Well, what do you know ~ three of my books have been nominated for Filipino Reader’s Choice Awards 2022! This is the first FRCA in seven years, so you can imagine how very tough the competition might be. To be named as a nominee alongside friends and fellow #romanceclass authors feels so good, though!
Here are my nominated books!
Newly reinstated EG Project roadie Filipina Legaspi flies with her band back to the Philippines for Summer Crush, unaware of the emotional waves that engulf her when she sets foot in the beaches of San Juan, La Union.
This story first appeared in a three-part anthology called Summer Crush, which I co-wrote with Six de los Reyes and Jay E. Tria. In the Backstage Pass Series reading order, this comes third (Scandalized and Gabriel’s Checklist are #1 and #2, respectively). The happenings in this short story precede Play It By Ear, which came out in 2019.
Tags: beach music festival, hidden relationship, hidden feelings, secret songs, band shenanigans, crossovers
Gabriel’s Checklist (or, How to Survive Your First Christmas in Manila) is a short and sweet story featuring Fi and Gabe of the Backstage Pass Series. This story first appeared as part of the #romanceclass Christmas anthology Make My Wish Come True and was eventually added to the Scandalized re-release in 2018.
In this story, Gabriel returns to the Philippines to spend Christmas with Fi…and hopefully get her to agree to become his girlfriend. Will Christmas be merry and bright for Gabriel, or will he return to Seoul brokenhearted?
Tags: christmas in manila, simbang gabi, holding hands sa ama namin, karaoke with friends, learning tagalog
Tags: kpop scandal, me vs. the fangirls, tour shenanigans, found family
Last Saturday, Brij, Chi, Jay, and I did a livestream together on the #romanceclass channel. If you’ve been following our activities since the pandemic started, you’d know that we started doing livestreams like this to be able to still get together as a community despite being in community quarantine. We did that for two years, and it was just a refreshing, chaotic experience to be in the room with three other people during this stream!
Our theme for the night was brewing coffee is pretty much like brewing book ideas, and we had a lot of fun chatting about our experiences doing research for the books we wrote, how we handle manuscripts when the ideas are “underextracted” or “overextracted,” and of course, making and tasting coffee!
Watch the stream below: