tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61246902024-03-19T02:48:52.137-07:00Nesting GroundVeronica Montes can now be found at veronica-montes.comverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18059954107392477750noreply@blogger.comBlogger1020125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124690.post-16205512531068069242016-11-07T09:17:00.001-08:002016-11-07T09:17:57.218-08:00I Made A Thing or TwoMy first book of short stories, Benedicta Takes Wing, will be published in 2017 by Philippine American Literary House. So...I thought maybe I should finally get one of those website thingamajigs. You can come check it out here.
My new favorite thing is TinyLetter! You can subscribe to Nesting Ground 2.0 here.verhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18059954107392477750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124690.post-63785337276907332482015-11-15T13:30:00.000-08:002015-11-15T13:30:17.054-08:00Forwarding Address
I've officially feathered my new nest at Medium. I hope you'll open an account and follow me there:
@Veronica Montes
Even if you don't open an account, you can always read along. See you!
verhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18059954107392477750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124690.post-71714566821606054522015-08-27T10:46:00.001-07:002015-08-27T10:46:36.449-07:00How Many Times Do I Have to Invite You to @Medium?!Fresh writing from me at Midcentury Modern:
Illustration by my daughter, ©Vida Wadhams
Good Girls, Then and Now
The men who knocked on our front door may or may not have had the hulking frames that persist in my memory. I was only 8-years-old and accustomed mostly to the slight builds of my Filipino fathers and uncles, so it's entirely possible that these other men—all white men—weren't verhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18059954107392477750noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124690.post-17204816770082407142015-08-08T13:35:00.001-07:002015-08-27T10:35:32.697-07:00The Slipstream
I think I'm really taking to my Medium experiment. Here's my fourth piece:
The SlipstreamOr: What the Hell is DigiTour?
Years ago I often drove the long stretches of empty highway between San
Francisco and Santa Barbara with only a Diet Coke and Dave Matthews Band
for company. Sometimes another car materialized out of nowhere, pulled
up close, and settled in just behind me, verhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18059954107392477750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124690.post-15890286907813598932015-08-02T12:01:00.000-07:002015-08-02T12:01:52.954-07:00More From Me @Medium
The Girl Who Invented 'Hella'
Hey, teenagers of today and
Gwen Stefani, guess what? You did not invent the word “hella.” I will
tell you who did: Anna G — , a small but mighty Filipina who was the de
facto queen of all kids of color at my junior high school in Daly City,
California, circa 1979.
I realize my claim will cause controversy.
Journalist George McIntire, in verhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18059954107392477750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124690.post-58786071240261050412015-07-16T10:09:00.003-07:002015-07-16T10:09:41.759-07:00Find Me on Medium, Okay? Okay!Times, they are a-changing.
I'll be writing on Medium, so will you come find me? BECAUSE OMG IT'S SCARY BEING THE NEW KID IN CLASS.
My first post went up yesterday, and a little jolt ran up my spine:
"Wait: Old People Do Things?"
Let's see how this goes...
verhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18059954107392477750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124690.post-40899240476545811882014-05-13T21:15:00.001-07:002014-05-13T21:15:37.602-07:00When You Read a Gross Story and It Ruins Your Whole DayI ordered my lunch at the counter (Joe's Special with toasted sourdough bread, though I would have much preferred rice), then sat down to enjoy a few moments of reading. Reading and lunch! What could be better?
Alas, my bliss was not meant to be. Because...I'm currently reading and appreciating Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun, which is made up of Volume I and II of a 4-volume work. It's verhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18059954107392477750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124690.post-12944875124575335442014-03-24T12:30:00.000-07:002014-03-24T12:30:43.348-07:00On Having WrittenAlmost in spite of myself, I've finished my submission to Barbara Jane's new anthology project (I have another week or so to futz with it, as I am wont to do). She's collecting Pinay-penned essays about how and why we write, and even if my piece doesn't ultimately make it in to the book, I'll be first in line for a copy in 2015. I keep thinking of what a difference a book like this would have verhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18059954107392477750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124690.post-90788210219201838172014-02-03T15:46:00.000-08:002014-02-03T15:46:10.702-08:00You Know You Want It: Outpouring
Download your copy now. Like right now.
I'm so happy to have my short story, "The Photograph," included in Outpouring: Typhoon Yolanda Relief Anthology, a collection edited by the brilliant, and apparently tireless, Dean Alfar. Let me count the ways:
All proceeds go to the Philippine Red Cross to assist those who continue to suffer in the wake of Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan. As many have verhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18059954107392477750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124690.post-19324521430562193902014-01-19T15:27:00.002-08:002014-01-19T15:27:21.994-08:00Sunday In the Shop on the Day the 49ers Play the SeahawksIt's Sunday, and I'm perched on my stool in the shop just having exchanged a flurry of instant messages with my brother. They were mostly single-word exchanges:
Me: Gracias namiento
Him: Dinero
Me: Puttanesca
Him: Bertoli. Picolina.
Me: Kimbocha.
*20 second pause*
Me: I WIN!
Such a pointless exchange is possible because unlike yesterday, with its welcome parade of customers, today is 49er game verhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18059954107392477750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124690.post-34544727975156433552014-01-10T16:55:00.000-08:002014-01-10T16:55:25.150-08:00Sounding the AlarmNot to be an alarmist, but...okay, well maybe I do mean to be an alarmist...if there's something you want to do or say, you should do it or say it already. Except for unnecessary plastic surgery; do not have unnecessary plastic surgery.
You want to square dance? Then square dance! Not that I understand why you would choose to do that, but still: square dance!
You want to re-read the entire verhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18059954107392477750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124690.post-42564743525418796762014-01-03T13:30:00.000-08:002014-01-03T13:30:33.312-08:00Teenage Filipina Letter Writing / Daly City / Circa 1982I'm in thinking-and-jotting-down mode for an essay that I hope to start writing soon.
A new image pops into my head every day, usually during the morning. The hours pass, and this initial picture grows bigger and bigger just like a Bubble Yum bubblegum bubble. Yesterday's image: a zoom in on the loopy, extraordinarily ornamental penmanship of my high school girlfriends—Pinays, all.
As the verhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18059954107392477750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124690.post-66834480995980146062013-12-29T16:50:00.001-08:002013-12-29T16:56:57.823-08:00The Post Where I Say My Father DiedA few days after I wrote my last post here—months and months ago—my father died.
It's impossible for me to write about him right now (believe me, I've tried) but it's also impossible for me to continue writing in this space until I acknowledge, here, that he is no longer walking the world, upsetting proverbial apple carts and looking for ways to get in trouble.
I've looked at this photo of him verhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18059954107392477750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124690.post-91947673630650142222013-04-13T15:36:00.000-07:002013-04-13T15:36:40.397-07:00Owning & Disowning My Age. And Also: Invisalign.I had a birthday a few weeks back, and I realized that I'm one of the few people on Facebook whose profile includes the year of their birth. At first I thought, "Yes—I own my age! I'm okay with my age! My youth is long gone, but my wisdom grows! I can afford more expensive shoes! My list of fears has diminished (except for karaoke; I still fear karaoke)! I barely care what people think of me! I verhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18059954107392477750noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124690.post-76735666485777085862013-02-04T22:25:00.000-08:002013-02-04T22:25:43.816-08:00I Should Not Be Saying Any of ThisThis is so not nice of me. This is so crossing-the-line of me. Because it's one thing to blog about your nutso kids when they're 3- or 4- or 5- or...10-years-old, but to blog about them when they're 13-years-old is unforgivable. Truly.
Ha! LIKE I CARE.
Here's a list of things currently twisting me into a knot about my teenage girls:
Although they have their own phones, they seem to prefer verhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18059954107392477750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124690.post-88636479119725817842013-02-03T15:50:00.000-08:002013-02-03T15:51:51.461-08:00That Time I Opened A StoreI opened a shop on Black Friday 2012.
More specifically, on Black Friday 2012 I opened a toy shop and soon-to-be playspace. The urge to do this was not unlike the urge (for me) to write: I just wanted to tell a story. It turned out to be a story about two friends who have the best tech-free playroom ever. And they have these eccentric traveling relatives who send them toys from all over: Germanyverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18059954107392477750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124690.post-83647698399216980662012-07-22T10:22:00.000-07:002012-07-22T10:22:09.671-07:00That Time I Went to SalinasI spent last Saturday in Salinas for "A Conversation of Filipino Writers: Past and Present," an event organized by the now-legendary writer and local educator Oscar Penñaranda (so dapper in his barong Tagalog!). It was held in conjunction with the exhibit "Filipino Voices: Past and Present," which is on display at the National Steinbeck Center through this weekend, I believe. If you miss it, verhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18059954107392477750noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124690.post-80013548588208249432012-06-05T22:47:00.000-07:002012-06-05T23:04:53.639-07:00Pivot Left!If you don't mind, I'm just going to ignore the fact that I've been absent from this space for...oh, a very long time.
{ pivot left ! }
The twinkers are wrapping up their first year of middle school, and I can't lasso all the thoughts pinging around my head. When September started, they were just goofy little nutjob kids. And now here we are in June and, yes, they are mostly still verhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18059954107392477750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124690.post-29648955995252673052012-03-27T20:19:00.001-07:002012-03-27T21:39:09.117-07:00The Post In Which I Describe My Bummer of a DreamI'm in the madly spinning vortex of life change. Also, I appear to be a fan of hyperbole. But if you've been with me this long, you already knew that.I'm at turns bewildered, empowered, super tired, and vaguely elated. Because it takes me longer than the average person (I think) to process this type of life adjustment, it's a challenge to blog about it. But guess what? It's March Madness, and I'mverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18059954107392477750noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124690.post-24992223860835853742012-02-05T19:07:00.001-08:002012-02-05T20:28:48.109-08:00At the Dialysis CenterI have a new routine. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning I roll myself out of bed quietly at 5:45, tip-toe into the den where I get dressed in the sweats I have left warming near the heater, cross the hall into the kitchen (avoiding the squeaky spot on the floor), retrieve a tin that I have packed with a little fruit and some graham crackers the night before, grab my purse and my keys, verhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18059954107392477750noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124690.post-35135362823015382802012-01-08T20:56:00.000-08:002012-01-08T21:39:53.597-08:00Adventures in Zen GardeningNot that I'm doing any Zen gardening, mind you. I refer simply to the fact that last week I taught some 4th graders an art lesson about Japanese Zen gardens. This required much rooting around for supplies. First on the list: shoebox tops to serve as garden containers. Where the heck, thought I, am I going to find 30 shoebox tops? I considered emailing the parents and asking them each to send verhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18059954107392477750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124690.post-809733432168703132011-12-19T18:33:00.000-08:002011-12-19T19:29:56.115-08:00Oh, Hello.Are you good at maintaining your car? Rotating your tires, making sure your windshield wiper fluid thing is filled up, and whatnot? I am horrible at this. However, I can only go so long—let's say 6 weeks—before the fire-engine red "CHECK ENGINE OIL LEVEL" light wears me down. Which is how I ended up at Jiffy Lube today with a $450 bill. But that's not the point! The point is that in the Jiffy verhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18059954107392477750noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124690.post-47178481297504625472011-11-28T22:00:00.000-08:002011-11-28T22:22:55.862-08:00The Final Days of November PostToday Lea was singing along to Adele's Chasing Pavements, her voice as rich as her 9-year-old body could muster. Full of emotion, she crooned, "Should I give up/or should I just keep chasing cavemen..." Oh, the hilarity.Also today: my husband pulled up to our house in a cab, jumped out, opened the front door, and kissed me hello. Then he tilted his head to the side. "You look beautiful," he said.verhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18059954107392477750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124690.post-25802295144832561512011-11-08T11:02:00.000-08:002011-11-08T11:34:46.616-08:00Let's Just Start TypingLet's see what happens.Maybe I'll write about how I hate my printer because regardless of the fact that all ink is fully loaded, it will only print in blue.Maybe I'll write about how I rue the day we gave the twins their phones because now all they ever do is text and download free apps. I've attempted all sorts of remedies including taking the phones for large blocks of time, normal conversationverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18059954107392477750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124690.post-71622123194681217402011-10-09T16:40:00.000-07:002011-10-09T18:30:37.859-07:00Report from FilBook Fest 2011Let us begin at the beginning: last Thursday evening at Eastwind Books of Berkeley for a FilBook Fest pre-event, "The Places We Call Home." Because birthday girl Rashaan has such a nice recap at her blog, I'll just add some of my personal highlights:A few weeks back, Dean Alfar was kind enough to send me several copies of Philippine Speculative Fiction 5 (I'm sending a care package of books in verhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18059954107392477750noreply@blogger.com0