Jay E. Tria's Blog, page 3

Latest Book! Songs You Come Back To

Finafxxkingly! — how I’d sum up this book’s journey in one word. I first finished Son and Alice‘s story in 2016, with the goal of getting to The End before I started #romanceclassFlair. I have since released Ringo and Kris (You Out of Nowhere, 2017) and Ringo and Kris’s Summer Episode (Second Wave Summer anthology, 2018), but alas, Son needed more time and a looot of work. Didn’t think I’ll ever trash an entire finished draft and start from scratch but we don’t really think of those kinds of things do we cos gah que horror, but that’s exactly what happened. Shelved 40k words, lay face down with my thoughts for periods of time, tried again, failed, tried again, succumbed to the need for rest from words, tried again. This time, I think, Son and I finally got it. The only goal for this book really is to write it, enjoy it, and get it out, pleaseandthankyoujustGO. It’s been with me for far too long and though I figure time and a hiatus was just part of this particular process, it’s also a psychic block of sorts that I’m glad to finally be able to push through. Run wild and […]

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Things to Do on a Fall Trip to Tokyo: Meiji Shrine, Harajuku, Cat Street

So I’ve had drafts on this series of Japan posts since the autumn trip happened on October 2017 haha. It’s a seven-day trip and who knows when I can finish writing about all seven days. I figured might as well shoot out what I already have, so here we are 

Surprise! Draft Excerpt: Yes to You

Sometimes you think you’re just going out and joining friends for a celebration over food and drinks and next thing you know you’re talking tropes and weddings and wow look at that, you’ve all signed up to deliver an anthology and there are receipts. There weren’t even that many drinks that night? Pretty sure we agreed on this project while sober. Which means it will totally happen right? Right. Wedding anthology. Fake dating. #romanceclass. Coming at ya 2019. (Happy juju and pompoms for encouragement are solicited and very much appreciated) No final anything on the output yet, but for now we’ve got excerpts. For accountability, of course. Check out Mina V. Esguerra‘s here, and Carla de Guzman‘s here. Scroll down for mine, hee. *** Yes to You by Jay E. Tria (excerpt from a draft) “I’ll guess your favorite thing about weddings.” “You’ve been trying to since the plane.” Jiji rolled her eyes at Ruiz’s stone serious face. “Know when to quit.” “I really thought it would be the bride walking down the aisle.” “Is it because I cried?” “That was cute though not surprising at all.” Ruiz did look like he’d been expecting it when Jiji burst into quiet […]

Daily Grind #12: Donuts

Hello winter sun. Konnichiwa 7 o’clock. Come out but wrap up, baby it’s cold outside. You have places to go and no one you know. Your steps are dots and lines on a moving map. Make sure you can retrace them. Only you can know the way back, and your hands are cold. ‘I have donuts to find today,’ you say. ‘Old clothes to try, art to touch.’ The cafe is hidden among crooked paths, wandering men and weathered streets. But you find it. You settle in. The coffee is ok, the song they’re playing is better. It’s just the one song, playing over and over and over and over and over. Like a thought on loop. Like a dream on repeat. Like that haunting sound, that fleeting thing that folds beneath you when you attempt sleep. By your fifteenth minute, you have memorized the words. You step out and you’ve forgotten them all. How easy for beautiful things to slip away. You look for the train, squeeze your way in, find your next stop. You see the neon lights, the singing billboards, the faceless rushing mob and it feels like home. The sun has long gone and the moon […]

Second Wave Summer

As of this writing, our second summer anthology Second Wave Summer has been out in the bookish universe for 29 days (woohoo). I talk about this in the Author’s Note, how as each book is special in its own space, this one is memorable mostly because it wasn’t supposed to be here. After Summer Crush, Tara, Six and I ~might~ have been talking about doing something together again (or we could be only eating ube cheesecake, I dunno), but it wasn’t supposed to be a Summer Crush 2. But at the time, April was coming up–the top month of the hot season where we are, and the month of the first anniversary of Summer Crush, our beach-love-rock-n-roll anthology. We had to do something to celebrate. It was only right. And so here it is. Second Wave Summer. The product of bursts of ideas and auto-affirmatives (the answer is always yes), born out of a stretch of writing dry spells and mini personal crises and moving deadlines. Thank YOU for picking it up and reading, rating, reviewing, talking about it. Thank you for saying yes to us too. And if you haven’t yet, and you’re curious, here’s a quick look on […]

My #romanceclass Origins Story

#romanceclass head of PR and Marketing Chachic (lol but true) is doing this really fun thing on her blog she calls romanceclass Origins, where people from the community get to share how they found this safe and encouraging creative space. She was so kind to think of me and feature my story. See how I came out of nowhere apparently

Daily Grind #11: From Now On

There’s a lot you can say in two and a half hours. You can say ‘I miss you. I can’t believe you’re gone.’ You can ask all your questions. ‘How could you why didn’t you WHY where the fuck was I?’ You can make statements. Promises. Say that you’re letting go and holding on and for today they mean the same thing. Say you’ll keep going as best you can while keeping love close. Never lost, always warm, around. Say that grief is an awning window and the wind tears it open some days but when it does, won’t you also glimpse the dazzling moon? ***         February 26, 2018, Tokyo Dome for the prompt. Photo by @imAshawol. Thank you so much for letting me use it <3

2017 Gratitude: In Books

As of end-of-year 2017, I have written and published the following books (in chronological order, so no book gets hurt because of course books have feelings): Blossom Among Flowers (YA romance) – July 18, 2015. Japanese high school kids. Popular, seemingly cold boy genius grudgingly tutors headstrong yet head-in-the-clouds manga fangirl. Jdorama feels. I wrote it because I loveloveloved Hana Yori Dango and couldn’t get over how Rui didn’t get Makino when they’re obviously soulmates.     Songs of Our Breakup (New Adult romance/Playlist #1) – August 22, 2015. First book set in the Philippines, with Filipino characters. Band boy breaks up with band girl. Band girl’s Japanese celebrity friend flies in, sets himself up as her perfect distraction, and for so much more. I wrote it because I’m a Pinoy music scene fan and Oguri Shun fan and why can’t I have it all in one universe? Oguri Shun is my Shinta, but the easy rule is you choose your own.   Majesty (Urban Fantasy/ Young Adult/#StrangeLit) – October 2015 on Buqo/ March 17, 2016 on Amazon. Welcome haunting of a beautiful ghost, friendship you find in hopeless places, and friendship and love that endure even death. I wrote […]

Daily Grind #10: #ChokieHazelKnot

There is a light so blinding that it takes what it shouldn’t and leaves me with burns on my skin, angry lashes on the ground, trenches on the earth, ashes in its wake. Pieces of my heart left shattered and broken, my soul left in deep shadow. And then there is you. You are a star, bright and warm. Like the sun at dawn, that haunting time when its rays pierces the clouds and chases the night away. When its heat hovers over the earth, warm and loving in its embrace, its light making prisms out of dewfalls, touching tears in my eyes. Everything is full of promise. You are the sun, a star, bright and warm and everlasting, and your warmth feels like home.     *** November 25, 2017, Chokie and Aze for the prompt.