I'm a writer, editor, and lifestyle blogger based in the Philippines. I've written articles for websites and magazines, and I dabble in novel-writing as well. I've edited online publications and copy edited dozens of manuscripts. I'm happily married with dog, and I like to play the beach bum whenever I can manage it. Learn more...
2015 Reading Challenge Liana has read 48 books toward her goal of 250 books. hide 48 of 250 (19%) view books
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Wrimos Around the World: Of Cemeteries, Life, and Writing for Fame
One of the best parts of NaNoWriMo? The incredible community of writers that gathers every November. Today, we spotlight Chiqui Perez, who’s writing from an… unconventional cemetery:
On the first day of NaNoWriMo, I found myself writing from the family mausoleum in the town’s cemetery in Gasan, Marindique, Philippines. The bustle of the All Saints’ Day celebration, which happens every year on November 1, can be both distracting and stimulating. Since I was little, I was endeared to the tradition of devoting an entire day to visiting the family’s dearly departed despite the heat and noise; I was amidst the still lively chatter of family and friends, colorful flower bouquets, and candles which adorn each tomb.
This November 1, I brought my trusty notebook. I was spending time with my grandfather, who had loved stories. To begin my novel at his tomb-side would do him an honor…
#FilipinoFridays Weeks 3 & 4: Fan Fiction & Diverse Books
Last stretch of filipinoreadercon's #FilipinoFridays series since the event will take place this week. And eek! I've been invited to be one of the speakers in the "From Reader to Writer: Crossing Over from Consumer to Content Creator" panel facilitated by the awesome Mina V. Esguerra. So if you want to see if I completely embarrass myself (which is altogether possible), come and attend! It's on Friday, November 14, from 9:35 to 10:35AM at the Bayanihan Center along Pioneer Street in Pasig City.
Anyway, let's do this!
WEEK 3: What Do You Think of Fan Fiction?
Fanfiction is pretty popular, no doubt about it, but it has been received with mixed feelings by many authors and writers. Some don’t mind it, and even welcome readers who give their own spin on their work. Some writers don’t like it at all, to the point that they contact fanfiction authors to take their work down. Others use it as a jump-off point for their own writing.
How about you? What is your take on fanfiction? Do you read fanfiction, and if you do, what kind of fanfiction do you read? Do you write fanfiction, and why? Or are you against fanfiction? Enlighten us.
I'm not really a reader of fan fiction, but that's maybe because most of the fan fiction I was exposed to originally were on PHPBB forums and a bit hard to read. If someone were to let me download fan fiction onto my iPad's Kindle reader, and it was a fandom I bought into, I probably would be more into it. I do read anthologies of short stories set in a particular writer's universe but written by other writers—I'm hoping that counts. I don't write fan fiction, but I do indulge a hefty amount of time concocting fan fiction in my head. I haven't yet made the commitment to putting these on paper.
I do know that published authors' reactions to fan fiction is varied. I can see how they would want to protect their copyright and creations as a writer, but I think it's pretty harmless so long as it remains in the realm of not-for-profit writing. As a tool for writing newbies, I think fan fiction is awesome. I just hope that, once you've built up your confidence as a writer by writing stories in someone else's world, you take that leap of faith and imagination and start creating your own world.
WEEK 4: Let's Talk About Diverse Books
Do you think we have enough diversity in the books that we read? Are our choices enough to satisfy our different tastes? Are our writers able to present the variety of people, culture, lifestyle, interests and so on? How diverse are your reading interests, and are you able to find enough books to satisfy your reading needs? Do you think we need more diverse books?
Honestly, I think that while people are always going to have their favorite authors and genres, stepping out of that comfort zone and exploring different kinds of reads can only lead to better and better things. With the advent of electronic publishing, reading different kinds of books is much easier these days (because ordering hard copies from the US pre-Amazon was a huge headache, right?).
My concern would be more for the local writing scene, as I don't feel like there's enough diversity in the market place. I'm happy to see that there's more variety now in the locally published options found on bookstore shelves, because for a long time you pretty much had literary (or pseudo-literary) fiction, jokey books, Tagalog romance, or text books and that was it, or so it seemed. Now we have more popular fiction, although I would personally like to see a bit more popular nonfiction. I think we will get there, eventually, especially with the option for e-publishing. On one hand, local writers will have stiff competition as they'll be going up against international authors, but this will also help challenge them to improve the quality of their content and copy.
As far as my own habits as a reader, I tend to read a lot of two genres: romance and fantasy. However, I also do enjoy thrillers and sci-fi as well as nonfiction narratives and investigations, biographies and memoirs, history, and more (Beryl Markham's West with the Night and Diane Ackerman's A Natural History of Love remain two of my all-time favorite books). While my tastes might not be quite as eclectic as those of others I know, I certainly would hope that my reading life can be described as diverse.
When it comes to local book diversity, yes, we definitely need that. On an international scale, though, I think the issue is more about exposing people to the many different kinds of books that are out there.
Sorry if this post is a little bit disjointed. It's late! And I need to write still! Or sleep, at least. Anyway, just to conclude: you can join Filipino ReaderCon's #FilipinoFridays meme, which you can do by answering the weekly questions on any of day of the week via a public post on Tumblr (there's filipinoreadercon, after all), Facebook, Twitter, or any other medium that lets you post so anyone can see it. Learn more about #FilipinoFridays here.
#FilipinoFridays Week 2: I Read, Therefore I Write
I'm once again very late with this post (Week 3 is out), but I'm determined to join! And also, in time-honored NaNoWriMo tradition, I'm procrastinating, so....
WEEK 2: I Read, Therefore I Write?
As a reader, have you ever thought about writing a book? What kind of books/stories do you want to write? Or are you now a published author, and what compelled you to go fulfill this dream? How was your journey from reader to writer? How did you go about getting your book out there?
As I mentioned, it's NaNoWriMo (or National Novel Writing Month, if you prefer the longer version), and as part of the requirements of joining the challenge and being one of the municipal liaisons for the Philippines, I have to write a novel.
I mostly write fantasy and nonfiction, but I recently started writing romance (more on that later), and that's the first genre I've actually been published in, outside of my work as a writer of articles for online publications and magazines.
When it comes to my journey going from reader to writer, for me that was a question of necessity rather than something I purposefully decided I wanted to pursue. I read very quickly, and it meant that by the time I was in my final years of grade school, I'd read most of the non-nosebleed books in my family's home. In fact, on the NaNoWriMo Asia :: Philippines forum, someone recently asked how we got started writing, and as I write this, I realize that it's pretty much a recounting of my reader-to-writer journey.
Which is why I'm going to quote my reply to that person here:
Apparently I started reading very young, partially because I was impatient with the speed at which my parents would read me bedtime stories. So by the time my dad got cancer when I was four and we had to spend a lot of time in hospitals, I was a ferocious reader who would think of waiting room time as reading time. I don't remember when I first started writing, but I wrote a short, barely legible, atrociously spelled essay recounting my dad's life and death and possible afterlife in crayon when I was five, and my mom framed it, so I guess that might as well be my official first story.
With the exception of my parents' economic and livelihood journals and thesis books, I read most of the books in my house by the time I hit the fourth or fifth grade, so writing my own fiction became something I did during the time I would spend saving up for a new book. I would also spend a lot of time coming up with long, drawn-out sagas in my head that I didn't put on paper if I didn't feel like it. I discovered Anne Rice's books and other novels romanticizing things that go bump in the night in maybe the fifth grade (?), and this started me on a period of writing purple prose and poetry. Then I started reading stuff by Toni Morrison and Alice Walker and Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Laura Esquivel, and I wanted to write like that. In high school, I started reading Neil Gaiman and Mercedes Lackey, and I read The Once and Future King by TH White for the very first time. At the same time, I started reading Nora Roberts and Harlequin / Silhouette / Mills & Boon novels. This was when I first started loving the genres of fantasy and romance. I went through a brief period of aspirations toward High Literature we shall call "university," but then I came to my senses. I joined a collaborative writing group that focused mainly on writing speculative fiction, and one of the writers I collaborated with convinced me to give NaNoWriMo a try.
One was, my cousin Jenny—that's Jennifer Hillier—whom I knew about but didn't really know growing up because she's pretty much lived in Canada and the US her whole life published a couple of thrillers with Simon & Schuster/Gallery Books. I congratulated her on her success, and we got to chatting and e-mailing, reconnecting as cousins with a shared interest in the craft. And then she was flown over to the Philippines to do a book tour, but extended her stay here. So we got to hang out, and she kept asking me, "When will I see your book?" and "When will you be signing a book for me instead of the other way around?"
Now, by that point, I'd already done NaNoWriMo for several years running, but mostly, once December came around, I would shove my book in a mental drawer (or a folder on my hard drive) and leave it there to rot. Novel-writing was something I did for fun, and while it would be cool to be published someday, I wasn't really keen on pursuing it because I was working as a writer and editor and was getting my byline fix from that. But Jenny told me I needed to start thinking about getting published, and my brain just went, "Huh. I guess I could try it." She'd done it, after all.
The second thing that happened was that I signed up for minavesguerra's #RomanceClass, which was a free online class where she taught dozens of people how to write a romance novel in English in the Philippines. I failed that class, allowing life to get in the way of actually writing my novel. I also got intimidated by the fact that all my classmates seemed to be writing romances that didn't have a lot of sex in it, and I couldn't see my way through without a couple of sex scenes. I found out later that writing in sex scenes was encouraged, but at the time, I felt a bit like the odd one out and had started questioning why I'd joined this in the first place.
So when Mina teamed up with Buqo.ph and started the #BuqoSteamyReads class, in which we were challenged to write a short steamy story that would be put up on the online bookstore by the end of the class, I joined it. And I ended up with a novella that was almost 22,000 words long, some awesome writing friends, and the idea that, hey, this is doable.
I wrote the story under a pen name, which I'll go ahead and officially reveal for the first time: It's Kate Sebastian. The first name is a shortened form of my actual second name, Kathleen. The surname was inspired by two things: (1) Anne Rice's novel Violin, because even though I don't read Anne Rice anymore, it was after reading her work that I started really making a concentrated effort to write; and (2) The Little Mermaid, my favorite Disney princess movie growing up. I was in a kind of perverse frame of mind when I was trying to come up with my pseudonym, and for some reason, when I hit upon the name "Sebastian," I kept thinking, "Darling, it's better down where it's wetter..." And that tells you way too much about how my mind works.
That novella, Old Enemies Make the Best Lovers, is still available on Buqo for P45 from the website and the Android app and $0.99 via the iOS app. Here's a pic of the cover:
This year, I'm writing a prequel to that novella for NaNoWriMo. My working title is Boyfriends Make the Best Booty Calls. And when I decided to write this story, I also decided to finally reveal my pen name because it looks like this isn't going to be a one-off kind of thing like I'd initially thought it to be. So, yeah, do please like my Facebook fan page and follow my pen name on Twitter @ImKateSebastian.
I have some fantasy and non-fiction novels in the works under my own name, but I am thinking of working on those beginning next year.
And with the reminder of the work I have in store for me, I'm going to close this blog post with a reminder that you can join Filipino ReaderCon's #FilipinoFridays meme, which you can do by answering the weekly questions on any of day of the week via a public post on Tumblr (there's filipinoreadercon, after all), Facebook, Twitter, or any other medium that lets you post so anyone can see it. Learn more about #FilipinoFridays here.
5 Things I Learned from Buqo's "Publishing in the New Millennium" Talk at the Philippine Literary Festival
The 2014 Philippine Literary Festival at Raffles Makati ended yesterday. And while I'm pretty swamped with work and NaNoWriMo prep, I was able to take the afternoon off on Thursday to attend two of the panels organized for the event. One of the talks I attended was Buqo.ph's "Publishing in the New Millennium" by deputy general manager Chad Rosario, which was about the changing landscape of publishing and how digital publishing fits into it. It was definitely an engaging, interesting talk because I've heard a lot of people moaning about the issue from a "they-paved-paradise-and-put-up-a-parking-lot" standpoint, but this might well be a false assumption. I'll get back to why that is in a bit.
Because I know a lot of writers who wanted to be there but couldn't, I thought I'd post a bit of a summary of what I learned at the Buqo seminar yesterday. So scroll down (yes, past the photo of a smiling Chad Rosario) and read up!
1. What makes a great read is still what makes a great read.
Chad listed his top six factors that go into a good read (and something that's therefore more likely to sell):
A compelling element: Is there something in the book that will spark a reader's curiosity? Curiosity ups influence, which translates into purchases.
Relevance: Is it timely? Does it tackle something that addresses the mindset and concerns of its readers at the time it is published?
Strong characters: Do you give your readers someone to root for? Someone to hate? Someone to be intrigued by?
Takeaway value: Is there something lasting that readers will remember after they've read the book? Something that will make the book memorable even years later?
Accessibility: Can the book be purchased easily by potential readers?
Whatever the medium—printed or digital books, graphic novels, magazines—these factors remain constant. Going digital is not going to change these things.
2. You need to start thinking of yourself as a brand and act accordingly.
When you think of yourself (as an author or publisher) as a brand, you'll be pushed to think about how you can market yourself and your content across multiple platforms so that you reach a greater number of people. Take this one step further, and this also means deciding on your career path right at the beginning. For example, you may want to use a pseudonym for different genres or series (the way Nora Roberts uses J.D. Robb for her Eve Dallas series and Michelle Sagara West uses Michelle Sagara for her Elantran series).
3. Adopt a progressive publisher mindset.
There are a few things you need to remember when you're a publisher (and if you're an author publishing your own work) in this day and age. The first is that content is king; as important as it is to be true to yourself and your style when writing, you won't sell many copies of your book if you don't know how to write for your audience too, how to bring them in with your compelling language and ideas. The second is that wide distribution is necessary for success; you should turn a profit or at least break even when it comes to your creative endeavors, and you'll need to find a formula that works, considering that printing costs go up every year. The third is that you need to learn to leverage social media, to use multiple platforms to get your content out there, to attract new readers and retain faithful fans.
4. Print books are here to stay—with an assist from digital.
Chad cited an article on HuffingtonPost.com that reported that print books outsold ebooks in the first half of 2014. The numbers from Nielsen Books & Consumer: paperbacks made up 42% of book unit sales, hardcovers 25%, and ebooks 23%. The point? Rather than representing competing markets, Chad argued that print sales will remain on top, thanks to an assist from digital. And that the two publishing formats can and will coexist with a sort of symbiotic rather than competitive relationship.
After all, in the Philippines, only 10% of the population have the credit cards and bank accounts needed for digital transactions through iTunes, Amazon, and similar ebook vendors. That means millions of people whose access to ebooks is curtailed, in contrast to the fact that anyone can walk into a local bookstore and buy a book if they've the money for it.
5. Digital publishing is an awesome platform for emerging writers.
Perhaps the best thing about digital publishing from a content creator's standpoint is that it has really opened up the options for new writers these days. Because reach is international, this opens up the authors' chances of discovery by the reading public. And because overhead costs are lower without the need for printed copies, publishing companies can afford to take more chances on new authors.
It has also blown the market wide open for self-published authors, especially since the absence of printing costs means much, much better margins, and the convenience of digital author services from companies like Buqo and Amazon keep the process of printing a book pretty darned speedy (think hours or days instead of months between the final draft and published stages!).
There were some other, more technical things he spoke of, as well as a summary of numbers in the market. But I felt these five were the best takeaway items from the talk! And if you want a copy of my notes for the rest, feel free to let me know as I snapped photos of most of the slides.
Chad Rosario is the deputy general manager of Buqo, the local brand for Thai-based digital bookstore Ookbee. Browse through their catalog at Buqo.ph, like them on Facebook at /BuqoApp, follow them on Twitter @Buqo, and download the Buqo app for free via Apple's App Store for iPads and iPhones and Google Play for Android devices.
The Philippine Literary Festival 2014 was presented by Raffles Makati and National Book Store. For more information about this event, visit PhilippineLiteraryFestival.com.
Filipino ReaderCon's #FilipinoFridays: New Book Discoveries
Those of you who know me probably know that November's a crazy busy month for me because it's National Novel Writing Month, or, as lettersandlight has shortened it, NaNoWriMo. But it's also Filipino ReaderCon (filipinoreadercon on Tumblr) month! And while in past years I'll admit that I haven't really been all that faithful when it comes to following their events and posts in previous years, I've recently started tracking their updates again, thanks to their awesome "Readers Who Write" talk at the Manila International Book Fair. Just this week, I saw that they were doing a meme called Filipino Fridays, and I decided I wanted in!
Filipino Fridays is a meme where a topic is posted every Friday leading up to Filipino ReaderCon, and Filipino readers (bloggers or just anyone who has a social networking account that can be viewed publicly) are encouraged to participate. If you don't have a blog, you can post on Facebook, Tweet, or even film a video (if you're casually awesome—or diehard—like that). I missed the first week, and since it's Friday today, the second topic has already come out, but I'm determined to catch up! Scroll down for my first #FilipinoFridays post!
WEEK 1: Surprise, Reader!
Surprise, Reader! Hello, it’s the first week of Filipino Fridays 2014! Whether it’s your first time to participate or not, tell us a bit about yourself. More specifically, tell us about your favorite book discoveries for this year. Any author you started reading this year that you can’t get enough of? A book you didn’t think you’d like, but you ended up liking/loving? Any book series that you just have to get your hands on? Have you discovered anything new from Filipino authors this year?
Since this is actually a whole bunch of questions rolled into one "topic," I'm going to post my responses as bullet points.
A Quick Intro
I'm Liana, although I do have friends who call me Lia and others who call me Li. There are people who call me Kat, but I never respond to them. I'm a freelance writer and editor, and I just recently decided to jump into blogging. Being an overachiever and stress addict, I've started updating this blog on my professional site as well as a new lifestyle recommendations blog (reads, eats, and more) called likeloveblog.com. I read and edit a whole bunch of genres, and I write a lot of articles, but for fun I mostly stick to romance and fantasy, although I do, during moments of inadequacy, sometimes venture into literary fiction.
Favorite Book Discoveries This Year / New Authors I Can't Get Enough Of
Locally, I've started reading the Greek billionaire books by Marian Tee, and as someone who grew up sneaking reads of Mills & Boon and Harlequin books, I just had a lot of fun with the characters. I'm not all the way caught up yet (I think I'm on book 3 or 4), but I'll get there!
I've recently been toying with the idea of revising a sexy paranormal novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo a couple years back; and I wanted to do some reading and check what was on the market today (I'm still a fan of Laurell K. Hamilton and Sunny, but my work isn't as intense as theirs is, and at the moment, I don't aspire to New York Times best selling heights). So I read a lot of stuff that didn't really light a fire under my butt, and then I read Fashionably Dead by Robyn Peterman. It's Book 1 of the Hot Damned series, and you can get the Kindle version for free right now on Amazon. It's hilarious and sweet and gives me MaryJanice Davidson and Elizabeth Peters vibes, because I had so many laugh-out-lout moments. I enjoyed this book so much that, once I finished it, I bought Book 2, Fashionably Dead Down Under. And as I am writing this I have just discovered that Book 3, Hell on Heels, has been out for a month, and I'm on a book-buying embargo for NaNoWriMo. Darn!
While doing research for the Buqo.ph-sponsored #BuqoSteamyReads class I joined early this year (more on that later), I also got to reading books by Tessa Bailey. I started with Asking for Trouble, which was Book 4 of the Line of Duty series, followed it up with Staking His Claim (Book 5), and have several more on my to-be-read list.
I'll just mention those two for now, as I have several more authors I've read and enjoyed this year, and if I listed them all, this would be two posts long. Or three. Or four. Anyway, you get my point.
A Book I Didn't Think I'd Like, But Ended Up Loving
I honestly don't really read books I don't think I'll like. My mantra for my recommendations blog is "Life's too short to dwell on the negative stuff," and I try to apply that to the books. So if I read the description and think "meh," unless someone says or writes something to make me give it another chance, I'm probably going to skip the book.
That being said, I have been spending more time on Wattpad lately, as well as reading Wattpad books published by local writers, and while sometimes the editor in me has to take a moment to breathe from the grammatical and orthographical issues I encounter, I've found myself surprised several times by books that I'd designated as throwaway reads (stuff I'll enjoy enough to read once, but then never again).
A Book Series I Just Have to Get My Hands On
I'm a bit of a series junkie. I have series I've been reading since high school (like Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series and anything of Tamora Pierce's that's set in Tortall or the surrounding kingdoms). My all-time favorite fantasy author, Mercedes Lackey, has a new book out just today. It's called Closer to Home, and it's the first book in her new Herald Spy series, which is a follow up to the Collegium Chronicles series, which I've read at least three times now. So that's number 1 on my to-buy list once my embargo on book-buying ends (which is when I get my purple bar in my NaNoWriMo). Number 2 is Nalini Singh's new Guild Hunter book called Archangel's Shadows, and it features a couple of characters I've been really wanting to see more of, Guild Hunter Ashwini and Cajun vamp Janvier. And while I'll be Team Raphael and Elena forever, I'm really having fun getting to know the other hunters, angels, and vampires in this series.
Something New from Filipino Authors This Year
Okay, I'll admit this is something of a shameless plug because I'm one of the authors whose projects during the #BuqoSteamyReads class was released on the site, but I just couldn't get enough of the works by my classmates! And, yes, one day I'll have a big reveal to share which pseudonym is mine, but that's probably going to be when my next steamy read comes out. For those angling for a hint, I'll give you one word: arrow. Anyway, what I loved about this was that, apart from the stuff by the aforementioned Marian Tee, these stories and novellas were the first Filipino-written steamy romantic fiction in English that I've read—or even found. Don't get me wrong, I have enjoyed the chick lit I've read from local publishers, but sometimes the two- or three-base limit some of the books have can get kind of frustrating, especially if you read raunchier fiction from international authors.
My favorites included The Best Friend Hookup by Suzette de Borja (buy it bundled with four other stories here for P180 or solo for P45), Finding Mr. Write by Adelaide Penne (get it bundled with Suzette de Borja's book and three others here for P180 or solo for P45), Passion within the Stone Walls by Kali Ragilles (buy the bundle for P180 or just this story for P45), and of course guru Mina V. Esguerra's Wedding Night Stand. These delivered on kilig moments (I've decided to translate this as "heart thrills" for my non-Filipino friends) and, as promised, steamy scenes—way steamy, in some cases!
Anyway, those are my recent book discoveries. Share yours by joining the meme; you can post on your blog, on Facebook, on Twitter, and more! And don't forget to tag #FilReaderCon!
I was working on my NaNoWriMo profile recently, and I just realized that 2014 will be my eighth time on the crazy merry-go-round that is this annual writing challenge to hit 50,000 words in the space of one month. Thanks to my post on the lettersandlight blog, I learned I've also been a municipal liaison (ML) for NaNoWriMo.org's Asia :: Philippines region for four years—I'll admit, sometimes it feels like I've been MLing forever, and sometimes I feel like a newbie.
Anyway, in all these years, I've never had a NaNoWriMo season go by without someone asking me why I do this. I've never actually published any of the novels I've written during NaNoWriMo (though I'm hopeful that will change soon), and I've a couple of novels that are just two or three chapters away from being completed. But I keep doing it anyway. So since I got my first "Why do you do this?" question for 2014 last week, I thought that, this year, since I have this handy little blog, I'd post my top reasons (and the reasons why I'd recommend NaNoWriMo for any aspiring or frustrated novelist) here.
But if you ask me, the daily 1,667-word deadline is more important than the month-end 50,000-word one. Most of the writers I admire say you have to hit a minimum every day to be successful and productive. I'm more of a sprinter, but I think NaNoWriMo is a great way to practice for the marathon that a solid career as an author requires.
2. Goals are more achievable when you have company.
Misery loves company, right? But the NaNoWriMo experience has always been the furthest thing from misery for me, regardless of how much I might whine about my word count during November. Having people working to get to the same goal you're aiming for can help spur you on. With NaNoWriMo, people don't just embark on a journey with you—they cheer you through it.
Because people congratulate you on every milestone, it pushes you to reach the next one, and then the next, and the next. Because you find yourself congratulating others on what they've achieved, you might just end up being inspired to match or surpass them. Usually, seeing those first purple bars go up during word count verification week lights a fire under my ass to get my own winner's bar.
3. You meet a lot of like-minded people.
I've noticed that most barkadas (groups of friends) in the Philippines are based on circumstance instead of interest. That is to say, you have groups of friends from high school or college you might have nothing in common with, except that you spend huge amounts of time together way back when and friendships were formed as a result. The same goes for your work friends. But if, like me, you write fiction as a hobby, you probably don't have very many friends to talk shop with.
NaNoWriMo doesn't just give you writer friends—it gives you writer friends in the same or related genres. I've written romance, women's fiction, and fantasy in the past, and I can tell you my issues have been different with ever genre. Which is why I love being able to talk about the challenge of writing kilig scenes (the ones that give you romantic thrills) with my romance writer friends, then turning around and discussing the time-sucking vortex that is world-building with my friends who write sci-fi and fantasy.
I've had WriMo friends help me out when I wrote conflicting laws of magic into a novel and couldn't figure out how to resolve them within the same universe. I've also had WriMo friends who've laughed with me and told me it's okay to write 2,500-word sex scenes into another novel. And many of these WriMos have gone from being once-a-year friends to perennials, something I'm very grateful for.
4. Inspiration abounds!
As an organization, NaNoWriMo has got awesome idols. And just in case knowing writers like naturallysteph have written best-selling novels during NaNoWriMo, each year comes with a squeal-worthy list of author idols who provide inspiring pep talks and handy tips for writers struggling through November. This year, I'm particularly excited about the pep talk from one of my all-time favorite authors, Tamora Pierce, who wrote the Song of the Lioness quartet, and Dresden Files author Jim Butcher.
For a more localized experience, we MLs hunt up pep talkers among our own PinoyWriMo community as well as from Filipino writers. This year, we'll be hearing from romance writing guru Mina V. Esguerra, YA writer kateevangelistaauthor, and former PinoyWriMo ML and recently published romance author Tina Matanguihan, for example. In previous years, Samantha Sotto and my cousin Jennifer Hillier have offered words of advice, as have several other Pinoy authors.
And that's not even counting the great ways we WriMos have helped each other find refreshing ideas when imaginations run dry!
5. You get to help out fellow writers.
I'm a big believer in paying it forward, and I've had some awesome mentors and writing buddies in NaNoWriMo. Which is why, when I was asked if I wanted to try for Municipal Liaison several years ago, I went for it. Now it makes me happy to connect veterans willing to be mentors with newbies who want a little guidance, and if I'm a bit overzealous to offer advice when people post their questions and recount their problems, I hope it'll be forgiven as an error of caring too much rather than too little.
And if you're worried that mentoring will keep you from hitting 50K yourself, I'll tell you this: I fought harder to win NaNoWriMo during the years I was a mentor than I did before because I felt that I owed it to my "little sisters/brothers" to show them that, yes, it could be done, despite everything else that might be happening in life.
6. You build your writing network.
One of the things we try to do is make sure every NaNoWriMo season ends with writers knowing what happens next. That goes beyond editing—we've often invited representatives from local publishers to share how our writers can submit their work in the hope of getting published, and we've also had people come and talk about what it's like to self-publish their books (and if you're already looking for tips on this, I'd definitely recommend checking out Mina V. Esguerra's blog).
I have NaNoWriMo vets who have beta read for me in the past, and I've worked with NaNoWriMo finishers to help them polish their novels. Off-season, I've often had WriMos link me to workshops and resources that have helped me hone my craft. It's just a really great way to network and, as I've already said, an awesome environment in which to make friends.
7. It's fun!
To be honest, I start getting all bright-eyed over NaNoWriMo in August. It gives me something to look forward to each year besides birthdays, anniversaries, and Christmas.
I skipped NaNoWriMo in 2007 because that was when I was working as a full-time manuscript editor and I didn't think I could edit all day at work then come home and write. To be honest, skipping NaNoWriMo that year continues to be a big regret for me, and I think it contributed to my losing my love of writing for a while—until, that is, I rediscovered it in 2008 when I started writing the novel that has lived in my head since middle school (which is now at over 100,000 words and is in dire need of rewriting).
If you write and edit for a living as I do, it's easier than you might think to lose track of why writing was so important to you in the first place. One of the things I love about NaNoWriMo is that, between word wars and Come, Write In sessions, I have a lot of fun and I get a lot of writing done. And if the work I write during NaNoWriMo needs a little more editing than usual, that's why there are 11 more months in the year, right?
Want to join NaNoWriMo? Head on over to NaNoWriMo.org and sign up! If you're in the Philippines, don't forget to drop by the regional forum!
And just on a side note, I've set up a fundraising page for my NaNoWriMo 2014 journey, so if you'd like to support me and donate, go to Classy.org/nanowrimopurplyana!
NaNoWriMo is an international event, and the stories being written every year reflect our hundreds of participating regions. We’re taking a Road Trip to NaNo to hear from our amazing volunteers and writers all around the world. Today, Liana, one of our Municipal Liaisons in the Philippines region shares how you can make your novel waterproof:
Hello from the Philippines! We’re a country of over 7,000 islands, and though we lay claim to the title of “Typhoon Capital of the World,” we also have some of the richest coral reefs in the world, a culture where our way of saying “How do you do?” is asking whether you’ve eaten, and a festival somewhere in the country virtually every week of the year.
So you can imagine that we’re all about living up the good things in spite of the bad. “The Filipino spirit is waterproof” has been our rallying cry every year once monsoon season starts. In fact, when Typhoon Haiyan hit us during the first week of NaNoWriMo last year, many of us kept chugging on, pounding out scenes and chapters in between sessions volunteering at relief centers or raising money to send to the affected provinces.
Yours truly, on the official NaNoWriMo blog, lettersandlight! Many thanks to editorial director Tim Kim for giving me a chance to showcase how much the PinoyWriMos have inspired me (and my love of writing lists). NaNoWriMo 2014, baby! Let's get this show on the road and sharpen our pens with purple bars in mind!
My husband and I started a podcast the other week, in which we talk about random things. If you haven't had a chance to watch the first episode yet, here's the link. Here, I'm a little less awkward (although I still make weird faces I seem to have no control over), and I credit the fact that I was too tired to be nervous and my hubby was patient while I insisted on putting on my eyebrows and lip balm. Haha. So please do watch this episode, and if you have any topics (or hobbies) to recommend, leave a comment!
likeloveblog:
Agree to Disagree - Episode #2: In our second attempt at podcasting, the hubby and I talk about our hobbies (or, if he’s to be believed, my lack of hobbies). Honestly, I think reading and writing count as hobbies, even if they don’t fit the criteria he lists in this episode, so I guess that’s just one of the things we’re going to have to disagree on.
Still, we talk about why having a hobby—any hobby—is important and the things we are thinking about trying in our search for new hobbies.
So, watch this vid, plus shoutouts to Pat Ang, @JaymeeGamil, and Trey Ajusto the Gantsilyo Guru (my soon-to-be crochet teacher). And if you enjoy this, check out my hubby at katipunancowboy. Also, don’t forget to like or follow me onFacebook, Instagram, and Twitter!
It's the last day of 35th Manila International Book Fair today, and if you're a reader who hasn't been there yet, I'd suggest dropping by. I went yesterday and attended two seminars, one of which was "Readers Who Write" discussion presented by Filipino ReaderCon and the National Book Development Board (NBDB) and facilitated by Gabriela Lee with panelists Mina V. Esguerra (romance-writing and indie-publishing guru and the author of the Interim Goddess of Love series, among others), Kate Evangelista (author of Taste and Til Death as well as a few more novels), and Alyssa Urbano AKA AerithSage (author of several Wattpad novels as well as The Billion-Dollar Marriage Contract, which is soon to be published by Summit Books, under their new Sizzle imprint). I found the talk fun, productive (from a networking standpoint, for one), informative, and inspiring. And I thought I'd share some of the tips and reminders I came away from this event with.
From left to right: Mina V. Esguerra, Kate Evangelista, and Alyssa Urbano
1. Everyone has at least one novel inside them.
This was something Kate stressed particularly. There are characters, places, and other ideas that hide in your imagination (or ones who don't hide and pester you until you wonder if you're schizophrenic), and each one of them clamors to have their story told. Maybe it's something you devote your time to, maybe not. The difference between an author and a non-author is that an author is willing to go down the rabbit hole and see those stories through 'til the end.
3. Read something of everything, but especially the kind of stories you want to write.
Here was a point I got from Mina, who writes contemporary romance novels. She pointed out that you never know what could spark the idea for a novel, so there's no reason to dismiss any book as being of no use to you. But she also pointed out that it's important to read the kind of novel you want to write. And she has a point, especially when it comes to genre fiction. It's essential that you know the tropes and rhythms commonly found in your chosen genre. Alyssa mentioned a Toni Morrison quote: "If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." It's a great quote and a reminder that you need to read a lot—otherwise, how do you know if that book has been written or not?
4. Identify the books that influence you and what you take away from them.
Each of the panelists named several books that have had an impact on what they write, how they write, and the way they think about books in general. And this ran the gamut from a much-loved Sweet Dreams romance to Edith Hamilton's Mythology. This underscored the point that isn't so much a question of which books influence which writers as how these books influence them and whether they are aware of those influences.
5. There is no one true way to write your story.
Kate is a spontaneous writer who enjoys finding out what happens in her novels as she's writing the scenes. Mina and Alyssa are both rabid plotters. They know where their stories are going even before they start writing them. Yet even with this commonality, we saw differences in their styles. Mina's approach seems more regimented, possibly because, as a mom, her time is not her own. Meanwhile, Alyssa stresses how important taking time out to daydream is for her. Kate was quick to point out that no two writers will have exactly the same habits or processes, and that what budding novelists need to do is find a method that works for them.
6. Grab your writing time where you can and protect it fiercely.
Alyssa tries to get all her errands done in the morning, leaving her afternoons and evenings clear for writing (and daydreaming, of course!). Once she's writing, she turns off the internet on her computer—any research must be done on her mobile, which she says limits the temptation to open tab after tab after tab. Kate also does tasks like e-mailing and checking social media in the morning in order to leave things clear for writing later in the day, although she confesses to being addicted to Twitter. Mina, on the other hand, shared that she really only gets two hours of writing a week, but she makes those count as she finds it difficult to write when among other people. There's a reason why we writers are a solitary bunch when immersed in our craft—distractions (and that includes people) keep us from pounding those words out, and as a breed, we're terribly susceptible to procrastination.
7. Get the novel out; worry about polishing it later.
I actually got up to ask the writers for tips I hoped I could share with folks in my region come November, which is National Novel Writing Month (I'm one of two municipal liaisons for NaNoWriMo's Asia :: Philippines region). I asked them for tips on accomplishing their word count goals and for suggestions on how to keep from sacrificing quality in your writing for quantity. Kate pointed out that her novels go through a four-pass editing process. You spend one month writing the novel, she pointed out, but you spend the rest of the year editing it. The important thing is to get the story out, just that first draft. Because you can do it—and you need to prove that to yourself. And the editing and polish, while it may take longer, is easier because you already have something to work with. All three writers recommend just getting past the point where you're staring at a blank page.
8. Write. Every. Single. Day.
This was a point that Kate made, and it makes sense. Writing is a craft, which means that you need practice. So whether you're writing or plotting or editing (all of which are parts of the writing process), you need to be working at it every day. If you drop the ball on your story, it won't get told—or you'll find that there's more for you to revise later on. It's easier to get into the rhythm of writing when you've established it as a habit, so if you're going to pound out your novel (and especially if you hope to write many novels, as the writers all suggested), do your time. It will pay off.
Bonus: Alyssa suggested checking out Chuck Palahniuk's tips on "unpacking" thought verbs, which you can find here. A word of warning, though—he prefaces his advice with "In six seconds, you'll hate me. But in six months, you'll be a better writer." After reading the piece, I'll admit to the first half of that. But I'm going to give it a try and hope that the second half holds true as well.
Author's Note: I found a narrative essay I wrote for a nonfiction writing class almost a decade ago while I was cleaning out my hard drive. This and a couple of other pieces I found had me thinking, "Not too shabby," even if everything still had that unpolished feel to it. So since I discovered it on a #ThrowbackThursday evening, I figured I'd make it my #FlashbackFriday post. Give it a read, if you will. I've left it unchanged, even though it makes the editor in me twitchy (thanks to double spaces between sentences, en dashes instead of em dashes, and much much more). Try not to judge too harshly. I was young when I wrote this and believed myself a better writer than I was.
YAYA LUCY
It is not always easy for foreigners to understand the Filipino concept of the yaya. Neither nursemaid nor guardian, neither nanny nor governess, the yaya seems to transcend all these roles. Like many Filipinos, I know that it was my yaya who most often changed my diapers in my infancy, who bathed me until I learned to bathe myself. Like many Filipinos, I was spoonfed by my yaya as a toddler, and she used to make airplane or train noises in the attempt to make the food seem more appetizing. And, like many Filipinos, though I have long grown past the point of needing a yaya, I still maintain a relationship with mine.
Yaya Lucy has skin the color of milk chocolate and freckles the color of dark chocolate. Her eyes are narrow, and I imagine they are the legacy of a people long used to squinting in the sun. Her fine, black hair is so curly it tends to puff, so she usually ties it tightly to her head. I imagine it is no match for her determination, for when she does so, it is always very neat. When it is loose, it is fine and soft to the touch, and feels like a cloud. Her hands are calloused from work – a lifetime spent cleaning houses, washing clothes, and planting gardens does not make for rose petal skin – yet she never fails to put baby lotion on them every night before sleeping, and on a cut or scrape there have seldom been hands that are gentler.
Yaya Lucy has a laugh that seems to start somewhere in her tummy, which travels up through her throat and mouth to dance in the air, high and lilting and playful, though when she speaks it is with the hard-edged tones of a Boholana born and bred. “Hiloo,” she says when she answers the phone, “Dis is Ismit risidins.” My sister, my brother, and I used to mimic her accent amidst much laughter while she would hiss us into silence as she continued to speak. Later, she learned to answer the phone with, “Hiloo, good uptornon,” and ignore us when we teased her.
When my brother and I were children (for my sister was nine years older than I and soon deemed herself too old to have a yaya), we always knew that with Lucy, the cure for the blues was always a hug, and the punishment for the sulks was always a round of tickling. She had an effective “sst” which would make any wailing child shut up and behave.
We were terrified of invoking her wrath – Yaya Lucy has amazing lungs, and can unleash a stream of rapid-fire reprimands in liberally intertwined Bisaya and Tagalog to which she injects an awkwardly pronounced English word now and then for emphasis – and yet we loved her because not only was she always game for an adventure, but she was always there to pick us up off the ground and dust our behinds when our adventures flopped, as they often did. The summer we learned to roller skate, she strapped on a pair herself, and, shrieking wildly, crashed into twice as many obstacles as we, while my brother and I collapsed on the ground in laughter. I learned to shriek, “’Sus-Maria-Jusep-Santos” in a single blood-curdling breath that summer, in giggling imitation of her screams.
But no good yaya is always about fun and games, and Yaya Lucy was the best of them. She hollered at me in a voice that made my ears tingle when I pushed my brother – who at the time did not know how to so much as tread water – into our swimming pool, and she made me jump in fully-clothed and rescue him. She had me stand in a corner when I put a fake cockroach in the refrigerator to scare Nana, our cook and another paragon in our household. I had my hellion moments as a child, and Yaya Lucy was a firm disciplinarian, but she never laid a hand on me in violence. Once, a maid sought to punish me for some misadventure by spanking my rump with a slipper, and it was Yaya Lucy who gave her the tongue-lashing of her life, then turned her over to my mother for the coup de grace – firing.
At the turbulent age of around seven or so, I decided I was an adept enough cyclist to pedal down a steep hill on my ten-speed. Perhaps in the vestiges of youth’s arrogance, I still believe that I would have made it all the way down the hill, but for the fact that three-quarters of the way down was an intersection. As with many stupid stunts, ill luck would have it that at the precise moment I approached the intersection, a car came cruising forward, and I swerved wildly in the desperate attempt to avoid being the fatal victim of my own recklessness. I did not survive unscathed. My bicycle crashed into the conveniently-placed gravel heap of a construction site and I flew forward and crashed upon the sun-heated stones, cutting my palms and knees to ribbons in the process. I limped home, tears streaming on the way, though I wiped up all traces of such weakness upon approaching the gate of my house. Yaya Lucy was there to help me to the den where my mother was, scolding all the way while her fingers probed gently to see if anything was cracked or broken and she handed me a hanky to wipe the remaining tears off my face so that I could maintain some semblance of dignity for my mother. I was deposited on the couch in semi-disgrace, and my yaya fetched the dreaded antiseptic. My mother and my yaya took turns blowing on my many scrapes as it was applied. Thirteen years later, I remember not the pain, but her scolding “dậ, dậ, dậ” and the way she and my mother each took a hand as they blew the sting away from the alcohol-laced wound.
Yaya Lucy cried with me when I dislocated my elbow at the age of six as a result of another of my adventures when I believed myself immortal, yet she still managed to order the panicking household into efficiency and call my mother at work for instructions on getting me to the hospital. Every time I would come into the house with a cut or a bruise, she would be there to bandage me up, and argue with my Nana, who for some reason always wanted to put sliced tomatoes on my wounds. “Are you going to make her into kinilaw?” I remember her demanding once in a fit of frustration. She bought me my first sanitary napkin (and made me jump up and down on the stairs to follow local superstition – though for what reason, she could not quite recall), and she gossiped with me about my first date, first kiss, first boyfriend.
Somewhere between childhood and adulthood, I think that Yaya Lucy stopped being my yaya in the actual sense of the word. None of us ever thought of her as hired help. Certainly, she was always treated as part of the family. But somewhere in that span of time as I was learning about life and about the world, as she cheered me on through the intrigues and adventures of growing up, Yaya Lucy became more than a yaya. Today, I call her my friend, but she is something more than that: a second mother. Never the mere wiper of bottoms or teller of bedtime stories or punisher of mischief, Yaya Lucy has become someone I can talk to, who voices her opinion asked or unasked, who gives me a gentle thwack on the head when I am being mulish.
I have come to learn more about Yaya Lucy in the past few years. Beyond her life as a yaya and secretary, she is a loving aunt: she uses much of her salary to put her siblings’ children through school – a luxury she did not have herself, as she was forced to quit school before she had even graduated from elementary. One of her nieces came to board with us, working as a maid part-time to earn some extra money as she studied for her college degree –for which Lucy was paying the tuition. It amused us all to see that Yaya Lucy would nag her to study as she nagged us to study, but more than that, it gratified us to know that Yaya Lucy treated my brother and me as she treated her family. It was then that I learned to love her nagging as much as I loved her laughter and chattiness.
Today, at forty-two, she has been married almost a year (we tease her that her married name would look great on the billboard of a bomba flick). She has no children of her own, of her womb, but she says she has no regrets as my brother and I have been the children of her heart for as long as we have been living. We were – are – her “borrowed” children, she told me once (“Though I’m glad I don’t have to pay for you,” she said in Bisaya sometime last year, “because you guys are expensive kids.”), but it never felt as if we had really been borrowed, more as though we had been gifted with two mothers who loved us equally and in their own ways. All our lives, we have been hers as much as we have been our mother’s, and they have worked in tandem much in the way they took turns blowing on my wounds all those years ago.
Twenty years after she joined our family, Yaya Lucy’s heart is as big as ever, her scolds as effective. Her hair is still soft and fluffy, her skin still a contrast in chocolate. She still laughs with a lilt, still answers the phone with “hiloo,” still calls rowdy children into silence with a “sst.” A big part of going home is returning to her – it is never until I get that stranglehold hug and laughing, “Hi, Li-an!” that I feel I have truly come home.
Here's a pic from two years ago of my Yaya Lucy (now just Lucy) with her new charge, my dog Tiny:
Here's the first episode to my first ever podcast, done with my hubby, katipunancowboy. Since we have so many things that we don't have in common—from fave breakfast food to our taste in music and movies to our working habits and beyond—we decided to spend some time talking about some of these. Ideally the show will be around 30 minutes once a week, although we did go into overtime for this. But it's fun and a great opportunity for me to try out a new medium, so watch this, please! We could use the views.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a new kind of dog food or a new toy or a trip to someplace she’s never been before—whatever the experience, Tiny immerses herself in it with gusto. New food is practically slurped down. If it’s a new toy, such as a chew toy, she’ll go around with it in her mouth, showing it off to everyone in the room before settling down to play with it.
If we take her someplace new, she’s alive with curiosity, exploring nooks and crannies whenever we let her, making new friends. When we took her to Tiendesitas, and she rushed to meet just about every dog we passed. She also didn’t hesitate to meet new people who showed an interest in her. At our family beach resort, she barks at every guest who comes in, but once they’re close enough to approach, she wriggles with delight at meeting someone new.
2. BE WARY OF STRANGERS, BUT WELCOMING TO GUESTS.
Tiny isn’t much of a guard dog, when all is said and done, but still, strangers do give her pause, and she’s much more willing to befriend someone new if someone she trusts is with her. And when it comes to strange dogs, well, there’s a long and involved process of approaching then backing up, approaching then backing up, approaching then backing up, before she decides the other dog is a friend.
3. JUDGE PEOPLE BY THEIR ACTIONS, NOT THEIR WORDS.
Tiny is a great advocate of the adage “actions speak louder than words.” For example, when friends would come over to visit (and she always acts like people are visiting her instead of the humans she owns), she’d gravitate toward the people who had been more tactically affectionate in the past. She’d wag her tail happily for those who’d told her she was cute and a good dog, but she’d go belly up and wriggle with joy upon seeing someone who previously had given her a good pat and rub-down. And now that she spends half her time at the family beach resort, the same is true for returning guests!
4. LEARN TO BE COMFORTABLE ON YOUR OWN.
For the first year or year-and-a-half of her life, Tiny could not be left alone; when abandoned for even five minutes, she would begin to howl as if the world was ending, earning us a number of neighborly complaints. Slowly, though, she began to get used to being on her own for stretches of time—an hour, and then two. We’re now at the point where we can go out to dinner when our helper has the night off and not find that she’s been howling the entire time we’ve been away, just as long as she has access to her water bowl, bed, and toys. She does bark when she’s first left alone, though—mostly out of indignation over having been left behind. But when she’s convinced we’re not coming back for her, she eventually settles down or finds other means of amusing herself.
5. SHOW YOUR LOVED ONES HOW MUCH YOU APPRECIATE THE TIME YOU SPEND WITH THEM.
When Tiny hears her name called, she comes running. That’s the way she’s always been, and I hope she’ll stay that way forever. When we call, she comes over, and the first thing she does is either jump up for a pat on the head (she’s about two and a half feet tall on her hind legs) or roll on her back and wag her tail madly. When we’re seated, her name and a double tap to the thighs will have her leaping into our laps, even if it means trying to jump several feet from one lap to another.
Beyond that, homecoming is a joy when Tiny’s around because the minute she hears a familiar step outside the door, she’ll position herself at the entrance to our house so she can give her humans a proper greeting when they get inside. Mornings are times for doggy kisses, and when you’re sick, she’ll snuggle up to you like she knows you need a little comfort.
6. LEARN TO ASK FOR WHAT YOU WANT AND NEED OR GET IT YOURSELF.
Tiny gets a lot of attention—not just from my husband and me, but also from relatives, friends who come to visit, even our helpers and their friends. The staff at our family resort just dotes on her, for example. But that doesn’t always mean we give her our attention whenever she needs it. So she lets us know.
When she needs us to refill her water bowl, she actually picks the bowl up in her mouth and puts it down at our feet, making as much noise as she can while doing so. Or she’ll bat it around, sending it skidding across the floor. That lets us know when she’s thirsty. Tiny’s mom, my cousin’s dog Suki, stands up, puts her paws on the door, and barks to let her owners know when she needs to go outside and do her business. Tiny’s not quite at that level, but we live in hope!
7. PERFORM RANDOM ACTS OF LOVE.
Tiny likes to give her favorite people what we like to call ninja kisses. She’ll be minding her own business, perhaps strolling by, and she’ll veer away to plant a tiny lick of the tongue on your knee or calf or ankle—whatever’s accessible. If your hand is hanging down, she’ll lick that as well. Then, as if nothing has happened, she’ll go on her way as usual. We interpret this as her way of saying, “You’re here! I love you! Wala lang.”
8. ACCEPT A SMILE OR HUG (OR PAT ON THE HEAD) AS WORTHY COMPENSATION FOR A LITTLE LOST DIGNITY.
We’ve had Tiny for three and a half years now, and she has managed to learn quite a few tricks: the obligatory “sit,” “stay,” “down,” and “shake,” as well as the more fancy “up” (walking on her hind legs), “dance” (jumping up and twirling in a circle), and “leave it” (making a show of ignoring food until told it’s okay to eat it), among other things. Although she does appreciate a treat when being trained, Tiny has responded to pats on the head and complimentary words just as well (if not better—except when tuna sashimi or bacon-flavored treats, her favorites, are involved!).
9. SHOW JOY WITH YOUR WHOLE BODY.
Tiny has a tiny stump of a tail, having had it cut to the breed standard the week she was born. But that doesn’t stop her from wagging her happiness—the little stump wags madly when she’s happy, and the rest of her body follows with it, so that, even if you can’t see her tail, you know when Tiny is happy from the joyful quivering of her body.
10. LOVE UNCONDITIONALLY.
The ability to love wholeheartedly is, I find, a trait that just about defines virtually every dog I know of who hasn’t been abused (and even some who have been). Consider the tales of heroic dogs, and dogs who showed their devotion to their masters even after these masters had passed away, such as the famous Hachiko.
I’ve witnessed a tiny dachshund mix named Willie jump into the ocean and swim to about 200 feet out from the beach, where the water was around 15 to 20 feet deep, just so he could accompany his master, who was snorkeling at the time. On land, the dog stayed within a five foot radius of his master at all times without needing to be leashed.
Tiny isn’t invisibly leashed by love like Willie is, but she’s very devoted. She’s not fond of baths, not liking to be fully immersed in water, but when we’ve taken her to the beach with us, she’s voluntarily taken to the water whenever we have to make sure we don’t leave her behind.
When I’m working at home in the evenings, she’ll lie down over my feet (which can’t be more comfortable than her bed, which comes complete with stuffed toys and a huge pillow, just a couple of feet away from my desk). She does the same for my husband. If we sit on the floor or on one of the couches, we’ll immediately find ourselves with a lapful of happily wriggling dog, and she makes sure she’s always the first to greet us when either of us get home from work, from the grocery, from walking in the garden—from just about anywhere.
And while some may say that is canine nature, not love, I say, bah humbug! And perhaps I can’t encapsulate the little everyday acts Tiny does to show me she loves me in a single blog post, but I know it’s true—and if you’ve met her, so do you.
For updates on Tiny’s adventures, check her out on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tiny.tangerine
Photos by Liana Smith Bautista, Alen Buenaflor, and Joel Bartolome
