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.
Part of #romanceclass’ month-long celebration of Buwan ng mga Akdang Pinoy is a weekly virtual panel that discusses the various work the community has done so far. It happens every weekend of August (Friday-Sunday) starting Friday, August 9.
Check out the week’s schedule below (subject to change without prior notice):
Angeli E. Dumatol is a physician by profession and when she’s not in the clinics, she can be found writing stories, reading books, or getting lost in a daydream. Her first #romanceclass novel is Heartstruck, which is also the first book in the #romanceclassFlicker collection.
Send in your questions for Angeli here.
Dawn Lanuza writes contemporary romance, young adult fiction and prose poetry. She has two first loves – music and writing – and is lucky enough to surround herself with them. She is the author behind The Boyfriend Backtrack, The Hometown Hazard, What About Today, and the poetry collection, The Last Time I’ll Write About You. Her most recent releases are You Are Here (poetry), and Stay a Little Longer (romance novel), both published by Andrews McMeel Publishing.
Send in your questions for Dawn here.
5:00 PM — Serving Face, or Why We Like Visual Pegs So Much
Why, indeed, do we love assigning faces to our characters? Why do we have 762743 photos of (insert actor/actress’ name here) saved in our phones/computers? And how does that help our writing process? This and more — send in your questions — on this panel.
Panelists: Ana Tejano, Bianca Mori, and Tara Frejas
Send in your questions for this panel here.
7:00 PM — So You Think You Can Vlog/Podcast?
Are you an aspiring book vlogger/podcaster? Get insights on how you can start and maintain your own book vlog or podcast in this panel!
Panelists: Ansela Corsino (Adulting for Authors), Kat Mayo (BookThingo)
Host: Carla de Guzman
Send in your questions for this panel here.
#RomanceClass Covers offers more cover options for Filipino/Asian authors and their stories. We’ll talk about how this endeavor started, how it has affected the way #romanceclass covers are now conceptualized/designed, and maybe (just maybe) behind-the-scenes stories from the shoots!
Panelists: Carla de Guzman, Miles Tan, Mina V. Esguerra, Tania Arpa
Host: Chi Yu Rodriguez
Send in your questions for this panel here.
7:00 PM — Author AMA with Tara Frejas
Tara Frejas works as a Virtual Assistant by day, and writes romance by night. She published her first book in 2015 after joining Mina V. Esguerra’s Author at Once Workshop and has since written seven more books and contributed to three anthologies. Her books are often reflections of the things she loves, like basketball (Settle the Score & Hustle Play), musicals (Waiting in the Wings), and KPop (Scandalized / Play It By Ear).
Send in your questions for Tara here.
We all hope you can join us on Twitter for these discussions! (There might be some giveaways per panel, so if you’re lucky, you might win some pretty, shiny prizes!) See you on Friday! <3
Panelists: Agay Llanera, Angeli Dumatol, Danice Mae P. Sison, and Catherine Dellosa
Host: Ines Bautista-Yao
Send in your questions for this panel here.
Chi Yu Rodriguez is the author of The Byebye Bouquet, Love and Other Questionable Life Choices, and No Two Ways. She is also the official photographer of #romanceclasscovers (@romanceclasscovers on Instagram). Send in your questions for Chi here.
This is an open panel hosted by Tara Frejas. All #romanceclass authors are welcome to jump in and answer questions presented during the discussion.
Send in your questions for this panel here.
Angel C. Aquino is a freelance writer, editor, and content creator based in Manila. Her short story, “The Bucket List” was published in the Summit Books anthology, Coming of Age. Love At First Run is her first #romanceclass novel. Send in your questions for Angel here.
Last Saturday, March 2, #romanceclass had a “double-feature” book launch for Danice Mae P. Sison’s Flipping the Script (#romanceclassFlicker #2) and Mina V. Esguerra’s Kiss and Cry (#Six32Central #2).
As always, it was a fun morning day, filled with stories and good food (and tea, lots of it). I don’t know about you, but I like #romanceclass book launches. Apart from the fact that I like seeing our books being displayed and photographed in various venues, they’re always so casual and fun, and we usually play a lot of musical chairs — as in people transferring from one seat to another to socialize or simply to say hello.
For last Saturday’s launch, we were treated to brunch (braunch, anyone?) at Kanto Freestyle in Annapolis, Greenhills. There was Chocnut Champorado (yes, it’s A Thing!) and Pulled Beef Pares Nachos for everyone, while I ordered some Chili Garlic Longganisa and coffee for myself. In the middle of brunching and chatting, people bought books, asked for them to be signed, took pictures, and Instagrammed the day away. Very chill. ^_^
If you don’t already know, here’s what Flipping the Script and Kiss and Cry are about.