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?

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! 🙂

2. Keep the Faith release!

I missed the actual release, because one of our dogs accidentally bit me in the morning, haha. But the book is out and I am so relieved/happy/excited/nervous. 🙂

As a community development worker, Faith was quite familiar with heartbreak and recovery after all the time she spent on disaster relief missions. So when her five-year relationship ends right before she left for a mission trip to a typhoon-stricken town in Iloilo, she tries not to make a big deal out of it. How can she be broken up about a breakup when she’s with people who literally lost everything?

But now that she’s back, all Faith wants is for her life to go back to normal and have people stop looking at her with pity. Never mind that she still has a lot of questions about the breakup, or that she feels a tiny ache every time her ex comes up in conversations. She’s okay now, and happily distracted by Nico Tamayo, the attractive new guy at work.

With new possibilities in the horizon, Faith thinks she is well on her way to moving on. But when her past comes calling back to her, will all the good things in her present be enough to keep her on the path? Or will she finally learn that there was more to heartbreak and recovery than what she knows?

Purchase links: Amazon | Smashwords | B&N | iBooks |Kobo | Print coming soon!

I’ve also started posting a preview in Wattpad (a bit different from what I posted first, since this one is edited) — so drop by if you want to read the first few chapters. 🙂

Now I have no work in progress, but I know I have to work on Meah’s book because everyone’s asking for her. 😀 I figured out her trope now, and I have her love interest, so yes, we’ll get there!

3. #romanceclass lecture: Romance in Journalism and Media

We had our first lecture months back with musicians and it was so much fun. Mina announced the next one without telling us who the guests will be, except that they’re in journalism/media. We all had an idea who it would be, but we had no confirmation, so all we held onto was hope.

And hope prevailed.

It was a wonderful afternoon of fulfilled dreams and answered prayers (no kidding):

Recap video and feelings here (by Chi Yu Rodriguez):

And here’s a super cute interview by Beauty and the Bookish girls, April and Jothee:

“Is this a great love? You’d do everything for a great love.” /faints

I still have a lot of feelings about all that happened in the past few weeks, so if you see my eyes sparkling, it’s probably from that. Haha! Here’s to using this to finish an outline of the next book. 🙂