VONA - The Arrival

I arrived in Berkeley via OAK on Sunday afternoon. The day before Matt and I went for a bike ride, met up with friends in Belmont Shores and got home after midnight. I had not packed. I was exhausted, went to bed and set the alarm for 6am. Sunday morning, I freaked, I packed everything and then some.

My suitcase weighed 42 pounds! What happened to the person that could live out of a back pack on a two week trip? Part of this journey was to unload baggage and here I am bringing more with me.

Getting the suitcase off the carousel was so sad, I felt like Lucy and Ethel in the candy factory.  The conveyor belt moved so fast that the suitcase went by me three times before I could safely get it off without hurting my back. Dragging it out of the terminal and walking across to catch my shuttle made me wish I did CrossFit.

When I got to campus, I had two choices, lug the suitcase up the wheelchair ramps or haul it up the stairs. The ramps were longer than the stairs, it felt like I was on a hike with a giant kettle ball.

I checked into my dorm, rested for a bit, freshened up and went to the orientation. I was early, I sat by myself, away from the group, observing.

I was approached by one of the staff members, she was concerned; put her arm around me and asked if I was OK. I appreciated the gesture and told her I was fine, I was taking in the moment. I guess that's the filmmaker in me.

Once inside, I introduced myself to one of the women in my group and then another. I met other women (there are a lot of women at VONA) who were sitting near me.

I'm looking forward to the me after this is over, I feel a transformation is coming.

My swanky dorm room.

VONA Workshop

A few months ago, I posted about all the writing projects I'm working on. You can find the post here.

I applied to VONA with one of the short stories for my coming of age memoir. I'm still thinking of fictionalizing it but for now, it's a memoir/creative non fiction piece.

I was accepted into the memoir writing section taught by Andrew X. Pham.  I'll be spending the last week of June at UC Berkeley in Northern California.

I'm kind of petrified by the whole thing, I will be surrounded by people in MFA programs, people who do this for a living, ambitious writers, published writers.... Ay Dios Mio, what did I get myself into! I'm up to the challenge and I'm looking forward to conquering my fears and slaying the demons of self doubt.

Day of the Girl updates

Latin Horror did a recap of Hollywood Horror Fest 2014 - Morgan and I were interviewed by Tyger.

Another cool article mentions Day of the Girl.

I am so grateful that my $300 film was so well liked.

Day of the Girl Screening in Los Angeles

Day of the Girl will screen on Saturday, March 29 at 1:10pm - New Beverly Cinema as part of
Hollywood HorrorFest.

It's a free festival and they have an excellent lineup of shorts, features and a great panel - come out and support

3/29
4.40pm – 7.00pm – PANEL – “How to Finance, Produce, Sell & Distribute Your Indie Horror” – a panel of industry lawyers, producers, sales agents, directors and distributors TICKETS FREE

Hollywood HorrorFest

xoxo

International Women's Day

Las Contemporaneas of the Museum of Ventura County held their First Annual Latina Short Film Festival on March 8^th 2014. They were generous enough to screen both The Big Deal and Day of the Girl.

I was moved by the audience’s love and appreciation of both films. I am always humbled when I get such a great reaction to my work, it makes me proud of what I have achieved and motivates me to keep going.

The Chicana Role Model gave a fabulous

 

 

 I was honored with a spiffy award

 

Accepting my award

 

People want a feature film based on How to Be a Chicana Role Model - fingers crossed we make this happen.

xoxo,

Lucy

Day of the Girl

We are almost certain the film will premier on International Woman's Day (3/8/14).

The film is now titled Day of the Girl.

Details coming soon:-)

2014 My Writing Year

Whenever I notice I'm neglecting the blog, I always say I need to blog more. This time,  I have a good reason for the long absence, I am WRITING.

I took four memoir writing classes at Santa Monica College last year.  It was challenging writing such personal stories and sharing them with a room full of strangers. There were days when I didn't want to write or go to class. I didn't want to visit the past, I had already spent a hell of a time living it, getting help in the form of therapy, shedding the old skin, purging bad habits and healing. I am here in the present, where life is the best it's ever been BUT the stories want to claw their way out of me and I have this driving desire to rip them out and put them out to world.  Writing what will eventually be a memoir started draining me physically and emotionally by the end of 2013.  I didn't want to stop writing so I put the memoir to the side and started writing about another time in my life.

I wrote about a crazy experience from my teenage years. This is the piece that's occupying most of my time. I want to get it as polished as possible and use it as a writing sample to apply to a writer's program. It will be part of a book of short stories about coming of age in Washington Heights.

I do miss working on the memoir.  I will take it up again in about two weeks when I'm done with the fiction piece.   I plan to divide my writing time between the memoir, the short stories and my screenplays.

I'm looking forward to all the great things 2014 has in store for me.

xoxo,

Lucy