Friday, June 27, 2014

Love in All the Right Places (#romanceclass bundle 1)

#romanceclass ebook bundle! Because we needed this, right? :)

If you're into chick lit by Filipino authors, we're going to give you a bunch. Starting this month. Presenting LOVE IN ALL THE RIGHT PLACES!

Buy it exclusively on Amazon: bit.ly/loveinall
FREE from June 28 to 30
$0.99 in July
$2.49 until December
FREE to read for Amazon Prime members

Sweet, contemporary romance by Filipino authors. Enjoy three new adult/chick lit novellas in one bundle! 

COVER (STORY) GIRL BY CHRIS MARIANO 

1) She has amnesia. 
2) She’s on the run from her father’s creditors. 
3) She’s enjoying her last days on earth. 

Ever since Jang Min Hee walked into Gio’s small museum, she’s given him one excuse after another about why she’s vacationing at scenic Boracay Island. Rarely has Gio’s neat and organized world been shaken like this. Soon he finds himself scrambling over rocks, hiding in dressing rooms, and dragging her out of bars. But how can Gio tell what's true from what isn't? Their worlds are getting unraveled -- one story at a time. 

VINTAGE LOVE BY AGAY LLANERA 

26-year-old Crissy Lopez’s life is in dire need of a makeover. Her wardrobe revolves around ratty shirts and beat-up sneaks; her grueling schedule as a TV Executive leaves no room for a social life; and worst of all, she’s still hung up on the Evil Ex who left her five years ago. 

When her fashionable grand-aunt passes away and leaves behind a roomful of vintage stuff, the Shy Stylista inside Crissy gradually resurfaces. Soon, she feels like she's making progress -- with a budding lovelife to boot! But the grim ghost of her past catches up with her, threatening to push her back into depression. To finally move on, Crissy learns that walking away is not enough. This time, she needs to take a leap of faith. 

ALL'S FAIR IN BLOG AND WAR BY CHRISSIE PERIA 

Five Cuevas @5travels 
Three guesses to where I'm going next. Starts with an M. Ends with a U. Has a lechon named after it. #travel 

Travel blogger Five thinks she has hit the jackpot when the Macau Tourism Board invites her over for an all-expense-paid blogger tour in exchange for blogging about Macau. But while she happily signs up for the trip, she didn't sign up to be travel buddies with the infuriating Jesse. Will her dream vacation turn into a nightmare junket? Or will falling in love be on the itinerary?

Cover designed by Tania Arpa, featuring Rhea Bue. Yeah, they're awesome.

5x5podcast Episode 16: The Silkworm and mysteries, Jenny Han, Stephanie Perkins



Tania Arpa and I have a podcast, and we pretty much use it to talk about things we like. We have a new episode every two weeks or so, and this week's episode we featured new book The Silkworm by J.K. Rowling writing as Robert Galbraith (no spoilers), other mystery stories and detectives we like, a quick mention of Manila author events by National Bookstore (Jenny Han and Stephanie Perkins).

Until next episode!

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Chic Manila series and Spotlight

Embarking on another stage of this writing career, and I thought it was time to re-evaluate and organize. So let me explain.


Chic Manila is not a new thing, really, but it's what I'm calling all my Manila-setting chick lit novellas, as I've now grouped them all together in one series. Some of you have noticed that all the stories exist in the same universe anyway, and I've just made it official, at least on Amazon.

What's coming up for my Chic Manila series? A story called Georgia Lost and Found (Georgia first appeared in That Kind of Guy) which will appear in an anthology with stories from Marla Miniano, Chinggay Labrador, and Ines Bautista Yao.



If you've read a book I released last year called Playing Autumn (it's not available right now, because reasons) then you have an idea what my new series called Spotlight is about. I'm writing the second book now, as well as outlining the third, and a theme is going to emerge. 

No wait, the theme is actually that -- spotlight. It's not that hard to figure out. I can talk about it more when the books are out.

It also looks like I had too much fun at Canva, right? It's the truth.

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Interview with #LunaEast author Patricia Selina

1. Describe your Luna East story in a few short sentences
Coast Guard: Through a mix of baked goods and well-meaning friends, Claire is somehow coerced by campus sweetheart Anna to keep watch over her crush Mark, just because she happens to share the same route as him, and his childhood best friend Noah. Rumor says, however, that Anna’s fiercest competitor for Mark’s heart isn’t one of the nineteen other girls who’ve had crushes on him – but in fact is Noah himself! Is there any truth to this?

(And if there were, does anybody seriously think Claire could do anything about it?)

2. Did a real event from high school inspire your story?
Actually, it’s always been a dream of me to write a romance story in first person from the POV of someone who isn’t in love with any of the main characters – I’ve never remembered reading anything like this, but what I did know was that there had to be one, because art imitates life and if I have to live with love teams and romance drama that I’m not exactly a part of, then surely it could be written about, as well?

So yeah. There’s a lot of bits and pieces in Coast Guard that’s from my high school years, as well as my college ones. I’ve always gotten inexplicably entangled with popular love teams somehow, despite not being one of the lovebirds myself, or not being in love with either of said lovebirds, so what Claire feels about the whole Anna/Mark/Noah thing is drawing heavily from my own experiences.

Unlike her, I only got myself a cute little brother after graduating from high school, though.

3. What did you like to read when you were in high school?
I was a really weird kid. (Honestly, I still am.) But my favorite novella of all time continues to be Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice, which I discovered just as I graduated grade school, and continued re-reading all the way throughout high school.

I also developed a soft spot for English translations of Japanese light novels – I started with the ones that were adapted into popular anime series at the time, and fully intended to branch out into more obscure, serious stories, but I never really did get to doing that. I was also really interested in reading books tackling history and the differences between global cultures, as well as in reading cookbooks.

You can never really go wrong with cookbooks.

4. Who do you think should be reading Luna East, and how do we get the books to them?
(Me.)

Well, naturally I would say that the most obvious target market would be the teenagers who are actually living through the age bracket that we portray in Luna East, but – there’s a reason why teen romances (teen anythings, in general, but mostly and especially the romances) are spectacularly popular and break through the mainstream easily: because society believes that the teenage years are the happiest years of one’s life, and so anyone who’d want to remember ‘happier times’ would be interested in reading about teenagers. So if you ask me, anyone could read Luna East, and like it. A little bit of nostalgia never did anyone any harm, I reckon.

As for the next question – well, in this day and age it doesn’t come as a surprise that my first suggestion would be to make the most out of SNS’s, social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter and the like. I first learned about this project through a friend I follow on Twitter, after all – so I know how effective this could be in generating interest. What I like about SNS’s is that, when used efficiently, they’re basically good-old-fashioned word-of-mouth – only on a wider scale than literal spoken words do.

5. What other stories are you planning for Luna East?
Hmm. For all that I’m a romance writer when it comes to fanfiction, when it comes to my original stuff I tend to focus more on friendship. Good old platonic, sibling-like friendship.

When I wrote the last words for Coast Guard a few hours ago I thought that I didn’t want to write about these characters again – the Anna/Mark/Noah triangle is a force to be reckoned with, and to be completely honest with you their dynamic really reminds me of a triangle I already see too much of in real life so writing for them kinda intimidates me, now – but I kinda want to write more about Claire’s friendship with Sabrina: how they managed to be best friends even though they study in rival schools, how Claire manages to get flighty-but-brainy Sabrina to stay focused enough to prepare for a quiz bee (against Luna East, but that’s irrelevant), how Sabrina convinces pragmatic and serious Claire to think that joining Luna East’s anime club just might be a good idea. Speaking of which, something about the anime club might be interesting to write about, since it’s squarely in my sphere of influence!

Moving on to more serious matters, though, bullying is a topic that always gets a little bit too close to home when I’m concerned, since I was a bully magnet, of sorts.  Still am, but I’ve since learned to deal with it better – maybe writing about not letting the taunts define you would be of help to the people who’re going through that?

I’m also a bit interested in writing something based off the contestants I’d meet in MTAP contests, before. Something like Romeo and Juliet, with parabolic equations. Rival schools and all that.

Err, I have a lot of ideas. But I’ll be writing more for this ‘verse, that’s for sure.

Patricia is an incoming college senior at a Philippine state university, taking up Bachelor of Science in Accountancy, who writes fiction and spoils her little brother on her (increasingly rare) off hours. She’s been writing for years, and has never been published, and as such seeing something she’d written get published has always been a dream for her. While her writing tends to focus on the fanfiction side of things – her current focus is on writing for Free!, otherwise known as “the swimming anime” – she has always had a soft spot for original fiction, hence her current, sporadic involvement in Luna East.

Write your #LunaEast story! Read the rules. Post your story on your blog, Wattpad, Figment, or http://lunaeastacademy.org. And then answer these interview questions and send to minavesguerra@gmail.com. :) Order the Volume 1 paperbackor get the ebook on Amazon.

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Fantasy Casting: Dante of No Strings Attached

No, there is no movie version being planned for No Strings Attached (that I know of) but I recently hosted a giveaway for the book and asked people who they imagined Dante to be.

Dante, in case you haven't read the book, is twenty-four, a wushu instructor, and teaches Philippine history in a university.

These are the answers I got!

Joie Marie Crucena This is the first book I ever read that was yours  plus I imagined Dante looked like JC De vera :)))

Anna Lumanta Ave yes difinitely JC de vera...kahit wala pa akong nabasa sa mga libro mo, pero excited akong magkaroon niyan,maka visit nga sa bookstore.
JC De Vera. Had to skip a lot of shirtless pics to find this one.
Ailla Shareena Magcamit Slater Young seems fit for the role of Dante haha 


Kristel Ann Cruz Woo Yung of Survivor Season 28! 



Beya Maris Zanjoe Marudo 


Kat Sales Harry Shum Jr., or Rafael Rosell (even though they're older than Dante is. They're both fit, and look really hot in long sleeved polo, chinos, tie and glasses). 

Harry Shum Jr.
Rafael Rosell. Thanks, Ron.
Ronald Jeffrey S. Lim First person I thought of when I read the book was Luke Landrigan.


Annie Bag-ao I was thinking Dante na sporty, younger and hottie professor and with a guy-next-door vibe, so I'll be rooting for Alden Richards hehehehe.


But then we have this guy.

Biena Magbitang Haven't read this one but I think, since Daniel Matsunaga's only 25 (Watching PBB tells you a lot). Then, I think he can be Dante. Or is he a too buff to become a wushu instructor? Whatever. I like him. Haha. Or, since the question is hypothetical, how about Rico Yan (Haaay. My forever crush).

Rose Perez I agree on the Daniel Matsunaga suggestion!  Teka, isip muna ako ng iba pa.

Meliza Verano Caguimbal I read somebody says Daniel Matsunaga and I agree. 

Trisha Palasigue Daniel Matsunaga.

Because how can we not. 


Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Flag's up!


It's Philippine Independence Day on June 12 and I thought I'd put the flag up here on the blog. Because I like our flag. I think it's awesome.

Book bloggers Alexa and Rachel also have a feature on Filipino culture and literature on their blogs, and I shared a bit about one of my books.

Read at: Alexa Loves Books and Hello, Chelly!

Friday, June 6, 2014

Giveaway: In Over Her Head by Anne Plaza

If you're looking for more chick lit/contemporary romance in English, by Filipino authors, fear not! A lot of new and exciting titles are indie pubbed and online. I've been trying to get the word out on them and if you're into reading ebooks, or would like to start, then you've got a giveaway right here for you!

This month's featured book is In Over Her Head by Anne Plaza.


All she wants is to get even...

Erika Apostol's quiet and unassuming life gets disrupted when she learns that Richard Javier, the very same person who broke her heart many years ago, is now back in the country. Her world is turned upside down as old feelings she thought were buried resurface to haunt her once more.

Determined to give Richard a dose of his own medicine, Erika finds herself involved in an outrageous plan devised by her friends. They enlist the help of Jerome Gonzales, an attractive and charismatic DJ (with a playboy reputation), to pose as her significant other.

As the plan goes in full swing, Erika discovers Richard's jealous side, and that there's something more to Jerome than meets the eye. Will this grand charade work out the way it should, or will she be left with nothing in the end?

Amazon
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buqo

If you've already read and reviewed this book, you'll earn more giveaway entries! Thank you for supporting Filipino authors. :)

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Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Interview with #LunaEast author D.R. Lee

1. Describe your Luna East story in a few short sentences. 
Picture Me Naked is a story about high school rivals who may or may not just be rivals to each other after all. For as long as Laika could remember, Seth has always been the bane in her existence. He's her arch-nemesis - the one person whose sole purpose in life is to make her miserable. Yet when Seth says that one magic phrase, Laika couldn't help but blush from the tips of her toes to the ends of hair.

2. Did a real event from high school inspire your story?
Not from high school, but yeah, it was inspired by a real event. I was a debater in College and in order to ease the nervousness of my teammates, I always joked around and told them to picture their crush naked.

3. What did you like to read when you were in high school?
Harry Potter!!! haha! I was also into the Replica series by Marilyn Kaye, Goosebumps by R.L. Stine and Buffy the Vampire Slayer books. Those were my staples in high school.

4. Who do you think should be reading Luna East, and how do we get the books to them?
Although it's marketed for high school students, I think Luna East is well-suited for everyone as it has a variety of stories within its pages. As for the how, well, we're already trying to each audiences online, so that's a start.

5. What other stories are you planning for Luna East?
I'm thinking of writing a story about having a crush on the teacher. The other Luna East writers were encouraging me to write about this on Twitter since they've been reading my tweets about my professor in law school who's also my crush. haha!

D.R. Lee is a law student hailing from the Philippines. Outside of her academic endeavor, she does writing, painting and a whole lot of reading. On a perfect day, she talks with people inside her head and tells their stories through printed words. You can reach her via email, or you can follow her via Twitter or visit her Facebook page.

Write your #LunaEast story! Read the rules. Post your story on your blog, Wattpad, Figment, or http://lunaeastacademy.org. And then answer these interview questions and send to minavesguerra@gmail.com. :) Order the Volume 1 paperbackor get the ebook on Amazon.