The first two Sundays of April have been fun work days for me and gave me a bit of a boost after what seemed like a very long first quarter of the year. On April 3rd, Mina and I met up with Gio Gahol and Rachel Coates somewhere in Bonifacio Global City to record a couple of readings for the upcoming #RomanceClass April Feels Day.
Do you know what I like about my favorite #romanceclass books? Apart from the fact that they have the swooniest (is that even a word) love interests, they also celebrate intelligent, beautiful, empowered women. From college students fighting for The Only Grant to musicians trying to find their voice to mothers juggling career, parenthood, and romance—we’ve seen it all, and not just in fiction! For every amazing fictional main character, there’s an amazing real-life woman living their best life, and I salute all of them today (Happy International Women’s Day!) and every day. You are all awesome.
*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?
Let me start this post by saying: It’s my birthday on Monday, just in case you need a reason to have cake. I’ve finally reached the (physical) age where I have to watch my sugar intake, so I can’t really have any right now. It would be nice if you could think of me when you have cake, though. So, yeah. ^_^;
Celebrations have been weird since 2020. I’m not the type to hold or attend parties a lot, but I do miss celebrating milestones with friends and family without having to worry if someone could get sick because we’re all in one room together, talking and laughing and singing. Last year, I celebrated my birthday with a livestream where me and some #romanceclass friends played pictionary and had party food. It was a whole lot of chaos and fun.
This year, I didn’t have the motivation to plan anything. >_<;; It’s a little sad, but true. I am very grateful I’m still here, though, but maybe I’ll just add one year to my age on that day and proceed as usual. (I’m sure I’ll have something special for lunch with my family, but apart from that it’ll be just like any other day.)
I am, however, giving something away, because I’d like to spread a little cheer and kilig. And hope.
When Taal Volcano erupted in January of 2020, Ansela Corsino and Mina V. Esguerra called on us #romanceclass authors to contribute to a book bundle for charity. The result was a 19-book collection we called the #RomanceClass Taal Relief Bundle, from which we earned over $2,000 in sales. We donated all proceeds to RockEd Philippines, a volunteer group which helped bring food, clothing, and other supplies to the Taal victims.
Because the project was a success, we decided to do it again. A bunch of #romanceclass authors met up through Zoom and discussed putting together an anthology of new stories. We decided on a setting (a residential condominium named St. Tropez) and assigned tropes to authors via roulette, and The Tropetastic Kindness Bundle was born. Proceeds from that bundle were donated to three charities: Project Propel, Gantala Press, and RockEd Philippines.
This year, the Tropetastic Kindness Bundle is back with new short stories and a new milieu! Presenting NOMCOM: a fictional food park and the main setting of the 14 delicious short stories in this collection!