Bianca Mori's Blog

Stuff I like: Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2024) and a bunch more

Hihi!

The past couple of weeks have been good for me, media-wise–as I’m always privately complaining that I have nothing to watch or read. This wouldn’t be such an issue if I was excited about trying out new shows but I often become overwhelmed with choices and the instant feedback, so I end up re-watching / re-reading something old, instead.

Which is why it’s surprising (to me at least) that I’ve been loving the new(ish) media I’ve been consuming lately. Bookwise, I’ve been gifted–coincidentally by the same person!–Kulang na Silya by Ricky Lee and Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams. Both are physical copies that I’m working through, rationing out the pages for when I have moments to myself to really sink into the prose. Kulang na Silya is a collection of essays by renowned scriptwriter Ricky Lee, about growing up an orphan from Bicol, making his way to Manila and finding his voice as a writer, interspersed with musings on his writing process, his quirks, and his advice to writers. The essays show a remarkable humility and generosity of spirit from one of the greats of Philippine cinema that make me understand why his workshops are so sought after. Meanwhile, Careless People is a memoir by Facebook’s former head of global policy about how her idealism turns to horror at the center of one of the world’s most powerful companies. The details are grim: it’s one thing to read about how Facebook manipulates elections and destroys countries, it’s quite another to read how presidents and world leaders fall over themselves for face time with Zuck and Sandberg–especially how the latter strong-arms Ireland for a sweeter tax and data privacy deal as Europe moves to implement GPDR.

My daughter and I also immensely enjoyed The Residence on Netflix, a Shondaland murder-mystery set in the White House. This whodunnit is clever, with engaging characters all with suitable motives and an incredibly smart detective named Cordelia Cupp (played by Uzo Aduba) at the center of it all. This one kept us guessing until the last episode.

But what I really want to geek out over is Mr & Mrs Smith over at Prime.

CAN I JUST????

The writing?? The gorgeous settings, from the incredible Manhattan brownstone where our main couple lives to the Italian Dolomites and Lake Cuomo?? The guest stars — Paul Dano, PARKER F***N POSEY, Michaela Coel?? THE WHOLE CONCEIT OF USING SPY TROPES TO EXPLORE A ROMANCE??

And then that freaking ending which just destroyed me.

So good. SO SO SO GOOD.

Okay, so retiring the caps lock for a moment, let’s get into summary mode–although you might’ve already known about this since it came out last year and I only watched it recently because I did a Prime trial to watch a Duggar documentary of all things. Unlike the Brangelina movie where the main couple don’t know each other’s secret lives, John (Donald Glover) and Jane (an amazing Maya Erskine) are paired together at their spy agency. They meet at the aforementioned brownstone and slowly, tentatively, begin a relationship as they go on missions together. Each episode is aptly named for a relationship milestone. There’s First Date, all awkwardness and getting to know you and seeing those sparks start to fly on their very first mission. Double Date is where they meet another John and Jane (this is where I literally screamed when Parker Posey appears) and have this popping “trying to impress our co-workers” anxious energy. Couples Therapy, with a hilarious Sarah Paulson, is funny and sad as it explores the cracks between them as their relationship progresses. The last two episodes, Infidelity and A Breakup, are devastating and raw and beautiful too, as they inch towards some hard truths and reveal how much they really love each other after all. “He still wants to be with you, incompatibly.” Aghhh.

It’s rare when a show’s characters get me so invested that I think about them when I’m not watching the show, but that’s how good the writing on this is. That ambiguous ending almost had me diving for AO3 fic to see how the story really ends, preferably how I want it, which is a happy ending. I am holding out for confirmation of that in season 2.

I think the power of Mr & Mrs Smith lies in how it tells us the story of a well-earned romance: yes, even between two amoral literal killers who give up their lives for lots of money and a gorgeous brownstone (it really is a beautiful house, to be fair). It gives the relationship between the two main characters space to breathe and evolve and ultimately does not betray the love they develop for each other over the course of eight episodes. When the “not your typical romance” folks bandy their stories about people who ultimately fail the love they have for each other, I want to show them this show. LOOK. It can be done! You can write a compelling story around love and all its complications and it doesn’t have to end with them “choosing myself” or some other copout horsecrap. You just need to have courage to explore this and the conviction to choose the hope of love in the end.

Cover reveal: ChasingWaves

You guys ready? Here goes!

Isn’t that soooo pretty??? My single mom / age gap / workplace romance finally has a cover that’s perfect for the story of Mags and Luke. Thank you so much to Miles Tan for the cover and layout and Chi Yu Rodriguez for the cover photo, which features Gio Gahol and Gab Pangilinan–who also played Mags and Luke in Kalad-Quarantine, episode 9 of #romanceclass pandemic web series Hello Ever After.

The new edition of Chasing Waves features a new SECOND EPILOGUE (wuw excited) and some slight updates to the manuscript, including aging up Mags by a couple of years.

But wait, there’s more! The new edition is now live and ready to go in your favorite ebook retailers: Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Everand and more–check out available retailers here. Stay tuned as well for the print edition.

Curious about Chasing Waves? Take it away, blurb!

Thirty-four-year-old Mags Abarquez is a single mom to a preschooler with golden ringlets, and by God, she is going to be good. After a lifetime of only being interested in catching the next wave, she tries out for her company’s training faculty, determined to be serious and make it work this time. The only catch? Luke, her hot, younger training mentor. With a sexy nape, a penchant for paper-thin T-shirts and a disarming smile, he’s Mags’ personal brand of kryptonite. Can she stay the course when temptation loves to banter and is so good with her son? A contemporary romance set in the Philippines about motherhood, workplace attraction and finding that sweet spot between passion and vocation, Chasing Waves will make you swoon and smile.

Amazon print is available as well, and the local print edition is coming very soon.

Stuff I Like: Marie Antoinette (2006)

Kirsten Dunst dripping in Fred Leighton jewels

I don’t know why I’d never seen Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette before, but I’m glad I finally rectified that. This movie is A Vibe. It’s what the kids call “aesthetic.” It’s a feast for the eyes and a plunge into privilege so heightened it feels like indulging into one too many French pastries. It’s all gorgeous costumes, on-point set decorations, real jewelry, Manolo Blahnik shoes and Laduree desserts in a candy-hued, post-punk/New Wave soundtracked gift box. (For more about the amazing details of making this movie, including how they actually shot in Versailles, this British Vogue oral history is comprehensive.)

As I write this I’m watching the movie for the second day in a row. I put it on while getting work done and now work’s done and Marie Antoinette is in Petit Triannon in the most ethereal cottagecore gowns traipsing around her faux-rustic estate and I’m delighted.

My current view

I don’t remember that this movie was panned (or at least had mixed reviews). While I’m enchanted with it, I understand why it would be derided. The view towards the extravagant queen is extremely sympathetic and there is no perspective of the suffering people of France, whose disgruntlement led to the French Revolution. The movie ends (spoiler) with the King and Queen of France leaving Versailles and not to their bloody end. Like most of Sofia Coppola’s work, the POV is extremely privileged white girl and her small world. The taste and the vibes are immaculate, but insular.

And yet…I loved it. Just like The Virgin Suicides and Lost in Translation and heck even a bit of The Beguiled, I loved it, flaws and all. “Dreamy” and “girlish” is often used to describe Coppola’s work, but I think, as richie cool girl as her milieu is, she manages to transcend that into something universal. For some reason, her films capture that moody, inward-facing female gaze. Our friendships, frustrations and yes, especially our frivolities–they find expression in her color palettes and soundtracks and gauzy light.

Much has been written as this movie has been reappraised over the years–this Refinery29 piece is a great read. Ultimately, for me, something sumptuous and aesthetic and vibey and immaculate and anchored by Kristen Dunst’s incredible performance is just what I’ve been wanting to consume. And who doesn’t want a bit of Versailles extravagance every now and then?

Proof of life/new edition of an old book

Hello! I realized that I posted about starting a new blog series about a year ago…and didn’t post again. I had a thought about posting reviews to things I liked–which is what I do mostly on Threads now, although I want to give it up soon (the stupidity of the trending posts there are ASTOUNDING) (also I’m maybe thinking about resurrecting my Bluesky account but let’s seeeeee)–but unfortunately just lost the will to go on with that. I think Anne Helen Petersen sums it up nicely:

We’re exhausted with the labor of self-documentation — especially when it seems that our posts aren’t even surfacing for our close friends. But we’re also tired of being perceived.

I do want to gush about the things I like, especially things that my circle don’t really share — my love for horror films, for example — because my little shot into the void might land in someone’s radar, someone who may share an affinity with that little shot in the dark. You know, like in the old days. I remember, 20 years ago, befriending a professional ballet dancer and his friend, a trained soprano, just because of some snark I posted on my blog about society pages. Is such a thing even possible these days, when ‘engagement’ is so often dependent on either outrage or the most benign positivity?

Also, I’m repeating myself. Le sigh.

I love the 70s pulp novel poster! I have vintage copies of Carrie and Helter Skelter with this exact vibe.

ANYWAY. Some things that I liked, lately: Late Night With The Devil, which is basically what if you had Regan from The Exorcist on your talk show during Halloween sweeps. I found this movie’s attention to detail and homage to both 70s horror and late-night talk shows oddly endearing, and the real-time action creates a sense of tension that sits interestingly with the goofy docu-found footage exposition and the (it must be said) hilarious ending, which calls on Poltergeist and other horror classics.

Another update: I’m working on a new edition of Chasing Waves, my 2017 novella about a single mom determined to get her life on track, and the younger guy (who happens to also be her manager) she falls for. I’m working with the uber-talented Miles Tan for the cover and updating the manuscript as well. I’m in that phase of “I wrote this?” (impressed) / “I wrote this?” (horrified) / “I wrote this?” (completely forgetful). I’m excited to update this book and give it the cover it deserves! I will keep you updated when it’s ready — TRULY.

I hope this shot into the void lands into a receptive reader. Thank you for reading!

Stuff I like – a new blog series

Since going on a romance writing hiatus, I find myself turning towards reviews as my creative outlet. During the pandemic I had a short stint reviewing Netflix series for a local paper and I really miss it. But even without that gig you’ll typically find me live-tweeting whatever I’m watching or reading. I also tried posting on FB but that platform has long moved past the “here are my thoughts” content for engagement, so I thought – well, I have a blog that I pay hosting for, don’t I? So here we go!

Stuff I watched lately that I liked plus a digression on horror

The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016)

I’ve been hearing a lot about this movie since it came out eight years ago — all about how it was a good horror film. To be honest, though, that poster and title put me off. At best there’d be a naked lady throughout the movie, probably played for titillation, plus gore because autopsy. (The Final Girls podcast says the same thing so yes, I wasn’t alone in thinking this.) But I should’ve known better. Brian Cox probably wouldn’t have agreed to star in this one if it was some sort of Eli Roth exploitation flick.

So digression: I’m actually a fan of horror movies – but I CANNOT stand jump scares or exploitation or violence against women. This means I can’t watch 90% of the genre. What I do enjoy is psychological horror. The kind that stays with you and makes you think. Often these are explorations of grief — like El Orfanato, which captures the feeling of longing for someone you lost that you welcome their ghost, or The Babadook, which looks at the grief, guilt and rage of a woman who loses her husband yet must care for their child. Midsomar is my absolute favorite — it’s almost a comfort watch for me — although this video explores where that sense of comfort comes from and why it’s so deceptive.

Back to The Autopsy of Jane Doe (TAOJD because that’s a pain to type out all the time). It came out on Netflix so I thought to put it as my writing hack of the day (tl:dr – when I’m working on something boring or dense, a horror movie playing the background helps me concentrate.) Except TAOJD was so good I found myself watching more than working.

The movie starts Brian Cox and Emile Hirsch as father-son coroners doing an autopsy that presumably perished in a fire. The father tells his son to look deeper, and sure enough the body yields clues that contradicts the son’s initial thoughts. Soon they’re asked to look at a strange body – that of a young woman, with no visible injuries, but whose ankles and wrists are shattered and tongue is cut out. As they proceed to do the autopsy, more strange clues appear: markings *inside* the woman’s skin, and in her stomach, a piece of cloth, intact, with a verse about suffering a witch to live.

There are a lot of themes at play here. I appreciate the clinical way we are asked to consider dead bodies: the hollow shells that contains the spark that makes us, “us.” Gone, we become a vital collection of clues that tell a story. There’s a part where Emile’s girlfriend wants to see one of the dead bodies in the morgue, and we the viewers enter an uncomfortable position of a character considering the titillation of death…while we are consuming entertainment all about death. Here, too, is where the movie’s most effective scare is introduced: bells tied around the bodies’ toes, a coroners’ tradition, Cox’s character explains, from the days when it was difficult to tell a comatose person from a deceased one.

Of course this fact comes back to haunt the characters as the autopsy progresses and the very dead bodies in the morgue become animated. This movie is such a good example of terror vs. horror: the gruesome bodies are never fully seen, just hinted at: a shadow here, a blurry reflection there — showing how something we don’t see is much more effective than when the whole monster is revealed.

Then there’s Jane. The Final Girls episode on this goes so well into how, in the movie’s third act, it becomes a movie about witchcraft, and how Jane, though mute, dead and naked on a slab, is the most powerful character. Cox delivers a monologue about how the witch hunts were all about hurting kids, and how, in the process of ridding a place of evil, an evil is created instead. If you’re interested in horror, definitely give this movie a try.

Streaming on: Netflix

Sidenote: I’m a big fan of Succession and though I’ve seen Brian Cox in other things pre-Succession, his Logan Roy is so indelible I kept expecting him to betray his son and all the corpses in the morgue, LOL. He does get some choice F-bombs into this movie and they are excellent.

10 years of Bianca Mori

(Or, Happy 10th Birthday to my first Bianca manuscript!)

The original cover of ONATPH, lovingly handmade by yours truly

On February 15, 2024, I sent the completed manuscript of One Night At The Palace Hotel (ONATPH, because it’s a pain to type out all the time) to two beta readers. ONATPH was a product on the 2014 Buqo Steamy Reads workshop. The indomitable Mina V. Esguerra facilitated it. I did a deep dive into the farthest reaches of my inbox and found our author introductions, prompts, even encouraging messages from well-known steamy authors. I picked The One That Got Away trope and set my head down to create a steamy novella.

And then I sat back and read what I wrote and realized: hmm. I’m going to need a pen name.

In the mid-2000s I had a series of chick lit novels published by a local publisher, followed by a couple of sports-themed new adult titles I self-published as e-books. All these were under my real name… The same real name I’d used to write for non-government organizations, corporate clients, foundations and the like. Because my real name was out there, established and Google-able, I worried that my steamy romances would create SEO problems. Say you were looking for Real Name Me to write your annual report and found my sexy, modern ode to transatlantic marriages? Or you were interested in a steamy book and found my scintillating work on “effective poverty alleviation interventions in the province of XX”? And to be honest — my heat level zero chick lit and New Adult work was more acceptable to my NGO and corporate clients as a creative outlet. Sexy books? Bit of a hard sell. (I recognize how retrograde this all seems — why can’t the heat level 3 author be recognized as the same dependable technical writer and editor? — but I’ve made peace with it and my decision 10 years ago.)

And so the Bianca Mori persona was born.

I’ve had a lot of fun since joining that fateful workshop a decade (*high-pitched* A DECADE?) ago. I wrote a romantic suspense trilogy which is honestly bonkers but I just enjoyed throwing all my favorite heist and crime (very much on the side of criminals) tropes onto the page. I followed up ONATPH with the short story One Night in the Streets of Makati (now included in ONATPH’s updated edition) and then with what is possibly the most mature (headspace-wise, steam is always a given) Bianca novel, One Night at the Penthouse Suite. I collaborated with my favorite persons and authors Carla de Guzman and Suzette de Borja for the two Alta books, which honestly are my favorites — I can reread them again and again and just enjoy the world we created of the Aritzes. (All the links here are to Amazon, but if you go over to my Books page you’ll find buy links to other retailers).

So it’s been a blast. Whether you just started reading my books or have stayed with me for a while, I am so grateful for your time and reading space. Happy 10th to us!

Mic test

So.

Hello.

“Mic Microphone” by AJ Montpetit/ CC0 1.0 (“can this stock mic photo be any more phallic, she wonders”)

Are you still there? I’m still here. Battered and older but here.

Let’s see… It’s been nearly two years since I last posted. I don’t have a book or a story coming out. (And I don’t know when, or if, I will ever write a story again…more on that later). I don’t have anything to promote. But my friends and I were reminiscing about Ye Olde Blogging days vis-a-vis the continuously disintegrating social media landscape in the death of Twitter now X and having to pivot to yet another platform as Blue Sky and Threads and what have you pop up in its wake — and someone said, “We have to make blogging a thing again.” I am “Livejournal, Blogger pre-WYSIWYG editor” old, and I don’t know if blogging will ever be a thing again, but hey, an elder Xennial can dream kill time. Besides, sayang naman what I pay for domain hosting. So here we are!

(Tangent: during the “let’s make blogging a thing again!” discussion I brought up that I had just recently rewatched Julie and Julia and once again looked up how Julie Powell’s Julia Childs-tribute blog exploded. It was the early aughts, hosted by Salon.com, and started as text only. No pictures. No evidence as to the dishes Julie claims to have cooked. Just her describing her experience going through Mastering the Art of French Cooking. And people. Ate. It. All. Up. Can you imagine getting a following and a book and movie deal on the strength of WORDS ALONE these days? Unreal. And I lived through that time! Le sigh.)

Anyway. Back to this blogging thing. Where have I been and why do I say I don’t know if I’ll write fiction again? Well…for those who don’t know me IRL, since we last saw each other, and since the publication of Sugar Magic…my husband passed away. It was completely unexpected. It was his heart. It happened in 2022, a week after I turned 41, and it totally blindsided me. I felt like life took a baseball bat to my kneecaps then strung me upside down. One day maybe I will write more about him here. But let’s just say this: we had been together since I was 18. A big part of who I am I discovered with him and through him. To say that my heart is broken and probably will stay that way for a while, possibly forever, is an understatement.

And then I moved houses! Far away from my family! Because my husband passed in the middle of us building what was supposed to be our dream home. It is still my dream home — and I love it here dearly — but yeah. Yeah.

So now I’m a widowed single mother in a lovely house far from my family. It’s just me and Kid 2 most days, and I’m on school pick-up and drop-off duty. I’m so, so thankful that I can work from home. I am also thankful I transitioned from an extremely stressful “glamorous” role into a more behind-the-scenes comms one, which allows me to make this new reality work. But that means I write every day for work. Writing for fun…and the work that happens when you need to promote and sell what you wrote for fun — that is kind of beyond me now.

So yeah. Here I am. Blogging. I don’t know if I’ll keep this up. But I did want to pop in and say hi. This bruised, battered and broken-hearted soul taps the mic to say: Hello. Nice to see you here. I hope we see more of each other soon.

Sugar Magic serial on Inquirer Plus starting May 23

Hello beautiful people! I have a six-part serial coming out called SUGAR MAGIC. The first chapter drops on Inquirer Plus on May 23, 2022 and every following Monday thereafter. Download the Inquirer Plus app to read the story.

SUGAR MAGIC is about finding love after a betrayal, middle-aged kilig, trauma processing, haunted houses, sigbin, freak storms, and Bacolod, where I used to spend my summers as a child with my dad’s side of the family.

I’d been wanting to write this story for some time. More than 10 years ago, on one of my (soon-to-become rare) visits to Bacolod, my cousin told me about sigbin. They were creatures found in sugarcane fields. She told me they were humanoids who moved on all fours but with their bottoms in the air, kind of like in downward dog. She also said that if one were to capture a sigbin and keep it, great wealth would come to your family.

That story got stuck in my head for a long time. I don’t know how much of it she made up – for example, when I looked up sigbin on Google they’re described as doglike rather than humanoid (but sort of like chupacabra, oddly enough) and I can’t find any documentation of keeping them as pets for wealth. But, like I said, the tale fascinated me and I’d always wanted to write about it. Initially I was thinking about an NA/YA paranormal type story (for a time Mina Esguerra and I considered co-writing it). That story didn’t have any legs and was shelved, but it’s lived on in my head, waiting to be transformed into something new.

That’s where it is now: a tentative romance between two middle-aged characters, a woman seeking a fresh start after her annulment and a man caretaking his family’s past in an ancestral home turned museum. I really hope you all read it and like it! And if there are any inaccuracies about sigbin, please blame me and maybe my cousin Chrissie, just a little bit.

NomCom: Tropetastic Kindness Bundle 2

We’re back! With short stories and tropes galore and kilig, and now with the added happiness of food!

NomCom: Tropetastic Kindness Bundle 2 drops on February 14, 2022 and features 14 new short stories set in a food park, called Nomnom Commons (aka NomCom). Proceeds from the sale of this bundle goes to an organization that helps Filipino farmers. Get your copy at gum.com/nomcom – the collection will be available as a bundle only until April 14.

I went back to my Negrense roots for my short story, which features a Negrense pastry chef and his first love, now a pasalubong supplier. Writing this took me back to summers in our family’s house in Cadiz City, north of Negros Occidental; long drives to Bacolod to stock up on pasalubong staples at Pendy’s and KMart (not that KMart, but as they sold chorizo manaloto, even better than the KMart you’re thinking of :P); and merienda with puto manapla, merengue, barquillos and the dreaded pinasugbo. I can’t wait for you to read this!

The 2021 Tropetastic Kindness Bundle raised about Php80,000 for Project Propel, Gantala Press and Rock Ed Philippines.

Love is All Around: An Alta Holiday Anthology

Woah, she lives!

It’s been six months since this blog was updated, and part of the reason why is this: I was thick into plotting, and then writing, and then re-writing my story for Alta 2, the sequel to Alta: A High Society Romance Anthology. And now, a smidge late for our original Christmas deadline but we could all use the lingering holiday feels, Love is All Around: An Alta Holiday Anthology is finally out into the world!

Take it away, blurb:

It’s the holiday season, and for the first time in a long time, the Aritzes set aside the glitter of Manila for their quieter ancestral home in Maria Grasya, Batangas. And while Mamita is ready to deck the halls (with a trick or two up her sleeve) her apos still have problems of their own, and Christmas is the last thing on their minds…

ONE FINE DATE by Carla de Guzman
Sebastian Aritz isn’t looking for love. Okay, maybe he is. But that feeling will go away. Eventually he’s going to be able to stop thinking about the one night stand he had with Rafael Mendoza. But apparently today is not going to be that day. Not when Rafael is sitting right in front of him, and ready to get to work as his video director.

THE TEMPTATION OF BRIDGETTE by Suzette de Borja
Bridgette is the Aritz cousin who never causes drama. She walks the straight, narrow, and gilded path toward parental expectations she always manages to meet. Will a chance encounter with sexy cellist Jamie Rojico in a Parisian subway tempt Bridgette to indulge in a secret, hot holiday hookup before she finally comes home to Manila and resume her “saintly” persona?

ALWAYS WILL by Bianca Mori
Lucia Aritz has been roped into organizing Mamita’s Christmas Hunt extravaganza, which would be awesome, except for one tiny thing: it brings her back to Maria Grasya and into the orbit of next-door neighbor Mon Orosa. To say Lucia and Mon have ‘history’ is an understatement. But the holiday madness around the estate threatens to undo Lucia’s convictions…and it doesn’t help that Mon is all grown up, fine as hell, and wants her bad.

***
This 90,000 word anthology has three stories, a prologue and an epilogue. There is no need to read the first book to enjoy the second. All stories have a happily ever after guaranteed, and is categorized as Heat Level 2 and 3 (based on the #romanceclass heat level classification on romanceclassbooks.com).

Carla, Suzette and I had a blast imagining the ancestral splendor of the Aritz estate in Maria Grasya and what our characters would do over the holidays. My story focuses on the middle child and only girl of the Carpio-Aritz clan, Lucia, she of the Hermes pajamas and sister to Tito Quinito and Chaos Demon Sebastian. I was reading a lot of hurt/comfort fic while conceptualizing this story so…feels ahoy!

I hope you all read and enjoy it! And a belated (or extra early, depending on how you look at it) holiday to you!