Are you familiar with those thin papaerbacks, around 110 pages or so, sold mostly in the Romance section of bookstores? They have catchy, sometimes mushy titles and strange-amusing-sometimes-unbelievable-yet-interesting teasers/plot synopses. They were mostly written by women with cutesy-girly names, and were often devoured by the younger set (read: high school and college students). I never used to read those books. I was raised on the classics, Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys. I even read JD Salinger and The Art of War (blame my parents’ eclectic book collection) before I was ten. I read the Communist Manifesto by age 12 (beats me why we even have that. Haha!), then i discovered Robert Ludlum, Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series and Anne Rice. I “mellowed” down and read John Grisham by the time I was in college. Then I discovered Paolo Coelho even before everyone started quoting him (thanks to my Literature teacher), then Garcia-Marquez, then Margaret Atwood, who I still love to this day. This literary taste “evolution” happened all throughout high school and college. And now that I have worked and now doing post grad, I decided I’d collect books one author at a time. At present, I am completing my Patricia Cornwell / Scarpetta series collection. Up next will be John C. Maxwell, Roald Dahl, CS Lewis, and the only “remotely romantic” author that I love, Meg Cabot. (her “adult” novels are super!)
See, I was never really into the romance genre. Sure, I have a few books by Nicolas Sparks (mostly gifts from friends who wanted me to read something “normal” Haha), but I was never the type who would devour them like cookie dough ice cream, much more want to write my own romance novel. But sometime between college, work and post grad, I was introduced to Filipino romance by a dorm mate. She knows the kind of books I read and slowly introduced me to the local novels, making me read those that were of the romantic-comedy type.
I was skeptical at first because even if I have read Filipino novels, none were in Tagalog. It was strange reading narratives and dialogues in Tagalog with a smattering of English here and there. Okay, confession, I WAS one of those who shun away Tagalog pocketbooks (as they are more popularly called) and there was even a time I made fun of them back in college with friends. We would read out loud the corny titles and giggle like idiots. Well, it was easy to laugh at the genre because the plots were mostly of the Cinderella, poor girl meets rich guy, Romeo and Juliet, really sappy, contrived and bordering on the ridiculous types.
But the one that my room mate made me read was very well-written. The writer was smart and witty, the characters and situations were believable and yet she told the story in such an engaging way that before I know it, I was already done with the book and was asking my room mate for more! I cannot mention the name of the author/s that I read then because they’re from another publication 😉 But those authors’ knack for telling smart, amusing and feel-good romance stories changed my mind about the genre.
Tagalog pocketbooks aren’t so baduy after all.
Even then, that room mate already encouraged me to write. But since I was busy I never had the cahnce to finish a single story. There were probably seven novels that were stashed in my email accounts and I never really gave a thought about finishing them. Then I became very sick, had to quit work to rest, undergo treatments and pretty much follow doc’s advise, and on one time that I just really needed the cash so I won’t miss out on check ups and support my medical expenses, I was encouraged by two dear friends, who were already romance authors from ‘that’ publication, that I try my hand at writing.
Back then (this was a year or so ago), they’ve already started writing for this new publication, which was a new venture of a company that was into distributing second hand books and printing. I took one of my unfiinished stories and began finishing the remaining chapters. I was done within two weeks, and had the result and check two more weeks after. I never really expected the story would get approved. I am very critical of my own writing. But my very first romance novel in Popular Tagalog (about 60-70% Tagalog, the rest in English) made it! Yaya! The only comment and minor revision I had to work on though was.. well, there were more stuff written in english than in Tagalog, so I had to translate some parts. Which, due to my excitement, i was able to finish in about three hours before submitting it again. Hehe 😉
My first book was part of the roster that made up the maiden release of Chapters of the Heart romances. I had two more titles that came out after, another one will be available within the next few days. Two more are already lined up for February, and well, more are coming up.
In many ways, since I am still unable to work because of my poor health, romance writing helped me a lot. It also rekindled my passion for creating and writing stories, which temporarily took a backseat. I didn’t even know I have a few romantic bones in me. And yes, I definitely stayed away from the Cinderella plots. I wouldn’t say there is a particular tyep of story that I am more inclined to write, though. However, I try to make each story as realistic as possible, with just the right touch of humor, and of course, inspiration.
I stay away from graphic sex scenes as well. In fact, my novels don’t have sex sceens at all. At least, not the graphic, explicitly worded type. I have nothing against novels or writers who have those kind of scenes in their novels. It’s just that, it’s something I cannot do. I will leave fiery passionate love scenes to the veterans and really god writers, I guess. I just don;t think i can do a good job writing love scenes. Haha 😉
So there, I write romance novels.Few people know that I do. Or at least, msot don’t really know what my author name is. Or that I am the oen behind ‘that’ author name. Haha. Hey, I guess I would like to keep it that way somehow. Maybe i will “come out” when I already have at least 10 books out in stores, and I know at least 50 people who actually buy my stuff. Aside from my friends 😉
Before "It's All Been Said and Done." 