Guest post by Sola Musica cover designer Martina Bautista

By Martina Bautista

For someone who loves the feeling of sand in between her toes and the sound of waves crashing on the shore, I’m rarely at the beach. I spend way too much time behind my computer screen pinning my life away, and day dreaming about far off places and possible adventures. Prompted by the occasional burst of “I need to get out of here” thoughts, I spend a good chunk of my mornings on budget airline websites contemplating fictional vacations and itineraries that never come to life.

So when it came to planning out the cover for Sola Musica, there was no shortage of ideas or inspiration, all I needed to do was stop my daydreams long enough to get the design down on paper. I suppose that due to my will to buckle down and get creative, I let myself get carried away because when it came time to submit the cover, I ended up producing 4 completely different variations, each with a different photo of a beach or an adventure long gone.

The process of creating the cover involved going on 4 mini adventures with an overall leap into graphic design, a field I’ve only dabbled in. The process for each cover design was the same, mentally mapping out where it would fit and what the part of the festival it would represent then deciding the colors that would suit the mood. I read through each other the stories while brainstorming, and unknowingly, I let myself get lost in the words and next thing I knew, all 4 covers were done.

Normally, I would have to go through the daunting task of going through every font in my laptop, and eventually land right back where I started: font-less and overwhelmed. Nothing seemed to fit the theme or the feel that I wanted to show, until the authors decided to get Macy to do the calligraphy. I’m happy with how easily it fit with the overall vibe I was looking for.  

I don’t know exactly how the authors processed my email with 4 options, but in the end, the vote was unanimous, resulting in the whimsical handwritten love from Macy and the sunset photo with pastel tones from me.

I can’t wait to get myself to the beach and away from the hustle and bustle of the city, armed with Sola Musica and a really chill beach playlist. 

Buy Sola Musica: Amazon  buqo  CreateSpace paperback (use code 7FQP4AFA to get $2 off)  Order the Philippine edition paperback

How Bound Came About (Guest Post by Chinggay Labrador)

How Bound Came About 
Chinggay Labrador

I'd been suffering from a too-long bout with writer's block—the last work of fiction I did was in 2012 and has remained unpublished and unreleased. When I came across Mina's post on #buqosteamyreads, I decided to take the challenge and try my hand at fiction again. My previous works have all been PG-13, so I knew I would have to take a leap of faith to work in a genre that is unsettling for me! (I don't even read romance books!)

I tried to come up with a list of ideas, but it proved really difficult for me, even when Mina assigned us specific tropes to work with. The deadline neared and all I had with me were about three half-started stories that I was nowhere near happy with. I told a good friend of mine about how much of a fail my steamy writing challenge ended up, and she told me she'd find a way to help kick me out of my writer's block for good.

My friend, who works as an artist, decided to pull me and another friend for a rope-tying session. She joked that if anyone needed steamy-inspiration, there would be no better way than to jump into some risqué Japanese art. The tutorial turned out to be fun, interesting (to say the least) and we weren't even halfway through learning how to tie ropes on each other before the idea for Bound finally came to me. (Success!)

Funnily enough, my short story wasn't exactly conventionally steamy—but it at least was "adult" enough to get into the NAQR2 anthology. After being so used to writing long books, the short story format piqued my interest because it forced me to stay concise and stick to only the details that really mattered to the whole.

NAQR2 cover by Martina Bautista

I've been on a writing roll since Bound and I'm really grateful for the opportunity to be part of All This Wanting—not only because I know I'm in good company, but because it stoked my creative process again. I can't wait for our next collaboration to come out (soon!) and for the new stories that'll come up (and who knows—maybe more surprising, art adventures too! Haha!).

Read "Bound" by getting All This Wanting on buqo (http://bit.ly/ATWbuqo)

Guest post by #buqosteamyreads author Halina Cabrera: On the steamy side of things

Taking over the blog for today is #buqosteamyreads author Halina Cabrera!

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I would never have finished writing a steamy story if it weren’t for Mina Esguerra’s workshop. I think the discipline of having to write using a specific trope, a literary device (for more info, join Mina’s writing workshops), learning all the background on romance heat levels and alpha males, and having to finish on a specific deadline really helped. So there, a big  thank you to Mina and all my classmates. For all writers who are looking for a push (to finish writing a story): attend a writing workshop now!

Inner Bitch

I liked writing strong female characters. I was challenged when Mina said the main character should NOT be simple/ ordinary. The female character should have an X-Factor that will make the alpha male fall for her.  It was challenging but it was also fun. It was like finally getting permission to let my inner bitch come out. Haha! It was actually quite liberating. But according to one of my beta readers…my bitchy character wasn’t bitchy enough! More practice is in order.

The Steamy Parts

Writing the steamy scenes took a bit of work. Not because I don’t get any practice! That’s a different story. It was challenging because I was writing so fast, my initial readers (beta readers and editor) felt like I wanted to get it over with. (Side note: beta reader and editor feedback are invaluable). The point of writing steamy reads is to get the reader to enjoy the steamy scenes: linger a bit and really make the reader feel (smell, taste, and see!) the action. Maybe that was my way of dealing with the discomfort of stepping out of my comfort zone: by doing it fast. But that’s no way to enjoy anything. The editing process was really a good way to address this.

What helped? It helped to have a picture of my love interest in front of me when I was writing. It’s easy to describe my main characters. But looking at actual pictures helped me be more graphic with the descriptions of my love interests.  I needed to put myself in the reader’s shoes. Who is this guy? Why is he so hot? Why should the reader pay attention to him? Details make a character very interesting. And there’s nothing like having a picture to add more details to the page.

Another thing that made a difference when writing the steamy scenes was having a romantic perspective. What makes a love scene romantic? It’s the…romance. That sounds easy to follow, right? But it’s not. Getting dirty is not the same as getting romantic. This distinction takes some balance. Mina was very emphatic during the workshop that there should be no mistake about what was going: consensual romance. No rape (subtle or otherwise) and no intoxicated sex. I’m glad Mina made this clear to all the writers in the workshop.

Community

Lastly, I liked being part of a community of writers. I felt like I was in this with a lot of other people and it was okay to be in certain spaces: unsure, embarrassed, awkward, not getting enough word count, etc. I got to meet a lot of great people while working on this project. I am eternally grateful to them for the help they gave me.

Shameless Plug

On this note, I’d like to introduce my short stories: Boyfriend-Stealing Bitch and Crashing Into Him, both going up on buqo (www.buqo.ph) as part of the #buqosteamyreads bundles by April 1, 2014.

Boyfriend-Stealing Bitch: Jess Rodriguez always gets what she wants. That's why no one in her office has difficulty believing she tried to steal the gorgeous Martin de Guzman from his perfect girlfriend, Eliza. Now, the label "boyfriend-stealing bitch" has been slapped on her. Plus, Martin has to leave for the U.S. and Jess is left all alone to pick up the pieces.

Two years later, Martin shows up in the most unlikely of places: at Jess’s weekend getaway with her boyfriend, Joey. Will it be his turn to steal her away on a hot summer night? Is she finally going to claim the title she was so unfairly given back then?

Crashing Into Him: Hazel Fernandez, certified workaholic and finance manager, and Luis Cortez, fitness buff and gym owner, meet when he crashes his truck into her car. In the first five minutes, she notices that he is one hot guy. But he immediately starts acting like a jerk. She decides she can’t stand him. And she guesses he can’t stand her either. Except that she catches him checking her out.

Then Luis wants to meet about car insurance issues. Will all discussions end with what will be done with their cars or will there be more crashing into each other? Hazel is about to find out one rainy night.

Email me: Cabrera.Halina@gmail.com

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Follow me on Twitter: @CabreraHalina