once upon a player – Tara Tries To Write

#RomanceClass on a Budget: #BuwanNgMgaAkdangPinoy Edition

August 7, 2018 No Comments

Are you tracking the #romanceclass hashtag on Instagram and Twitter? If you’re looking for some FREE #romanceclass reads or books at discounted prices, you better start checking in on the hashtag NOW. This #BuwanNgMgaAkdangPinoy, we are slashing prices on some of titles or giving them away for FREE!

I bet your TBR list is shaking. 😛

Every Friday at 8:00 pm (PHT), #romanceclass authors will be announcing a #romanceclassdeal, valid only for a limited time. This means you should be ready to hit one-click on your Kindles/Kindle apps, because these deals aren’t going to last very long! Ready for the first batch of deals? Here we go:

Music, Projects, The Writing Community

#RomanceClass ❤ OPM | Buena Mano

June 15, 2016 No Comments

Hello and welcome to the first installment of this mini blog project I’m doing–this is #RomanceClass ❤ OPM, where I ask Filipino authors and readers to send in songs they find relevant to the books they wrote or read and I curate them into playlists. The only rule: ALL the songs should be OPM.

Brief background for those of you who just stumbled upon this post:

What is #romanceclass?

#RomanceClass is a thriving community of Filipino authors who write romance in English and publish them (traditionally and independently). It began in 2013, when author Mina V. Esguerra facilitated a writing class wherein the objective was to complete a romance novel in a span of three months. Fast forward to 2016, the community and its body of work has grown immensely, exploring new avenues in order to weave new stories and market them. We have participated in bookish events, had writing workshops, talked about how to write more and market our work better, sold books, held live readings, and recently organized our very first standalone event in April. Just recently, a new batch of authors have typed “The End” to new #romanceclass books which may (hopefully!) come out before the end of the year.

What is OPM?

OPM stands for Original Pilipino Music or Original Philippine Music. It was originally used to only refer to pop songs, but has since included all genres like rock, jazz, hip-hop, and so on. OPM is usually written in Filipino/Tagalog or English, but may, in some cases, also have touches of other foreign languages or local dialects.

Click on the Read More button to get to the first playlist I curated for this project, along with some notes from the authors and readers of the featured books. Links to read more about the featured books as well as buy them are included in the post. Have fun!

Reading, Review

{ Book Review } Once Upon A Player | Agay Llanera

January 24, 2016 No Comments

Gorgeous college senior Val Fabian is a player in every sense of the word. She’s the star spiker of her university’s volleyball team, and she never runs out of dates. But it seems that this year, she has finally been bitten by the commitment bug. She sets her sights on an unexpected target–the unassuming yet ultra-cute Jake Clementia. Val is used to getting what she wants, and is sure she’ll snag him before graduation. But in the process of winning his heart, she is sideswiped by a surprise move that sends her tumbling from her pedestal.

Buy it on Amazon | Smashwords | Buqo
Prints are available at all National Bookstore outlets
Add it on Goodreads

What Drew Me In

Volleyball! The truth of the matter is, I am a frustrated athlete. (I am frustrated with many things, but that’s another story.) I wanted to be a varsity player in highschool, first for basketball, then volleyball, but my mom won’t let me go through the tryouts and trainings because I might hurt myself. So I guess 13-year old me perked up when I saw this book at the Manila International Book Fair last year, and I decided to pick it up! Not a bad decision, I must say. ^_^

Click on the Read More button for the rest of my review. Warning: There may be spoilers.