Filipino Friday 2014 #2: Have You Ever Wanted to Write a Book?

Catching up on some blog posts. I'm beginning with Filipino Friday #2 that was scheduled last October 24, 2014.

• 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 fulfil this dream? How was your journey from reader to writer? How did you go about getting your book out there?

My desire to write my own books began in high school. I read S.E. Hinton and Judy Blume and dreamed of putting into words my own stories, getting published and seeing my name after the "by" line. It didn't happen until 2011 when a book I co-authored with Dianne de Las Casas was published, Tales of the 7,000 Isles: Filipino Folk Stories, by ABC CLIO in the US. It is not a novel for young adult, but a collection of folk tales. The proposal for the book project came in 2009 after my traumatic experience with Ondoy The book and my experience of writing this along side Dianne de Las Casas is a given grace. I am forever grateful.

By 2013 and 2014, I have published two illustrated storybooks under Lampara Books: Tale of Two Dreams with Bernadette Solina Wolf, My Daddy, My One and Only with Jomike Tejido and Dear Nanay with Liza Flores. Last September, Lampara Books launched my first series for early readers, Start Right Reading Series, Kindergarten Level. Again, I collaborated with Bernadette Wolf on the illustrations and design of the series.

My journey from reader to writer is a long one. I think the journey will never end. Readers will forever read. Writers will always write. The reading and writing connection continues. I have to thank my friends in KUTING (Kwentista ng mga Tsikiting) for accompanying me in the journey.  Other than my writer friends, I remember with fondness the critiquing sessions I spent with the LitCritters, a group of working writers led by Dean Francis Alfar. Writing may be an isolated act, but it should be a social and cultural endeavor as well.

I suppose it is the same with reading. When we talk about the books we read, we develop a deeper understanding of the reading experience.

Book Magic

Rocket Kapre asked for the first (few) line(s) or sentence of my favorite speculative fiction. For the novels in the list, I have taken the beginning line(s) from the first chapter and not the prologue. I would have wanted to include more short stories from anthologies I own but the books are still in boxes in a room where we've not gone back to fix after surviving Ondoy. So, for this exercise, I've culled some from current reads and rereads.

If you read closely, these first lines are all pregnant with possibilities or contain an action waiting to happen. Alfar's beginning for The Kite of Stars presents to us, a history that spans six decades of loving and longing. Some, like Zusak's The Book Theif, Dahl's The Witches, Rowling's Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban and Gaiman's Stardust start with wonder and intrigue. Enough to keep the reader to move further on in the story or novel. Others like Collins' Hunger Games, Hughes' Iron Giant and Niffenegger's The Time Traveller's Wife prepare the reader to the mood and tone of the story.

Beginnings are beautiful things. I go back to these beginnings after reading the last line and then establish connections; create hypothesis; and yes, imagine. Such capabilities that make us truly human. We get that from READING!

And oh! Does it help to say that today is Literacy Day? What a way to celebrate it by blogging about books and the writers who've made them possible. Hurray to the publishers who put them together; the book designers and illustrators who enriched the cultural and artistic value of the book; to the booksellers and the librarians who provide accessibility; and to the reader who will always discover an intimate, if not engaging and enraging, relationship with the author.

Happy Literacy Day, everyone!

The night when she thought she would finally be a star, Maria Isabella du'l Cielo struggled to calm the trembling of her hands, reached over to cut the tether that tied her to the ground, and thought of that morning many years before when she'd first caught a glimpse of Lorenzo du Vicenzio ei Salvadore: tall, thick-browed and handsome, his eyes closed, oblivious to the cacophony of the accident waiting to occur around him.
Kite of Stars
Dean Francis Alfar

First the colors.
Then the humans.
That's usually how I see things.
Or at least, how I try.
The Book Thief
Markus Zusak

Clare: The Library is cool and smells like carpet cleaner, although all I can see is marble.
The Time Traveller's Wife
Audrey Niffenegger

When I wake up, the other side of the bed was cold.
The Hunger Games
Suzanne Collins

In fairy-tales, witches always wear silly black hats and black cloaks, and they ride on broomsticks.
Witches
Roald Dahl

When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton.
The Fellowship of the Ring
JRR Tolkien

The Iron Giant came to the top of the cliff.
The Iron Giant
Ted Hughes

There was once a young man who wished to gain his Heart's Desire.
Stardust
Neil Gaiman

Harry Potter was a highly unusual boy in many ways.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
JK Rowling

You must understand that all of this occurred some thirteen years ago, when I was young still and the Empire had but newly begun its campaign to rid the realm of the Wildness.
EmberWild
Nikki Alfar