Tara’s Takeaways: What’s my favorite thing about self-publishing?

It’s true. All so true.

The above image was part of a slideshow I created for a Book Talk I was invited to recently. Most of the details are on this Instagram post, but long story short—I spoke about my self-publishing experience to a group of Grade 7-10 students and had fun. Yes, even if I had NO idea what I was going to do when I got the email invitation.

I mean…it’s a group of teenagers, and I mostly write adult romance. Heh.

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Teatro Lakambini has a new face!

Waiting in the Wings has a new cover! How much do you lab it?

Say hello to the new cover of Waiting in the Wings! The cover now features MNor Madamesila and Gio Gahol, photographed by Chi Yu Rodriguez. Design and lettering by Miles Tan.

It’s been six years since the release of Waiting in the Wings, my romance novella set in Manila’s musical theatre world, and while I didn’t have any urgent plans to change its cover, the idea had been simmering in my mind for a while. In February this year, PETA Theater opened its doors to a new Filipino musical entitled Walang Aray (an adaptation of Severino Reyes’ Walang Sugat), and it captured my heart instantly and prompted all of this madness.

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Manila International Book Fair 2023!

It’s that time of the year again, folks! Manila International Book Fair is this coming Thursday to Sunday (September 14-17), and it’s being held at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City. Just like last year, #RomanceClass titles will be available at the KOMIKET/Secret HQ booth (Booth #75-76, #83-84) together with a whole lot of amazing graphic novels and komiks by Filipino creators.

Check out this short IG Reel I made to promote my books!

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#AprilFeelsDay2023 was a blast!

So #AprilFeelsDay2023 was two Saturdays ago, and it was a fun time, as always, seeing old faces, meeting new friends, celebrating the release of new books, and squealing in kilig hearing scenes from our books being read back to us. This is the SEVENTH #AprilFeelsDay we’ve had (the first one was in 2017! Imagine that!) and the first in-person one since 2020, so it felt like the first time all over again (yes, even if we got to do an in-person #FeelsFest event in October last year).

Here are some highlights from #AprilFeelsDay2023:

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Five years in the making…

Five years ago, I tweeted this:

I don’t remember anymore how exactly I came up with the plunny, although it’s possible that it’s mostly because I had Daniel Henney in mind as the love interest. He loves dogs, and so do I…and I’d never really written a story yet where the characters had pets, so I wanted to give it a try.

I’ve kept the idea for the story in my growing list of plunnies to explore, but only got around to writing it until sometime in late 2021, when I decided to put together an anthology of short stories that eventually became What If We Fall In Love? I shelved this story and instead included my NomCom submission, Your Heart, To Go, to complete the lineup. I thought it would take a while before I got to revisit the manuscript, but an opportunity to finish it came when submissions for Pawfect For You (then simply called Tropetastic 3) came along.

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