On writing...

These are the things that I have to say about writing. Writing is not easy. When I was younger, I imagined that writing was easy, but as I grow older, I realize that in order to produce something that even I would want to read, I must work hard, prune my prose, work my lines, worry my stories until they read the way I want them to read. There is relevance of course, I'm still wondering why I write what I write. On some days, I know why, on some days, I'm just driven. On some days, I just groan because I don't have enough time to write and be a mother and a wife all at the same time. Which reminds me...I still have clothes in the washing machine...aaaahhhh. Time to empty the machine and do my ironing.

When Joel Jan grows up, I'll tell him these things:

"Look," I'll say. "Mama had to do all these things."

As if I'd ever remember. In the end, it's all done out of love...