Protected: Shorts | A scene featuring Ramon & Erin
Love Songs: Waiting in the Wings
I love love songs. I mean, I love songs in general, but I’m a sucker for 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:
Gio & Gab For #SummerCrush!
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.
Drive By Kilig: #RamonXErin
I’d been thinking of a nice, silly label to call these short bursts of kilig I’ve been posting via Twitter these past several days, and I think I’ve got the perfect hashtag now: #DriveByKilig

And so, as promised here’s a dose of some Drive By Kilig courtesy of Waiting in the Wings‘ Ramon and Erin, with a side of Pio. <3 Enjoy!
Character Chats: GabeXFi + EG Project Edition
Three days ago, I discovered Yazzy, a phone application that can generate different kinds of social media content from information you input. Using the app, you can easily create fake text or chat logs as well as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter posts–so naturally, I had to make some for my characters… and I had so much fun.
Here’s a collection of the first few chat logs I made, featuring characters from Scandalized.
Book Aesthetics | Scandalized
It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything like this, and really, following my personal publishing schedule, I should have done this for Waiting in the Wings. But these babies have been sitting in my graphics folder for a while now, and there’s no better time to post them here than now, since I’m releasing a new book (an anthology, to be more precise) in this universe very soon.
If East Genesis Project (Yihwan, Steven, and Minchan), Fi, and Gabriel had Instagram, this is probably what their feed would look like. Let me know if you think they’re #feedgoals, haha! ^_^
Important Note: The personalities included in these photos are image pegs and are not, in any way, connected to me or the aforementioned book.
Deleted Scenes | “FIVE: Time Out” from Hustle Play
In time for the Emerald Pep Rally (Settle the Score/Hustle Play blog tour) happening this weekend, I’m sharing a scene that didn’t make it to the final version of Hustle Play.
Settle the Score/Hustle Play
SETTLE THE SCORE
College senior Garnet Figueroa lives and breathes basketball. A reliable asset to her varsity team, she is equipped with the skills and smarts to get the De La Sierra Lady Hunters closer to this year’s championship title. But Garnet soon finds out that her good friend (and long-time crush), cheerdancer Charles Crisostomo, is being cheated on by his girl, and she lets her emotions get the best of her.
Will she be able to come up with a game plan to save herself from heartbreak before the buzzer signals Game Over?
HUSTLE PLAY
Running on pure adrenaline and working with game strategies is something a basketball player like Garnet Figueroa is trained for. On the court, she is unbeatable. Off the court… that’s a completely different story.
Because falling in love is trickier than a ball game, and Garnet finds herself fumbling over her feelings for Charles Crisostomo. The fact that her attention gets divided between him and rival school hard-court hottie Chris Barcelo doesn’t help.
Or does it?
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Click on the Continue Reading button to read the deleted scene, and why I decided to do away with it.
Deleted Scenes | “Chapter Fourteen – Max” from If the Dress Fits
Carla de Guzman’s latest book, If the Dress Fits is featured in this week’s Deleted Scenes.
If the Dress Fits
Martha Aguas kind of has it all–she’s an accountant who loves numbers, an accident-prone puppy that loves her, and the perfect wardrobe.
Yes, she wears a dress size 24, her bras don’t fit and she’s never had a boyfriend, but so what?
It becomes a big deal when her perfect cousin Regina announces her engagement to Enzo, the only boy she’s ever loved (he doesn’t know, so don’t tell him!) Suddenly Aguases from all corners of the globe are coming for the event, and the last thing Martha wants is to be asked why she still prefers her lattes with a waffle on the side.
Thank god for Max. Goofy, funny, dependable Max, who finds himself playing the fake boyfriend at the family festivities. But why does it feel like only one of them is pretending?
Click on the Continue Reading button to read Carla’s message and the rest of the deleted scene.
Deleted Scenes | “Payday” Trip from Keep the Faith
For this week’s Deleted Scenes, author Ana Tejano shares a snippet she removed from her latest book, Keep the Faith.
Keep the Faith
As a community development worker, Faith was quite familiar with heartbreak and recovery after all the time she spent on disaster relief missions. So when her five-year relationship ends right before she left for a mission trip to a typhoon-stricken town in Iloilo, she tries not to make a big deal out of it. How can she be broken up about a breakup when she’s with people who literally lost everything?
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Click on the Continue Reading button to read “Payday” Trip, by Ana Tejano.