Man, has it been a BUSY three weeks!
Between helping organize #RomanceClass’ FeelsFest2026 (which happened last Saturday, btw) and releasing a new book, I also had day job responsibilities to take care of, which just made the tail end of July and August a bit of a handful. BUT!!! It’s all good. We good. 🙂
Love As You Are was released on August 15, a day I spent walking around a mall just clearing my head and finding a slice of cake to celebrate release day with. I ended up getting a slice of tiramisu from a kiosk seller in Market! Market!, then got some dumplings and milk tea, and went home. The next day, we had a #RomanceClass recording in the morning and a bunch of us went to National Bookstore Cubao to support author Ines Bautista-Yao at her Philippine Readers and Writers Festival panel. It was a good weekend.
And then last Saturday, we had #FeelsFest2026 at Greek to-Go Taverna in Quezon City. FeelsFest is an annual #RomanceClass event where authors get to launch books and sell their backlist, where readers can come discover new books and meet the authors, and where everyone can enjoy live readings and conversations about romance books.
I got to launch Love As You Are last Saturday, to a room full of people who were just as excited as I am about romance, about the work we do. It was heartwarming to see so many familiar faces, some of whom I’ve not seen in a while. It was also cool to meet new people for the first time, chatting with them and learning a bit of how they found out about the books and our community.
I don’t remember my entire ~launch speech last Saturday, but here’s the gist of it:
Love As You Are is a boy-meets-girl three times in the same day kind of story, but it’s also a girl who is on the verge of giving up on love meets boy who isn’t really looking for love kind of story.
This is for everyone who has had to grow up and be an adult very fast for whatever reason. And this is also for everyone who, at some point, said a prayer that sounded like “God, if I’m meant to be alone, please take away my desire to be loved.”
Aaaaand, that’s all that I remember from that five-minute blur.
I do remember feeling like tearing up, though. Because as I’ve said in previous Instagram posts and my newsletter, this book really took me for an emotional rollercoaster ride from beginning to end. And now that it’s finally out in the world and hopefully finding its way to new readers, it feels like a different kind of release. <3 Super grateful to everyone who contributed to the completion of the book: Carla de Guzman, Layla Tanjutco, and Rica May Forto-Pascual (my beta reader, editor, and proofreader, respectively), our emotional photographer Chi Yu Rodriguez, models Marynor Madamesila and Rendell Sanchez, book cover designer Miles Tan, and of course our printer, Ms. Joy Aspa. <3
So, what’s next for me?
Well—I’m supposed to be in marketing mode for Love As You Are, but I’m letting my brain rest for a bit. I’ve been reading again; just finished Strange Natives by Paolo Herras and Jericho Marte, Good People by Claire Betita de Guzman, and Blooming Love by Carla de Guzman this month. I’m supposed to also be writing something for an anthology I’ve been planning with a few other #RomanceClass authors, but I felt like I needed to pause because my first chapter wasn’t working for me. I’ll pick it up again soon.
I’ll be attending the Manila International Book Fair again this year, but I’m taking it easy. No plans to buy any books, no lists. I’ll go for the vibes and see where my mood takes me. I’ll most probably meet up with #RomanceClass peeps eventually and some bookish peeps too. Basta, I’ll enjoy my ~freedom now that the story I needed to tell is out of my hands.
It’s such a nice feeling, haha.
Love As You Are is available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited. Readers from the Philippines may pre-order a copy here.
