“What’s it like being a music journalist?” These days, I think my answer would be “tiring.” Heck, I’ve been in the biz for a good 10 years now and two of those years were spent indoors thanks to a looming pandemic. But looking back, oh man, I gotta say it’s been an absolute blast. My friend and fellow writer in the book world Mae Coyiuto invited me to write about my journey as a music journalist for Young Star. I talk about how I got my start, the people who helped me along the way, and some of my favorite stories. Check it out on PhilStar Life.
Continue Reading
IT’S HAPPENING! It’s finally happening! After sleepless nights of checking emails, getting on international calls, and drowning in anxiety, I can finally and proudly announce that I’ve finally scored my very first book deal for my very first book SQUALO & MAGE! All this wouldn’t have been possible without my amazing agent, Sara Crowe, who made sure my debut graphic novel would land in good hands. And those hands belong to the incredible Clarissa Wong at HarperCollins! It will be a while until it hits shelves—the first book comes out sometime in Winter 2023, to be a little less vague. So please be sure to look out for it laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaater. Oh, and you can add SQUALO & MAGE to your GoodReads over here. You can also follow SQUALO & MAGE on Instagram here.
Continue Reading
LIFE UPDATE: I’ve signed with my dream agent, Sara Crowe at Pippin Properties, Inc. to represent my fiction and book-related art This team up is all thanks to the very first edition of #DVPit’s author-illustrator event. I pitched my graphic novel SQUALO & MAGE, which I comped as NIMONA + DUNGEONS & DRAGONS. It follows the story of a young mage named Mage and her best friend shark Squalo as they travel Mundo on a magical adventure to seek out the Bakunawa. So excited for all these projects I have lined up and I can’t wait to share them with you guys!!
Continue Reading
I thought I was gonna surprise Sho on his birthday but ALAAAASSS it was he who surprised me! All I thought was that we were gonna throw Sho a surprise party for his 32nd birthday on May 1. Little did I know that he knew about it—hell, he planned it—and prepared for a surprise of his own. So there I was, hugging a bag of Cheetos, as we sang happy birthday. Just when Sho was about to blow out his candle, he looked up to make a wish. He turned to me and said, “Kara Bodegon. As you may see we’re already ten years, and this is it pancit. I wanna spend the rest of my life with you.” Ugly screaming ensued. I was all jumpy with joy and shock and started laughing like crazy as Sho got down on one knee with this most beautiful ring I’d ever seen. It’s hard to describe all the wonderful feelings that went down in stomach that night (Hahaha, and I’m a writer???). There was steak, pizza, and all sorts of chips and cake, and I had no appetite for any of it. I was simply overwhelmed with everything. I got hungry as […]
Continue Reading
It’s a little bit funny how life works. Exactly six years apart from each other, I had my first article published in PULP Magazine and my name in the credits page of Angie Thomas’s NYT best-selling novel THE HATE U GIVE (Collector’s Edition). I never would’ve thought something like this would ever happen—plus the timing of it all! Makes me wonder what would happen next, exactly six years from now. It’s a little bit funny, isn’t it?
Continue Reading
Back when I was six, I told the world that I wanted to write books. I had all these weird ideas I’d turn into stories with my pad papers at school and show them off to grown ups with that cheeky little “look what I made” grin. The grown ups with the money and the real jobs cheered me on, but their praise never led me to one lesson I had to learn to be a good writer: I needed to be a good reader. You see, I was ridiculously lazy when it came to reading material at school. Reading simply wasn’t my thing. I just wanted to make the stuff. I didn’t know what it took to be good at making the stuff. You can have all the brilliant ideas, you can daydream all you want, but if you can’t articulate yourself well on paper, it definitely won’t work. I thought it was enough to surround myself with fantastic video games and movies and pick up big words from the music of Slipknot, but it’s not the same. It’s through reading that a writer learns new words, different ways to structure sentences, and how to craft suspense and emotion that […]
Continue Reading
