Tara Frejas's Blog, page 4

Love Languages: Notes from the 2024 Philippine Book Festival

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 (o...

LF: A Great Editor

It always annoys me when “literary snobs” dismiss self-published work as sub-par, or something that’s just not worth their time. Sometimes it’s really just them looking down on certain genres (*cough* romance *cough*) because they think it’s “easy to write.” And sometimes, their aversion of all self-published work stems from reading or hearing their peers talk about a handful of badly edited ones. Sad, but true. As a reader, I can forgive a few minor grammatical errors in the books I read, but g...

How much does it REALLY cost to self-publish?

(TL;DR version: It’s less than P40,000.) How much does it really cost to self-publish a book? Recently, there’s been a bit of buzz around self-publishing practices here in the Philippines. Every once in a while, various conversations about the different issues surrounding self-publishing (quality of work, ~legitimacy, and costs, to name a few) arise in different social media platforms, and I want to somehow contribute to that through this blog, but for now, let’s focus on one aspect: COST. I rem...

#TeamLabyu is back!

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 litt...

When I say range, I mean Song Joongki

Because I’m kinda not yet over My Name is Loh Kiwan, I’mma flex my boy right here. 🙂 I think Song Joongki is one of the best actors of his generation, and his body of work speaks for itself. I also love how he stretches himself at every turn, taking opportunities to work on new characters, new genres, and new directors/actors. Love this nine-and-a-half minute feature of some of his work available on Netflix*. Check it out!

Tara’s Thoughts On: My Name is Loh Kiwan

“Does someone like me even deserve happiness?” I spent the last few days ruminating on my review for this film because there were so many aspects I wanted to comment on and very little time (and energy, tbh) to actually write something down. So here’s an attempt to encapsulate all of my feelings for Song Joongki’s latest film. WARNING: Mild spoilers ahead. Based on a 2013 novel called I Met Loh Kiwan penned by South Korean author Cho Haejin, My Name Is Loh Kiwan tells the poignant story of a Nor...

#RomanceClass x The Ateneo National Writers Workshop

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 ro...

Tara’s Thoughts On: This Time It’s Real and One Night at the Penthouse Suite

I’m very happy to report that I had a very productive month in terms of reading. By the end of January, I’d been able to read five books (two audiobooks, two ebooks, and one graphic novel/komiks anthology). I’m not sure I’ll be able to post reviews about all of them, but I have two of them right here: This Time It’s Real by Ann Liang Every time I read a YA book and feel a little miffed at the main characters for their overall attitude or the decisions they make, I remind myself to stop and ask: ...

Why I like hand selling books

My body is currently in recovery mode from our three-day Komiket ~gig this past weekend. Mina, Ron, and myself were the #RomanceClass tinderas at Ayala Market! Market! from Friday to Sunday, and as always, the experience had been educational (and tiring, haha). I find hand selling books fun. It gives you firsthand insight on what the person in front of you likes. They may not say it outright at first, but you can see the way their face lights up when, for example, you mention certain words to th...

Tara’s Thoughts on: A Very Good Girl and Monday First Screening

On the first week of the new year, I watched two Filipino films on Netflix back-to-back! Here are some of my thoughts about A Very Good Girl and Monday First Screening. There will be spoilers ahead—read at your own risk! A Very Good Girl (2023) directed by Petersen Vargas starring Kathryn Bernardo + Dolly de Leon I always love me a good revenge drama. I mean, who doesn’t like seeing the meanies getting served a full dose of their own medicine, right? So when I learned A Very Good Girl was one su...