filipino authors – Page 16 – Tara Tries To Write

{ Bundle Review } #JustWritePH’s #ForJustice

September 18, 2015 1 Comment

When justice calls, heroes rise. Follow the journeys of a fire programmer, two very unique detectives, and an unlikely partnership between a mortal and a ghost as they fight for what they believe in and even their very survival in this action-packed bundle of four stories from up-and-coming writers. Features Eleven by Michael Recto, Expendable by EK Gonzales, Between Two Worlds by Pau Castillo, and The Seven-Day Detective by Mark Manalang.

The #ForJustice bundle is available on Buqo for only P45/$0.99! CLICK HERE to buy the bundle.

There is an ongoing #JustWritePH giveaway! Get the chance to win this bundle for free by clicking on THIS LINK!

Click the Read More link below for story blurbs of all four stories in the #ForJustice bundle as well as my review of Eleven and Expendable. Excerpts will be posted separately.

Reading, Review

{ Book Review } Songs of Our Breakup | Jay E. Tria

September 9, 2015 3 Comments

A version of this line appears in the book twice, but I’m going to tweak it a bit and use it anyway: This book should come with a warning.

About what? you ask, and I would say, Everything. Around summer this year, my friends Chi and Therese chose Six de los Reyes’s Just For The Record (JFtR) as one reading piece in preparation for #SparkNA, and they were quickly overcome with so much feels it flooded our Viber chats every so often. The other day I told them, “Guys, I think I found my JFtR.” And it came with a seafoam green Les Paul.

Songs of Our Breakup
Jay E. Tria

Every breakup has its playlist.

How do you get over a seven-year relationship? 21-year-old Jill is trying to find out. But moving on is a harder job when Kim, her ex-boyfriend, is the lead guitarist of the band, and Jill is the vocalist. Every song they play together feels like slicing open a barely healed tattoo.

Jill’s best friend Miki says she will be out of this gloom soon. Breakups have a probation period, he says. Jill is on the last month of hers and Miki is patiently keeping her company.

But the real silver lining is Shinta. Having a hot Japanese actor friend in times like these is a welcome distraction. This gorgeous celebrity has been defying time zones and distance through the years to be there for Jill. Now he is here, physically present, and together he and Jill go through old lyrics, vivid memories, walks in the rain, and bottles of beer. Together they try to answer the question: what do you do when forever ends?

BUY A COPY OF SONGS OF OUR BREAKUP!
Amazon

Click the Read More link below for my review of Songs of Our Breakup. Word of warning: I’m not even going to kid myself and say I’m going to try my best to be spoiler-free. I’m really just going to spazz and might not be able to help myself. So, read at your own risk!

Reading, Review

{ Book Review } Choco Chip Hips | Agay Llanera

September 8, 2015 No Comments

The thing about high school is it’s never easy. Ever. Anyone who’s gone past that phase will remember how we struggled with a number of things: puberty, algebra, the whole fitting in business, being cool/uncool and suffering the consequences, and the constant bickering with our parents because they can’t seem to understand us, among others. High school is rough, and Choco Chip Hips takes us back to that time–the time when we were awkward teens trying to find our place in the world– through the eyes of Jessie, an overweight girl who decides to turn her life around one summer.

Choco Chip Hips
Agay Llanera

Sixteen-year-old Jessie, a baking aficionado, is shy, overweight, and worries too much about what people think. But one summer, a family emergency makes her realize that life is too short to live it on autopilot. Taking her life by the reins, she embarks on a journey that involves ditching the apron for her tank top, as she hip-hop dances her way to new friendships, stronger family ties, and into her school’s most elite club.

BUY A COPY OF CHOCO CHIP HIPS!
Amazon | Smashwords

My review of Choco Chip Hips is right under the cut! Word of warning: I will try my best to be as spoiler-free as possible but THERE MAY BE SPOILERS. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Excerpts, The Writing Community

#JustWritePH: Do it #ForTheFeels

September 7, 2015 No Comments

Early this year, I have slowly immersed myself in the Filipino writing community, thanks to the publishing and writing classes I’ve attended (#SparkNA and #StrangeLit, waddup!?), and it always amazes me to see new work coming out every couple of months. I feel like I’ve been saying this over and over since I started this blog, but I’ll say it again just the same because it’s true: This is a very exciting time for Filipino authors, published or yet to be. Just this summer, Buqo released the BuqoYA bundles and I eagerly joined a book blog tour for the first time in my life, my little way of helping create noise for the featured fictional pieces. I had a lot of fun with that, and learned a lot of things too.

Very recently, a workshop called #JustWritePH challenged participants to write a story and prepare it for publication. It ran from July 1st to August 8th, giving the participants a little under six weeks to finish their manuscripts! The result: a total of twenty new Filipino-authored stories grouped into five different bundles now available via the Buqo app for only $0.99/P45! Isn’t that just amazeballs?

Here’s a quick peek at the first bundle called For the Feels. Story excerpts, blurbs, and author information are available under the cut.

JustWritePH-ForTheFeels-Cover-Correct — The feels come in all shapes and sizes, with a million different unique stories for every kind. Experience bitter feels, forbidden feels, pretend feels and young feels in this four-story bundle that’s sure to tug at your heartstrings. Features “13th Prayer” by Lee Miyaki, “Never the Princess” by Maria Criselda Santos, “My Ampalaya Story” by iamloid, and “A Bump in Athena’s Life” by Kristine Cuevas. [ CLICK HERE TO BUY THE BUNDLE. ]