Releasing “Hearts and Sciences”, and it’s YA our way
My reading journey started when I was eleven years old, with a Nancy Drew mystery (Password to Larkspur Lane) and a Sweet Valley Twins book (Teacher’s Pet, #2). I read all of that in a weekend and needed more. Good thing my neighbor and friend, who had lent me these books, had started her reading journey a few months before I did, and she had a small shelf of more books that I could borrow.
She lived down the street from me and to return the books I’d have to walk outside with them, and another neighbor friend saw me (YOU’RE READING TOO???) and started lending me her own books. Her favorites were Sweet Dreams, a series of young adult romances. Unlike Nancy Drew and Sweet Valley, each book (with rare exceptions) meant to stand alone. The first books she lent me were The Popularity Plan and P.S. I Love You (not a romance).
You probably know what happened next: I started my own collection, found my way to my own favorites (Wrong-Way Romance), and recommended them to friends just starting on their reading journey.
As someone who was interested in writing, and would eventually become a published writer, this was always part of the building blocks of me.
A couple of things before I continue: Teens in the Philippines today have no lack for books that cater to them. In Tagalog or Taglish, and covering their own hopes and dreams and aspirations. There’s Wattpad, online serial fiction in general in any platform, fanfic, and all the ways that young writers get their words out to young readers.
I think any readership will have their own moment of processing what they loved to read as young people and then as the next generation of authors will figure out what they want to bring to the table.
For me, for us, who grew up on Sweet Dreams and all the US YA that filled Philippine bookstores, it’s this. The feeling that these books gave us.
The authors who participated in #RomanceClassYA had a challenge, to weave a “Filipino thing” into their manuscripts and essentially take a familiar but foreign format and completely anchor it here. And ask ourselves what do we continue, and what things do we change.
After reviewing the manuscripts finished and submitted, mentors and editors Ines Bautista-Yao and Agay Llanera made their selection, and our RomanceClass Flicker imprint was born.
This month, the 5th (hopefully not final) book from that initial selection will be released! Hearts and Sciences by Celestine Trinidad is a young adult, academic rivals romance, set in “the top science high school in the Philippines” (wink wink). Mari and DJ had been fierce rivals in grade school in Iloilo, up against each other at every academic competition. Going to a national high school has humbled Mari, but crossing paths with DJ again awakens her competitive spirit. Because the guy is challenging her on EVERYTHING from math to science to sports to singing, and she steps up!
Pre-order HEARTS AND SCIENCES in print or ebook here! https://linktr.ee/heartsandsciences
The book will be available worldwide on Amazon on release day (November 25) but it is currently very difficult for Philippine authors to get their royalties paid out by Amazon, so if you can pre-order now from the alternative retailers those will be better for the author! But yes the book will be on Amazon soon.
A look back at our cover shoot for this book, one of our Zoom shoots during an actual lockdown!
This book was brought to you by: Author Celestine Trinidad (see her author’s note for all her thanks), Flicker mentors Ines Bautista-Yao and Agay Llanera, editor Chris Mariano, Flicker branding design artist Clarissa Ines, photographer/shoot director Chi Yu Rodriguez, cover designer Tara Frejas, model Ailla Magcamit (and family!), artist Miles Tan, printer Joy Aspa, and me (project manager I guess!).
And if this is something you’re interested in, you should definitely get the other Flicker books too…
Heartstruck by Angeli E. Dumatol (Filipino martial art arnis) Amazon | Komiket Lazada, Shopee
Flipping the Script by Danice Mae P. Sison (teen filmmakers + Pinoy showbiz drama) Amazon | Blush Books edition Shopee, Lazada
Raya and Grayson’s Guide to Saving the World by Catherine Dellosa (comic book fandom) Amazon | Komiket Lazada
Feels Like Home by Angel C. Aquino (basketball star + courtside reporter) Amazon | Komiket Lazada, Shopee
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