2016

#FeelsFest Recap: Here, have my feelings

So it’s been a week and a day since #FeelsFest happened, and I think I’m coherent enough to do a recap.

Soon after we finished our super exhausting and successful time at the Manila International Book Fair, it was time to get started preparing for #FeelsFest. No rest for the feelings, as we said. We’ve known about #FeelsFest even before #FeelsRushIn happened, and we figured we can make this bigger, so it was bigger. Unfortunately, work came rushing in as well in the weeks leading to this (busy with a side of crazy, involving a multi-country project launch, haha), but because all things in #romanceclass are pretty much made with (so much) love, more volunteers stepped in to make the event a success.

This is my fourth feels event (fifth, if you count ReaderCon last year, sixth if you count the first time we all gathered for the live readings), and let me tell you two things I learned that day.

1. Make sure you attend the event with a full stomach.

Eat, have a snack, or all things. During #AprilFeelsDay, #FeelsRushIn, and #AllTheFeels, I remember having a meal right before the event started. A good, full meal, because I knew I wouldn’t be able to eat until it ends. This time, though, I had to do some family things before I could go to the venue, so when I arrived at Glorietta, I was starving. You know the kind of hunger that you just know you need to eat something, anything, and you went to the wrong direction of the mall and all you saw was an ice cream shop (when there’s actually a Starbucks and Family Mart on the other side of the mall) so you just decided to get a cone? Yes, that. I ended up running entirely on sugar the rest of the afternoon, which wasn’t really bad, except I felt like I was partly incoherent. Haha.

(Or you know, it could be just the feelings that happened right after.)

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So yes, carbs are your friends, you need carbs before a feels event. 😀 And you would need carbs for the live reading, seriously.

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Review: Songs to Make You Stay by Jay E. Tria

SONGS TO MAKE YOU STAY by Jay E. Tria Published on October 9, 2016 Genre: Contemporary Romance Goodreads | Amazon Love isn’t supposed to be this hard. Now that he’s finally won Jill, the girl who’s always rocked his world, you’d think life would be heaven on earth for Shinta Mori. In a way, it is. But maybe he’s underestimated the fact that he’s a hunky movie star in Japan while his girl is ruling the indie music scene all the way in Manila. When he spends a long-awaited vacation with her–through impromptu performances, frenzied flyer distribution, and unhinged radio guestings–he… Read More »Review: Songs to Make You Stay by Jay E. Tria

Blog Tour: Scandalized – Interview with Tara Frejas

I read Scandalized by Tara Frejas a few months back and really enjoyed it despite my lack of knowledge of anything K-Pop. I loved the strong main character and the dashing love interest, and I especially loved one of the band members, Minchan. *pinches cheeks* Scandalized is on a blog tour (just like a real band, yay!), and one of its first stops is here! For this stop, I had the chance to interview author Tara Frejas about her latest book. Check it out: What’s your main inspiration for Scandalized? Back in 2007, I’d written my first piece of KPop fanfiction (published online via… Read More »Blog Tour: Scandalized – Interview with Tara Frejas

#romanceclass x MIBF 2016 + #AllTheFeels

Around this month a year ago, I was hanging out with some friends at the Manila International Book Fair, chatting about books and author stuff when we heard some massive screaming from readers (yes, readers!) in the convention hall for some event. We started making jokes about how we want the same thing, too, but how will we get our scream factor? Where do we get our scream factor? Maybe men with abs? (Two weeks later, we figured it out.) Who would have thought it would be possible after a year? 🙂 I never even dreamed of this (until I… Read More »#romanceclass x MIBF 2016 + #AllTheFeels

Where I attempt to encapsulate my feelings in the past weeks

It’s raining here in Manila now, and I am working from home because I tried heading to work but faced atrocious rainy-day traffic. Thank goodness for remote access, yes?

So many things happened in the past few weeks! Let’s recap:

1. #FeelsRushIn

I had a blog post for this but I’ll just put it here. #romanceclass was scheduled to have our next feels day on October after we were invited by Ayala Malls, so we were planning for that until Mina told us that we were invited to have one on July 23. We found out about it on July 13. Ten days to prepare? Easy, right?

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Well, we pulled it off. Actually, they pulled it off more because I was deep in school work back then, so all I could do was do my share of posting about it online. Right after my last defense for school (yas!), I went to Trinoma and here we go, feelings! Video recap below by Chi Yu Rodriguez.

There was live reading, too, of course! No Gio or Rachel or Jef, but we had a new reader, Migs, who was also one of the models for @romanceclasscovers. Herv and Salve performed When Cocoy Became Kikay by C.P. Santi (there was a part when we were all giggling with kilig when Herv read a part, and we totally ship #Alvarosa, hihi),  and Only a Kiss by Ines Bautista-Yao. Migs and Salve performed The ByeBye Bouquet by Chi Yu Rodriguez (“You look amazing.” *squee*), What About Today by Dawn Lanuza, and No Strings Attached by Mina V. Esguerra.

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It was a fun afternoon! And it proved that we can mobilize these things even with limited time. High five! If you missed this, don’t worry — we have another one in October. Block this date on your calendar: October 22, Glorietta 5. You don’t want to miss this! 🙂

Read More »Where I attempt to encapsulate my feelings in the past weeks