Browsing Tag

Songs of our Breakup

Writing Now

#romanceclass Podcast Episode 1: Fall Like Rain by Ana Tejano

Posted on December 17, 2015

So remember at FilReadercon when we had theater actors Rachel Coates and Gio Gahol read excerpts of our romance books? Remember we said we’re launching a podcast to follow through with that soon? Well the first episode is up! YAY! This first one is an excerpt from Fall Like Rain by Ana Tejano, wherein Gio reads Mark, and Rachel reads Rain. Read a bit more about the book below before you hit play:

Rain De Castro has been in love with her best friend, Mark Velasco, for almost the entire time she has known him, but she’s clearly in the friend zone because he’s happily in a relationship. Or so she thought, until the news of his break-up reaches her. Now that Mark’s single again, she decides that it’s time to get out of the zone. But when her cousin Lissa comes into the picture and sets her eyes on Mark, Rain feels troubled when he gets a little too friendly with her. Rain is determined to fight for what she feels this time, but is it worth the effort if it’s a losing battle from the start? Will she back off to give way for her best friend’s happiness, even if it means losing him to someone else again?

Ready? Great! Don’t forget to subscribe to the #romanceclass YouTube channel after watching, okay? Because more live readings are coming up including one for my book Songs of Our Breakup! Oh, and scroll down after the video because we’ve got a raffle for you guys too <3 Continue Reading

Writing Now

Filipino Readercon 2015: First Timer Feels

Posted on December 3, 2015

They say you will always remember your first time, and that holds so much truth for me and my very first Filipino Readercon. I arrived halfway into the festivities but just in time to catch all the good stuff. I tried to make it simple for myself by limiting my goals to just three: Continue Reading

Tourism

Things to Do on a Fall Trip to Korea: COEX, Sinsadong, Dongdaemun Design Plaza and Market

Posted on November 18, 2015

Day 2 had us crossing the river (via the train system of course) and heading to the Gangnam side of things before heading back for some alien-level architecture and Divisoria-level haggling.

COEX, Hyundai Department Store, SMTOWN Artium. COEX mall had been under construction for the longest time and Tin was hell bent on seeing it, so we went there to literally window shop. The travel budget didn’t really cover too many LVs, see? Hehe. The in-house Hyundai Department Store had a few events (sales) though, and after a few minutes of looking at stuff we headed to the adjacent SMTOWN Artium.
Spotted a fan-sponsored birthday greeting for EXO’s Chanyeol in one of the train stations. Photo by Ace Tria.

f(x) goodies at the SM Artium. Photo by Ace Tria.

Human peg, Krystal of f(x) endorsing Keds at the SM Artium. Photo by Ace Tria.

Essentially it’s several floors worth of fangirling, boasting of shops of idol merch, a cafe, studios and even a place where you can get your pictures taken “with your idol of choice.” I’m happy we found this place when we were no longer at the height of our fandom, because those things do not go cheap. But it was a fun field trip!
Sinsadong Garosugil. Next thing on the itinerary was to look for the Sinsadong Garosugil (tree-lined street), which is literally a street lined with gingko trees and trendy shops and oh so many cafes. One thing we noted though was that there seemed to be a LOT of cosmetic surgery places there too, and there were a LOT of patients walking around with their plasters wrapped around their jaws and their noses and taped on their eyelids. Quite an interesting sight. Anyway, we were running on emergency fuel already, so we looked for a hole in the wall resto first before resuming our walk. There we found the flagship LINE Store!
You don’t need to buy anything. Just come here for this. Ace and Sally at the Line store, Sinsadong.

Maybe that’s Jessica? Along Sinsadong, Garosugil. Photo by Ace Tria.

Me chilling with pandas. Sinsadong, Garosugil. Photo by Ace Tria.

Songs of Our Breakup hanging with Sally at the Line Store. Sinsadong Garosugil. Photo by Ace Tria.

Sally and Brown and friends were there, as in giant fluffy version of them that you can hug and get pictures taken with! So much cuteness! After that we stopped at a Coffee Smith shop, which is this awesome outdoor, two-storey cafe setup for a dose of sweet potato latte and pumpkin latte. The taste of fall, yum!

Had a cafe break at Coffee Smith for some pumpkin latter and sweet potato latte after strolling the length of Sinsadong Garosugil.

SMTown Artium. This was a welcome coincidence, I swear.

He signed quite a lot of pictures of himself.

Dongdaemun Design Plaza from outside. The alien spaceship view.

Baby Taemin is gone. Adult Taemin was EVERYWHERE.

SALLY

A huge f(x) banner welcomes you to COEX and to the SMTown Artium.

Songs of Our Breakup hanging with SHINee.

Siwon was there.
Dongdaemun Design Plaza. DDP was closed last year when we found it, but we caught it earlier this year. The big thing housed exhibits and shops inside, and we were able to look around a little bit before going back out to gape at the buildings again. Because really, that sight is what you come here and endure the nippy air for.
Dongdaemun Market. We went out and were met with a cluster of street food stalls (hurray!) so we got our eomuk fix again before heading inside Hello apM, which is one of the many 168-style malls in the area. My sister was on the hunt for a winter coat and we found an eonnie willing to haggle it out with a bunch of English-only foreigners. She got the coat down from KRW88k to 60k, and we bought one each (purchases we were happy about until we went to Ehwa, but that’s for another post). Tin was also able to find Taiyou bus merch for her nephew, though looking for that was a greater challenge for us. Note to self: find out the Korean word for ‘toy.’

Photos by Ace Tria. Songs of Our Breakup is on Amazon and Buqo. Print version available here.

Writing Now

Blossom Among Flowers: Cover 2.0 and Print Book!

Posted on October 18, 2015

My first book Blossom Among Flowers was plenty busy last month!

It had its very first virtual blog tour thanks to the wonderful folks at Pinoy Book Tours,
It received sweet, tears-in-my-eyes reviews from Anne of Will Read for Feels, Camelle of Home of a Book Lover, and Claire of Coffeebookmom (thanks for giving my weird, manga novel a chance guys *group hug*)
It had a new cover thanks to the magic of Tania Arpa. I loved the first cover, done by my awesome friend Sarah Magdasoc, but I thought I’d give it a makeover and experiment with something that looks more fun

Oh, and last but not the least, Blossom Among Flowers AND my New Adult book Songs of Our Breakup are now available in print! Fill out the order form here to get your copy.

Phew. September was a good month

Blossom Among Flowers is available on Amazon, Buqo and in print.

Music Dance and Lyrics Writing Now

Soundtrack of our Breakup

Posted on August 27, 2015

My second baby Songs of Our Breakup is out! *jumpshot* I’ve been hearing lovely things from the handful of people who’ve read it, and one common comment is that the book needs a soundtrack. Well, it kind of does have a soundtrack. Unofficially, that is.

Writing for me usually requires a vacuum. But sometimes, writing requires a playlist.

It made sense that I needed music to write a story about an indie rock band, taking on the task of penning lyrics for the first time ever. I was ambitious, I know. But it was super fun. The words came to me at the oddest moments. The lyrics to Slipstream for one, got into my head while I was waiting for the train at Ayala Station. By the time I got off at Quezon Avenue, the song’s first draft was complete.

The point is sometimes we need noise. A pounding drumbeat, a metallic guitar riff, or just some good old rock and roll.

Below are some (vintage) songs that accompanied me while I was deep inside my writer’s hole for Songs of Our Breakup.

Click, shuffle, and repeat.

The Script. Man on the Wire.

The Strokes. You Only Live Once

Sandwich. Masilungan

Sandwich. In Case of Fire

Eraserheads. Kailan

Ed Sheeran. The A Team

John Mayer. Slow Dancing in a Burning Room

The Killers. Shot At The Night

Maroon 5. Beautiful Goodbye

Arctic Monkeys. Bigger Boys and Stolen Sweethearts.

Muse. Starlight

Video credits to owners.

Writing Now

What I Did When I Realized I Can’t Be a Rock Goddess

Posted on July 11, 2015

I dreamed of being one once. I got my dad to buy me an acoustic guitar, and I brought it along to school to learn the chords to Leaving on a Jetplane and Ako’y Sayo, Ika’y Sakin. Today, I still know the intro to Parokya ni Edgar‘s Harana. But that’s the most it amounted to, really. I quickly learned that I preferred watching other people play, mesmerized by how their fingers made love to the guitar. Soon my humble acoustic instrument was passed along at school, borrowed by my more talented and persevering classmates. They may not have grown up to be rock gods, but they did learn to play more than the intro to Harana.

So I was left with the dream, which transformed into an active daydream. The daydream sprouted characters, and eventually, a story.

Jill is the lead vocalist of the indie rock band Trainman. She also plays guitar–rhythm and lead, depends on the song, depends on how she, Kim, and Miki decided. They usually played it by ear, specially during live shows at Commute Bar.

Kim is Jill’s ex-boyfriend, the one she has been with for seven years since she was fourteen. The one who broke her heart just two months ago and hasn’t looked at her properly since. That’s a hard job to do, since they share the stage nearly every night.

Miki is Jill’s best friend, and he says that every breakup has a three-month probation period. Jill is on the last month of hers and Miki is patiently keeping her company.

Shinta is a hot Japanese celebrity. He is also Jill’s what-are-you-having-for-breakfast, call-me-if-you-can, cross-ocean friend. Now he is here, physically present, and together he and Jill go through old lyrics, vivid memories, walks in the rain, and bottles of beer. Together they try to answer the question: what do you do when forever ends?

Obviously, I daydream a lot.

You can share my daydream, Songs of Our Breakup, soon

Photography by Mark Christopher Bayot, featuring Ace Tria.