Event alert! Filipino-Canadian Book Festival on July 13

| Misc., News

I’m excited to be appearing (virtually!) on a panel at the first Filipino-Canadian Book Festival next month. My event is on Saturday, July 13 at 10.15 am PT. Here are the details: World-building and Cultural Research for Storytelling Join us for this insightful author panel on creating immersive worlds, grounding them in reality, and ensuring cultural sensitivity while introducing innovative elements. Key topics of discussion will include: the process of building intricate and believable worlds; […]

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The Quiet is Loud & old Filipino restaurants

| Food, Myth | Lore | History, The Quiet is Loud

Firstly: Happy Filipino Heritage Month! 🇵🇭 There’s an old-school style of Filipino restaurant called “turo-turo1.” The name is an example of classic Filipino word reduplicating, and stems from the word for pointing at something. They’re often located in strip malls, and the typical feature is their cafeteria-style presentation, all food laid out in warming trays that you point at and someone dishes up for you. They’re also known as “carinderias,” and started out as a

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SFWA Blog: Character Development Lessons From Video Games

| Misc., News, Writing

I’m excited to have the chance to geek out about both character development and video games at the SFWA Blog! In my article “Character Development Lessons From Video Games,” I talk about some of my favourite character-driven fantasy and role-playing video games, and the lessons they taught me in developing characters in my sci-fi/fantasy books. Video games discussed: the Dragon Age series, Skyrim, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (I miss Odyssey SO MUCH).

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Italicized words, and not othering myself in The Quiet is Loud

| The Quiet is Loud

One of my favourite conversations with my editor for The Quiet is Loud went something like this: Me: So, we’re not italicizing the Filipino words, right? Amazing Editor Bryan Ibeas of Invisible Publishing: Fuck no we’re not. I know that the conversation would have gone the same way if anyone else at Invisible were my editor, but hearing Bryan say it, hearing a fellow Filipino give me implicit permission to not other myself in my

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Event alert! Draft Reading Series on May 6

| News, Writing

I’m looking forward to sharing a short reading from my work-in-progress at the Draft Reading Series once again! I had a great time reading at Draft in February 2021, and once again it’ll be a great event with many talented writers. This will be a virtual event happening on Monday, May 6, 2024 from 6:15 – 9pm Eastern Time. It’ll be broken up into three sections of one hour each, and I’ll be reading in

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Filipino & Finnish mythology & folklore in my recent work

| The Quiet is Loud, Writing

To celebrate crossing the midpoint in my science-fantasy novella, I’m sharing the Filipino & Finnish mythology & folklore I’ve incorporated in my work so far, including The Quiet is Loud. Folklore/mythology from the Philippines:⁠ ✦ Nuno sa punso, a nature spirit who takes the form of an old man living in a mound of earth⁠ ✦ Tikbalang, a half-horse, half-human trickster who lives in the forests and mountains ⁠ ✦ Siyokoy, a humanoid sea creature

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science fiction and fantasy writing resources

The top 5 resources I use in writing SF/F novels

| Misc., Writing

In writing my historically-inspired sci-fi/fantasy novels, I’ve noticed a few resources I return to often. These resources might be useful for other SF/F authors, so I thought I’d share them. Let me know if there are any that you use that aren’t on this list! 1) Wiktionary Because so many of the names (both for people and places) I use in my work are based on real languages, Wiktionary is probably my favourite resource. It

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pre-colonial-filipino-history-fantasy-novel-inspiration

Historical inspiration for my fantasy novel: Pre-colonial Philippines

| Myth | Lore | History, Writing | 2 Comments

Twist the Branch (formerly Seeker of the Lost Song) is a historically-inspired fantasy novel merging medieval Finnish & pre-colonial Filipino elements, and I wanted to share two elements of Filipino history I included. Dulang, a low table One of my favourite tidbits from my research is that pre-colonial Filipinos ate at a low table, sitting on the floor. Part of me worries that readers will think “Hey you stole that from Japan!” – but Filipinos

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my most influential authors

My 5 most influential authors

| Misc., Reading, Writing

⫸ (AKA If you like one or more of them you’ll probably find something you like in my work):⁠⫷ ⌯ Robin Hobb: Thoughtful examinations of character and a wide range of relationships. Major events happen in the world but her books feel somehow intimate. Her “Fitz” books were a major inspiration for the tone and characters of Seeker of the Lost Song and its sequel.⁠ ⌯ Kazuo Ishiguro: My biggest influence in “write whatever the

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why-i-left-substack

Why I left Substack

| Misc., Writing

You may have heard that Substack recently came under scrutiny (to say the least) for its position on platforming/making money off Nazis – namely, they don’t see a problem with it. So I want to get out of the Nazi bar. I’ve spent the past few days trying out alternatives to Substack, and I’ve settled on Beehiiv. I’m sure it’s not perfect* but I’ve seen encouraging statements about their position on this sort of thing.

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