brigitte bautista – Tara Tries To Write

#AprilFeelsDay2023 was a blast!

May 10, 2023 No Comments

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:

Personal, The Writing Community, Videos

#KiligCafe Chats: Book & Coffee Talk with Brij, Chi, and Jay

April 26, 2022 No Comments

Last Saturday, Brij, Chi, Jay, and I did a livestream together on the #romanceclass channel. If you’ve been following our activities since the pandemic started, you’d know that we started doing livestreams like this to be able to still get together as a community despite being in community quarantine. We did that for two years, and it was just a refreshing, chaotic experience to be in the room with three other people during this stream!

Our theme for the night was brewing coffee is pretty much like brewing book ideas, and we had a lot of fun chatting about our experiences doing research for the books we wrote, how we handle manuscripts when the ideas are “underextracted” or “overextracted,” and of course, making and tasting coffee!

Watch the stream below:

The Writing Community, Videos

When food and kilig go hand-in-hand

February 21, 2022 No Comments

*points up* I was one of the guests for #RomanceClass Podcast S5’s 1st episode featuring food and kilig! We had a lot of fun talking about the food we incorporated in our NomCom: Tropetastic Kindness Bundle 2 stories, and also managed to make ourselves (and the audience) hungry in the process, LOL.

If you have been reading a lot of #RomanceClass books, you’ll have noticed how much we love including food in our books. From the popular champorado in Summer Crush and Second Wave Summer to the scandalous biko in Alta: A High Society Romance Anthology, to the scrumptious mangoes in Mango Summer and the many, delicious meals the Aguas family had in If the Dress Fits, food is an inevitable part of our stories. I personally think it makes the characters and places more relatable, more vivid. It also adds an extra layer of interest for me, because I tend to want to try the dishes mentioned in the books (especially if I haven’t had them in a long time, or ever).

What’s a dish you’ve wanted to try or have tried because you’ve read about it in a book?

Music, The Writing Community

Music x Book Match: Ben&Ben

January 7, 2020 No Comments

In mid-December, I started a Twitter thread that matched Ben&Ben songs with #romanceclass titles, and it garnered a bit of attention from my mutuals as well as people I don't know. Because that thread was made rather haphazardly, I thought of creating a new one with better visuals and stuff, but things got busy right before the holidays, and I wasn't able to continue/complete the thread at all. And because I vowed that I would try my best to finish things I started, here's a blog post instead! <3

(NOTE: I'm going to try doing this Music x Book Match a regular thing just like Pinoy Movie x Book Match, so wish me luck!)

How to Meet-Cute: a #romanceclass Pop-up Event

June 20, 2018 No Comments

Meet-cute.

You know the drill. Romantic lead meets love interest for the first time. Maybe it’s awkward, maybe they hit it off right away. Maybe it’s a total disaster. Whatever it is, a meet-cute happens when a future romantic couple meets for the first time. It sets tone and expectation for the readers, and is often one of the most memorable scenes in a romance novel or a rom-com.

Do you want to know what makes a meet-cute work? Join us on July 14 as we have an entire discussion about meet-cutes, led by actors Gio Gahol, Gracielle So, and Sam Aquino, using scenes from manuscripts by #romanceclass authors Carla de Guzman, Ines Bautista-Yao, Six de los Reyes, Chi Yu Rodriguez, C.P. Santi, Clare Elisabeth Marquez, and Brigitte Bautista.

To join the discussion from 2-4pm, you need to purchase a book from the selection available at the venue on the day of the event. Snacks are included. ^_^

Book and merch selling happens after 4pm.

Hope to see you there! <3