Celebrating the first book birthday of Songs to Get Over You with a discount and giveaways! The book is only $0.99 on Amazon for a limited time. Free stuff below. Click and join? Yes? YAY!
Browsing Tag
Trainman
This playlist for Songs to Make You Stay is a mixture of music I listened to between writing (cos I need silence to write. Please don’t turn Brooklyn Nine-Nine on now, sister, have mercy), music I imagined blaring out of the speakers at Commute Bar between sets, and in Doozy Book Cafe and Bar on that first Gig Night. Bulding this playlist was extra fun because a lot of these songs were new to me, some of which I won’t even normally listen to. And it’s fun finding new music to like. It’s one of the best surprises.
So here, enjoy Shinta and Jill’s feelings in song format. I hope you find a few good surprises too.
Pavement. Summer Babe
Bon Iver. Holocene Continue Reading
Writing Now
A Day in the Friendzone. November 17, Monday, afternoon, one year ago
Posted on September 20, 2016
This is a companion short story to Miki‘s book, Songs to Get Over You.
***
“That girl?”
“Nope.”
“The one to her left? Pink sweater, legs that go on for days. Wow.”
“I’m pretty sure I can’t.”
“How about her friend?”
“Too bulky…”
“Mikhail. Are you a weight-ist?”
“No!” Miki shrank back at the laser beam glare Jill shot at him. He put both palms up and rushed out his explanation. “I actually think she’s pretty and perfectly rounded in the right places.”
They were sitting on the gnarled wooden bench in the College of Economics front lobby, slumped on their seats, limbs in lazy angles, trying to wind down after a full day of classes. Jill pulled herself up to the straightest line her long spine would allow, hovering over Miki with her signature stern stare.
“Then what?” she hissed through pursed lips.
Miki winced, eyes darting back to the girl in question. He thought he recognized her from one of their Economics classes. The pretty and perfectly rounded girl had stretched out on the aged bench a few meters away from the one he and Jill had claimed.
The decrepit wood creaked in protest against the girl’s sudden movement. Miki was sure Jill heard it too.
“I think she can crush me,” he muttered.
Jill bit her lip, her eyes on the same scene. “You do bruise like an overripe mango.”
“See?” He grinned in triumph. He unlocked his tense limbs, glad the game of Find Miki a Girl to Ask Out had wound down. “Now what do you say we hit the library like we said we would before heading home?”
“This is hopeless,” Jill cut through him, wringing her hands. Apparently it was not game over yet. “I can’t be friends with an NGSB!”
Miki rolled his eyes. It was a habit he had picked up after years of hanging out with this girl. And it was a habit he’d used on her often, in times such as these when she claimed a term like NGSB. As in ‘No Girlfriend Since Birth.’ Miki sighed. Their bandmates Nino and Son almost died laughing when they first heard Jill say the term. But after those seemingly endless rounds of laughter they teamed up with Jill in her appeals to get Miki ‘exorcised’ from this condition.
“Why not? It’s not a disease.” Miki felt he’d made this argument too many times already in the past few weeks.
Jill turned her entire body to face him, edging closer with one knee pulled up against her chest. “But you always tell me what to do with Kim. How can I trust your relationship advice when you’ve never even been in one?”
Her dark eyes were wide and grave. Miki knew she was serious, and funnily so, very much concerned about this whole issue. It was fine, though. He didn’t expect Jill to get it. That he didn’t need to be a girl’s boyfriend to be in love with her. Not all guys got to enjoy that luxury.
Of course she didn’t get it.
***
Songs to Get Over You is available on Amazon and in print here.
Writing Now
#WriteBreakupSongsAbout ‘That Thing Called Closure’ on Buqo!
Posted on February 14, 2016
It all began when One Direction released Perfect. I’m not kidding.
A writing prompt and lots of fangirl moments later, I discovered Fool’s Gold, and Nino and Suze‘s story went from there. If you’ve read Songs of Our Breakup, the first book in my Playlist series, you would have met/liked/loved (?)/wanted to punch Nino already, the band’s drummer and resident flirt.
In this #TalesfromtheMetro #WriteBreakupSongsAbout story, Nino and Suze go on a walking tour along Singapore river, to try and say the things that you just couldn’t say on the phone.
Nino isn’t built for long distance relationships.
He should have told Suze that when she decided to leave Manila to take that work assignment in Canada. Being a drummer for popular rock band Trainman meant Nino was surrounded by fan girls all the time, and sure enough, he was the idiot who made the mistake of kissing one of them. The least he could do was admit this to Suze, and deal with their phone call breakup.
Weeks later, the band is in Singapore for a music festival, and Nino finds out that Suze is there too. Is this his chance to see her again for that thing called ‘closure’? Or is this the part where he tries to win her back? Either way, what the hell, he’s going to find out.
Head on over to Buqo.ph and get the story for only P15 🙂
Use the hashtags #TalesfromtheMetro and #WriteBreakupSongsAbout to find more short reads!
Writing Now
#romanceclass Podcast Episode 4: Songs of Our Breakup by Jay E. Tria
Posted on January 10, 2016
My book as a podcast episode. Man, that sounds cool.
Songs of Our Breakup is episode 4 of the #romanceclass podcast. Now I’ve seen it performed live at FilReadercon last year, and while there is no rush like it, it’s a different feeling entirely hearing it (again and again and again) in its pure audio format. Here Gio Gahol plays Shinta and also reads the narration, while Rachel Coates plays Jill. The tilts in their voices, the pauses, the giggles and laughing smirks (hee) happen differently, and it’s just wonderful.
Here’s a short description of the book to start you off. And don’t forget to scroll down after for a chance to win giveaways.
Every breakup has its playlist.
How do you get over a seven-year relationship? 21-year-old Jill is trying to find out. But moving on is a harder job when Kim, her ex-boyfriend, is the lead guitarist of the band, and Jill is the vocalist. Every song they play together feels like slicing open a barely healed tattoo.
Jill’s best friend Miki says she will be out of this gloom soon. Breakups have a probation period, he says. Jill is on the last month of hers and Miki is patiently keeping her company.
But the real silver lining is Shinta. Having a hot Japanese actor friend in times like these is a welcome distraction. This gorgeous celebrity has been defying time zones and distance through the years to be there for Jill. 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?
Click here to own the entire #romanceclass podcast season!
Click here to win stuff! a Rafflecopter giveaway
Up for grabs are:
- #romanceclass podcast the complete Season 1 + free pass to the next live reading,
- free pass to the next live reading,
- Fall Like Rain + Blast From Two Pasts + Never Just Friends + Cover Story Girl + The Boyfriend Backtrack print bundleprint bundle,
- Songs of Our Breakup + Finding X + The Kitchen When It Sizzles + Just For the Record + In Over Her Head print bundle,
- Choice of 5 ebook editions from entire season 1 selection
Head on over to producer/author/mad scientist Mina V. Esguerra‘s blog for notes on this episode. She starts it off with the following words:
Jay’s books haven’t been out that long but the reviews and reader love make it seem as if she’s been around for years. We hope this scene captures the reason why.
It warms my heart.
P.S. Here’s the same excerpt being read at Filipino Readercon! If you can hear squealing and giggles, that would be us, the people in attendance.
Watch out for the next one!
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.
