Reflection Professor Ramos Blog

Reflection Throughout this semester, I continuously came to the realization that I need to make more time to do the things I am passionate about and love. The creative option for our final project was the perfect opportunity for me to get back in touch with one of my favorite pastimes and hobbies, photography. For this project I decided to take a quote from every reading we have done in unit three and try to embody it in a photograph. Our first reading from unit three was Howl by Allen Ginsberg. From this poem I chose the line, â€Å"Who fell on their knees in hopeless cathedrals praying for each other’s salvation and light and breasts, until the soul illuminated its hair for a second.† I chose two photos to pair with Ginsberg’s quote which are both of the Sainte-Chapelle stained glass chapel from my trip to Paris last year, 2018, in July. I chose this photo because it is of cathedral and the stain glass represents the souls illuminating. Since Kurt Vonnegut’s science fiction novel, Slaughterhouse-five, first chapter is about a man writing a book about his experiences in the second world war I chose the quote, â€Å"Billy left his room, went down the slow elevator, walked over to Times Square, looked into the window of a tawdry bookstore. In the window were hundreds of books about fucking and buggery and murder, and a street guide to New York City, and a model of the Statue of Liberty with a thermometer on it.† The photo I chose for this quote is a picture I took a few weeks ago in downtown Los Angeles of the famous Last Bookstore on Spring street. The quote reminded me of this exact bookstore because it is such a magical place filled with such an incredible selection of books. The next quote is from,, â€Å"The road looked as if no one had traveled on it in months,† is from Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man Is Hard to Find. This photo fits the scenery I imagine from the short story A Good Man is Hard to Find. I also think it fits the quote because there are no people in the images and all the cars are empty and parked in the center of the street. I took this photo earlier this year in Seattle, Washington. Gloria Anzaldua said, My home tongues are the languages I speak with my sister and brothers, with my friends,† in her essay How to Tame a Wild Tongue. For Gloria Anzaldua’s quote I decided to paired it with some of my favorite photos I’ve ever took from last year’s Dia De Los Muertos celebration last year on Olvera Street in Los Angeles. I feel as though these photos do a great job of representing the culture that Anzaldua speaks of in her essay. In Woman Hollering Creek Cleofilas said, â€Å"a parent’s love for a child, a child’s for its parents, is another thing entirely.† This reminded me of my relationship with my parents. Therefore, I decided it would be a good opportunity to share two of my favorite portraits of my parents. The last quote is from Junot Diaz’s Drownâ€Å". . . with the sun sliding out of the sky like spit off a wall . . .† I am grateful for this opportunity to share work that I am very proud of to present. I feel reconnected with my chosen form of art. I really enjoyed this class and appreciate the ability to have a creative option for this assignment.

One Road to Royalties

One Road to Royalties Breaking into the publishing business is quite the challenge. And new writers who follow the traditional route, soon discover that writing the book is far easier than capturing the attention of an agent, having a manuscript accepted, and then receiving royalties for their work. Having a track record of previous publications helps Magazines and small literary or academic journals are possible markets, and many pay for material, but just because theyre plentiful, doesnt make them easy to crack. After banging on the door of one online magazine for several months, I finally gained entry. After my first successful submission, they went on to publish several of my stories and nonfiction articles. This one breakthrough opened one more door, and when that online magazine accepted my work, I was able to add three additional published stories to my author