Hardened is a nonfiction piece that I wrote to raise awareness of domestic abuse. After writing it for my own personal use, I decided to submit it for publication, where I became the featured author of the May/June 2020 issue of Better Than Starbucks and eventually became nominated for the best piece of 2020. Working with this literary magazine was a wonderful learning experience and taught me more about the publishing process from an authorial perspective. As a writer, it also taught me that writing "real" (as a professor of mine once said) and sharing it with the world is one of the most challenging but rewarding parts of writing.
Paint Swatches is a flash fiction piece that I originally wrote for a class. I decided to revise it in order to submit it for publication, and I'm glad that I did. Although it was challenging for me to write a piece with such a small word limit, it forced to to play with form and experiment with my writing. I was honored that Flash Fiction Magazine wanted to publish my work, as I read their stories on a daily basis. Interacting with editors from a larger publication was also a learning experience, as I had to learn to negotiate with editors regarding their edits to my work. Collaborating with these editors taught me a lot and I know that my work reached a wide audience.
