TRAVELS (and more) WITH CECILIA BRAINARD: NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS OF SOME FRIENDS (and me!)

Monday, December 30, 2013

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS OF SOME FRIENDS (and me!)

New Year's Resolutions of some friends:

EVE LA SALLE CARAM - As for New Year's resolutions--I don't usually make them, but since you've asked, maybe I should change my ways. Anyhow, I guess this is what I should put up front: To take care of things I've neglected and number 1 on that list is the novella I finished in 2012 (Please, San Antonio!) but never sent out. In the next two weeks out it goes--with the hope that others who have put something that is important to them off, find the will to move it forward.

A toast from Sardis, Schubert Alley, New York before seeing The Glass Menagerie. Happy New Year!

SUSAN EVANGELISTA - I read something recently about bringing about change by planning strategies instead of goals -- i.e. incorporate better eating habits instead of aiming to knock off 5 kilos! I'm scheduling in more yoga time, an hour of writing before sleeping, throwing something out everyday before dinner!

LUISA A. IGLORIA - For me, 2014 will be the year of paring down to essentials, learning to love harder what we already have. With so much that has been brought to our consciousness not only of calamity but also our global connectedness in 2013, there really is no other priority. Here is Luisa's new *mobile app* to her website and blog: http://ThePoetsLizard.mobapp.at/

RASHAAN ALEXIS MENESES - Instead of beating myself up anytime I feel a twinge of jealousy or envy, which is often enough, 2014 will be the year when I try to accept that green monster as part of the creative process. If I come at it from the most useful angle, those pangs of envy can stretch my imagination to consider what may be possible and how.

DOUG NOBLE - I always resolve to exercise and lose weight, but I never do.

SWAPNA PAWAR - To eat better, and to continue my meditation everyday.

MELISSA SALVA - I don't make new year's resolutions because their effect on me is something similar to reverse psychology! But let's say I did; writing-wise, I would like to be more productive by re-establishing a writing routine and publishing again. I occasionally write for a local news website but it's been a while since I last published a literary piece.

NADINE SARREAL - My resolution in 2014 is to finish at least one writing project!

JULIA STEIN - As for New Year's resolutions for 2014 I like this short quote from
Phoebe's MacAdams's book of poetry"Touching Stone:

"give us tongues of light
this new year
and the mind
not to extinguish them"

And a second New year's Resolution is is to act bravely and to accept change.

LENY STROBEL - My New Year's resolution? Hhmmm, not sure if I can do it but I'd like to spend less time on social media and concentrate on my next writing project instead. Also, I am hoping that our new book, Back from the Crocodile's Belly, would find its audience in the new year.

LINDA TY-CASPER - I will try to begin and end each day with a grateful heart.

Maligayang Pasko, Malualhating Bagong Taon. Linda (Sending a picture of the swan that appeared Christmas, after a thaw allowed the river to flow again.)

MARIANNE VILLANUEVA - Don't shop in Ikea and spend part of each day in a park and finish reading my friends' novels. I should also exercise and write more.

And

CECILIA BRAINARD - Write more, exercise more, eat healthier. I want to fix my back yard and side yard -- get the walls painted an alegre color, replant, hang cool planters and stuff on the walls -- create San Miguel-de-Allende out there. I want to do more to help the Haiyan survivors/refugees.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL MY READERS!

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard's official website is ceciliabrainarddotcom. She is the award-winning author and editor of 22 books, including When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, The Newspaper Widow, Magdalena, Selected Stories, Vigan and Other Stories, and more. She edited Growing Up Filipino 1, 2, & 3, Fiction by Filipinos in America, Contemporary Fiction by Filipinos in America, and other books.. Her work has been translated into Finnish and Turkish; and many of her stories and articles have been widely anthologized. Cecilia has received many awards, including a California Arts Council Fellowship in Fiction, a Brody Arts Fund Award, a Special Recognition Award for her work dealing with Asian American youths, as well as a Certificate of Recognition from the California State Senate, 21st District, and the Outstanding Individual Award from her birth city, Cebu, Philippines. She has lectured and performed at UCLA, USC, University of Connecticut, University of the Philippines, PEN, Shakespeare & Company in Paris, and many others. She has served in the Board of literary arts groups such as PEN, PAWWA (Pacific Asian American Writers West), among others.