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
I’m just not so sure about 2017. It was an okay year. Definitely no comparison to how much 2016 sucked, but it wasn’t that great either. I guess you can say it’s part of that prelude to the elixir I mentioned, back when 2016 was still saying bye. It’s still not our Resurrection. We’re still being tested one last time (maybe it’s a test of patience?) for whatever lies ahead. Just like last year, I’d like to take a look back at what made 2017 the year things sorta happened. From going on submission for my debut novel, working on commission pieces for some ～☆dream☆～ clients, to confronting my mental health issues for real, it’s safe to say that the past year was all about personal growth. Being on submission has taught me how to be patient and I’ve since made some new authorly friends on that road (thanks, Twitter). Taking on commission requests from not just new, but also dream clients made me realize the value of my illustrations. And most importantly, facing my mental demons was the biggest change for me. Here are events that made 2017 the good kind of okay that it is: My life as […] Continue Reading
We met on Twitter. And we finally had the most excellent hangs over Filipino comfort food at Manam in BGC. That’s me, Rin Chupeco, Hazel Ureta, Isabelle Adrid, and Gail Villanueva. We’re all in different places in our careers as authors. Rin has published some creepy books (The Girl from the Well, The Suffering, The Bone Witch). Gail and I have our debut novels on submission to publishing houses (shout out to our awesome agents Alyssa and Caitie). Hazel is querying and has her manuscript out with agents. And Isabelle is doing a bit of R&R-ing to solidify her YA contemporary. Since Gail and Isabelle recently celebrated their birthdays, they treated and dragged their husbands Marc and Nathan along to help us eat the food. Because it was A LOT of food. And it was good food too. The Chicken Inasal Skewers and House Crispy Sisig are life-changing. Get a bowl of Sinigang na Beef Short Rib & Watermelon–be as greedy as you want, no one’s gonna judge. Then down that with a tall glass of Ube + Sago Shake and/or a tubby cup of Mais con Hielo con Queso. Ay, Dios mío. Your taste buds will thank you. […] Continue Reading
I’m a city girl who loves to write, draw, and play video games at home. The only other place you’d be sure to find me is at the mall; anything beyond its parameters is too “far” for me. The reason? I just don’t like going out (unless we’re talking about a metal concert or a UDD gig). My brother Hatch is crazy about the outdoors. He’s a mountain biker, an off-road 4×4 truck driver, and a certified boy scout, so he tries to grab any opportunity to get me out of the house. The past weekend, he finally succeeded and brought me to Iba, Zambales. The last time I was in Zambales… well, I can’t remember when, but I know for sure all we did was eat, swim, sleep, and eat again. That’s exactly what I was expecting from this trip, except this time, I had to work on my next book. Revisions on my first one are officially with my agent Caitie, and I won’t be hearing back from her until next week at the earliest. I didn’t really see myself whipping out another doc file just yet, but instead jotting down notes on Evernote and doodling on my […] Continue Reading
My first book has gone through 4 rounds of revisions (so far). Round 1, the revision after the shitty first draft. Then Round 2, which features major changes done with my editor Kate Angelella (the biggest change there was shifting the whole story from past to present tense). Then Round 3, the stretch of indecisiveness whilst querying, until my agent Caitie Flum plucked me from the Twitterverse on the night of #DVPit. This is Round 4. I spent a total of twenty-one days (not consecutively, because I have a day job, books to read, ukuleles to play, and video games to finish) wallowing in Round 4, and like every round, this one had its own challenges. The biggest–cutting down on word count. Killing your darlings is hard, especially when you have scenes that you feel need to be in the story to progress. Luckily, this is the part where things get a little less lone wolf-y and a bit more of a party. Earlier on, Caitie told me that after I finish with my revisions (based on notes from her edit letter), I should pass the manuscript along to someone who’s never read it or to my writing critique crew before handing […] Continue Reading
2016 averages as the Year of Suckitude for everyone. There’s so much suck that happened that the good was easily pushed away to the side and was forgotten. But c’mon, it couldn’t have been all bad–sure, the world’s gone insane, but life is really all about the ups and downs we face. Before the year ends, I’d like to remember all the positive things that 2016 (which voice actor Troy Baker dubbed “an epidemic”) has brought onto my life, because who knows, what if this is just a prelude to the greatest year of the decade? Or maybe the century? Whatever 2017 has in store for us, I pray to the multiverse that it’ll top the bad and recover from the crap the Year of Suckitude has dropped upon us. Besides, 2016 might have been our Resurrection (as Christopher Vogler explained in his book The Writer’s Journey), where “death and darkness get in one last, desperate shot before being finally defeated.” It’s the point in any story where the hero is tested one last time, before charging on with the Elixir to heal the wounded land. And guess what? We’re all heroes here. We just need to remember the positive things […] Continue Reading
As an introvert, becoming a writer completely made sense to me. There’s a certain kind of solitude that comes with the art form, and often times (if not always), us writers would rather pull ourselves away to a corner with a pen and talk by jotting all our thoughts down. Some writers prefer absolute silence, but others (like me) need sound to get things rolling. And I noticed something about my working habits and the genres that go well with whatever activity I’m doing: when I’m writing I listen to a hell lot of metal, but when I’m drawing or designing, my brain tends to lean more on pop and Disney soundtracks. When I try to flip it around, I can’t seem to function properly and simply wind up doing something else (watch old episodes of my favorite shows, play video games, look for food, sleep). It was clinically proven by a brain doctor over a decade ago that I don’t have the greatest attention span in the world , so when I get distracted, it’s difficult to turn back. But when I discovered how all that those darn heavy riffs help me focus on my writing, I really made it a point to blast it whenever I have […] Continue Reading
My first stint as a music journalist fell on my lap long before I even knew what I wanted to do in life. It was for a publication called MTV Ink and I interviewed Joseph Hahn of Linkin Park. And I was twelve-years-old. See, I was a hardcore Linkin Park fan (I won’t deny that), and I when MTV Ink emailed me about the opportunity, I went a little crazy. I had Hybrid Theory on loop, I watched Frat Party at the Pankake Festival the night before, and I even baked cookies for Mr. Hahn. I was the ultimate fangirl, getting help from my brother for questions to ask, and I was nervous as hell. Come the day of the interview, I headed up to the north to meet with the people behind MTV Ink and thought they were the coolest people in the world. Excitement took over as we waited for Mr. Hahn at a Burgers Burger in Ortigas. I saw him walk past and giggled like a twelve-year-old would, but he didn’t enter the burger joint. Instead, he went to get a footspa next door. So we waited a little more. And a little more. Until Joe finally came in with squeaky clean […] Continue Reading
