...thoughts on romance

Romance has always been my first love.

Since I was little, I’ve wished for the fantasy of falling head over heels for someone, and then, magically, finding out that they feel the exact same way. I wanted the fireworks, the sweet one-liners that could make my day, and the little musings that could be shared only by two people in love. Maybe I cultivated the fantasy because of the endless stream of romantic comedies I inhaled or being raised in the generation of boybands—hot guys singing about you being their only one could turn anyone into a blabbering romantic.

Admittedly, I’ve become a bit more cynical over the years, and romance soon sank to the bottom of my list of priorities. After getting burned a couple of times, the idea of finding that perfect person for me turned more than a little sour, but a part of me has always kept hoping.

And that part, I guess, is responsible for all the romance novels I’ve been writing. Making two people fall in love is never easy, but it’s quite an amazing job.

Six Months to Go

I'm currently working on my report for my Poetry class later. I need to report on W.H. Auden's Musee des Beaux Arts and T.S. Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. Poetry and I have always had a bit of a love-hate relationship. I like reading it, but I can't write a decent poem to save my life. I'm actually looking forward to Fiction, Western Visayan Literature, and English Literature next semester, especially to Fiction.

I don't understand, though, why English Literature deserves to be a subject. Of course, there are a lot of English writers who made great contributions to the world of literature, but we had European Literature last year and we just glossed over all the other European writers. We studied James Joyce, Gunter Grass, etc, but Dumas never even came up in the discussion.

And what about South American Literature? Gabriel Garcia Marquez pioneered magical realism, and we never even discussed him. I think a subject that tackles literature from South America should really be included in our curriculum.

Well, whatever, I guess I'm just sourgraping because I'm graduating soon, and I feel like I still have a ton of writers to study.

Save Forever for Me (2010)

Save Forever for Me

Camryn Morrell

Hindi makapaniwala si Lia sa ginawa niya: Nilayasan niya ang ama at tinakasan ang kasal niya sa lalaking pinili nito para sa kanya. Okay na sana dahil sa wakas ay nakalaya siya mula sa manipulasyon ng papa niya, kung bakit naman si Warren Alcantara pa ang kailangang makasama niya sa bahay na pagtataguan niya gayong puwede namang ang ina na lang nito. Pero dahil wala siyang gaanong choice at siya ang nakikituloy lang sa pamamahay nito, minabuti niyang pagtiisan ang company ng lalaking reincarnation yata ni Hitler. And then he did what Lia thought was the worst—he denied falling for her, matapos niyang umamin na mahal na niya ito….

Acknowledgement

Thanks to my mother who tries to understand my obsession with writing, and why I have to be wrenched away from my computer.

I would also like to thank my various college friends, namely Kera, Dianne, Edgelyn, Jeffrey, and Elaine. Thank you for taking the time to buy my books, and actually forcing me to sign them in public.

My heartfelt thanks also go to Nang Danielle, Ma'am Arlene and Sir Elsed for promoting my work! Literature majors stick together, yeah?

Of course, I thank everyone who bought copies of my first novel, His Secondhand Heart. God bless you all.

Extra Info:

• While writing, I imagined Alfred Vargas as Warren Alcantara and Anne Curtis as Lia Olivares.
• As of this writing, the story of Warren's friend, Dave Silverio, has been accepted for publication. So, please stay tuned for that one.

At the Beginning

Hi. It’s been a long time.

I want to say that I’ve been busy with my writing, but I’d be lying if I did. I haven’t completed a manuscript in four months, and I’m panicking. This is not good. I should grab a microphone or something and scream mayday at the top of my lungs.

On the other hand, I’m learning how to write news articles, feature articles, and articles. Newswriting seems so easy when I read news articles, but it’s actually pretty goddamn hard.

Especially for fiction writers. See, in writing fiction, you start off by giving the reader tiny, unimportant details and reveal the really important stuff in the end.

Writing news is an entirely different ball game. You have to place all the important stuff at the beginning, and use as few words as possible.

So, yeah. I feel like I’m in writing kindergarten right about now.

What A Day

Originally, I thought today was going to be a majorly shitty day. So, to compensate, I took a picture of something beautiful (ignore the crappy quality). :)

But then…

Things looked up right after lunchtime. I received good news about something I was really nervous about. I celebrated by buying myself a Pepsi (I’m a miser, I know).

Things got even better after school. I went to Robinson’s and found this:

See, I’m a student by day and a tagalog romance novelist by night. The picture above features my first book on a shelf at National Bookstore. Sorry if it’s a little blurry. I had to take a photo before anybody noticed. LOL.

So, yeah.