Events, Personal, The Writing Community

My #FilReaderCon Feels

No Comments

I revisited (part of) my old alma mater last Saturday, November 28, for my very first Filipino ReaderCon experience, and to say that I was overwhelmed is an understatement. Granted, it took me several years to return to DLSU-Manila, but I still wasn’t prepared for how different it looked. The Henry Sy Sr. Building was HUGE. Escalators and elevators were everywhere. When I attended college there more than ten years back, the only buildings that had an elevator (if memory serves me right) were the Saint Joseph and SPS Buildings. Gokongwei? Not so sure; I didn’t frequent that area of the campus even if there was a walkway connecting it to Miguel.

Anyway, I digress.

This year marks the 5th year of #FilReaderCon, and I am so glad to have been part of it. I would’ve loved to have participated in more of the sessions, but I was happy to have spent time at the #romanceclass booth anyway, helping to sell and restock books. Also buy them.

Continue Reading

Personal, Writing

COVER REVEAL: The “Forget You” Brew

No Comments

*sings* Isn’t she lovely~

Back in September, I finished what was to become my second published manuscript, The “Forget You” Brew. It was part of a five-week long online workshop called #StrangeLit, in which we were taught the basics of writing in the paranormal/urban fantasy genre.

At the beginning of the workshop, a shiny perk was dangled in front of us: the promise of a pretty book cover, IF! 1) we finish a novella length manuscript (15K words and above), and 2) our story meets artist Tania Arpa’s standards. Only one story was to be chosen as the lucky winner of a book cover, and I remember feeling pretty competitive after the announcement.

Continue Reading

Short & Tweet

{ Short & Tweet } Episode Four

No Comments

I haven’t done this in a while, but let me do something new just because. I’m going to introduce two Twitter accounts today, @eastgenproject and @KaipuhanKafe, both “managed” by fictional characters from stories I wrote.

In April, I joined a writing workshop called #SparkNA, which brought forth to the world (in a manner of speaking) a Korean pop-rock band called East Genesis Project aka EG Project. In the process of creating these characters, I’ve always had the urge to write side stories and interviews involving them and putting those together in some pseudo-band website. Of course, I never really got around to doing that yet, but I did start this:

Continue Reading

Work

CURMA: Hoping to Save Our Seas, One Pawikan at a Time

No Comments

Last August, a video of a team of scientists pulling out a plastic straw from an Olive Ridley sea turtle’s nose had gone viral, enraging many people across the globe. This is only one of the many undocumented incidents showing how damaging marine pollution is to the entire marine ecosystem, a scenario that CURMA (Coastal Underwater Resource Management Actions) is working hard to prevent.

CURMA is a Pawikan Protection and Conservation Program operating under SIFCare (Science of Identity Foundation Community Assistance for Responsible Existence). Since its establishment in 2011, CURMA’s efforts have all been directed toward attaining these objectives: to educate people about the environment they live in, to educate people about the importance of sea turtles (pawikan in Filipino), and to promote and embody the values of conservation.

Aside fom the protection and conservation program, CURMA’s projects include hatchery management, coastal cleanups, and information and education campaigns.To date, the community has successfully released more than 7,900 pawikan hatchlings from the CURMA hatchery in San Juan, La Union and to the open sea.

Continue Reading