Recently my friend, poet and scholar Raina J. León, had her essay "On Labor's Value" published in the VIDA Review.
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In it, Raina asks: "When and for what should I be paid? And when I am not offered compensation, to what will I say no in favor of my family, my art, my life?"

For Raina (as for me and others I'm sure) so many of these questions -- which have always been there -- have taken on a new urgency since the birth of her child. Raina explains:
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"How do I also negotiate between the labor maternal and the labor that takes me away from my son so that I can creatively express myself and also be compensated for that expression and thereby provide for my son? In short, how do I get paid and provide for my household for the labor that takes me away from my son?"
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My question is: shouldn't we all be asking (and searching for answers to) those same questions alongside her?

As the end of the year quickly approaches and I prepare to lead Write Your 2019 Into Existence: Seven Day Writing Life Roadmap Challenge for Women and Non-binary Writers, I’m also reflecting on my own 2018 and thinking of the intentions I plan to set for 2019.

​Whenever I’m thinking about intention setting and cultivating good habits for my writing life, I turn to two guest posts I wrote a few years back...
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Whether Hanukkah, Winter Solstice, Noche Buena, Christmas, Kwanza, New Years, Día de los Reyes, or Octavitas celebrations fill your calendar this Dec/Jan, it's the most busy (I mean wonderful) time of the year!

Growing up, our Christmas Day celebrations were complicated by one important factor... my red headed little brother is a Christmas Baby:

I can only imagine how awful it was for him to watch his bully of a big sister get presents on HIS birthday, but somehow he managed...
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TL;DR: Write Your 2019 Into Existence: Seven Day Writing Life Roadmap Challenge for Women and Non-binary Writers

Sign up for a FREE seven day challenge to get your 2019 off on the right foot. Sign up by 12/31 (challenge starts by email on 1/6). SHARE with others who might be interested! Click the link above or the photo below to sign up today!
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Three years ago, I invited four phenomenal women to a new year intention setting workshop in my home.

I guided our group through activities that helped us all reflect on our 2015 and set our course for 2016. 

We started the day off not knowing what to expect, and ended the day feeling a strong sense of community, purpose, and direction.

I dubbed 2016 my “Year of Procreation,” and — I kid you not — that same night, after the women had gone home, I took the pregnancy test that told my husband and me that we were expecting our first baby.

I’ve wanted to create the magic of that kind of deep reflection and intention setting in community every year since, but having a little one has made coordinating a little trickier...
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Happy Fall!

Before I completely transition into my Birthday Month (Go Libras!) and into the quieter, more introspective, energy of fall, I wanted to reflect on what I’m calling "Publication Summer!"

This summer I had five pieces published; one poem accepted; I spoke at the Latina Writers Conference in LA; I was selected to present at another writer’s conference in the spring; I applied for a grant; and I had two sets of rejections (as WWS has taught me, if you’re not getting rejected that probably means you’re not submitting enough!).

Check out the publications below:

Having that many pieces published in the span of three months was unexpected but it didn’t happen by accident.

Read on to learn more about how I went from one publication in 2017 to Publication Summer in 2018!