Events, The Writing Community

Love Languages: Notes from the 2024 Philippine Book Festival

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After the January KOMIKET event at Market! Market! a few months ago, I wrote a blog post about Why I like hand selling books. Now, here I am again, about to share with you some nakakakilig moments of the time we hand sold #RomanceClass books at the 2024 Philippine Book Festival.

Organized by the National Book Development Board, the Philippine Book Festival is a free event that aims to showcase Filipino talent through various types of published work. Just like last year, the World Trade Center (official venue of #PBF2024) was divided into four “realms”: Booktopia (fiction and non-fiction books), Komiks (comic books, graphic novels, zines, and art), Aral Aklat (textbooks), and KidLit (children’s books). Book and publishing industry-related balks and workshops also happen throughout the day, divided among the different spaces such as the Main Stage and the Creators’ Lab.

This year we were given the chance to represent Filipino romance the #RomanceClass way at our very own booth, and boy, was it fun!

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Personal, The Writing Community, Writing

#TeamLabyu is back!

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It’s almost World Theatre Day, and what better way to celebrate that special day than by re-releasing my Philippine theatre-based romance novel, Waiting in the Wings! That’s right friends~by March 27, everyone who’s purchased the Kindle version of the book will be seeing its 2024 edition!

The 2024 edition of Waiting in the Wings has a new clinch cover featuring theatre actors Marynor Madamesila and Gio Gahol, photographed by Chi Yu Rodriguez and designed by Miles Tan. The story is tweaked a little bit, so you might find new things inside, but it’s essentially the same story set during pre-pandemic times (the original came out in 2017), and of course, our main couple still get their HEA.

I’m now taking pre-orders for paperback AND hardbound copies of this new edition for PH readers! If you’re interested to buy a copy of the book, fill out the form found here. The form will close on March 31, 2024, and books will be scheduled for pick-up or delivery beginning April 13.

For any inquiries, email me at author@tarafrejas.com.

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Events, The Writing Community

#RomanceClass x The Ateneo National Writers Workshop

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The 21st Ateneo National Writers Workshop + RomanceClass

Exciting news!

The Ateneo Institute of Literary Arts and Practices (AILAP) is working with #RomanceClass to bring you the 21st Ateneo National Writers Workshop (21ANWW)! This year, AILAP aims to explore romance writing that challenges current conventions, as well as contribute to the direction and future of the genre.

This is amazing to me in many different levels, but mainly because as a young aspiring writer who had an inclination toward writing love stories, I was never encouraged to write romance by the academe. Perhaps it was not conveyed directly to me that the romance genre wasn’t welcome in the literary sphere, but the way literature was being taught at the time and the type of short stories and poetry that the school’s publication put out made it seem so. To have an actual academic entity promote the exploration of the romance genre is refreshing to me, and I am looking forward to the stories we’re going to be seeing through this program.

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