#buqoYA: Finishing a Portrait of Jade

#buqoYA class pic (not a complete one, though) last Feb. 28, 2015. We had cupcakes!

I am a fan of Mina V. Esguerra's workshops. I've only just completed one in the past: #buqosteamyreads. I came away with two short stories, both over 5,000 words.  I tried joining a #romanceclass and a #flirtsteamyreads class but these two are still in draft and outline mode. I'm not sure when I'll finish them because a) life got in the way (yes, excuses, excuses) and b) I already missed the bus. Deadlines are deadlines, after all.

Okay, first of all, what is #buqoYA? It's an online YA (young adult) story writing class moderated by Mina V. Esguerra (with two optional face-to-face classes) sponsored by buqo (a Pinoy digital bookstore, see more below). It started last January 19 and ended last February 28 2015. The goal: finish a story, not less than 5,000 words, based on an assigned trope (trope = a significant or recurrent theme; a motif. In other words, a familiar theme that one can find in literature).

My number one reason for loving writing classes like #buqoYA: I am a working mom. Huh? What does that have to do with writing a story? It just means I'm busy. I have a regular job* and I have two young kids. I do a lot of balancing acts. I need structure to finish anything. I need to be accountable to someone, too (like Mina, for instance). I also especially like the way Mina gives me an assigned trope. It's like fate dealing me a hand (or like life, pretty much!). This kind of structure doesn't clip my creative wings. It actually gives me flight! It's narrow enough to challenge me and yet broad enough to take on any number of characters I can create. I just love this kind of assignment.

Other things that helped: detailed discussions on each trope (I really appreciated the face-to-face class where we got to interact with screenwriters, Chacha Sawit-Esguerra and Anton Santamaria), having team mates to cheer us on (my good friend, Ines Bautista-Yao was a fellow trope mate!), and (this one is new from Mina) challenges along the way to spur us to really think through our stories (and submit on time!).

The result: a story that reached more than 15,000 words. I've called it A Portrait of Jade. It's gone through a lot of draft titles already, from The Color of Complicated to Semi-Precious to, finally, A Portrait of Jade. I have my beta readers to thank: Liana, an editor I trust, Ricky, a friend who also happens to be an artist, and my fellow trope mate, Ines. With all of their input as beta readers, I think the story improved a lot (it was their input that got me editing the existing story and writing another 2,000 words).

So, how did I finish? Apart from loving my main character, Jade, I really wanted to get to the bottom of the story. I wanted to understand how such a talented artist could be so insecure. I really liked how Mina requires all of us to write about a main character who is "not ordinary." It's easy to start with a blank canvas: a Hello Kitty without a mouth, a character that anyone can insert themselves into. So, I liked how I needed to come up with someone who's both interesting and still developing. I honestly thought I wouldn't be able to finish my #buqoYA story. A fellow #buqoYA classmate and I were joking about how we, married (and older!) women, found it easier to write steamy reads versus YA. Teens are hard to figure out! But then, of course, as we wrote, we remembered that we were teens once, too. So, surprise, surprise. I ended up writing something longer than both my #buqosteamyreads stories combined. It helped that I learned stuff from Mina's other classes: 1) writing in acts and scenes (these gave my outline a fixed structure -- more of the acts, I was a bit more flexible with the scenes) and 2) reading from Mina's reading lists (they really help!). 

I'm excited to see my fellow #buqoYA classmates' stories on buqo over the summer! Congratulations to everyone! Thank you, classmates and beta readers! And thank you, Mina! I'm looking forward to finishing more stories under your classes.

*Disclosure: I work for Hand.Interactive, Inc., the company behind buqo, the Pinoy Digital Bookstore and Reading App. I also happen to be a writer. :-)

#1 of 36: Here's to Love, A Review of The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I finished most of this book on a Sunday night (I bought the book on the 8th but I didn't really start reading in earnest until yesterday, the 11th). It was a reading assignment for a YA writing workshop that I'm participating in. I didn't expect all the tears especially because I did a lot of eye rolls at the beginning of the book. At first I didn't get why Oliver, the love interest, was into Hadley, the protagonist. After a while, though, I started enjoying the whole thing. Most of the love story progresses in the air, literally. It's been a fantasy of mine to fall in love on a plane, on a trip abroad, alone. Of course it never happened. This story is probably a proxy.

More than that (the love story), I loved the back story of Hadley and Hadley's broken-up parents (and come to think of it, Oliver's parents too). I, too, can't forgive Hadley's dad for what he did. But I do get that children from a broken home need to move on. I guess that was why I kept crying. It was the father-daughter relationship that really moved me.

Lastly, Oliver grew on me. Well, no really. I just imagine Benedict Cumberbatch's sexy British accent and I'm already half in love with him. Haha! This was a great, light read to start off my 2015. Here's to love!

Note: BTW, if you're wondering what the #1 of 36 means --> I just gave myself a 36-book challenge this year. Now, that might not seem like much but it's going to be pretty busy. I think 3 in a month is already a stretch. Hopefully, I surpass this.

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Standing on The Magical Shoulders of a Giant: A Book Review of Tall Story by Candy Gourlay

Tall Story by Candy Gourlay
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I started reading this book last January, during a children's literature workshop. Then, I got busy. I left my copy in the bathroom and later discovered that my husband finished it ahead of me. What is up with that? He usually doesn't read. But this one he finished. So, I went back to it...and was richly rewarded.

Tall Story, while a young adult novel, is also a lovely novel, period. I'd recommend it for all ages. When my son has graduated from thinner chapter books (he's still in grade one)...this will definitely be in his reading list.

It's about Andi, a young half-Pinay-half-Brit girl who happens to be short but a killer basketball player, and her gigantic (eight-foot) half-brother, Bernardo. This is a story that alternates between Andie's and Bernardo's points of view. I really liked it. It provided a very rich contrast of two worlds brought together by the same mother (and um, basketball).

What I absolutely loved about it was the fantastical description of Bernardo's fictional earthquake-ridden hometown, San Andres. In it, you'll still find anting-anting (magical amulets), witches, werewolves, and the legend of Bernardo Carpio, the giant who saves San Andres from earthquakes but who goes to sleep in the mountains never to be seen again. I love how it ties in to Bernardo leaving one world for another when his mother in the UK claims him. The leap is, indeed, a huge one.

More than anything, it is the growing affection (and later on, love) between brother and sister that becomes captivating and endearing. There's a lot of Pinoy-English humor in it as well as little vignettes about (and tributes to) the Philippines' number one sport, basketball (a sport that isn't popular at all in the UK). I had a wonderful time reading this book.

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