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Trainman

Writing Now

JxR: First Meeting

Written for #RCReadathon2020 Prompt and Pairing, Please! Challenge. Sort of. Jill is a character from the Playlist series, starting with Songs of Our Breakup. Rhys is a character from Six de los Reyes‘ book Just For the Record and also appears in anthology Summer Crush

***

 

This was nice.

Silence. Calm. Being surrounded by band boys most hours of her waking life guaranteed noise, chaos, and fun too, sure. Music and hijinks abound. Son and Nino ganging up on Kim while Miki mediated. In the midst of that, productivity and songs happened somehow. It worked out.

Music could be quiet too.

From the corner of her eye she saw Rhys nudge her fork, spearing a piece of pancake. Jill mirrored the motion, taking a cut of bacon on her next bite.

She didn’t know what led to this exactly, a midnight pancake run with Rhys, DJ unicorn extraordinaire. Miki had said working with Rhys had been the strangest yet most efficient experience, a volley of files attached to emails. Abrupt, to-the-point emails. That worked out too, the Summer Crush theme song turned out nice.

Was this about work?

Jill shrugged, munching on another bit of bacon with some egg. This late, the pancake place was empty, aside from the sleepy crew behind the counter.

Earlier tonight Rhys had sent her a text. Pancakes? I know a place.

Jill had said yes. It wasn’t complicated.

They sat side by side instead of across each other, with enough space for another person between them. Rhys was now slurping down her iced tea. The girl seemed to enjoy sweet things. Jill slid her untouched glass to Rhys’s side of the table, preferring water.

Music was playing through the speakers. It was ‘Iris’ by the Googoo Dolls a minute ago. Now it was ‘Breathless’ by the Corrs. Y2K karaoke hits was the playlist theme maybe. Cool.

“So, your boys,” were Rhys’s words, bringing a quick death to their silence.

“I don’t have boys,” Jill said, surprised. “I have a Shinta?”

Rhys gave a nod and a brief second of eye contact, as if approving.

“One boy. Not your Shinta. The bassist. Curly?”

“What is Son up to now?” Jill groaned.

“What are they up to—is more precise. Curly, Fluffy.” She sighed, pointing a thumb to her chest as if claiming responsibility for the second name, albeit reluctantly.

Jill had to take a moment to try and pinpoint a Fluffy among Rhys’s crew. Curly for Son was self-explanatory, but was Fluffy supposed to be ironic?

“Michael Brian?” She ventured a guess.

Rhys gave a short grunt which Jill took as a yes.

“And Steven,” Jill finished, comprehension dawning. She wondered for a second what could be Rhys’s nickname for Steven but figured that was a question for another midnight.

Mikhail Learns to Brian. The surprise project group that two of their bandmates plus Steven of Korean rock band East Genesis Project fame had cooked up. Right under their stern leaders’ noses, an accomplishment the trio had been giddy about.

Rhys had moved on to sipping Jill’s iced tea. “Does Traindude approve of the name?”

“Traindude…?” Her bandmates were all Traindudes. Trainmen? Oh right. “Who—Miki? He didn’t have a choice. They told him to be grateful.”

“It worries me.”

“Have you heard their samples? They sound good.”

“I’m not worried about the music.”

“I get you.” Jill stuffed her mouth with pancakes, chewing to buy time. She felt herself smirk. “I don’t have energy for an intervention, if that’s where you’re going. Maybe this conversation should have been with Kim?”

“No, not that guy. Grumpy would…do things. And I’m just…”

“Worried. Gotcha.”

Jill really did. Most times the project group thing was funny, because separately, Son, Michael Brian and Steven were hilarious. Together, they were an explosion waiting to go off.

Case in point, dropping a single in the middle of East Genesis Project’s V Live session.

Second case in point, stealing—“borrowing” the poor Shinta Mori standee for their music video shoot.

Chaos. Energy.

Jill pulled out her phone and set it on the table between her and Rhys, finding a song. It was a new one. The boys had coerced Miki to supervise their rehearsal and Miki had recorded it, sending her the track.

It was a fast beat. Clip-clopping. Heavy on the bass and synths. Generous with the hi hats, the drums thumping its own rhythm. Michael Brian was crooning, the sweetness of the sound a surprising contrast to what she knew of his abs and to the energy of the track.

Rhys had closed her eyes. The song looped and neither of them stopped it.

“I will be in touch.”

She sounded so serious. Jill couldn’t help a burst of laughter.

“Is this you or the company speaking?” she asked.

“Me.” Rhys flicked her another look, another second’s eye contact. “The song is nice. I’d like to hear the next one. It doesn’t have to be pancakes next time.”

Jill shrugged, licking butter off her lips as she took another bite. “Pancakes are nice.”

***

That was fun, heh.

#RCReadathon2020 Prompt and Pairing, Please! Challenge thread this way for more ficlets of your Romanceclass faves.  

Music Dance and Lyrics Writing Now

He Bangs! She Bangs! New Book : Songs To Your Beat

I didn’t know what to do with Nino until we decided it’s time to move on. If you’ve known him since Songs Of Our Breakup, you’d know Nino didn’t have a good run with his last relationship. Not really spoiler alert: he messed up. He did try to win a heart back and tried a do-over, a prelude to which we see in the super short narrative of him flying to Singapore on a mission in the aptly titled That Thing Called Closure.

From there I waited, I tried, I asked him how indeed can he succeed in this do-over. And it just wasn’t rolling, because it can’t. Some things are un-fixable, and maybe the fixing has to be an inward thing and that is the lesson for today, Nino-wise.

So in his book Songs To Your Beat (unofficial/really official/some kind of canon alternative title Songs You Bang To), Nino tries again. Not to revive a dead relationship, a love he lost, but to forge on, scarred heart and lessons learned and all of that. Find love and love himself again. A single tear may trickle down when I think about this, because it wasn’t easy, and this dude, Nino, well I am proud of him.

And then there’s Santana. I see her through Nino’s flirty yet 20-20 lens, and she’s tough and exhausted and she needs a hug, even though she won’t ask for it. Even when she’ll tackle Nino to the ground to give him a clue. She’s a water plant treatment engineer, inspired by the toughest woman I know.

Songs To Your Beat is out on Amazon, only $0.99 for a few more hours as of this writing. Cover design by Tania Arpa, photography by Alexandra Urrea featuring Iking Uy.

I published this book on April 18, on Dawn Lanuza‘s birthday (lol yay Aries season!), and Japanese record release date of the album Favorite Worst Nightmare by the Arctic Monkeys.

More on the book below. And a song from the album called Old Yellow Bricks. “You’re a fugitive but you don’t know what you’re running from” heh yeah lol

“I am the drummer” — It usually works for Nino, beat master of rock band Trainman and newcomer DJ, but the usual hook fell flat on gorgeous, sleepy-eyed, water treatment plant engineer Santana. Still there’s attraction even Santana can’t deny, and despite her warning that she’s not exactly in the market for a relationship, they agree to take it one sporty date, one bacon haunt, one hot night together at a time.

Nino thinks it’s going quite well. So what does it matter that his ex is back in the country? Or that he’s weighed down with guilt he hasn’t been able to shake off for too long? With his brand new attempt at happy-finally-after, none of that matters. Right?

 

 

Writing Now

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 be free Son and Alice. Today you no longer belong to just me. And that’s freeing and scary and ultimately awesome. To all who were part of the madness, I hope I got all your names in the Acknowledgements. I am blessed, I am grateful. I shall have cake when cake is again available. This book is coming out at a strange time of escalating anxieties and very real fears, and it’s a small thing among the big, suffocating things. But it’s a good thing and I’m glad for it, and hope you will enjoy it.

 

Let me come home to you.

When Son meets Alice again after she disappeared from his life four years ago, he can’t wait to impress her. He is the oft half-naked bassist of indie rock band Trainman after all. But adolescent pain lingers, and headstrong actress Alice isn’t about to let Son off the hook for breaking her heart. Can he prove to her, to himself, and to people who matter, that he is capable of being someone she (and everyone else) can count on?

Cover design by Tania Arpa, with photography by Alexandra Urrea featuring TJ Roxas. Fourth book in the Playlist series but can be read as a standalone. Proudly a #romanceclass book <3

Songs You Come Back To is only 0.99$ until end of March 2020.

Son and Alice’s story first began in Promdi Heart.
Also, happy birthday Takeru Satoh! I heartchu.

Writing Now

Summer Crush: A Reflection Paper

Submitted by: Tria, J.E.

Section: #romanceclass 2015

Submission date: April 9, 2017

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We found each other somehow.

That’s how I explain this. Six has a more organized and grounded version of this story in her Author’s Note for Summer CrushThe three of us–Six, Tara, and myself–had this whole thread where we tried to figure out and recall how this collaboration began before she wrote it. I remembered some of the things they said, volunteered some of my own memories. But I think it all came down to that. To how we are three girls who wrote about bands and found each other and tried to do something about that.

And HAHA we did do all the things. We plotted, we threw ideas around like they were free and free flowing. Brain farts and feels floods were welcome. We had many spreadsheets (we love them). We had thoughts and secrets, shared during the bright hours past midnight. We had a trip to La Union for an ocular, of course because we were planning a music festival. I asked for that trip. They ignored me when I first brought it up. So I brought it up again and again until YAY hostel booked! Date marked! Bus seats claimed! WE’RE HERE THERE’S THE BEACH IT’S SO HOT THE SAND IS EVERYWHERE I AM DROWNING IN FEELINGS! We went back home to write (almost forgot this part haha maybe. Kind of. Semi. Ish.) We sought the help of someone who we trusted to rein in our shenanigans while also be accepting of our crazy (we love you, Ines), and someone who could put our neon dreams to book cover life (we love you, Miles). And now after all the fun and agony and laughter and drunken confessions and cat feeding and all the food, TA-DAH! Summer Crush is live.

I’m still amazed that we made it. I guess it helped that we are first and foremost fans of each other’s bands and of each other as people (yes, Six and Tara. I fan you). We knew this interactive world would be a challenge to build, to move around in. We knew we’d low-key disagree on some things and low-key put our foot down on others. But it all worked out. I shit you not, we made it work. Camaraderie was the name of the game. We’re still friends. More so now than ever.

If, right this moment, you own a copy of Summer Crush, we thank you from the bottom of our sun-kissed, sand-covered, sea-drowned hearts. I hope you find joy and sun in our stories to balance out the achy bits. I hope reading it makes you wanna go to the beach, or to a music festival, or to a music festival at the beach. I hope it makes you want to dance like you mean it, like no one’s watching and who effing cares anyway if that’s how you wanna rock and roll. I hope you enjoy a few extra thousand words of our book people who you’ve graciously accepted into your bookish hearts before.

If you are new to our book people, however, a big warm sunshiny welcome to you! Thank you for coming. I hope that you like what you found.

Writing Now

Ready To Meet Your Summer Crush?

Are you ready for summer are you ready for summer? Let the boys and girls of Trainman, East Genesis Project, Arabella and East Dragon Records jump-start the long, long, hot days and nights with their stories set in beach music festival Summer Crush.

One-click now for your all access pass. Do it from today until April 30 and receive a special gift from Six de los Reyes, Tara Frejas, and myself!

It’s bound to be a weekend to remember, we swear it <3

****

When life, love, and rock and roll come together on the sandy beaches of La Union for music festival Summer Crush, expect nothing less than the crashing of lips, bodies, and waves against the shore, against each other, and against your soul.

Allow these three tales of love to take you away for an unforgettable weekend.

Ana’s life as a corporate warrior, graduate student, and girlfriend to indie rock band boy Miki starts to spin out of control, and she wonders if it is love that has to give. (You Only Need Reminding, Jay E. Tria)

Newly reinstated EG Project roadie Filipina Legaspi flies with her band back to the Philippines for Summer Crush, unaware of the emotional waves that engulf her when she sets foot in the beaches of San Juan, La Union. (Almost There, Tara Frejas)

Rhys has three problems: Arabella, the theme song with the Trainguy, and singing live for the first time—and now also on that list is Isaiah, sea-sweet Mango Rum kisses, and long overdue decisions she’s intent on avoiding. (Ocean Eyes, Six de los Reyes)

Edited by Ines Bautista-Yao

Cover by Miles Tan