#FeelsFest2026 recap: A decade (plus) of feeling things

I was updating my website earlier (look at my updated books page yay), and in the process, I looked back at old entries from years ago and found my first-ever #FeelsFest recap almost ten years ago.

The images are gone because I used Instagram instead of uploading photos, and some of the accounts I linked are gone, but still, there are some cute photos, plus all my feelings. Coincidentally, the first #FeelsFest was also after I released Keep the Faith, and the first-ever live reading from that book, and now, ten years later, we’re still doing all of these things.

But yeah, last weekend was #RomanceClass #FeelsFest2026, held at Greek-to-Go Taverna. Originally, FeelsFest happened in October, but we moved it to August this year so it’s six months after Kilig Cafe, and we get to do it all before the Manila International Book Fair.

I said I wasn’t going to do anything for this year’s FeelsFest because I released and launched Meah in February, and I was pretty sure I was done releasing books this year. It was, however, Keep the Faith‘s tenth year, so the plan was to think of something special to celebrate that instead.

Apparently, the special thing to celebrate the 10th anniversary of my book…was to release another book. Well then.

But there, I launched Where It All Begins during FeelsFest last Saturday, plus a cute new edition of Keep the Faith with an art insert by Shai San Jose (because why not!).

Funny story – I only brought a little over half my stock of the new book, counting the ones who had reserved a copy from me through social media. I didn’t think that I’d run out of copies because…well, one, it’s just a small book; and two, technically, I’ve only been “back” as an author this year, so I’ve been seeing this as my re-debut year, so you know, let’s be conservative and all that. Surely, I wouldn’t run out of copies.

Then, around two hours into the event, I was, indeed, out of copies of my latest book. Ooops. I had to get the rest of my copies delivered, and even then, I went home with just one copy left. The same thing happened during Kilig Cafe, where I didn’t bring all my copies of Meah and then sold out by the end of the day. Maybe I should stop underestimating myself and the readers, ano?

But I wasn’t the only one who celebrated a milestone last Saturday! We were pretty busy in 2016, and a lot of us released books that year, including Iris After the Incident by Mina V. Esguerra, If the Dress Fits by Carla de Guzman (look at that new cover!), Scandalized by Tara Frejas, Beginner’s Guide: Love and Other Chemical Reactions by Six de los Reyes, Another Word for Happy by Agay Llanera, Plain Vanilla by Ines Bautista-Yao. And these are just the books that celebrated last weekend—there were more released in 2016. No wonder my reading list in 2016 was mostly #RomanceClass books. ♡

The other special thing, besides all the special things that happened last weekend like seeing friends from my different groups at #FeelsFest2026, was my best friend debuting as a romance author! I’ve known Toni since we were kids, and we’ve written so many stories side by side—starting from Animorphs fanfics to scripts for school (he wrote this awesome Ibong Adarna script in freshman high school for our Filipino finals that expanded on the story) to original stories. Our writer lives sort of diverged when I went to books, and he explored movies, until he joined #RomanceClass again and finished a story. I kept bugging him to publish, to just get it out, and we are finally here! I’m so proud of him and so excited for everyone to read his debut! Follow him at @tonireadsandwrites on Instagram, and his book, Signal No. Us will be available for pre-order next month. 🙂

Mina mentioned how #RomanceClass had been around long enough to see readers turn into authors, and I realized while reflecting on the past weekend that I was one of those, too. I remember saying back then that as much as I loved writing, I was happy to stay a reader and I’d never publish any of the stories I had written. And then I joined the first batch of #RomanceClass in 2013, and at first I still held on to the I-will-never-publish belief, until I saw how fun it seemed when my batchmates published…so I changed my mind and decided to try it out myself. And now I’m here! How fun. (I made a reel about this last year to follow a trend hehe)

It’s fascinating to see how #RomanceClass has grown since then, and how we have made friends and made things happen while having all the feels 13 years later. I couldn’t ask for a better group of people to grow with as a writer—and yes, still as a reader, because we never really let go of our reader selves even as we published our books—and I love how we are still growing and trying out new fun things that are always full of feels and kilig, all because we love to do it, and we like doing it together. 🙂 What a gift.

So what am I up to next? I will be at the Manila International Book Fair but only to hang out and browse, but some of my books will be available at the Komiket booth. We will have more Kilig Cafe Tambay Tours, so make sure to follow #RomanceClass on social media for the schedule and details. I am definitely not launching any more books this year, but I have something lined up for early next year. Two things, actually, but I need to start writing the other one to make it on time. 😉

And before I end this long blog, let me leave you with the live reading of Where It All Begins at #FeelsFest! Featuring Jade Albert as Faith (always my Faith heehee) and Migs Almendras as Nico (reprising his role from 9 years ago!), video by Ron Lim. Watch out for the oh my god at the first French Fries!

Keep the Faith is still on sale at $0.99 until 8/31, and Where It All Begins is available now, and on more retailers! More details here. 🙂