Personal, The Writing Community, Writing

#TeamLabyu is back!

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It’s almost World Theatre Day, and what better way to celebrate that special day than by re-releasing my Philippine theatre-based romance novel, Waiting in the Wings! That’s right friends~by March 27, everyone who’s purchased the Kindle version of the book will be seeing its 2024 edition!

The 2024 edition of Waiting in the Wings has a new clinch cover featuring theatre actors Marynor Madamesila and Gio Gahol, photographed by Chi Yu Rodriguez and designed by Miles Tan. The story is tweaked a little bit, so you might find new things inside, but it’s essentially the same story set during pre-pandemic times (the original came out in 2017), and of course, our main couple still get their HEA.

I’m now taking pre-orders for paperback AND hardbound copies of this new edition for PH readers! If you’re interested to buy a copy of the book, fill out the form found here. The form will close on March 31, 2024, and books will be scheduled for pick-up or delivery beginning April 13.

For any inquiries, email me at author@tarafrejas.com.

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Personal, The Writing Community

Happy 12.12! Here’s an ebook sale!

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Hey, it’s the 12th of December and my romance anthology, What If We Fall In Love? is celebrating its first birthday soon, so here~have an ebook sale!

This anthology contains three short stories featuring Filipino characters and some well-loved romance tropes, including fake dating, out of my league, and fallback marriage pact.

Get it on Amazon | Get it on Snack

Please feel free to spread the word! Someone you know might need kilig during Christmastime!

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Events, Personal

Tara’s Takeaways: What’s my favorite thing about self-publishing?

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It’s true. All so true.

The above image was part of a slideshow I created for a Book Talk I was invited to recently. Most of the details are on this Instagram post, but long story short—I spoke about my self-publishing experience to a group of Grade 7-10 students and had fun. Yes, even if I had NO idea what I was going to do when I got the email invitation.

I mean…it’s a group of teenagers, and I mostly write adult romance. Heh.

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Personal, The Writing Community, Writing

Five years in the making…

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Five years ago, I tweeted this:

I don’t remember anymore how exactly I came up with the plunny, although it’s possible that it’s mostly because I had Daniel Henney in mind as the love interest. He loves dogs, and so do I…and I’d never really written a story yet where the characters had pets, so I wanted to give it a try.

I’ve kept the idea for the story in my growing list of plunnies to explore, but only got around to writing it until sometime in late 2021, when I decided to put together an anthology of short stories that eventually became What If We Fall In Love? I shelved this story and instead included my NomCom submission, Your Heart, To Go, to complete the lineup. I thought it would take a while before I got to revisit the manuscript, but an opportunity to finish it came when submissions for Pawfect For You (then simply called Tropetastic 3) came along.

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Cover Reveal, Personal, The Writing Community

[ Cover Reveal ] What If We Fall In Love?

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I love cover reveals. I do. Especially when I know the author doing it and I trust them to “deliver the goods,” so to speak. And also when I’m the one doing the reveal.

In the #romanceclass community, we have a project called #romanceclasscovers where we (or actually, our resident photographer, Chi Yu Rodriguez) takes photos of Filipino models (sometimes they’re actors, sometimes they’re friends of friends!) and we put these photos on the covers of our books. It doesn’t sound quite revolutionary when you think about it, but it’s a statement. It says, loudly, that we want to see Filipinos on the covers of our books. We want to see not just faces, but faces with real emotion. Poses that entice and tickle the imagination. The whole she-bang.

It’s a representation thing. It’s an aesthetic thing. It’s a choice.

My choice for my upcoming book, What If We Fall In Love?, is a playful, happy photo of Gab Pangilinan and Gio Gahol taken way back in 2017, when we still did regular studio shoots for #romanceclass covers. It’s been hidden away for so long, I’ve just being waiting and waiting and waiting to see where I could use it, and the opportunity presented itself after deciding on releasing a romance anthology.

And here it is—the cover of What If We Fall In Love?:

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