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What have I been up to?
Jun. 15th, 2020 10:11 amIsolation did weird things to me. I was fairly isolated before the lockdown but not being able to go out even to the cafe to meet my friends left me unable to get any work done. I've only just managed to get some poems revised, but only a few. It's still a slog...
I took some online courses in creative writing. I ran into some unexpected racism first from my peers and then the instructor. It was a course on writing for young readers, and I decided to use the opportunity to workshop from Palestinian folktales I've had on the back burner for awhile now. My peer reviewer said that English "obviously" isn't my first language. They objected to all of the semicolons I like to use. But honestly, I would not have had that sort of feedback if my name weren't visible... But the real stunner was the instructor saying the Palestinian form I chose was "an obvious mistake." I challenged her on this and she figured out that it was traditional, a sort of Palestinian version of "once upon a time." She wouldn't just let it go, though. "No matter, it is still not nice/correct/grammatically satisfying." I had to just ignore her in the end, because last I saw, she was still trying to discuss this with me (after calling it 'esoteric' and a 'philosophical' discussion of some sort...).
So, I felt pretty tired from all of that.
I did end up sending out a story for publication, though. So It wasn't a complete waste of time. It's based on this anecdote I came across regarding witches and the city of Ascalon. It struck me how there was no line between saint and witch (but the 'hero' killed them all anyway). I did some inversions on that...
My sisters now do a weekly conference call. I hate it. I hate conference calls, and my sisters are triggering. I do it for mom's sake; she needs to be more connected with her family.
Oh, and I applied for this BIPOC mentorship conference thing. It would be really nice to have another POC as a mentor. If I get accepted, I will have to participate via Zoom, which I also hate. :) Oh boy...
I took some online courses in creative writing. I ran into some unexpected racism first from my peers and then the instructor. It was a course on writing for young readers, and I decided to use the opportunity to workshop from Palestinian folktales I've had on the back burner for awhile now. My peer reviewer said that English "obviously" isn't my first language. They objected to all of the semicolons I like to use. But honestly, I would not have had that sort of feedback if my name weren't visible... But the real stunner was the instructor saying the Palestinian form I chose was "an obvious mistake." I challenged her on this and she figured out that it was traditional, a sort of Palestinian version of "once upon a time." She wouldn't just let it go, though. "No matter, it is still not nice/correct/grammatically satisfying." I had to just ignore her in the end, because last I saw, she was still trying to discuss this with me (after calling it 'esoteric' and a 'philosophical' discussion of some sort...).
So, I felt pretty tired from all of that.
I did end up sending out a story for publication, though. So It wasn't a complete waste of time. It's based on this anecdote I came across regarding witches and the city of Ascalon. It struck me how there was no line between saint and witch (but the 'hero' killed them all anyway). I did some inversions on that...
My sisters now do a weekly conference call. I hate it. I hate conference calls, and my sisters are triggering. I do it for mom's sake; she needs to be more connected with her family.
Oh, and I applied for this BIPOC mentorship conference thing. It would be really nice to have another POC as a mentor. If I get accepted, I will have to participate via Zoom, which I also hate. :) Oh boy...
