Projects

Peripherals, Personal, Projects, Writing

Love Songs: Waiting in the Wings

June 23, 2017 No Comments

I love love songs. I mean, I love songs in general, but I’m a sucker for a 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:

Peripherals, Personal, Projects, Writing

Gio & Gab For #SummerCrush!

June 1, 2017 No Comments

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.

More #SummerCrush outtakes, because I am finally prepping the videos to be sent out (hopefully) tonight! Um, yes @giogahol, @gabpangilinan? Barden Bellas ang peg? 😂😂😂 #romanceclass

A post shared by Tara (@twostepflight) on May 28, 2017 at 1:52am PDT

Personal, Projects, The Writing Community

Book Cover Crazy: My 1st #RomanceClassCovers Experience

May 23, 2017 1 Comment

#romanceclasscovers shoot day — **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.

Personal, Projects, Writing

Summer Crush Shenanigans: A Reflection Paper

April 11, 2017 1 Comment

Obligatory selfie. 😅 ° ° 👕 by @weardpt

A post shared by Tara (@twostepflight) on Jan 21, 2017 at 12:31am PST

First things first.

My first Six de los Reyes book was Just for the Record. My first Jay E. Tria book was Songs of Our Breakup. I still remember reading both books and thinking “Damn, I wish I wrote that.” And if you told me two years ago that I will help create a universe where Six and Jay’s characters existed and interacted with mine, I’d say “You’re crazy.”

But we are a crazy bunch, I found out.

Projects, The Writing Community, Writing

Meet your Summer Crush!

April 11, 2017 1 Comment

By the time I hit Publish on this blog post, Summer Crush will have been two days old. It still feels pretty surreal that Six, Jay, and I were able to make it this far, and really, all we could tell ourselves the moment Jay uploaded the book on Amazon was “WE DID IT. WE REALLY DID IT!”

I have plenty more things to say, but that’s going to go on my “reflection paper” (Jay already posted hers, haha) which should be up in a few days. For now, I’m going to leave you with these:

Get your copy of Summer Crush here

Sign up for your FREE GIFT** here

**Please note that the free gift will be sent to you via email AFTER the blog tour in May. This is open to all readers around the world, so please let us know if you’ve bought the book so we can thank you with this little offering! <3

And here’s something fun Six, Jay, and I came up with–the Who’s Your Summer Crush? Quiz!

Comment below to let me know who you got? ^^

This is all for now–happy reading, and thank you so much in advance for your time!