Spring has been a blessed time full of life of many exciting events and new experiences as well as lovely changes in my personal life that has helped me re-discover myself, grow and heal. I see a lot more colour and light and a whole new journey up ahead. I feel like Naoki in Espresso Love, finding my heart and soul and direction again, and I thank you for being a deeply resonating soul, a blessing, a muse, an inspiration, a healer, a friend, a fellow thinker and artist or more in my life. There is a long adventure up ahead and so much to share onwards in life together.
I’ll blaze through some quick exciting updates and announcements and then coverage of a few events that have happened:
#1 Ranking in Science-Fiction & 10,000 followers
I’ve hit two milestones all in the span of a few days! Thank you so much for the support. (Read Espresso Love >>)
To celebrate 10,000 which provides what seems like a significant influence, I’ve always been passionate about encouraging, promoting, building platforms and expanding opportunities for others – that ultimately is my vision and goal in the long run, in as many ways as possible in the future. So I am opening up to reading requests and will feature/share one favourite work every Friday. Please see the submission guidelines at the end of this post.
Regarding Espresso Love, there should also be good news coming for its journey towards publication so be sure to stay tuned!
Paint a Smile Charity Fundraising Event (April 27)
I had the opportunity to meet up with many old high school friends many of whom I haven’t seen in years and artists at a fundraising event in Markham. Paint a Smile organized by fellow arts student, Sylvia Chan, is a charity organization aiming to bring the arts to those in need such as youth and patients in hospitals in order to teach, inspire and heal. At the event, I did inspiring readings/talks and had book signings and merch at my table. There were many talented people – dancers, painters, musicians, spoken word, comedy and onwards.
Pages UnBound Literary Festival (May 7-10)
I led at multimedia workshop at Pages UnBound festival in Toronto on Transcending Print: Online Literature, Cell Phone Novels and Transmedia Culture including intimate discussions, powerpoints, videos, Skype with cell phone novels around the world and more. While my partner in crime, Jack Jamieson, a PhD student, Japanese cell phone novel and communication technology researcher, and I talked about the movement from print to online literature like Wattpad and Textnovel, electronic media and so on, my passion is also to show the wide circle and cycle we must consider in our technological era now – from traditional to online, from online to traditional, and cross-platform, cross-media integration or adaptation. It was definitely an exciting new experience and thanks to Wattpad staff for introducing me to this opportunity.
Wattpad High Park Sakura Meet Up (May 17)
On May 17th we headed to High Park to catch the last bit of the cherry blossoms – luckily there were still a few trees remaining. We had a long walk and lunch at the Grenadier, found cherry blossom trees before settling down on the grass for a writer’s circle of introductions, reading and writing talk and music jams. It’s always great to meet with new Wattpadders and fellow passionate writers and surely the beauty of the park and spectacular sunny weather made for a great serene environment. Looking forward to the next one! Follow us @TorontoMeetUp, Facebook group and the planning forums
A vlog and short coverage video courtesy of one of our members
Wattpad Recommendation Submissions
Marking the 10,000 follower milestone, I would like to open up for reading requests and share a favourite Wattpad work every Friday. Our more mature demographics on Wattpad definitely needs the boost, please follow these below!
LOOKING FOR:
– Mature, sophisticated, poised writing with a strong flowing voice
– Literary Fiction (based on contemporary reality and captures life and humanity, not clearly identifiable under one genre, eloquent nuanced/atmospheric/poetic prose, abstract metaphysical not-everything-is-stated feeling, multiple layers of deeper meaning and textures, thought-provoking and allows reader interpretation, big questions about life and philosophies)
– NOT driven or focused on plot
– Challenges society, constructs and the norm
– Overcoming difficulties with a positive, inspiring message
– Contemplative, meditative, spiritual way of capturing human interactions and bonds
– Magical-realism (See: http://mariavicente.com/post/98299672656/what-is-magical-realism)
– Symbolic, Allegorical, Mythic, Dream, Vision
– High Fantasy
– Intellectual World-Building, Post-Apocalyptic, Dystopian, Speculative Fiction
– POETRY: NOT personal or based on emotions; symbolic, allegorical, mythic, dream, vision, spiritual, abstract, art
– Adult NON-FICTION with personal elements: travelogue, memoir, essay, discourse, etc.
NOT LOOKING FOR:
– Children’s/Teen Fiction/Young Adult
– Strict Genres: Romance, Fantasy, Science-Fiction, Historical Fiction, Action, Crime/Mystery, Horror etc. though elements of these may appear slightly in considered work
SUBMIT:
– Send a PM on Wattpad and introduce yourself briefly (extra points if you’ve read my work :P) with a short paragraph briefly describing your story – with “genre” keywords, and enough synopsis info to get an idea of what happens in it.
– DO NOT include any links
– Spread the word to whoever you think should be recognized for their literary talent