interviews – Tara Tries To Write

Blog Tour / Interview | Keep the Faith by Ana Tejano

February 9, 2017 No Comments

Happy Thursday, everyone! ^_^ On the blog today is an interview with author Ana Tejano about her book Keep the Faith, which is on tour (naks!) this week. I asked her about the challenges she face while writing her second book, her favorite character in Keep the Faith, and a fun, Valentine’s Day-related question about the book’s MC and LI.

But first, here’s what Keep the Faith is all about:

Keep the Faith
Ana Tejano

Release date: July 31, 2016

As a community development worker, Faith was quite familiar with heartbreak and recovery after all the time she spent on disaster relief missions. So when her five-year relationship ends right before she left for a mission trip to a typhoon-stricken town in Iloilo, she tries not to make a big deal out of it. How can she be broken up about a breakup when she’s with people who literally lost everything?

But now that she’s back, all Faith wants is for her life to go back to normal and have people stop looking at her with pity. Never mind that she still has a lot of questions about the breakup, or that she feels a tiny ache every time her ex comes up in conversations. She’s okay now, and happily distracted by Nico Tamayo, the attractive new guy at work.

With new possibilities in the horizon, Faith thinks she is well on her way to moving on. But when her past comes calling back to her, will all the good things in her present be enough to keep her on the path? Or will she finally learn that there was more to heartbreak and recovery than what she knows?

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Click on the Continue Reading button for the interview. ^_^

Interviews, The Writing Community

Design Talk: Book Cover Edition feat. Miles Tan

February 6, 2017 No Comments

I waited about a month more to be able to post this edition of Design Talk because I wanted it to go hand-in-hand with tomorrow’s big reveal. Yes! Tomorrow’s the cover reveal for my latest release, Waiting in the Wings, and it’s simple yet gorgeous cover was designed by fellow author and artist Miles Tan.

My first “encounter” with Miles was back in 2015, when I picked her book, Finding X, as one of the requisite three #romanceclass books I should read before entering Mina V. Esguerra’s #SparkNA workshop. I enjoyed it a lot I even recited nakakakilig passages of the book to my friends Chi, Kush, and Rix while reading it one afternoon in San Pablo City. Months later, I met Miles at The Study by Enderun, where we were treated to the very first live reading of some #romanceclass books, courtesy of the OG, Gio Gahol and Rachel Coates.

It wasn’t until much later that I learned that apart from being an author, Miles was also a graphics designer. And when author Ana Tejano revealed her cover for Keep the Faith last year, I knew I had to get a Miles Tan cover for myself someday. And I did. ^_^

But that is a post for tomorrow. Today (or tonight, more like), here’s my interview with Miles. <3

Interviews

Design Talk: Book Cover Edition feat. Tania Arpa

January 6, 2017 No Comments

First and foremost, let me greet all of you a HAPPY NEW YEAR! ^_^ I hope 2017 will be fruitful, productive and blessed for all of us! <3

Secondly, I will admit I dropped the ball on this one. Design Talk should’ve been done ages ago, but ~things happened, so everything kinda got put in the backburner. (I know, excuses.) But anyway, Design Talk is back–this time featuring a quick interview with Tania Arpa!

I’m proud to say I had the opportunity to have a book cover designed by Tania back in 2015 (why does that seem so long ago?) when I won the #StrangeLit Long-ish Form Challenge. She was the designer responsible for the cover of The “Forget You” Brew, and is also credited for some of Jay E. Tria and Mina V. Esguerra‘s book covers. Suffice to say, if you’re familiar with #romanceclass books, you’re probably going to know who Tania Arpa is. Interview after the jump!

Interviews

Design Talk: Book Cover Edition feat. Porcupine Strongwill

November 11, 2016 No Comments

For indie authors such as myself, one of the best ways to capture a prospective reader is to have a kickass book cover. Let’s face it, we can’t really expect everyone to not judge a book by its cover, especially if you’re a relatively unknown author competing against big names. I remember having a conversation with author and #romanceclass mentor Mina V. Esguerra during the recent Manila International Book Fair about the factors that get people to pick up our indie titles when there are literally thousands of other books at the SMX Convention Center that week. The top factor? Book covers.

It makes perfect sense when you think about it. We are very visual beings, especially nowadays. We like scrolling through our Instagram feeds and Tumblr dashboards and pin photos on Pinterest. We like taking selfies, OOTD photos, photos of our food, and of course, books! You can’t deny the power of the #bookstagram hashtag! I’ve personally met readers who found my books through Instagram and decided to give them a try because they found the cover/s pretty or interesting. There was already an “I need to have that book!” thought in their minds before they could even read what it’s about. I think that’s amazing.

For the next three weeks, Design Talk will be featuring interviews with three different book cover designers whose work you may have already seen (especially if you’re a #romanceclass suki). Let’s learn more about them and how they work, and who knows–if you’re an indie author yourself, you might get ideas for your next book cover or meet your next book cover designer. ^_^

Click on the Continue Reading button to meet our featured designer this week, Porcupine Strongwill.