When I released Waiting in the Wings in February, I had no idea I would be writing a spin-off novel so soon. Honestly, I already had plans for a second book in the same universe, but it wasn’t top priority on my writing calendar. (Yes, I have one. :P)
Needless to say, I succumbed to the kilig and gigil and began outlining #ProjectPio in May–and if there was a phrase I’d use to describe everything about this writing process, it would be whirlwind affair.
Back in April, Jay, Six, and I released this summer music festival anthology called Summer Crush, something we had a lot of fun putting together. (Exhausting too, but all worth it.) As a special gift to those who bought the book, we also produced live reading videos featuring excerpts from each of our stories, and we got Gio Gahol and Gab Pangilinan to help us out! We made those videos available to our readers last month, and now you can have access to them too!
Relive your Summer Crush feelings over and over again with these short videos, and don’t forget to share the love! We can never get enough of our live readers, anyway, right?
We’d love to hear what you think about our very first collaboration project! Please leave a rating/review of Summer Crush on Amazon and Goodreads when you can–it will be greatly appreciated!
Special thanks once again to Gio Gahol and Gab Pangilinan, who made time for us for this mini project. May this not be the last! <3 We love you!
I love love songs. I mean, I love songs in general, but I’m a sucker for passionate well-written love songs, and I believe we have plenty of that in OPM (Original Pilipino Music). Including some of my favorites in Waiting in the Wings was such a fun thing to do, but also a little daunting, only because I couldn’t really quote the lyrics in the book. Often, I wondered if describing the songs was enough to get their messages across, and when I felt that wasn’t enough, I put together a Waiting in the Wings Spotify playlist.
Today, I’m sharing the lyrics to the four OPM songs mentioned in the book, together with English translations so that international readers may also understand what they mean. Please bear in mind though that I’m not a translation expert, but I tried my best to capture the feeling of the songs. Take a look/listen:
And so, the final promotional ~thing for our summer music festival anthology, Summer Crush ended last Sunday! It came in the form of three video recordings, excerpts from each of the three short stories–Jay E. Tria’s You Only Need Reminding, Almost There by yours truly, and Six de los Reyes’ Ocean Eyes–read by two people we love, Gio Gahol and Gab Pangilinan.
THAT’S A WRAP! #romanceclasscovers 3.0 featured Fred Lo and Vanya Castor. Photo by Chi Yu Rodriguez. Styling by Alex V. Lapa. Overall coordination by Mina V. Esguerra. Additional, panggulo feels by Ana Tejano, Jay E. Tria, Tania Arpa, and yours truly.
“Aga-aga daming feelings!” -Lo, 2017
^ Now THAT is a pretty accurate description of what went down at the citruSnap studio last May 14, to be honest. There we were, six giddy authors (one of whom is also the photographer, the other, a book cover designer), two gorgeous models, and one badass stylist, trying our best to stay on our toes and be ~productive on a hot, Sunday morning. While this wasn’t the first time I got involved in a photo shoot, this was the first time I sponsored one for a personal project.
I wasn’t prepared. *insert sweating emoji here* Yes, even when I’ve saved a bunch of reference photos on my Pinterest board and sent it over to Mina to compile. Even when I had already outlined 2/3 of the book for which some of the photos will be shot. Even when I’ve rehearsed in my head what kind of direction I’d be giving Fred and Vanya so I can achieve the look I wanted. Nope. I wasn’t.
