Cosmonaut, my Ghost Bride of Gum San), this is a good place to meet authors, listen to readings and
quiz them about their writing journeys!

Details about this event here: https://literasian.com/

Artsy Raven Podcast Ep 69 Daphne Gray-Grant

editing, podcast, podcast, publishing, women, Writing

I am awful about posting new podcast episodes, I’ll try to make updates more often!

On episode 69 of the Artsy Raven podcast, we spoke to Daphne Gray-Grant, a book coach. She advised me that I should just write non-stop and edit later because this will make writing faster. I’ve been trying to do this, but haven’t managed to grasp this skill yet!

On the podcast, Daphne speaks about common writer problems, how to write faster and why changing font size is a good idea!

Youtube: https://youtu.be/d3cT188xygs

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2LOlmxSSpGY7OCOF6XNl7C

Being Embarrassed by your Writing

children, family

Last week, daycare asked me to bring in a copy of a children’s book written by my child, a picture book about marbles which is a fairly specialized topic! The next day, I packed up a copy of the book and on the way to daycare my child began sobbing. Real gigantic tears falling down their cheeks and howling while we crossed the street.

It turned out they didn’t want me to bring the book to daycare because they thought the other children will see this picture book and make fun of them. I told them it was an accomplishment to publish any book and not to let the haters get to you.

As a parent your influence is limited once they go to daycare or school and I can’t control what happens there. The daycare staff felt bad and told us that we can bring the book back home and perhaps bring back another day. Now the book is resting on a table at home.

It is scary being a writer because you don’t know who will be reading your words. Never mind writing, all your social media posts are being looked at by strangers. Over time I hope my child will gain more confidence to share their work one day, and not be so scared. I suppose the upside is maybe they will be more aware of what they are posting onto social media if they are worried about reputation? Or maybe they will post idiotic things together with their peers? The road to the future is unknown, but experiences will guide us along the way on this strange journey of parenthood and childhood!

How COVID affected Librarians, Authors & Poets/Performance Artists

Books, publishing

In May I will be hosting an event for Canadian Author Association’s Toronto branch to discuss how librarians, authors & poets/performance artists were affected by COVID. Academic librarians from The University of Toronto and Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University) will discuss the disruptions they have faced and how libraries have responded to the pandemic. Author Dan K Woo and Poet/Performance Artist Johnny D Trinh will share how the pandemic has affected their writing life and what opportunities were missed or gained. These writers will also read from their works.

Registration for this zoom event is free and link is here: https://canadianauthors.org/toronto/events/

Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop is the sponsor for this event and there will be a draw for a $50 Indigo gift card. Dark Helix Press will also be giving away an eBook sampler. Links to these are on the event page.

If I don’t post in the next little while it’s because of this…

Uncategorized

Recently I volunteered to be the judge of a literary contest and all the entries of physical books were sent to me in multiple boxes! A few days ago I was wondering what to read and well, now I have my answer. My child was very excited to help me organize the titles and declared that any titles with the words “emotional,” “fire” and had a nice graphic should win because they judge by the cover! But I will read through most of them since experience had taught me the cover isn’t everything!

Looking through the books I see seasoned award winning authors and also a variety of self-published authors competing against each other. This is going to be tough to judge but I will do my best and keep an open mind!

As a person who also enters contests, one has to have thick skin. Judging, similar to editing is very subjective and depends on the person’s experiences. There are also other judges so we will come together at the end to compare our shortlists. This is an interesting experience to go through and we’ll see what happens! Meanwhile I will be reading a lot over the next little while!

Finally writing my second vampire book

Books, publishing, self-publishing, Uncategorized, Writing

For April’s NaNoWrimo camp I am writing the second book of my vampire series, The International House of Vampires. I should be writing, but I always seem to find things to distract myself because I am an Olympian at procrastinating! One of the reasons I am taking so long with the second book is because initially I was going to switch main character to a minor character and did write a fair bit, but one of my mentors told me to stick with Tamara, the main character, so I scrapped that version of the second book. The minor character was Latino and while doing research I was told to not write a main character that is non-Asian. Then my dad died and in the second book, a father figure dies, so I had a hard time continuing writing. After my dad died, a lot of things stopped for me and I was feeling like I was recovering when my mom and grandma died. I had written a novel about yokai hunting in San Francisco just before mom died and entered a contest with it (it lost) and am now looking for a literary agent. No one wants it so far and I will keep trying to bug agents and publishers.

In the first vampire book, Tamara lost her husband and in the second book it’s about her trying to find him in the Underworld. The Underworld is described very differently by the Buddhist versus Roman Catholic religions I was raised in. I never thought it was odd to have two religions in the household, my parents were very different people so it made sense while growing up. Anyhow, the Underworld I am creating in this book is a mish mash as well and since it’s the second book, I will have to self-publish since the publishers/agents queried with the first book didn’t want a multicultural vampire book using Taoism concepts to explain magic. Vampires also don’t drink blood, they suck chi energy and they vaccinated themselves against silver. For such old creatures, there should be improvements over time!

Now I am busy looking up my past manuscripts and picking and choosing what I want to use in this book. Nothing is ever wasted even if it’s tossed out because it’s practice for the final version! After I finish this book my family members can stop making fun of me not having a second books!

My initial scope was five books for International House of Vampires (not to be confused with International House of Pancakes apparently), but we will see. I’ve been writing more short fiction since they are easier to sell and less heart breaking than working on a book for five years that no one wants. Back to writing! Tut tut!

Meeting in person to geek out on publishing!

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This is the first in person event I will be doing post pandemic! If you happen to be downtown Toronto on Thursday, April 20, I will be at The New Common (around Wellesley/Bloor) speaking to the Toronto Writers Community.

We are going to talk about “Which publishing path is right for you?” which will detail options about publishing in today’s mad world. We’ll cover traditional (literary agents, publishing companies, online), self-publishing and vanity presses. After the talk, lots of time to chat about your projects and what you want to pursue!

Just fall flat on your face

Books, branding, publishing, Writing

Before I started the Artsy Raven podcast, I spoke with a friend who gave me the advice of just being dumb. “Don’t try so hard! Just make videos of yourself falling flat on your face and thousands will watch!” was their sage advice.

I thought about it and considered it for a long time, but I just couldn’t do it. It’s the same situation when I see romance or erotica writers amass huge mailing lists and sell lots of books. The ladies that sell dino erotic made a million in their first year! There was a call for an erotica anthology and I wrote a piece which was rejected perhaps because you can tell my heart wasn’t in it.

Everything has their ups and downs in life, it is foolish to expect one will have good fortune indefinitely. The only thing you can do is build up support so you don’t fall too far too fast.

Some writers warned me not to do other things other than write. So the things I’m doing now, hosting a podcast or design work is frowned upon by the “pure writers.” Since my mother died I haven’t been writing much because it takes up a lot of energy to world build.

Over time I’ve been taking small steps around writing with my podcast and design work because I find them easier to do. All these other non-writing activities are my support because they involve other people and that gives me energy to go on. April NaNoWriMo camp just started and I have written a few thousand words so far, so I’m warming up to return to writing again.

In university I was told by some male students that I was too smart and had to dumb myself down to attract a boyfriend. I didn’t listen to their advice and found someone who appreciated me for who I was.

As much as falling flat on your face or acting dumb is the easier route to some problems, it’s just not worth it sometimes and you may never reach your goal! After a long struggle, you will appreciate your rewards more!

Talking to Lindsay Wong about success

Artsy Raven, asian, awards, Books, Uncategorized, women, Writing, you tube

What is success? Is it achieving a goal such as writing a best selling book or living a dream lifestyle?

Recently I interviewed Lindsay Wong about this and I was slightly surprised by what she said, since she hit success with her memoir, The Woo-Woo: How I Survived Ice Hockey, Drug Raids, Demons, and My Crazy Chinese Family. The book was nominated for book awards, won some awards and selected for the 2019 edition of Canada Reads.

For many people it seems after hitting one goal, it’s time to set up the next goal and keep going! Lindsay works very hard and I wish her luck in the future of being able to just wake up every morning to just write in pjs!

Link to my interview and her book reading here: Spotify, Youtube