The Writing Community – Page 35 – Tara Tries To Write

{ Bundle Review } #JustWritePH’s #ForJustice

September 18, 2015 1 Comment

When justice calls, heroes rise. Follow the journeys of a fire programmer, two very unique detectives, and an unlikely partnership between a mortal and a ghost as they fight for what they believe in and even their very survival in this action-packed bundle of four stories from up-and-coming writers. Features Eleven by Michael Recto, Expendable by EK Gonzales, Between Two Worlds by Pau Castillo, and The Seven-Day Detective by Mark Manalang.

The #ForJustice bundle is available on Buqo for only P45/$0.99! CLICK HERE to buy the bundle.

There is an ongoing #JustWritePH giveaway! Get the chance to win this bundle for free by clicking on THIS LINK!

Click the Read More link below for story blurbs of all four stories in the #ForJustice bundle as well as my review of Eleven and Expendable. Excerpts will be posted separately.

The Writing Community

Join Buqo’s Book for an eBook Campaign!

September 14, 2015 No Comments

As a child, there were weeks wherein I’d collect stacks and stacks of old newspapers from neighbors and sari-sari stores near our house for the annual newspaper drive at school. Competition was really fierce. You could sense it in the way students would try to sneak a peek inside your homeroom classroom to see how huge of a “lead” or “deficit” their class has over the others.

I don’t know if the schools these days still do this, but that was a fond memory to look back on, especially when our class would win. There isn’t even any tangible prize; it’s just being hailed champions for bringing the most newspapers that mattered. (The thought of raising funds through drives like these didn’t even enter my system until I was much older, but it seemed like a good idea. You bring in newspapers for recycling, and you get cash in return. Not too shabby.)

Ah, childhood.

So I’m not sure this story is connected to what I really wanted to talk about, but let me try.

Excerpts, The Writing Community

#JustWritePH: Do it #ForTheFeels

September 7, 2015 No Comments

Early this year, I have slowly immersed myself in the Filipino writing community, thanks to the publishing and writing classes I’ve attended (#SparkNA and #StrangeLit, waddup!?), and it always amazes me to see new work coming out every couple of months. I feel like I’ve been saying this over and over since I started this blog, but I’ll say it again just the same because it’s true: This is a very exciting time for Filipino authors, published or yet to be. Just this summer, Buqo released the BuqoYA bundles and I eagerly joined a book blog tour for the first time in my life, my little way of helping create noise for the featured fictional pieces. I had a lot of fun with that, and learned a lot of things too.

Very recently, a workshop called #JustWritePH challenged participants to write a story and prepare it for publication. It ran from July 1st to August 8th, giving the participants a little under six weeks to finish their manuscripts! The result: a total of twenty new Filipino-authored stories grouped into five different bundles now available via the Buqo app for only $0.99/P45! Isn’t that just amazeballs?

Here’s a quick peek at the first bundle called For the Feels. Story excerpts, blurbs, and author information are available under the cut.

JustWritePH-ForTheFeels-Cover-Correct — The feels come in all shapes and sizes, with a million different unique stories for every kind. Experience bitter feels, forbidden feels, pretend feels and young feels in this four-story bundle that’s sure to tug at your heartstrings. Features “13th Prayer” by Lee Miyaki, “Never the Princess” by Maria Criselda Santos, “My Ampalaya Story” by iamloid, and “A Bump in Athena’s Life” by Kristine Cuevas. [ CLICK HERE TO BUY THE BUNDLE. ]

The Writing Community

There’s definitely #MoreLoveInPH!

June 29, 2015 No Comments

I love being part of this writing community. Something special happens all the time, and I am learning a lot from them.

First, there was the publishing seminar in January that started it all. Then there was #SparkNA. In the middle now of preparing for #StrangeLit (another writing workshop coming in August), #MoreLoveInPH happened. To be really honest, I was so confused at first as to what this event is and would be like. I thought it was a gathering for Filipino romance writers–no, let me rephrase that–a traditional, face-to-face gathering for Filipino romance writers, but it turned out to be a virtual gathering. On Facebook.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not being a Negative Nancy here. In fact, I’m writing about this because I really liked the experience, and hope there’d be more of it soon.

#MoreLoveInPH was described as an online party, and it couldn’t have been more accurate. Sure, it wasn’t the traditional party we all know, but why do we hold parties anyway? We hold and attend parties to celebrate something, and this party was, in my opinion, a celebration of Filipino authors finding a niche and working ardently to cultivate it.