10 years of blogging later...

Ten years ago, I started this blog. August, 10, 2009. Well, clearly I missed that anniversary.

Back then, I had the idea that maybe a publisher would stumble upon my blog, want to publish my book or at least my thoughts, and I hoped a blog could help me build a readership. It's been ten years, and not a single publisher has come knocking on my door, but I have found readers. Thanks for tagging along.

In that first year, I wrote about visiting China, fertility, the Dodgers, and then excerpted a bunch of a novel in progress, New LA Life, that still isn't done. I started a second blog, Throwing Cookies, for writing about sports, and I wrote a lot about food and education.

Nine years and 250 blog posts later, so much has changed since 2010. Back then, I was five years post MFA. I was teaching, eating at LA food trucks, and playing lots of beach volleyball. David and I were working hard to get pregnant, but we were not getting pregnant. The country was living in President Obama's first term.

In 2010, I wrote about my decision to self-publish Through Eyes Like Mine and included a mixtape. In 2012, I wrote about my middle school memoir, Overdue Apologies. Then, Kiara arrived, and although I tried to keep reading and writing and reclaiming my brain, it was hard. When Gabe showed up, it was even harder. But now, nine years later, I'm finally ready to complete the coming of age Through Eyes Like Mine series.

I Tried: Tales from an Emerging High School Feminist explores what it means to be a young woman of color growing up in rural America. In the final installation of the Through Eyes Like Mine series, Nori teeters on the edges of adulthood and navigates shifting expectations of her community, her family, and herself. I Tried examines the challenges and isolation a multiracial girl faces in small-town America.

Stay tuned. More in the next couple of weeks.

She said she would publish the books herself.

It's been almost nine years and two kids since the release of Through Eyes Like Mine, my early childhood memoir. My decision to publish this book on my own came after the manuscript sat with an agent for about a year, then made its way through publishing houses where editors complimented the writing but found it too quiet, so I resolved to launch the book myself. I planned readings in Oregon with family and friends, and I was happy to place the book in the hands of receptive readers.

It's been over seven years since Overdue Apologies, my middle school memoir quietly made it's way into the world. Motherhood was right around the corner, and I knew my life was about to change making the work of finding a home for this manuscript even more challenging. I never properly launched the book or made time for readings, but it has also made it's way into readers' hands and found fans with middle school audiences.

Since then, stealing time for writing has become harder. Teaching and parenting make time management even more important. Early mornings are still key, and in November, the words come during National Novel Writing Month, and in April, for National Poetry Month, I've written a poem a day ever since Kima Jones spent her time as a PEN fellow visiting poet in my classroom. My writing partner, Hazel Kight Witham, and I have continued to meet weekly to focus our writing and teaching practices. We have also escaped to writing residencies at Wellstone Center in the Redwoods. These spaces mean that the final book in the Through Eyes Like Mine trilogy is finally ready for the world.

I've also spent time over the past few years building to emerging as a writer with Women Who Submit, an organization empowering women and non-binary writers to submit their work for publication. As part of this submitting work, Through Eyes Like Mine was chosen as a finalist for the inaugural 2040 book prize. Excerpts from Overdue Apologies appeared in Spector and Sky Island Journal. As my publishing credits grew, I decided to try find a traditional publisher for the high school memoir. Again, I queried agents, submitted to small presses, and excerpts from this work appeared in Compose, Lady Liberty Lit, and East Jasmine Review.

Senior portrait of the author.

Then, after the 2016 election, with conversations about the divide between rural and urban America intensifying, my high school memoir and all of the books in the Through Eyes Like Mine trilogy gained significance. Books like Hillbilly Elegy and White Trash became best sellers, but the perspective of a young girl of color coming of age in rural America was missing. This book is what's missing. The books in this trilogy are the missing books, and now the third book is ready.

In the next few weeks, I'll be re-releasing Through Eyes Like Mine and Overdue Apologies with updated covers and forewords by my sister, Laura Yukiko Nakada Flennaugh and my brother, Chet Nakada. Like with the first two books, I will launch playlists and excerpts and this go around signed, personally bound copies of the trilogy will be available as I Tried: Tales of an Emerging High School Feminist will FINALLY be here! Whoooo hooo!