#RomanceClass author Tara Frejas organized a series of virtual panels and author events for #BuwanNgMgaAkdangPinoy. I participated in an Author AMA (Ask Me Anything) during my birthday last week and I’ve compiled the questions and answers in this post for anyone who missed it.
You can find the original twitter thread here!
I’m Chi Yu Rodriguez, author of No Two Ways and three other books that you can find in this thread. I am a demibisexual Filipina, dog mom, emotional photographer, and Kpop fan. My favorite number (lol) is 13 and I feel happy when I see anything orange. 😉
Are you still with me? Great! Let’s start with the questions.
Oh man… uh… I’ve been asked this many times 😶 I actually planned for their book right after The Bye Bye Bouquet, because I love them as much as a lot of you do. But since I wrote Geoff as a Marine, writing him as a full-fledged LI will require knowledge that I do not have. I’m willing to do the research of course! It’s all just a matter of… do I think I can write it? When I can confidently answer that question with a “yes”, then it’s happening. Sometime in the future, maybe!
I’ve hit this wall multiple times but I never know exactly how I got myself out every single time. I do think that what I’ve learned is… when I don’t put too much pressure on myself, or when I tell myself it’s okay to fail or that it doesn’t have to be perfect ~right now, it does a lot to keep me from being paralyzed by fear—which is the primary cause of my slumps.
I also think it’s good to have an encouraging community like #RomanceClass. Talking to friends I’ve met here whenever I get to a bad place in my writing helps a ton.
Yes! Punky and Jazz are in the pipeline for the Unboxed Series where book one is No Two Ways. Those who’ve read No Two Ways will know that there was a shout out to them in there… which is actually a hint for what their book will be about. 😬
I started writing first before I got into photography. I was that student in elementary and high school who sent in essays for contests her English teacher signed her up for. I actually started with poetry. There may be a few poems of mine in random poetry collections from the late 90s and early 2000s welp.
As far as fiction goes though, much like a lot of us, I started with fan fiction. NSYNC fan fiction, to be exact. I once wrote an Orlando Bloom fanfic too… even made a Geocities page for it. (YES I’VE BEEN ALIVE THAT LONG.)
I only got SUPER into it when I started writing Kpop fanfic. That’s also where I met people who inspired me to write and helped me get better. (Shout out to Tara Frejas, Rix Forto, and Maddie Tuviera!)
As far as photography goes, I started late. We had photography classes in college and I realized… wow, this is a thing I want to do. And when I had such a fun (though stressful) internship for a fashion studio in my senior year and worked with professional photographers, that was it. I was officially obsessed.
I always joke that I’m just an emotional photographer, but it’s forreal that I don’t consider myself “a real photographer”. I don’t know, impostor syndrome, I guess?
I have the new edition of The Bye Bye Bouquet planned for the 1st quarter of 2020 (re-do), another special ~thing for the 2nd quarter (hihi I’m excited for that one), and the 2nd book in the Unboxed Series for the 4th quarter — follow that one in #OTW2ATTF for mini teasers!
It’s all SUPER random and unpredictable! With No Two Ways, for example. I was just watching a makeover show on Netflix when the entire plot slapped me in the face. I can’t even remember where inspiration from The Bye Bye Bouquet came from, but I do remember it being sudden as well. Music is my little helper when I’m already plotting though. A book playlist is magic!
First of all… I didn’t think I was witty haha but thank you!
I always start my thought process on titles with THE CHEESIEST stuff related to my story. And then I whittle it down to titles that I think are the most catchy and have a better chance of returning good results if people search “[Title] Book” on Google.
Though “searchability” isn’t my number one priority, I do think it’s one small thing I can do to give the book a head start. Which is why I try to make the title unique. The Thesaurus is my best friend and I am not ashamed. 😂
ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS
Just… write it, please! We need your voice. I know it’s scary. I know you feel like you can’t mess this up. I know how TERRIFIED you must be. But if you just start writing… it will feel right!
I actually started with the cover. The opportunity presented itself when we had a shoot with Gab/Rachel/Gio and I thought: I HAD TO SHOOT MY SHOT.
I barely had any time to think about what I wanted them to do because we were running out of studio time. But I gave directions and did the thing. Then Carla de Guzman graciously accepted my cry for help and did the typography.
Because feelings and time constraints, I had to be mindful of the photo choice and cover design to makeup for what I couldn’t zone in on during the shoot. This is a quick diagram of those things:
In my case the cover usually comes during conceptualization, before I even have the word count to back it up. 🙃
I already did my dream shoot:
I mean… I think I do visualize differently, sometimes to a fault because I get carried away. But I’m never sure if I’m able to translate it properly into words. 🙃
Follow #RomanceClass x #BuwanNgMgaAkdangPinoy on Twitter until the end of August for more panels and Author AMAs!