Book Review Writing Now

Author Interview: Ines Bautista-Yao

I’ve been catching up on Filipino indie authors recently and one of my favorites is the awesome hybrid author Ines Bautista-Yao. I’ve read one of her books, a sweet romance called Only A Kiss, and fell immediately in love with her fluid prose and her heart-warming take on romance. This week, Ines has launched her new book called Just a Little Bit of Love, which is a compilation of three short stories set in the world of Only A Kiss. I’ve read all of these stories and love them (but I love Ina and John’s story On the Sidelines the best, okay). But if you need a little bit more convincing before one-clicking the book on Amazon, I asked Ines some hard-hitting questions (hihi not really) about her latest release. Check out the interview below 🙂

  1. I loved OAK and I’m so glad you wrote more of this universe. What made you decide to write short stories though instead of a sequel?

just-a-little-bit-of-love-ines-bautista-yaoI wish I had a better, more writer-ly answer for this question, but I don’t. I set out to write stories that take place alongside events in Only A Kiss because my original intent was to promote the book through my blog. Then my husband said I could put all the stories (I only had three and the third wasn’t even complete!) together into a compilation and give them away to potential readers. That way, if they liked them, they would buy my book. I figured it was a good idea and I struggled to finish the incomplete story. But it wasn’t happening. So I said — forget it! And I ended up writing “On The Sidelines”.

  1. Were you already thinking of these characters while you were writing OAK?

Not at all! I’m not a very good planner — in life, in writing, in anything really. And when I was writing Only A Kiss, I was only focused on Chris and Katie. It was only after that I felt, hey, I can pull out characters from the story — or even characters who weren’t really there but could have been there. Then things got exciting!

  1. Of the three stories, which is your favorite? Would you write these characters their own book?

My favorite is “On The Sidelines”. It was meant to be just as short as the other two but it ran away with me. When stories do that, take on a life of their own while I’m writing them, I love them just a little bit more. Maybe I could give them their own book. But that would mean making more problems for them and right now, because they’ve just gotten together, I don’t want to do that just yet.

  1. I remember you saying that OAK was inspired by a line from a Killers song. Are any of these stories inspired by music too?

only-a-kiss-ines-bautista-yaoNone of these stories in Just A Little Bit Of Love were, but all the titles of the stories/chapters in Only A Kiss are lines from songs. I wouldn’t write the story till a line from a song I was listening to would jump out at me — since that was how the first story came about. The rest of the lyrics didn’t even matter or affect the story in any way. It would be just that one line in a vacuum, so to speak. Then, focusing on that line, I would wait for a story to come to me. And they all did.

The chapters/stories:

Only a Kiss

Nobody Needs to Know

Just Always Remember

Making my Way

Like Nobody Else

Can you guess where they’re from? 🙂 (No, huhuhu. I suck at this game. Can you just tell me? – Jay) 

  1. Lastly, what are you working on right now?

I’m working on quite a few things! I’m writing three (or I’m supposed to be anyway!) short stories for three different projects. One will be quite a stretch because it will be something I’ve never done before. So we’ll see how that goes. But I love challenges.

I’m also working on a prequel of sorts to Only A Kiss. I’m 1/3 through the love story of Katie’s Kuya Ben and Ate Regina. They’re the ones who get married in the beginning of the book. I can’t wait to finish it because I’ve been working on it since last year!

***

Thank you for answering my tough (hihihi) questions Ines!

You can grab a copy of Ines Bautista-Yao’s new book Just a Little Bit of Love on Amazon here: http://goo.gl/7dEUUh and buqo here http://buqo.ph/Shop/Book/f3dc5144-47c9-4987-aa7f-0237d9a681ba. Read more about the book below:

Three short stories about three young girls: Anita, Ina, and Carla. Each one finding their lives disrupted by a boy. Maybe it’s because he wanders into the coffee shop where she works after school every Tuesday. Maybe it’s because he won’t leave her alone even if she has made it clear that she is crushing on his football teammate. Or maybe it’s because she’s spent one unforgettable afternoon with him—despite being oh-so-forgetful. Three small doses of love that serve up a whole lot of feels.

More about the author:

Ines Bautista-Yao is the author of One Crazy Summer, What’s in your Heart, and Only a Kiss. She has also written two short stories, “Flashbacks and Echoes,” which is part of a compilation called All This Wanting and “A Captured Dream,” one of the four short stories in Sola Musica: Love Notes from a Festival.
She is the former editor-in-chief of Candy and K-Zone magazines and a former high school and college English and Literature teacher. She is also a wife and mom and blogs about the many challenges and joys of motherhood at theeverydayprojectblog.com. She has recently launched The Author Project, a section in her current blog devoted to the stories in her head.

Twitter and Instagram: @inesbyao

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/inesbautistayao/

Website: http://theeverydayprojectblog.com/inesbyao-author-project/

 

 

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