#romanceclass party on Feb 8 - and you're invited!

I'm so very, very proud of #romanceclass and what we've been able to achieve together. (Buy the bundle if you want proof!) Fine, so maybe even they were skeptical of what they could actually do in a short amount of time, but they've proven to themselves and everyone else that they can write, finish, publish a book - and do it again and again.

We consider you, authors and readers, part of this -- so we hope you come celebrate with us! We're having a party at the ground floor of the Ayala Museum on Feb 8, Saturday, 6 PM. Check out the #romanceclass books, and also our new book Luna East, a YA compilation of short stories!

Playing Autumn (limited first edition) paperback giveaway

So here's the deal -- Playing Autumn, my novella included in the Rock Gods of Romance bundle, is going to eventually be released as a solo book. I delayed those plans because an exciting opportunity for the book popped up, but it required expanding the story, which I haven't started on yet. (Next month, promise!)

And then I fast-tracked the printing of a paperback because Dia Frampton and Meg Frampton are in town. I had the happy lucky chance to meet Dia last year, on her first visit to Manila, and gave her a copy of Fairy Tale Fail -- and she's been reading more of my books since then. So I thought that the perfect prezzie for her and Meg would be the book I wrote about musicians, right?

Tania Arpa designed the cover, and so quickly too. I owe her baked goods and perhaps fancy drinks.

Mission accomplished though! Meg and Dia got their copies on the night of their show at Hard Rock Cafe Makati.

(Dia's writing a novel too, and the bits that she's posted so far have been quirky and awesome.)

Some people have offered to buy the limited copies (thank you!) but since I don't know how much they cost yet (I pretty much just grabbed them from the printer as soon as they were done!), here's a giveaway for Philippine residents! Will post order details soon.

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Spark, my YA paranormal romance project with Katrina Ramos Atienza

When I first visited Bacolod and its neighboring cities, I thought, wow, somebody should write a YA paranormal novel set here. There's so much history (and secrets), how could you not? I encouraged Katrina Ramos Atienza, whose family is actually from Negros Occidental, to do it. We decided to write one together. (Which is more fun than just telling people to write books for me haha.)

It's not done yet, but we're releasing it in stages. Here it is on Figment.

And Wattpad:

Work in progress: Anti Dynasty

Last year an idea came to me, and I wrote a short story thinking I'd be able to get it out of my system.

I did that, but obviously it wasn't finished, because I kept returning to those characters, kept checking in on what had happened to them after I had written "The End." It's kind of annoying. 

Then I realized that I was avoiding writing their story because I was afraid of what would happen to them. They won't be having the shiny happy lives that my characters usually have. 

Oh well. I'm going to try anyway. For my own peace of mind. This year I will try to finish writing a novella about Lourdes and Andres, which I am calling Anti Dynasty. It's combination utopian/dystopian new adult. I am not having shiny happy fun on this project, but I want to do it. 

The short story I wrote, called Extraordinary, is on Wattpad now, and is a prequel of sorts. You can read it on Wattpad, and soon on other ebook stores. 

Out in January 2014: Stories from Luna East Arts Academy, volume 1 (YA/English)

I'm happy to share that the first #romanceclass YA anthology will be out in paperback in January. Yay!

During one of the #romanceclass monthly meetups, the authors present started talking about what they could do next, after trying to write their romance novellas. And we started talking about our love for YA, which is how a lot of us started reading and writing.

So now we have Luna East Arts Academy, an ongoing project where participating authors contribute a YA romance/coming-of-age story set in high school. Volume 1 contains the following stories:

Be Creative by Stella Torres

Senpai's #1 Fan by Anne Plaza

Love Lies A'Bleeding by Alyssa Ashley Lucas

Picture Me Naked by D. R. Lee

Something Real by Miles Tan

Wouldn't Change A Thing by Jayen San Diego

You Are the Apple of My Eye by Addie Lynn Co

The Letter by M. Protacio-De Guzman

Where Do We Go From Here by Jen Carpio

The Rumor About Me by Kristel S. Villar

He Loves Me...Not? by Athena Claire Duenas

Sitting in a Tree by Chrissie Peria

Yours Is the First Face That I Saw by Ron Lim

Fifty-Two Weeks by Mina V. Esguerra 

What is Luna East, exactly?

A fictional Metro Manila high school that we’ve created as the setting for new YA fiction. Luna East is a co-ed non-sectarian private school, somewhere in the metro, a bit upscale but with a growing percentage of scholarship students. The school likes to focus on its arts education, but they have sports teams (Go, Wolves!), beauty pageants, and other things that private schools in the metro have. 

Basic rules of #LunaEast:

Luna East Arts Academy is a shared setting for our YA stories. 

Stories must be set in the present time or recent past.

Any characters in the story will become part of the “universe” and can be used by the other writers in their stories (informing the original author of your plans would be polite).

Who can write a Luna East story? Right now, we are fine with ANYONE writing stories set in Luna East, but to be part of the paperback compilation (and therefore being CANON) your story must be reviewed and checked for continuity against the other stories.

Author Year 2013

Released this year:
Queen of the Clueless (Interim Goddess of Love #2)
Summit editions of Love Your Frenemies, Interim Goddess of Love, and Queen of the Clueless

Wrote and released:
Extraordinary (short story prequel to Anti Dynasty)
Icon of the Indecisive (Interim Goddess of Love #3)
Young and Scambitious (short story)
Fifty-Two Weeks (short story, contribution to Luna East YA compilation)
Welcome to Envy Park
Playing Autumn

Started writing/outlining:
Iris Moving On
Spark
Properly Scandalous (Scambitious 2)
Anti Dynasty
My Muse Apollo

YAY. I will not put pressure on myself to finish anything new right now and will just enjoy the holidays. I wish everyone a happy and stress-free couple of weeks! :D

PS. Tune in on Thursday, Dec 26 at 7:30 PM. I've got a podcast with Tania Arpa and our first guest is author Kate Evangelista!

In Over Her Head: Excerpt + Giveaway

It's such an honor to have been part of this book's journey! Author Anne Plaza worked on this book during #romanceclass, and I was watching out for this novella from outline stage on. Why? Because Anne had ideas for this book, even before she set out to write it. And then the characters kind of took over. Which just goes to show that you can plan a story all you want, but if you create characters that are real enough, they just might end up telling you what they want. And those are great characters to have.

Book description

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  Smashwords  Goodreads  Paperback

Excerpt

I shrug, not trusting myself to speak. Suddenly the entire scenario feels like something out of a cheesy movie: tiny, blinking lights peppering the ink-black sky, the night breeze sending a fresh wave of goose bumps on my skin, and Jerome’s presence making my senses go haywire.
“Sorry, I don’t have a jacket with me, so I hope this would do.”
I don’t realize I’ve been rubbing my arms and Jerome must have taken that to mean that I’m getting cold. He pulls me close to his side and I can feel the warmth emanating from his solid body.
What the hell is happening?
I can barely move a muscle, much less breathe, at the closeness we’re sharing. I know we’ve done this several times before, but they were all for show when Richard’s around to mess with. But this time, there’s no Richard, no acting, no nothing. Just me and him, inhaling cigarette smoke while killing time.
I struggle to get some small talk going, but I find myself at a total loss for words. Jerome doesn’t seem to mind the lack of conversation and is just content with us burning our lungs away and…cuddling.
I try to shift my weight to my other side, but he pulls me a bit closer. “We don’t really need to do this. No one’s watching.” I don’t realize I say those words until they’re out of my mouth. I look furtively at Jerome’s expression.
“So you’ll know that I’m not doing this for show either.”
I frown slightly. “Do what?”
And the next thing I know, he’s kissing me. But that’s not what’s shocking at all.
It’s that I kiss him back.

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Anne Plaza has a degree in Psychology, but has actively pursued a career in writing in her previous work as a reporter and online editor. She currently works in the field of marketing communications and spends most of her time writing fiction (while not on the lookout for the nearest cupcake and cronut store).  Aside from writing, she loves to read contemporary romance, young adult, fantasy, and historical fiction. She also collects stamps and postcards, and loves everything about cats. Anne is based in Quezon City, Philippines. In Over Her Head is her first published work in English.

Blog  Twitter  Facebook  Email: anneplaza@gmail.com