Michelle Monárrez's Blog, page 2

Book review: Imperfecta

Revista Literaria Monolito

⭐5/5: Imperfecta, Alejandra Ramos Gómez

TW for this review: Femicides, gender violence, PTSD.

Soy mujer de luz. Soy mujer de cambio. Soy mujer de revolución.

Imperfecta is a bilingual poetry book including poems, dialogues, and meditations describing the experiences of women as mujeres, friends, Latinas, and immigrants. The book was inspired by "a lifetime of feeling more, in infinite moments without fitting in" and was dedicated to the victims of femicide in the border city of Ciudad Juarez.

Ramos Gómez has a powerful yet flowy voice that delivers moving verses with poignant words that invite reflection. Her bilingual poetry reminded me of the machinations our creative self goes through after the diaspora that naturally comes with immigration.

I sat with this book for hours and finished it in one sitting. I had planned to enjoy it along with my morning meditations, like little tidbits of emotion to accompany me through my day. But once I started reading the flowy verses with a familiar and refreshing rhythm, I found I couldn't stop. "One more poem" became the mantra I had while going through the pages of Imperfecta. The beautiful lines weren't the only things that kept me tethered to this book. It was also the quiet and nostalgic reflection of myself I found with each passing dialogue.

I don't speak much about the other side of my life in Mexico on this platform. Most of the memories I share of my life back in Juarez are happy ones, but I'd be doing 𝘐𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘢 a disservice if I didn't declare every other memory of Juarez is tainted by violence. I'd be lying if I didn't say that I still carry the bad omens from my life on the border: the tight fear that grips at my chest when an Explorer with tinted windows drives by; the hallow layer of grief at another story of gun violence; the unanswered question of Natalia, who sat at the back of my class and one day, didn't make it back.

Imperfecta arrived at the perfect time. I'm working through healing myself from the dark memories of my teenage years and reading through these poems served as a reminder: "it's okay to not be okay". Thank you to Alejandra for putting her work into my hands and aiding my journey to wellness.

Book review: The GCP, The Last Resurrection

⭐4/5

I took a break from reading Sci-Fi stories to dwell on the superhero genre for a couple of months. I'm not ready to leave superheroes behind, but I'm craving a comeback to science fiction. To quench this craving, The GCP: The First Resurrection by Frantz Charles was the perfect option.

Outside lay my freedom, where I could run without being found. There was a certain peace to it. In the dark, you could get lost and no one could find you, no responsibilities, no feelings getting hurt, no worrying about others, and most important— not being let down.

Many are called. Few are chosen.
In a not-so-distant future, planet Earth's been attacked by a set of gods, with the mighty goddess Vera at the helm. As a dire battle for the future of the Universe ensues, three teenagers become instrumental in defending humanity. Angela Lopez, a seemingly normal 17-year-old orphan residing in Florida, fights depression as she discovers her superpowers. Cade and Colvin Walker are half-brothers and members of the God's Chosen People army (GCP). As they race against the raise of Vera, the Walker brothers face conflicting alliances and the heavy burden of leading the war for Heaven and the Universe. Sparks fly as the clash between competing universes begins and the stakes for survival keep raising. Can the GCP ensure there will be a future for these universes?

The GCP: The First Resurrection was a fast-paced, action-packed, and original read that combines Sci-Fi concepts and superpowers with a dash of fantasy. Author Frantz Charles did an excellent job of using worldbuilding as a tool to advance the plot. He delivers plot details like pieces to a puzzle as the story moves along and leaves it up to the readers to put together all the pieces of the cosmic war that looms tragically over the heroes. It took me a second to get acquainted with the pace and style of the book, but once I did, I appreciated Frantz's crafty ways to avoid info-dumping or exposition like many authors of the genre do.

The science-fiction elements in this book were a breath of fresh air. I loved how Frantz combined science and technology with the mythos of the deities in the book. His use of these elements makes this book perfect for fans of the video game saga of Assasin's Creed and the anime series Evangelion.

This speculative book has an ample, diverse cast of complex protagonists that I also appreciated. For me, Angela Lopez stole the show.

Angela's story deals with difficult themes of abandonment and mental health. As a young 17-year-old, Angela discovers her place in a complicated battle for the universe that started a long time before she was born. It's the cosmic event that has been tormenting her family for generations and the tragedy that took her mother from her. I appreciated this character's journey the most because it reminded me of the importance of finding a purpose and your place in the world.

Short story month: Three short story collections to celebrate

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May is a busy month! The US celebrates many things besides mother’s day. All month long, May is used to celebrate important events like South Asian Heritage Month and Celiac Awareness Month, and among these celebrations, May ends up also being the National Short Story Month.

Short stories are one of the literary forms I enjoy the most. I didn’t use to think much of them, but then I learned that Edgar Allan Poe believed in the power of bite-sized fiction. He claimed a good short story should be read in one sitting and that got me thinking: it’s probably harder to write a short story than a novel. Sure, a novel takes a long time to write. There’s the crafting of an entire universe and characters to think about, but in the end, a novel has more space to deliver a message. A short story has limited space and time to make readers stick around and care about the characters.

So why celebrate short stories? Because short stories are their own little world and are just as important as any other form of writing. Short stories can be just as impactful as any novella or novel. They can help an unsure reader dip their toes in a new genre or help a tired bookworm reset and snap out of reader’s block. Short stories offer us a shortcut to beautiful and cathartic prose, so they deserve to be celebrated!

Here are three short story collections to help you celebrate.

1. Remapping Wonderland

What if classical fairytales were told by people of color? Remapping Wonderland answers this question as a true testament to the literary movement #OwnVoices. This adult fiction collection will take you through fairy tale retellings written by BIPOC authors that feature BIPOC and LGBTQ+ characters. From Cinderella to Rapunzel to Little Red Riding Hood, a diverse cast of 27 authors retold the classic stories we loved in concepts that range from wildly absurd to painfully realistic to bizarrely humorous to arousingly sexual. This anthology is a journey through a fantastical land of make-believe that vividly reflects the human spirit and the colorful world in which we live. A percentage of the proceeds from the book go to Room to Read, a leading nonprofit for children's literacy and girls' education across Asia and Africa.

2. What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky

Remember when I said short stories can introduce you to new authors? Well, Lesley Nneka Arimah is, without a doubt, one of the most talented writers I’ve ever read. She is a genius in her own right and I got to know her thanks to her short story What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky.

Behind this short story, there’s a dazzling collection that explores the ties that bind parents and children, husbands and wives, lovers and friends to one another and to the places they call home. The prose and themes are evocative, playful, subversive, and touch on an adventurous exploration of humanity.

3. Cosmicomics [image error]

Cuban-Italian Italo Calvino gifted us many marvelous stories before his departure in 1985, but the one that influenced me the most was his collection of short stories titled Cosmicomics.

This imaginative short story collection was my introduction to the Science Fiction genre. Calvino made his characters out of mathematical formulas and simple cellular structures. He takes us through their journeys among galaxies as they experience the solidification of planets move from aquatic to terrestrial existence, play games with hydrogen atoms, and even have a love life. Calvino explored the concepts of continuous creation, the transformation of matter, and the expanding and contracting reaches of space and time. His work is a fun and complex relation between science and the human condition.

 

Short stories can serve as the presentation card between author and reader or a quick route to get you out of a reading slump. I hope you enjoy these short stories as much as I did. What other short story collections could we read to celebrate National Short Story Month?

Writing rituals: 3 lessons I learned about writing and about myself

Let's talk about writing rituals! Did you know some writers train to write better by using writing rituals?

Back when I was still defining my process, I liked the idea of the bohemian writer. You know the one: the tortured artist who stays up all night writing beautiful prose amidst a cloud of cigarette smoke, reading lines out loud with a whisky tainted voice. But that wasn't my style. My style back then was more the one of a writer who struggles to find the ✨time to write✨. When I actually found it, I had no inspiration and just ended up giving up and thinking I must have been suffering from writer's block. Turns out, I just needed to give writing rituals a try.

What’s a writing ritual?

A writing ritual is a set of behaviors or actions repeated before a writing session to train the brain to focus and be more productive. These behaviors vary from writer to writer. They can be simple, like making a cup of coffee just before sitting down to write, or a bit more complex, like listening to binaural beats and committing to finishing something. Some writers meditate, start their days at 4 a.m., walk their dogs, watch TV, or wear a specific writing outfit to trick their brains into productivity and quenching all desires to procrastinate.

Who should use writing rituals?

Writing rituals are for people who, like me, struggle to set and sticking with a routine. Headspace argues that routine benefits creativity and productivity, but how do we set out to create a routine that eventually becomes a habit?

In his book The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg explains a habit is formed by following three important steps:

Cue: “A trigger that tells your brain to go into automatic mode and pick which habit to use.”

Routine: A sequence of actions that “can be physical or mental or emotional.”

Reward: A positive reinforcement that will help “your brain figure out if this particular loop is worth remembering for the future.”

With writing rituals, whatever behaviors you perform before your writing sessions become the cues. Supposedly, after enough times of repeating the same set of behaviors, your brain will know it’s time to write and release all the creative energy you need. After showing up in front of your desk intending to write every day, your ritual will become a routine and even second nature.

I know, I know, it all sounds very Pavlovian. When I set out to try it, I had my doubts, too. I kept my ritual simple: Woke up at 6 a.m., showered, made coffee, and sat down to write. My writing ritual not only became a powerful tool to create my writing routine, it also taught me a few things about the writing process and about myself.

Takeaways1. Writing when you're most productive can be a powerful tool.

When do you have the most energy? Do you feel refreshed when you wake up or do you feel more awake at night? Thanks to using writing rituals to figure out my writing routine, I discovered that I'm an early bird. There's no better time for me to write than at the crack of dawn, so why would I set myself to work when I’m least productive?

2. A writing ritual can help you determine your plotting style.

If you still need to figure out your writing style, writing rituals might be just what you need. You’ve gone for a walk, you’ve made your coffee and listened to your music, but you still have a hard time writing. Perhaps what you need is to plan your writing sessions. I turned out to be more of a plotter than I thought. Even after doing all my favorite rituals, I could not focus or be as productive as I wanted. It turned out that I needed to plot my chapters to increase my productivity. Rituals gave me the will to write, plotting gave me the organization my brain needed to succeed.

3. A routine might be the answer to Writer's block.

The ever-dreaded writer’s block, that overwhelming feeling of not being able to write at all, might be cured by setting up a new routine. I was stuck in the same place of a story for a year, and a new set of writing rituals did wonders to get me out of my head and start writing again. Ever since I found the writing rituals that work for me, I have been able to get out of writing ruts faster than before. Whenever I get stuck, I go back to the basics: Wake up early, get caffeine, sit down to write.

March Reads: Renegades Review

⭐3.5/5

“You talk like you’ve read too many comic books.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

Secret Identities. Extraordinary Powers. She wants vengeance. He wants justice. Once upon a time, villains ruled the world. It took the force of the Renegades to stop them. Now, the Renegades are not only everyone’s heroes but the syndicate of superpowered people who rose to lead their crumbling society. Everyone loves them... except for the villains they once overthrew, and Nova. After she meets Adrian—a Renegade boy with a strong sense of justice — will Nova choose the path of heroes or villains?

Some stories are meant to be read, and some are meant to be listened. I found Renegades by Marissa Meyer to be the latter. I walked into this story with high hopes. I’ve read nothing by Meyer before, but her reputation preceded her, and I was excited to see a full trilogy about superheroes.

Meyer crafted a diverse cast of complex and likeable characters that were a joy to experience. I also appreciated the unique perspective on villains she gave us. Meyer’s book provided me with all the flashy superpowers, capes, and tights I needed, and yet something was amiss.

Meyer took her time introducing us to her world, and there were a couple of fake starts to this story that bordered on exasperating. Her writing style isn’t exactly my cup of tea either. The characters are often “starting” their actions instead of just doing them. This makes the narrative feel stunted. Meyer’s use of some superhero tropes felt forced and even out-of-place. These aspects alone made it hard for me to sit back and enjoy the story, and I felt like quitting a few times. But I stayed for the characters. I couldn’t bear to put this book in my “did not finish” pile without knowing what happened to Nova and Adrian.

In the end, I figured I just needed to listen to the story. The audiobook provided me with a level of separation from the narrator in my head, and this took the story to the next level. Book 1 ends up feeling like a lengthy introduction to a richer, well-plotted, overarching storyline, but I enjoyed it. I plan to pick up the audiobooks for the next two books in the series soon.

March Reading List: Fearless Women Writing SciFi

March celebrates many things: spring, women's history, and reading. To honor this month, I wanted to put together a reading list of fearless women writing SciFi to accompany you into spring.

It is a sad and still latent misconception that women do not enjoy reading science fiction, let alone write it. When I'm looking to debunk this myth, I look over to these authors for inspiration.

1. R.H. Webster, Lucky

A space western with a tinge of romance, Lucky is a great read for fans of Firefly and Cowboy Beebop.

Life in the space lanes isn't the easiest, but for Trigg Donner, commander of the space freighter Rosebud, it's more than a steady paycheck—it's home. But when a routine landing on San Pedro unearths a mystery simmering on his own ship, Trigg comes face to face with his own fears and distrust.

After spending several years stranded on a distant mining colony, former graduate student Cassandra "Lucky" Luckenbach finally has enough money saved up to catch a spaceship back home to Earth. She boards the Rosebud unaware that she is walking into the middle of a life-altering interstellar conspiracy. Mystery, adventure, and romance await her on the flight home. Before she arrives on Earth, she will be forced to ask herself what it is that she really wants, and who she wants to be.

2. Julia Scott, The Mirror Souls

A YA romance tangled in an alien-controlled dystopia, The Mirror Souls promises a unique plot and strong characters.

Like the rest of the Gaian race, Alana’s life is ruled by the Avalon, the superior race who once created Earth and returned to reclaim it after humanity brought it to the brink of destruction. Because of the Avalon, every Gaian faces the risk of being moved from Region to Region, over and over, with no warning. Alana has no place to call home.

Fearing that she may be resigned to this life of control forever, the opportunity to explore the world outside of her Region is literally dropped into Alana’s pocket in the form of a small silver device.
Taking a leap of faith and teleporting to the unknown, Alana must discover who is pulling the strings in her life and why. But in her quest for answers and freedom, she’s thrown headfirst into a hidden battle for humanity alongside a boy whose life was destined to be entwined with hers from the start.

With the secret of who she really is starting to unravel and abilities she didn’t know she had risen to the surface, she becomes a commodity to whatever faction can keep her in one place.

But others around her are carrying secrets, too, and Alana must decide who to trust before she can change the fate of all the races.

3. Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Prime Meridian

Prime Meridian a novella about a bleak life, impossible dreams, and unreachable worlds.

Amelia dreams of Mars. The Mars of the movies and the imagination, an endless bastion of opportunities for a colonist with some guts. But she’s trapped in Mexico City, enduring the drudgery of an unkind metropolis, working as a rent-a-friend, selling her blood to old folks with money who hope to rejuvenate themselves with it, enacting a fractured love story. And yet there’s Mars, at the edge of the silver screen, of life. It awaits her.

4. Ann Leckie, Ancillary Justice

Ancillary Justice is a story rooted in a far and gritty future that embodies the true meaning of hard SciFi.

On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest.

Once, she was the Justice of Toren - a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy.

Now, an act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with one fragile human body, unanswered questions, and a burning desire for vengeance.

5. Michelle Monárrez, Refurbished: The Clover Initiative

A superhero SciFi tale about immigrants fighting for what they believe in, Refurbished: The Clover Initiative is a novel perfect for fans of X-Men and Gene 13.

Eighteen-year-old academy graduate Alyssa is determined to start her military career as a GENE (Genetically Enhanced Entity) on her own terms. But after being transferred from her native London to America, she struggles to control her powers and find her place among a military unit of underdogs and other enhanced soldiers. When a rogue GENE is taken into custody, Alyssa's empathy for him forces her to choose between her carefully mapped out life plan, or a path that would put her in direct conflict with her superiors.

With the promise of superpowers and a green card on the table, thirteen-year-old Miguel signs a contract to become a GENE. Enduring the enhancement process is sure to be worth it with his refugee status at stake and dazzling dreams of becoming a superhero in the mix. But when he forms a psychic connection with a mysterious girl who could die without his help, he must decide what he's willing to risk in order to save her.

As Alyssa and Miguel embark on parallel journeys, their desire to choose their own individual paths transforms into a fierce battle for the rights of fellow enhanced people. The world might not be ready to find out about GENEs, but it had better brace itself. The protective barrier of secrecy will soon burst, and those called "Refurbished" will make themselves known.

The four most common superhero tropes in fiction

Ah, tropes. Those recurring themes, motifs, and even clichés always present in creative works. We love them or we love to hate them, but we know that it’s impossible to write a fiction story without falling into some sort of trope. I love it when creators reinvent superhero tropes or when they give them a unique twist.

Since I’ve started working on Book 2 of the Refurbished Saga, I decided to study superhero tropes closer to better understand the book I will produce. I went back to my experience with stories about superpowered people and found that many of the tropes under this genre can be categorized under four broader umbrellas.

Here’s the categorization that resulted from my research.

1. Origin story

The beginning. How did the hero get their abilities? What started them into the hero life? I love to see the humble beginnings of heroes, and origin stories of super-powered people often get divided in two.

Hiden power or Born with power: Like Superman or Storm, these supers are born with a special ability that can be present in their lives from birth or hidden until a certain point in their lives.

Made into power: These heroes get their powers in a freak lab accident, exposure to radiation, or magic sources like Spider-Man and Static Shock. They can also get their powers through a relic such as Doctor Faith’s helmet.

2. The hero life

Once a character has got their powers, what happens next? We get two types of hero journeys.

Reluctant Hero: This super just wants to be normal. They didn’t choose to get powers, so why must they abandon their normal lives to become a hero? The plot usually forces these characters into heroism, and they still sometimes wish they could get rid of their powers and abandoned the hero life.

Embraces Heroics: This character understands pretty quickly that their powers set them apart from the rest of the population, so they decide to do something with that power. They embrace their powers and the hero life suits them just fine. These heroes often hide the true self under their normal life alter-ego—like Batman often hides behind Bruce Wayne—because they are more themselves when they are protecting people.

3. Abilities

Does a hero have superpowers? If they do, what superpowers do they have? And what about heroes that don’t have any abilities at all? There are many tropes under this classification, but I’ve found that these are the two most common ones.

Badass Normal: Not all heroes get powers. Would you still consider them superheroes? I would! Despite not having superpowers, they depend on their intellect, martial arts abilities, general ruthlessness, or just being ridiculously prepared. Intellect and resourcefulness are still abilities in my book.

Stock Superpowered: A super who has the standard, recognizable abilities. Speed, flight, strength, and elemental powers are some of these.

4. Hero Style

We all have a work ethic, and sure enough, heroes do too! This is another one of those categories that branches out into many tropes, but I find that they can all fall under the Capes vs Cowls tropes.

The Cape: Clark is a hero. Scratch that, Clark is THE hero. He is Superman and the perfect example of what a Cape style of heroism looks like. These heroes don’t all actually wear capes, but they all adhere to strong moral codes and are loved by the civilians they save. They are the ray of light that shines in the dark and the supers that return hope to their cities.

The Cowl: The dark side of the heroic style coin. These dark superheroes don’t quite make it into the anti-hero category because they still operate under a code, but they dedicate themselves to punish evil instead of just fighting it. They operate from the shadows, are feared by their villains, and respected by the people they save.

After conducting this research, I noticed that our preferences in story tropes say a lot about who we are as creators. Personally, I love all heroes. But like everyone else, I have my preferences. I’ve discovered that I enjoy a story more when the hero is made into power and has to grow with their superpowers. I love when a “badass normal” character fully embraces the hero life and is moved to heroics by their own agency instead of needing a nudge from the plot. The jury’s still out on heroic styles for me, but most of the heroes that I write about are clearly the good guys. Researching these tropes has taught me a lot about myself as a creator, and it has served as a warning. Eisen Castle is going to be a tough book to write. It isn’t the story of heroes, but the story of anti-heroes.

What can your taste in heroics teach you about yourself?

Segundo Barrio

Segundo Barrio

The time is 6:52 am.
The sun hasn’t come up yet, and downtown El Paso already shows signs of life.

A man sits outside a second-hand store, a lit cigarette between his fingers throws ashes into the night.
A young mother scurries away to the bus station with a bundled up baby pressed at her chest.
On Oregon street, a mature woman makes the sign of the cross in front of the Virgen de Guadalupe’s effigy.

Sunlight kisses ever so gently the Sister Cities mural, and I make my way to the International Bridge.

Se hacen Manifiestos.
Aceptamos Pesos.Businesses wake up to bilingual signs and legends.

Downtown boils with life.
"Buenos días, Marta, ¿cómo amaneció?"
"¡Q'hubole, mi Pancho! ¿Cuándo me vas a pagar?"
The daily bustle marks the day’s start for early rising El Pasoans.

Segundo Barrio is where the heart comes to sings in Spanglish.
It is a city’s heritage and the first taste of El Paso’s unique flavor.
It is my personal definition of nostalgia.
And it was home.

Lost in Translation: Me haces falta

ME HACES FALTA

Me haces falta roughly translates to I need you but this translation doesn't make it justice. ⁠⁠

The word need carries a sense of obligation, of something important and essential.

Hacer falta expresses a melancholy hard to describe. It speaks of loving someone and letting them go while aching for their absence.

It's a rushed kiss at the airport, a bittersweet memory of times far gone.

It's embracing my mother on every trip back home and realizing how much smaller she is now.

It is our yearly goodbye at the international bridge and her hand wiping away my tears.

What comes next for the Refurbished Saga?

Another month in this crazy year and the end of 2020 is almost here. I have been quiet for a week around all social media on account of being sick and getting ready to add a furry baby to my home (more to come on that). But now that I’m back, there is no better time to share with you the plans I have for this month!

The Clover Initiative: What comes next?

Now that Book 1 in the Refurbished Saga has been published, it’s time to think about wider distribution. I’ve had many people ask me if the book will ever be available in Spanish. And the answer is: Yes! It has always been a dream of mine to launch a bilingual Author brand and this is definitely in my plans for 2021.

All I can say for now is that the book will go to a trusted Translator soon. We are still discussing the terms of their contract and compensation, but I’ll be announcing more details soon!

Refurbished: The Next Chapter

With November comes National Novel Writing Month. If you have been following my page for some time, you know that I’m an avid participant in this annual event. Book 1 in this saga is a NaNo novel and would have not seen the light of day if it weren’t for the amazing NaNoWriMo community. It should come to no one’s surprise that the second book on this saga will be a NaNo novel, too.

This November, I’m kicking off the next installment on the Refurbished Saga. I have about twenty-five percent of this new book finished and I’m hoping that late 2021 will be the year I publish it.

For now, I can share with you the working title and a small teaser. Hope you enjoy it!

Eisen Castle (Refurbished Book 2)

Should misfits be heroes?

Enhanced career soldier Robin Night doesn’t think so. Five months after the Blue Flamingo Incident, Robin finds out playing on the side of heroes comes with a price. Her decision to sever ties with her political patron in the Military Department has come back to haunt her. She must now get out of her comfort zone and prepare to lead two units into a successful six-member Strike Force. Does she have what it takes to lead?

How can misfits be heroes?

Cadet and research subject Zhihou Daiyu isn’t sure. After waking up from a coma five months ago, her powers are dormant. Her unit and her new life in Clover depend on her powers awakening. Can she awaken her powers and save her friends in the process?

Can misfits even be heroes?

Cadet and former suspect Angel Graves doesn’t know. He explores his newly found freedom in the confines of the Clover building. With a board evaluation looming over his head, he desperately tries to piece his memories together. He isn’t ready to face his past, but his life might depend on it. Can he really be himself without knowing who he was before?