Mina V. Esguerra's Blog, page 27
November 26, 2016
Holiday discount 2016: Fairy Tale Fail, No Strings Attached, Love Your Frenemies, Welcome to Envy Park
I’m not even going to start to talk about what’s going on in the world right now, but it’s a lot. One of those things is that the peso dropped in value to P50=$1, which kind of sucks when you’re an indie author and you want fellow Pinoys to try buying your ebooks, because the exchange rate made it more expensive.
Sigh. Anyway, let’s try this thing:
Four of my books from the Chic Manila series are discounted to $0.99 each during this holiday season. These are contemporary romances (written chicklit-style) set in Manila with Filipino characters. They’re all standalones, and can be read out of order, but you can also choose to read them in order of publication if you’re into that.
In case you wanted to try them, or want to gift them to friends, maybe?
On Gumroad: gumroad.com/minavesguerra
On Amazon:
Fairy Tale Fail
No Strings Attached
Love Your Frenemies
Welcome to Envy Park
On Smashwords:
Fairy Tale Fail (use code FQ28S)
No Strings Attached (use code LY84C)
Love Your Frenemies (use code KS99K)
Welcome to Envy Park (use code JY78U)
November 14, 2016
Make My Wish Come True: A #romanceclass Christmas Anthology
Turns out, #romanceclass isn’t done with the ~things yet. While everything else was going on, a Christmas anthology was being put together! And you can order the book here!
Get ready for feels this holiday season with Make My Wish Come True, a Christmas anthology by #romanceclass authors. Join a Kris Kringle and receive the perfect gift, or learn how to survive your first Christmas in Manila and the steps you need to take to be with the one you love. Go to parties that will not go according to plan, feel the cold (and probably humid) December air as you explore city streets, and count down to five minutes to Christmas. Meet kind strangers and friends that remind you of home, and discover that the one who’ll make your holidays better has been beside you all along. With seventeen stories, there’s something for you here no matter what feels you want and need. Fall in love this Christmas with #romanceclass!
Featuring stories from:
Ysa Arcangel * Ines Bautista-Yao * Racquel Sarah A. Castro * Suzette de Borja * Carla de Guzman * Six de los Reyes * Mina V. Esguerra * Tara Frejas * Dawn Lanuza * Chris Mariano * Bianca Mori * Chrissie Peria * Chi Yu Rodriguez * C.P. Santi * Kate Sebastian * Miles Tan * Ana Tejano * Jay E. Tria * Celestine Trinidad
Cover design by: Miles Tan
Edited by: Rix Forto
Buy the ebook here: Gumroad
Order the print edition: [TBA]
Add to your Goodreads: Make My Wish Come True
About #romanceclass:
#romanceclass is a community of authors who attended various writing workshops organized by Mina V. Esguerra, readers of books by those authors, and readers of English-language romance books by Filipino authors. Visit romanceclassbooks.com to see the full catalog of books!
Links:
Website: http://www.romanceclassbooks.com
Facebook: http://facebook.com/romanceclassbooks
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/romanceclassbooks
November 3, 2016
2016, our first year of ~Feels
#FeelsFest (October 22, Glorietta 5) in a nutshell:
So, I think it’s safe to say that this will be the last ~Feels Day event for 2016. Which is funny to me, because when we started out, we didn’t even think we’d need to plan more than one. And now, as the year is about to close, we’ve held three romance events, hosted 4 live readings, sold our books at fairs, and launched the new books of 20 authors.
We will be doing more of this, because we…are having fun. And the partners who have helped us do these things want to do more, and we’re also discovering that more partners want to help.
I’ve been getting this question more and more lately, so here’s how you can participate in future Feels Days:
As someone who likes romance stuff:
Just attend! It’s fine if you’ve never read our books. This could be what gets you to start.
As a Filipino author:
Write a book, or tell us about the book you’ve written, that’s also romance in English. I established some guidelines for writing the books during my classes, but attending the class isn’t necessary — as long as your book follows the guidelines. The textbook is here, if you really want to know. (Some sample guidelines: No sudden death or illness; no “average” characters; if there’s sex it must be consensual, responsible, and hot.)
If you’ve self-published your book, great. If it’s on Amazon and there’s a print-on-demand edition, even better. We encourage selling of print books during the events. If you’re selling an ebook, that’s more difficult, but still doable.
If your book is with a traditional publisher, talk to them about how you can participate. Or have them sponsor us. 
September 22, 2016
Being an author, reader, exhibitor at MIBF 2016
Indie/hybrid romance in English by Filipino authors (we need to come up with a shorter name for this) did its thing at the Manila International Book Fair 2016.
I am grateful for a lot of things.
New print editions of my books Playing Autumn, Tempting Victoria, and Learning to Fall were released just in time for the biggest book fair in the country. And with awesome new covers by Clarissa Ines! Look for these at National Bookstore and Powerbooks branches nationwide. Thank you, Anvil Publishing.
I signed books. It was my first time to do it on a weekday (well, a Friday) and this year I met more teachers at MIBF than ever.
Signing earlier at @nbsalert #MIBF2016 ❤️ pic.twitter.com/W4G5VeLOOg
— Mina V. Esguerra (@minavesguerra) September 16, 2016
I tried selling indie books. Thanks to the Book Development Association of the Philippines, #romanceclass and other indie publishers got a chance to share a booth and sell indie books at MIBF. It was awesome.
A photo posted by Mina V. Esguerra (@minavesguerra) on Sep 16, 2016 at 6:35pm PDT
A photo posted by Mina V. Esguerra (@minavesguerra) on Sep 16, 2016 at 6:33pm PDT
September 21, 2016
#AllTheFeels: Live readings at the Manila International Book Fair 2016
Rehearsing with Gio and Gab
Thanks to the Filipino Readercon, #romanceclass was able to fulfill one of those on-the-spot dreams: An event at the Manila International Book Fair.
When you’re into books, MIBF time is always a big deal. It’s not, “Do I go?” but “When do I go? What do I get? How long am I willing to line up for books that will inflate my TBR? What do I get on the first day I go? What’s the strategy for closing hour on Sunday?”
Last year we discovered that live readings (with actors) was a program that was always fun, entertaining, and still managed to be about the writing. When we got the chance to hold this event at MIBF, we got everything done.
Rehearsing with Gracielle and Migs
Seven books were featured at #AllTheFeels, the live reading event at MIBF. We had four actors performing: Gio Gahol, Migs Almendras, Gabriela Pangilinan, and Gracielle So.
Clip from #Scandalized by @tarafrejas performed by @giogahol and @gabpangilinan #AllTheFeels #romanceclass #SparkNA
Video by @GelaUy pic.twitter.com/fFJPSyxF96
— Mina V. Esguerra (@minavesguerra) September 21, 2016
Scandalized by Tara Frejas
This is an indie about a Filipina whose job is road manager for a Korean pop group, and…you know how it goes. But it’s also about how tricky fame is and what happens when you get something and then lose something else. Sometimes you find the right people too, because they stick with you. Gio gets to narrate this one, and also schooled me on pronunciation. The first thing we learn when we do these things is HOW IS THAT THING PRONOUNCED. It’s awesome. Educational.
August 30, 2016
Recap: The Philippine Readers and Writers Festival 2016
This isn’t going to be a recap of the three-day festival, as I’d missed the first two days of it. So many things were happening in Manila (and my life) this particular weekend. Busy, but fun.
Organized by National Bookstore and held at the Raffles Hotel in Makati, this was the event that used to be called the Philippine Literary Festival. Now it’s the Readers and Writers Festival, and it was held on August 26 to 28.
The first thing I got to be part of was the dinner for authors on the second day. The organizers flew in authors Adam Johnson, Paula McLain, and Anna Todd and we got to have a nice meal with them and listen to them talk about their books, their writing lives.
A photo posted by Mina V. Esguerra (@minavesguerra) on Aug 27, 2016 at 5:42am PDT
After dinner, got to meet Anna Todd, author of the After series. She was a refreshing addition to any discussion of literary work because she, like most Wattpad authors I know, have a different perspective on writing and publishing. This is by no means an “overnight” success, though it might seem that way. It’s work and powering through challenges, and it’s a LOT of writing just the same.
August 7, 2016
#romanceclass lecture: Journalists (August 6, 2016)
After the great experience with the lecture with the musicians, I decided not to do another lecture until we had just as good a panel. We found out then that we had people coming in from far outside Manila and it had to be worth it. I know how much time is worth and I wasn’t going to ask it of people if it would just be a so-so thing.
But then… Atom Araullo said yes. Haha.
Atom Araullo, if you’re not aware, is a former kid show host, applied physics major, student activist. He works as a journalist, probably now most known for being the guy who covered the storm surge in Tacloban, and does all that and gives us disaster preparedness tips on TV.
He is also–what do they call it these days–an “internet boyfriend.” (Google his name + “sapiosexual”) Since the point of the lectures is to contextualize romance novel characters, he was someone we definitely wanted to invite. It took a while and some scheduling, but he said yes.
Pia Arcangel-Halili is, pardon my language, a badass. We went to college together and I knew she was great at a bunch of things: debate, taekwondo, and the broadcast media coverage she was beginning to do even then. She’s been a host, journalist, and now most often seen as news anchor.
She also said yes.
When I set up this lecture I did not tell them who would be showing up as speakers. I just said stuff like this:
The next #romanceclass lecture will be on Aug 6, Sat, Books and Borders Tomas Morato. Email me to reserve your slot
August 3, 2016
Workshop: Writing and Discussing YA Literature (Sept 3)
We’re doing this on September 3 at O2 Space in Makati! YA author and editor Ines Bautista-Yao is teaching. Come over, and let’s do the thing. Signup form and more details here: bit.ly/YASept2016
August 1, 2016
Excerpt: Iris After the Incident
Here’s an excerpt from Iris After the Incident!
“…and that’s how we ended up with this.”
“Well, it’s very good pizza.”
“I know, right?”
You would think that the nighttime and the darkness that came with it would make those eyes of his less conspicuous, but no, it was like they took the artificial light from the buildings around us and sucked them in, so they’d be bluer, brighter, and I’d have a tougher time trying not to stupidly stare. The hair was away from his face again, and it was insane how I just then realized how hair framed a face. His eyes were the center of everything. It was a clear face too—not the stubbly kind, had never seen him with any phase of beard yet. Maybe he was one of those guys? Bradley had needed to shave every day.
Needs that were neglected for some time stirred up inside.
Seriously. I told my needs. You barely know the guy.
…But he doesn’t know you either, my needs seemed to be saying back. Isn’t it better that way?
“…I wouldn’t have chosen this cheese,” he was saying.
He was referring to the cop-out pizza I’d ordered, from the place across the street that let us choose our own toppings from a selection that included melons, gorgonzola, and pork floss. After assuring Grocery Lady that I was not on the verge of a breakdown, I threw out all attempts at a homemade meal and dropped by the pizza place.
But I chose the toppings, because control. There might be melon, gorgonzola, and pork floss in this pizza. I was on autopilot at that point, with less than an hour to go before I had to pick him up, and I was all out of ideas. I had wanted to show up with my comfort dish, best foot forward, and instead showed up with Frankenpizza.
9J could hate it, whatever. Other people had rejected me for worse.
“…but it works,” he concluded. “Shit, I’m missing out. Did you know this worked?”
“God, I didn’t,” I said. “I had a bad afternoon and kind of just pointed at things at random. You’re sure you’re okay with it?”
“It’s growing on me.”
“Maybe they have a special sauce that makes sure all the toppings come together.”
He was chewing, considering it. “I don’t know. Without the melon it would be different.”
“I never thought I’d say that my pizza needed more melon.”
“No sauce is ever going to fix that.” He reached for the bottle of root beer and refilled his paper cup, then mine.
Obviously this was a classy first-date dinner. The view of the Tower 3 pool at night made up for it. I checked if anyone had reserved the poolside for guests, because other residents did that sometimes, and was assured that it was clear. So that Saturday evening on the seventh floor pool and common area, it was just 9J and me and our strange little pizza on the picnic table. We could see out into the main NV Park residential and business complex, where we were sitting. A cluster of buildings, offices lit up for the night shift, bright signs of open restaurants and shops below. And people, lots of people.
I saw that he was looking down at them as well.
“What do you do, 9J?” I asked.
His eyes shifted to me, his smile a bit sheepish. “I am…unemployed right now. But I have a degree in chemical engineering.”
“You could have started with the engineering.”
“I know, but you should probably know it anyway.”
“Bad job market?”
“Kind of,” he said. “I was expected to go into the formulation side of the family business, but that didn’t pan out.”
“Oh? Why?”
His smile turned up, and now it was a little bit naughty boy again. “Because I can’t stand them.”
“Ooh. Interesting. Did you quit with drama?”
“Yes, there was some of that.”
“And you’re a runaway? Are you hiding here in NV Park, trying to figure out what to do next with your life?”
“Something like that.”
No phone, recent runaway, wouldn’t tell me his name. Bad News with a scoop of Watch Out topped with a What Are You Even Thinking. I wondered if he was a criminal, like an actual fugitive, but the building admins would have known who he was somehow, and they wouldn’t have let him lease an apartment.
Unless he forged papers? Bribed authorities? Was on the run from justice? But that was too complicated.
Someone suggested that I legally change my name, by the way. It was advice that was meant to be helpful, and maybe it was reasonable, because I got Google alerts with my name daily and they weren’t good employment references at all. But coming from a relative whose name I shared, it felt like a stab to the heart.
9J’s drama couldn’t have been too different from mine. The way he carried himself, how polished he looked…maybe he really was just avoiding an overbearing family.
Don’t judge, I told myself. “I think it’s a club,” I told him. “Runaways hiding in this apartment complex.”
“Runaways with money.”
I shrugged. “Some of us go to a job every day and that’s how we get new money.”
He grinned at the dig, not that I had any evidence he was filthy rich. He wasn’t exactly denying it either. What did you run away from, 9J? I was curious, but felt like this was a reciprocity kind of thing—if he gave me a detail, I’d have to give him one of mine. I wasn’t sure how much I was ready to share.
“So,” I said, “Do you get asked about your eyes a lot?”
“I don’t get asked about it at all,” he said. “Because people don’t ask. They just—call it out.”
“What?”
“Blue Eyes. You know what some people from grade school continue to call me, to this day?”
I laughed. “Blue?”
“That’s right.”
“Kids should be more imaginative than that.”
“They went for the obvious, of course. Blue, Uncle Sam, Contacts.”
“Why would they even make fun of you? You look like you could punch them in the face.” I said that without thinking, and now he knew I’d been checking out his firm forearms way more than I should have.
“Well, I was thinner,” he said. Exactly what did he mean by thin anyway? That chest and shoulders, those arms, they were glorious. “And shorter.”
I shook my head. “Kids don’t know what they’re saying, do they? Most of the time. It’s too easy to point out what’s different. I’m assuming they did that because you were the only blue-eyed boy in class?”
He nodded. “I got used to it. It was safer, actually.”
“Safer?”
“I hated it, until I saw how they made fun of people for what they did.”
“I’m sorry—like how?”
“Like when they made fun of the guy who tripped during the track meet. Or the guy who came back from the spelling bee in third place because he missed a word.”
“What did they call them?”
“I’m trying not to remember.”
“People can be…” Cruel? Awful? Yes they could be, even kids. I didn’t want to make this about The Incident, as so many things already were.
“Dumb,” 9J said, shrugging. “But that’s typical stuff kids do, right? Make fun of those who try things. If that had happened to me, I wouldn’t have even gone out there. So it was safer, that they made fun of something I already had. At least I already had a shitty nickname, and they couldn’t keep me from anything worth doing.”
“What did you end up doing?”
“What?”
“The thing, that they would have made fun of you for. What did you end up doing?”
He paused. “Nothing that those grade school bullies would have known about.”
“‘Blue’ is not such a bad thing to be known for.”
“Oh it isn’t,” he quickly added. “Feel free to call me Blue as much as you want. If that’s what you’re into. What are you into, 9M?”
“Pizza.”
“The strange but good kind. What else? What do you do?”
Throughout dinner he had been remarkably decent, even based on my new and expanded need for personal space. He stayed a respectable distance from me, didn’t touch me inappropriately, held his head in that way that would have been seen as shy, if he had less of a presence. I may have spent too much time worrying about identifying pervs, forgetting how it was to act around a decent guy.
How did this go again?
“Scholarship services,” I said. “Is the boring way to describe what I do.”
“Is there a sexy way to describe it?”
I stifled a laugh. “I help women get money to study science and math, if they want to.”
“See, that sounds like a real job. A really awesome one.”
“Unemployed Chemical Engineer is not?”
“Unfortunately. Do you like what you do?”
“I like it,” I said. “I mean, I can’t hate it. It’s great what they’re doing.”
“The pay any good?”
“Just enough to let me make the rent and a little extra. But I don’t need a lot of things.”
“I don’t have a lot of things either. Good policy to have.”
“That’s what another runaway would say. Not so easy to quit a family business, I guess?”
There was a flicker of sadness in those eyes, whenever something we said swung a certain way. I knew what it was because it was probably the same thing in mine. Shit, why didn’t we just meet at a bar or something? We could have at least been talking about how stupid it was, meeting at a bar, instead of this. Instead of ourselves.
“Oh for some people it is,” he said, exhaling, the sentence feeling loaded. “But not me. Something else was expected from me. I’m the good one.”
“Good is so overrated,” I teased. “You never know what people are thinking. Or doing. Or doing when they think you’re not looking.”
I meant that to be light and fluffy, but the sadness showed up in his eyes and mine too, and damn it. Talking in riddles on the first date was difficult. But then 9J snapped out of it first.
“You know what I do when I think no one’s looking?” he asked.
“Sit-ups on the roof?”
“No. ” He checked the time on his phone, then tilted his head toward the elevators in the hallway. “Come on.”
Get it on: Amazon – Gumroad – iBooks – Smashwords – Kobo – Barnes & Noble
Order the Philippine print edition: bit.ly/mvebooks
