Yes, folks—it’s finally happening! But first…
Look at these beauties! These are the new Blush Books edition covers for Six de los Reyes’ Beginner’s Guide: Love and Other Chemical Reactions, Mina V. Esguerra’s Better at Weddings Than You, and my book, Scandalized! Aren’t they amazing? Many thanks to talented local artists Enid Din, Ren Bit, and Shai San Jose for giving our books a glow-up!
05/18/2024
Dear Diary,
SB19 finished their first day of the Pagtatag Finale concert today. They were soooooo cute! Sabi nila, A’Tin were so instrumental to their success, kaya lang, we’re OA. React much sa lahat ng bagay kasi eh!
Mula ngayon…
Goodbye—teka, ano’ng goodbye? *Maricel Soriano voice* WALANG MAGGU-GOODBYE!!!
We might have said our farewell to the Pagtatag era, but just like Pablo said, this is not the end. And honestly, for someone like me who’s just attended her FIRST SB19 concert, this is just the beginning.
After the January KOMIKET event at Market! Market! a few months ago, I wrote a blog post about Why I like hand selling books. Now, here I am again, about to share with you some nakakakilig moments of the time we hand sold #RomanceClass books at the 2024 Philippine Book Festival.
Organized by the National Book Development Board, the Philippine Book Festival is a free event that aims to showcase Filipino talent through various types of published work. Just like last year, the World Trade Center (official venue of #PBF2024) was divided into four “realms”: Booktopia (fiction and non-fiction books), Komiks (comic books, graphic novels, zines, and art), Aral Aklat (textbooks), and KidLit (children’s books). Book and publishing industry-related balks and workshops also happen throughout the day, divided among the different spaces such as the Main Stage and the Creators’ Lab.
This year we were given the chance to represent Filipino romance the #RomanceClass way at our very own booth, and boy, was it fun!
Exciting news!
The Ateneo Institute of Literary Arts and Practices (AILAP) is working with #RomanceClass to bring you the 21st Ateneo National Writers Workshop (21ANWW)! This year, AILAP aims to explore romance writing that challenges current conventions, as well as contribute to the direction and future of the genre.
This is amazing to me in many different levels, but mainly because as a young aspiring writer who had an inclination toward writing love stories, I was never encouraged to write romance by the academe. Perhaps it was not conveyed directly to me that the romance genre wasn’t welcome in the literary sphere, but the way literature was being taught at the time and the type of short stories and poetry that the school’s publication put out made it seem so. To have an actual academic entity promote the exploration of the romance genre is refreshing to me, and I am looking forward to the stories we’re going to be seeing through this program.
My body is currently in recovery mode from our three-day Komiket ~gig this past weekend. Mina, Ron, and myself were the #RomanceClass tinderas at Ayala Market! Market! from Friday to Sunday, and as always, the experience had been educational (and tiring, haha).