It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Man…I had so many plans at the beginning of this year, but as usual, life has a way of realigning things for you without asking for permission.
Anyway, quick story time.
Tara’s Three Things, Vol. 1
I need my happy endings, please, and thank you!
The month of May marked the second month of lockdown/community quarantine for us here in the Philippines, and I think it’s safe to say the otherwise calmer people I know had begun to feel agitated because of all the uncertainty. People have lost their jobs, friends and acquaintances lost their loved ones (either to COVID-19 or another disease), and the news only got worse by the day. At this point, I had begun rereading some #romanceclass books I’ve enjoyed in the past, as well as rewatching favorite films and KDramas to self-soothe after a day of shitty news.
Let it be known that I have a pretty high tolerance for stuff that are otherwise triggering, but when the production company behind Ang Huling El Bimbo The Musical announced they would be streaming the musical for free on YouTube, I grew concerned. I’ve always thought that show needed trigger warnings, but even during their second and third run, they didn’t seem to bother with it. And because they were going to stream it through such a huge platform at no cost, I was afraid there would be people who’d get blindsided by that one scene.
So I posted a content warning on my Twitter account and skipped seeing the musical entirely. I also posted this:
Hello, this is Ever After calling…
Sometime in the middle of the community quarantine here in the Philippines, a bunch of romance authors decided to work on a web series. Yep. *snaps fingers* Just like that. I think it’s safe to say spite and pettiness and rage were very strong motivators, because man…did the scripts come out so fast!
(This might have been how we looked like within 48 hours of saying “Let’s do this!”)
Anyway, long story short: Things were shitty. We wanted to make things a little better. Therefore, Hello, Ever After was conceived.
[ Love Bites ] Say It Anyway
This is an excerpt of a ficlet set in the universe of Waiting in the Wings. Full version available on Wattpad.
Gio Gahol reads Play It By Ear
I celebrated Play It By Ear‘s first book birthday on May 15th, and I asked #romanceclass Class President, theatre actor, Gio Gahol to read a scene from the book, more specifically, something from Episode Twenty-One: The Show Must Go On.
This was super short notice. I’d been thinking and thinking and thinking of what I could do to make Yihwan’s first book birthday special (apart from giving away free copies of the book, which I did), and I realized I don’t have a reading of Yihwan and Yoojung just yet. The last time Gio read Yihwan, it was for Summer Crush…and that didn’t have a happy ending for him. See below video for reference.
https://vimeo.com/226276015
So yeah, of course I wanted a reading where Yihwan actually gets the girl this time, so I contacted Gio with the idea and he said yes! <3 I sent him the excerpt and a few days later, I got this:
Heehee. Sidenote: Kinilig ako hearing Gio pronounce “Mianhaeyo” correctly. (In the book, it was actually just “Mianhae,” but that’s fine. Everything’s fine. We goooood.)
Now excuse me while I rewatch this for the nth time. <3