That Kind of Guy

That Kind of Guy
Published by Summit Books


Good girl Julie never expected her hot former-player boyfriend to propose marriage. But when he did, she turned him down for reasons even she couldn't figure out. Will she settle for a nice, safe guy instead? Or will she let him find his way back into her carefully guarded heart?

Now in local bookstores! And Amazon!

Reviews
Goodreads
Girl Next Cubicle
One More Page
Perfect Nostalgia
Diurnalism
Chachic's Book Nook
Cookiecutter Caricature
Markings of a Dreamer

Reviews: No Strings Attached

A collection of reviews for No Strings Attached from all over. (If I missed yours, let me know!)

PS - Some may have spoilers.

FemaleNetwork
Goodreads
One More Page
From Page One
Ficsation
Chachic's Book Nook
The Blair Book Project
Resplendent Rainbows
Book Harbinger
Girl Next Cubicle
Not Just Silly Thoughts
Perfect Nostalgia

Reviews: My Imaginary Ex

A collection of reviews of My Imaginary Ex from all over. (If I missed yours, let me know!) 

PS - Some may have spoilers.

FemaleNetwork
Goodreads
Bang and Blame
One More Page
Chachic's Book Nook
From Page One
Book Harbinger
Bookmarked!
The Monestery
Ms. Dior
Hello Sha
Sassy Girl Raejel
Off the Wall

Reviews: Love Your Frenemies

A collection of reviews of Love Your Frenemies from all over. (If I missed yours, let me know!)

PS - Some may have spoilers.

Amazon
Smashwords

Goodreads

One More Page
Chachic's Book Nook
Book Harbinger
From Page One
Bookmarked!
Reads4Pleasure
Janicu's Book Blog
Bookish Little Me
Jinky is Reading

Reviews: Fairy Tale Fail

A collection of reviews of Fairy Tale Fail from all over. (If I missed yours, let me know!)

PS - Some may have spoilers.

Amazon
Smashwords

Goodreads

Shelfari
One More Page
Chachic's Book Nook
Book Harbinger

Bookmarked!
From Page One

Points of Claire-ification
Sassyreads
Malditang Osang
Reads4Pleasure
Janicu's Book Blog

Highlights from LYF's first week

It's been a busy and happy week for Love Your Frenemies.

It was reviewed by Tina (One More Page), Lee (From Page One), Chachic's Book Nook, and dementedchris via Smashwords. It's now on Goodreads and Shelfari.

Not bad for a "launch" with a marketing budget of zero. :) I also got a few requests for a paperback version of Love Your Frenemies -- the answer is yes, there will be, but not soon. May take months, because the paperback process includes shipping proofs from the US to Manila and that takes weeks.

Other fun things:

If you haven't read Fairy Tale Fail yet -- Chachic's Book Nook is hosting a giveaway of it. It's an international giveaway and runs until March 11.

Thanks to Charmie, Joyce, Irene, Vhienfaye, Raissa, Ula and Georgette for visiting the Facebook page this month!

The languages we speak

From Elaine Yeung's review of No Strings Attached: "In addition, it is quite hard to picture a Filipino setting where all the characters speak in perfectly straight English."

Elaine brings up an excellent point, which I wanted to blog about, in case an international reader wanders over.

I made a deliberate decision when I prepared my very first manuscript for publication that I would write it mostly in English. In reality, middle-class twenty-something women living and working in Metro Manila would be at least bilingual, speaking Filipino and English (or "Taglish") with ease at home, at work, with friends. But this doesn't yet capture exactly how we speak -- I know people who speak Bisaya, Ilonggo, and other regional languages at home. The slang I speak with close friends can be hard to understand, and I know because I have to translate sometimes for my husband later, even though we heard the exact same thing at dinner.

It's difficult to get that absolutely note-perfect, for me. International readers would notice that I do have the stray Tagalog word here and there, though, because I chose to retain some "untranslatables." Maybe it provides a hint of local color to some, but it doesn't do justice to the way we actually do use our native languages. I really just use them to avoid a more awkward English translation, so I say "kuya" rather than "older guy who isn't related to me but could be older brother also" or "bulalo" instead of "beef bone marrow soup."

The decision to go mostly-English has to do with a lot of things, but first of these is that if I did it any other way, I wouldn't be able to finish anything. I've tried, and the pressure to "get it right" just kills every draft, every time. So, kudos to writers who can craft characters and give them the right slang and language and make it sound real.

The upside of my earlier decision? The stories produced in this way found an international audience. I wonder if it's possible to have both (the correctly-represented languages AND the international audience) but since I haven't successfully finished an attempt, I don't personally know.

2011 for me

Some resolutions:

1. This year I will write more.
That includes finishing the SG project first (and putting up a sneak peek on this blog) within the next few weeks. And picking up on the CM project that I abandoned a few months ago. I will set aside time each day to write, and I will finish things!

2. This year I will publish online more.
The CM project, once finished, will definitely be for the Kindle. The SG project is still on the fence, depends on what happens with LYF. I think I've spent too much time on Amazon with just one title to my name. If there's more, I should just publish it all.

3. This year I will help people get published.
After guiding my husband Mike to putting his book out on Kindle, I've started talking to a few more people I know have book projects but are too scared/overwhelmed by the editing and publishing process to do anything about it. My cousin has a lovely, inspirational project in mind, and I've committed to help edit and publish it -- as long as she finishes writing the book.

4. I will buy less paper and start going digital.
Thinking of buying a Kindle. Already subscribed to Cosmo Philippines on Zinio. One factor is that I don't have space to keep anything, and the other is I want to encourage digital publishing on different fronts.

5. I will try writing something new and different.
Not making promises here -- I tried, and gave up. But maybe I'll resolve to give up later rather than sooner!

First round of thanks for No Strings Attached readers

No Strings Attached has been out for a week, and here's my first round of shoutouts to the people who've been so generous with their time (and money).

Thank you, Chachic, Tina, Lee, Layla, Hazel N, Tin, M and popandcrackle!

And to address a few things that I read/heard in the first week:

From Chachic's review: "The focus isn’t the build up of the love story but rather the complications involved in their relationship."

Very true, although not what I intended. Let me just share -- when I got back into a romance groove, I decided to write three love stories based on the three different love interests I felt I could write about. (My Imaginary Ex, Fairy Tale Fail, and Love Your Frenemies represent all that.) No Strings Attached was a fun thing I tried based on a friend's suggested concept, but it happened to get noticed first.

From Tina's review: "I liked how Carla seemed like a very real person, and her friends offer enough contrast to her for the readers to see the different sides of the story without telling it to them in a long monologue of sorts from the heroine."

Thank you. I did base her on a real person, who would likely never do what Carla did. Oh well, fiction. :)

I will never get tired of these posts I guess

November has beaten October as Fairy Tale Fail's best month ever. Amazon also launched (finally) a way to give Kindle books as gifts, even to people who have never opened a Kindle account, so this might even get better. (I hope!) If anything it's taught me that momentum is a big part of the ebook success thing -- a big promo push in the beginning helps, but also constant buildup.

That said, Amazon is a mostly American audience, and I'm never really sure how they'll react to a very obviously Pinoy story (though it's in English). This review by Holly of Book Harbinger came out recently and gave me an idea.

I also found out that FTF's older sibling My Imaginary Ex is still selling, more than a year after its release. Recent reviews by online communities and book bloggers have been significantly helpful.

Speaking of helpful online communities, a Goodreads page has been created for No Strings Attached. (Thanks, Chachic!)

A hundred hugs

Recently, I mentioned on a Goodreads discussion thread what I discovered once I had something published: Pinoys read, but they don't talk or write about it as much.

I post nearly every review of my books I can find, and to this day there aren't a lot. There are a few new ones, like the reviews from Laura, Janine and Cienne of My Imaginary Ex on Goodreads. But it's always been a quiet thing, and I used to think that it meant no one bought or read the book. Then I got a royalty check (!) that told me how wrong I was.

I appreciate each and every review I find (no matter what they think of the book), but I have to admit -- even I'm not as quick with the feedback after I read someone else's work. Even if I loved it. I don't really go around emailing writers or producing full-length critiques of their novel. The best I can do is post about loving it, or share a link to it with a short recommendation.

So now, just a mention makes me happy. Like this tweet from xingkit. This message from janajana1210. This FB post by Janine. (Wish I could comment to thank you but it's not allowing me.) And, the thing which made my morning: the 100 people who "like" My Imaginary Ex on Facebook.

Someone once told me I should write about "important things" -- instead I write romances. :P Thanks for making me feel absolutely fine about the choice.

Updates - Social media, pages, and reviews

Facebook Page for Mina V. Esguerra. Visit and keep in touch, in case blogging or Twitter isn't your thing. :)

That page came about because I discovered what looks like the beginnings of a community page for My Imaginary Ex on FB. I can't keep up with everything that's happening on social media, it seems, and by the time I stumbled upon this it had been "liked" by 60 people. There are also some similarly-named pages ("Imaginary Ex" and "My Imaginary Ex-Boyfriend").

My Imaginary Ex also received more props this week on LivingSocial courtesy of a new review. Also found a blog that said something really nice, but will find a way to ask permission to repost first. (A comments module isn't chic anymore, apparently!)

More FTF: In theory, Fairy Tale Fail should be listed now in Barnes and Noble and the Apple iBook Store but I can't find it. Am I doing it wrong?

I actually should learn how to work the Barnes and Noble site because we apparently are giving my mom a Nook for Mother's day, and I want to be able to send her books as gifts without adding to the boxes of stuff she tends to keep around. (I hope my sister already gave it -- spoiler!)