TODAY is the 183rdday of the year. And in a leap year, that’s one of the two middle days of 366, if you want to be technical about it. I do a lot of reflection and assessments in my life. That’s why I achieve more than most people. No, not achieve grand things like build skyscrapers, or amass great wealth. But simply doing things more purposefully. Just finding my own happy.
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Mid-year assessments are fun for me. They usually tell me if I have to pick up my pace, or start to relax, or change course. 2020 is a crazy year. Pretty weird. Kind of cruel. Obviously, the plague cut down my travel plans. I had to request refunds for purchased airline tickets to Australia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, and Mindanao. I’m not even sure if I can come to the Philippines at the rate things are going right now. So, in hindsight, it would seem like my decision to visit in February and March was pretty good. That short visit, mostly spent in Manila and Batangas (for a destination wedding), also took me home to Iloilo.
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And from Iloilo, I even made it to Antique, and Capiz to visit friends. I also touched base with West Visayan artists and writers during my Functus Dos event on February 29 at the Iloilo Cinematheque. It was the Peter Solis Nery Arts Festival, of course. And I’m glad I pulled it off. Again, in hindsight, that already counts huge for my community cultural activity in 2020.
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I mean, sure, there was a plan for WAFACon (the Writers Artists Filmmakers Artisans Convention) in Passi City for later this year. We were thinking it would be in October around the same time of the year when we had the first WAFACon in Dumangas last year. We were thinking it would also be a great time for the awarding of the 2020 Peter’s Prize. But it looks so impossible now. We don’t know how this pandemic pans out in the next three months.
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So, for my peace of mind, I have decided to just cancel these events, and put everybody’s safety first. I’m pretty sure the winners of the 2020 Peter’s Prize are with me on this one. But I want to honor these Covid year winners. Obviously, in more “virtual” ways that have become the new normal for most of us.
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Publishing-wise, I need to pick up my pace a little bit. Celia F. Parcon’s “Nothing’s Lost” was published in the US in May. It’s a book of translation. Retired UPV Prof. Celia Parcon has translated six of my Hiligaynon stories into English. Although it is Ma’am Cel’s book, I also consider it a career milestone for me as a writer. I mean, I do not wake up everyday with my works translated in another language. To my mind, only important works need translation!
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I was hoping my new memoir “The (Almost) Fabulous” would be published before the end of June. But that didn’t happen. It could be published this week, but that’s one week late of my personal time frame.
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Last year, I published three books:
“At My Father’s Wake” is a collection of ten poems in three languages (so really, thirty poems) with generous reviews and critical readings by some of our more accomplished contemporary writers.
“After: Prose Poems” is a sequence of 31 poems written in the manner of a poem-a-thon, wherein I wrote a poem a day for the 31 days of May 2015. Why it took me four years to have the courage to publish them, you may have to buy the book to find out.
“Funny, Sad, and Dangerous” is simply a collection of my three Palanca-winning one-act plays in English and Filipino.
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I’m seriously thinking of outdoing myself this year. I have three of my own books in the works, including “The (Almost) Fabulous”. There’s also a reissue of my earlier memoirs, but this time in a 3-in-1 volume. So you can imagine “The Essential Thoughts of a Purple Cat”, “Moon River, Butterflies, and Me”, and “My Life as a Hermit” under one cover. Then, there’s my seven Hiligaynon Palanca-winning short stories edited in the orthography suggested by my Hiligaynon Revolution of 2014.
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In May and June, I gave an online critical essay-writing workshop to veteran and new writers from all over the country: Manila, Iloilo, Aklan, Capiz, Bacolod, Palawan, and South Cotabato. The idea was for them to contribute essays in my textbook on 21stcentury literature. I have published most of their essays here under my column, and the feedback I received was pretty positive. So, who is to stop me from gathering these essays, and putting them together in one book?
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I really feel that if I push myself a little, I can still make wonders this Covid year 2020. Because I’m not the kind who backs down in the face of the plague!/PN
