It’s been awhile since I’ve posted here, and that’s because I’ve been staying busy: writing, doing my fundraising consulting, doing my housing activist work. These past couple months, I’ve also been applying to various residencies, contests and such, and it’s felt so good to spend more time on my writing—and to have this investment of time and energy rewarded in a couple new ways:
I have a new short story, The Rains, up on the wonderful online publication, The Masters Review, in the New Voices section. The Masters Review does an amazing job highlighting and lifting up the work of emerging writers (and yes, at the tender age of 50, because I have a still-short list of publications and no book under contract, I still count as “emerging”!) and helping us gain some exposure to a wider audience. My story is set in the world of my novel-in-progress, though it takes place outside the timeline of the novel. I always struggle with summarizing what my work is ‘about’, but this story has a special place in my heart because it’s the first short fiction piece I’ve published that explores the impact of baby loss (in particular, stillbirth) on families and communities—but in a near-future world where climate change shapes almost every interaction between people, whether lovers, spouses, parents, children, friends.
Second, part of why I’ve been able to spend more time writing is because—as a bit of a 50th birthday present to myself, my birthday was in December 2021—I launched a Patreon page to support my writing, to help me ‘buy’ a little time and mental space to focus on my writing. So much of creativity is about giving oneself the time and space to create without pressure to produce, to find the necessary playtime to discover the stories one wants to tell, and the way one wants to tell it. I’m grateful to my (as of the writing of this post) twenty Patreon patrons for supporting me with their monthly pledges, and giving me a little breathing room to spend more time writing and expressing myself in whatever ways I see fit.
I would love to hear what you think of my story, and if you’d like to see more of my work, please consider joining my Patreon. You’ll get access to exclusive posts about healing, creativity, grief, climate change and the Bay Area, and early notice of publication news and other updates about my writing life.
Rona Fernandez 