• Yes to You Jay E Tria
    Writing Now

    Kilig Collection: YES to YOU

    July 26, 2023 - By 

    The past few years for me have been the era of the short story. Because the usual novella lengths proved extra challenging to write. And because I’ve had the opportunity to be part of anthology projects and writing prompts that pushed and encouraged me to come out with short kilig work. I wrote ‘The Right Answer’ from a prompt for serialized fiction, and it was initially published in Philippine Daily Inquirer‘s mobile app, Inquirer Plus. Amazingly too, the story is required reading in teacher Ines Bautista-Yao‘s romance elective. Sounds like a fun class to me. ‘How Can I Help You?’…

  • Music Dance and Lyrics - Tourism - Writing Now

    Started Pre-Pandemic and Now New Book: Love To Meet You

    July 4, 2022 - By 

    Hellooo first post of 2022 and first post in a while (wew). Definitely long overdue. Just like this book! I first started writing Love To Meet You in 2019, finished the first draft quickly by October 2019, and then surprise, a pandemic. It’s been struggs city ever since, and really really slow going, but I’m surrounded by people who love to create and who choose to create despite unprecedented dark, trying times. I’m grateful for the continued push of accountability buddies (always RomanceClass!), and now we have this book.   Expectations vs. Reality At 33, career woman Sol Trinidad wasn’t…

  • Writing Now

    The Tropetastic Kindness Bundle: Happy Ever After for Charity

    March 6, 2021 - By 

    We wrote happy endings for charity! <3 The Tropetastic Kindness Bundle is available on Gumroad until April 14, for $5 or the price you set. It started with talk of what if there was one condo (thank you Carla de Guzman), and what if we let the Roleta of Fate choose our tropes (thank you Dawn Lanuza), with visual guidance of a proper floor plan (hail, CP Santi!) and viola, the Tropetastic Kindness Bundle is born. 15 Filipino authors and 15 short stories of romance, set in a fictional condominium building in Ortigas. The roleta gave me enemies to lovers…

  • Writing Now

    Hello Ever After: Favorite Alarm (The One Where Kris and Ringo Helped Me Process)

    August 29, 2020 - By 

    It started with anger and a seemingly inevitable dive into hopelessness. We’re all wading into bleak waters these days, and sparks of joy can be hard to come by and take so much to grasp. Tara Frejas has a more coherent origin story for the Hello Ever After series. For me I learned it from her and Mina V. Esguerra, and then Mina shared her draft of the script. It was Ben and Naya from What Kind of Day, and it spoke of anger and love and pushing back. It wasn’t difficult to start from there. I was at work…

  • Music Dance and Lyrics - Writing Now

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

    April 26, 2020 - By 

    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.…

  • Writing Now

    Latest Book! Songs You Come Back To

    March 21, 2020 - By 

    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…

  • Writing Now

    Second Wave Summer

    June 15, 2018 - By 

    As of this writing, our second summer anthology Second Wave Summer has been out in the bookish universe for 29 days (woohoo). I talk about this in the Author’s Note, how as each book is special in its own space, this one is memorable mostly because it wasn’t supposed to be here. After Summer Crush, Tara, Six and I ~might~ have been talking about doing something together again (or we could be only eating ube cheesecake, I dunno), but it wasn’t supposed to be a Summer Crush 2. But at the time, April was coming up–the top month of the…

  • Writing Now

    New Book! You Out of Nowhere from #romanceclassFlair

    October 29, 2017 - By 

    This book is the output of awesome team work and lots of feelings. #romanceclassFlair is a new imprint, an ongoing project, backed by a team of super talented people. I’m so happy/thrilled/grateful they took a chance on me and my babies. We’ve been working on this book for months and finally, finally it’s here omg yay! Here’s what it’s all about: At 31, Kris’s dating life is starting to resemble a reality show. So when she strikes up a conversation with a nerdy but gorgeous stranger on the train, getting serious is the last thing on her mind. Been there,…

  • Writing Now

    Ready To Meet Your Summer Crush?

    April 9, 2017 - By 

    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…

  • Writing Now

    All Our Love, Promdi Heart

    April 8, 2017 - By 

      I don’t come from a sexy province. That was my biggest challenge coming into this anthology of love stories set in our hometown Philippine provinces. So okay, I took that and joined it with one of the least sexy holidays to complete my setting, added one Trainman, and out came One Certain Day. By the time I typed The End, it turned out I like this origin story 😀 View this post on Instagram   Alice and Son are teenagers from Hagonoy, Bulacan, neighbors and classmates in the way you can’t help to be when you are born and…

  • Writing Now

    Christmas Feelings and A Dancing Idol

    November 30, 2016 - By 

    Well, at least Shinta Mori is supposed to look like he is dancing, as required by his contract, on top of other silly, festive things like a fried chicken commercial and a variety show appearance with a cute actress. It was all colors of fun and funny; a rising Japanese actor like him has little to complain about. But he can’t wait to get through all these and fly to Manila to spend Christmas with his mother. And when a friend blurts out a careless little observation about the girl Shinta can’t stop thinking about, it was all he could…

  • Writing Now

    Happy Book Birthday, Shinta! Songs to Make You Stay is Live <3

    October 9, 2016 - By 

    I agonize over writing a lot (normal), but it took me more than a few months to finally decide and write this book. As far back as last year (soon after releasing Songs of Our Breakup), my friend/fairy godmother Layla and I had been plot-bunnying about this. It was supposed to be Miki and Shinta in one book, in alternating perspectives. But then I thought, ‘no, what a mess that would be.’ Also they deserved more than that <3 So Miki got his own book, Songs to Get Over You. Now Shinta has gotten his, and they share the same…

  • Writing Now

    This Leap Year Day I Released A Book

    March 1, 2016 - By 

    Leo finally won the Oscar today too (pompoms), but I had nothing to do with that. I know Miki very well though. And if you met him and liked him in Songs of Our Breakup, I hope you’ll consider reading his story too. It’s harder to get over someone who was never really yours. They say rock stars get all the girls. But Miki knows that’s not always true. He, for one, though the guitarist of popular indie band Trainman, just can’t seem to get the girl. It’s kind of his fault, really. No one told him to fall in…

  • Writing Now

    #WriteBreakupSongsAbout ‘That Thing Called Closure’ on Buqo!

    February 14, 2016 - By 

    It all began when One Direction released Perfect. I’m not kidding. A writing prompt and lots of fangirl moments later, I discovered Fool’s Gold, and Nino and Suze‘s story went from there. If you’ve read Songs of Our Breakup, the first book in my Playlist series, you would have met/liked/loved (?)/wanted to punch Nino already, the band’s drummer and resident flirt. In this #TalesfromtheMetro #WriteBreakupSongsAbout story, Nino and Suze go on a walking tour along Singapore river, to try and say the things that you just couldn’t say on the phone. Nino isn’t built for long distance relationships. He should have…

  • Music Dance and Lyrics - Writing Now

    Soundtrack of our Breakup

    August 27, 2015 - By 

    My second baby Songs of Our Breakup is out! *jumpshot* I’ve been hearing lovely things from the handful of people who’ve read it, and one common comment is that the book needs a soundtrack. Well, it kind of does have a soundtrack. Unofficially, that is. Writing for me usually requires a vacuum. But sometimes, writing requires a playlist. It made sense that I needed music to write a story about an indie rock band, taking on the task of penning lyrics for the first time ever. I was ambitious, I know. But it was super fun. The words came to me at the oddest…

  • Tourism

    Things to Do on a Fall Trip to Japan: Tokyo, Osaka, Nara, Kyoto in 7 Days

    August 29, 2023 - By 

    Note: Suuuuper late post as in years late. This trip was in 2018 or 2017 (??) lol. But the words are here and they are still informative I think! At the very least, this is a good travel diary. Enjoy 🙂 *** Sounds tiring? You’re not wrong. Will I do it again? Not Amazing Race-style like this, no. I’d take my time and stick to one part of the country next time. But if you’re a first-timer who wants a sampler tour and enjoys the rush of seeing so many firsts at once and also wants to experience riding a…

  • Drama Review

    ‘Tomorrow’ and Recovery Reflections

    October 12, 2022 - By 

    Contains spoilers for the Korean drama series “Tomorrow”. Content / Trigger Warning: Suicide Fantasy K-drama Tomorrow is probably the last thing I would have consumed for comfort. I’d been re-watching and rereading the Spy x Family anime and manga to the ground in the worst days of my sickness and isolation. I guess one day I thought, “hmm, how about pain?” Tomorrow’s premise is the main content and trigger warning. It follows a small team of grim reapers tasked not to collect souls but to save lives. Called Risk Management (RM), team leader Koo Ryeon (Kim Heesun) and assistant manager Lim…

  • Writing Now

    Filipino Readers’ Choice Awards 2022 – My Books Are Nominated!

    September 12, 2022 - By 

    Hey hey my books are nominated for the Filipino Readers’ Choice Awards 2022 (FRCA). FRCA is back after seven years and it’s super cool to have my books and more RomanceClass titles among the nominees. Here are my nominated books! You can vote here until September 23, 11:59PM Manila time. Romance in English 13 – Songs of Our Breakup (Playlist #1) (2015) 14 – Songs to Get Over You (Playlist #2) (2016) 20 – You Out of Nowhere (2017) 42 – Songs You Come Back To (Playlist #4) (2020) More about the books and where to read them in the…