#MORELOVEINPH: ROMANCE WRITERS OF THE PHILIPPINES' 1ST MULTI-AUTHOR ONLINE BASH

#MoreLoveInPH: Romance Writers of the Philippines’ 1st Multi-Author Online Bash

We all talk about supporting local authors, but finding authors we enjoy reading who have books available to us can sometimes be a challenge. The writers behind Romance Writers of the Philippines have recognized the difficulty facing many authors today, whether traditionally or independently published, and they formed the organization with the goal of “working toward better written, better edited, better produced, and better marketed romance novels by Pinoy writers.”

To this end, the org will be hosting a party in honor of some of its member writers, and they’re inviting anyone who wants to read more romance by Filipino authors and discover new authors to follow to come join in the fun!

Here are the party details:

What: #MoreLoveInPH: Romance Writers of the Philippines’ 1st Multi-Author Online Bash

When: Saturday, June 27 (10AM-9PM), and Sunday, June 28 (10AM-9PM)

Where: bit.ly/MoreLoveInPH

Here’s what participants can expect to do the bash:

• Learn about and interact with local romance authors (authors will be doing one-hour takeovers throughout the weekend)
• Join contests for bookish freebies—one author is giving away a free ebook for every person who comments during her takeover!
• Support local authors! Writers don’t always get as much love as you should, so it’s great if you just drop by and tell them how intrigued you are by the book you just learned about or even how much you enjoyed a book of theirs that they read! RWP will also be sponsoring random giveaways for participants who invite their friends and who are active during the weekend-long event.

Not sure how to join? It’s easy! Just follow these three steps:

1. Visit the Facebook event page for #MoreLoveInPH: bit.ly/MoreLoveInPH.
2. Confirm that you’re going to the event by clicking on “Join”
3. On the days of the event, drop by the event page—authors will be posting ice breaker games (with giveaways to be raffled off to commenters), info on where to follow them and on their latest books, and more!

Optional: Invite your friends to join the party too! Then on the morning of June 27 or anytime during the course of the event, have them nominate or vote for you for the top inviter on RWP’s post—top inviters will get swag and GCs!

And just to give you an idea of who will be participating in the bash, check out the takeover schedule below:

Saturday, June 27

10AM-11AM Romance Writers of the Philippines (Kick-Off)

11AM-12NN Ines Bautista Yao

Author of One Crazy Summer, What’s in your Heart, Only a Kiss, “Flashbacks and Echoes,” “Plain Vanilla,” and “A Captured Dream” (from Sola Musica: Love Notes from a Festival)

12NN-1PM Cassandra Javier

Author of The Path of Us

1PM-2PM Fay Sebastian

Author of “Waiting for Whatever”

2PM-3PM Carla de Guzman

Author of Cities and Marry Me, Charlotte B!

3PM-4PM Edith Joaquin

Author of Once Upon A Dream, Heracles Marasigan, Ace Crisostomo, Love In Disguise, A Piece of Heaven, Ikaw Pala Ang Minahal, Patunayan Mong Mahal Mo Ako, and Kuwentong Pag-Ibig Lang

4PM-5PM Bianca Mori

Author of In too Deep, Tame the Kitten, and One Night at the Palace Hotel

5PM-6PM Claire Du

Author of Heart Choices and “He Loves Me...Not?” from Kids These Days: Luna East Volume 1

6PM-7PM C. P. Santi

Author of Be Careful What You Wish For

7PM-8PM Ana Tejano

Author of Fall Like Rain

8PM-9PM Chrissie Peria

Author of All’s Fair in Blog and War, The Kitchen When It Sizzles, All I Want for Christmas (with Chris Mariano and Miles Tan), Hot Like This (with Chris Mariano and Miles Tan), “Sitting in a Tree” from Kids These Days: Luna East Volume 1

Sunday, June 28

10AM-11AM Miles Tan

Author of Finding X, All I Want for Christmas (with Chris Mariano and Chrissie Peria), Hot Like This (with Chris Mariano and Chrissie Peria), “Something Real” from Kids These Days: Luna East Volume 1

11AM-12NN Marian Tee

Author of My Werewolf Professor, the Moretti and Caro novels, the Greek Billionaire Romance serials, the Brimstone & The Master and His Soul Seer Pet series, the Boys with Billion-Dollar Trust Funds (BBFS) series, the Heart Racer Books, and more

12NN-1PM Eve Montelibano (Official)

Author of the Megastar trilogy (Megastar, Stargazer, Written in the Stars), Sweet Downfall (Boxed set including Sex, Lies and Video Tape and Two World Collide), and The Billionaire and the Pop Diva series (Drive Her Crazy, Drive Him Wild)

1PM-2PM Kristel S. Villar

Author of Blast from Two Pasts, “The Rumor About Me” from Kids These Days: Luna East Volume 1, “Barely Even Friends”

2PM-3PM Mina V. Esguerra

Author of Playing Autumn, Fairy Tale Fail, Sola Musica, Welcome to Envy Park, Love Your Frenemies, That Kind of Guy, My Imaginary Ex, No Strings Attached, the Interim Goddess of Love trilogy, the Young and Scambitious series, The Harder We Fall, Never Just Friends, and more

3PM-4PM Six de los Reyes

Author of Just for the Record and After the Moment

4PM-5PM A.S. Santos

Author of SPRG (Student Paranormal Research Group) trilogy: Voices in the Theater, Corpse in the Mirror, and Darkness in the World

5PM-6PM Racquel Sarah Castro 

Author of When Fate Speaks Big Time and Second Sight to Forever

6PM-7PM Stella Torres

Author of Save the Cake and “Be Creative” from Kids These Days: Luna East Volume 1

7PM-8PM Angela Pangilinan

Author of The Gift of Love, Hanggang Wakas, The Only Exception, Nang Muling Umibig Ang Puso, and When You Say Nothing at All

8PM-9PM Romance Writers of the Philippines (Last Hurrah)

Book review: Before Ever After

Title: Before Ever After

Author: Samantha Sotto

Page Count: 296

Rating: 4 stars

Book synopsis:

Three years after her husband Max's death, Shelley feels no more adjusted to being a widow than she did that first terrible day. That is, until the doorbell rings. Standing on her front step is a young man who looks so much like Max; same smile, same eyes, same age, same adorable bump in his nose; he could be Max's long-lost relation. He introduces himself as Paolo, an Italian editor of American coffee table books, and shows Shelley some childhood photos. Paolo tells her that the man in the photos, the bearded man who Paolo says is his grandfather though he never seems to age, is Max. Her Max. And he is alive and well.

As outrageous as Paolo's claims seem; how could her husband be alive? And if he is, why hasn't he looked her up? Shelley desperately wants to know the truth. She and Paolo jet across the globe to track Max down; if it is really Max and along the way, Shelley recounts the European package tour where they had met. As she relives Max's stories of bloody Parisian barricades, medieval Austrian kitchens, and buried Roman boathouses, Shelley begins to piece together the story of who her husband was and what these new revelations mean for her "happily ever after." And as she and Paolo get closer to the truth, Shelley discovers that not all stories end where they are supposed to.

Book review:

Upon reading the first chapters of the book, I was excited on what will happen next because a lot of questions were built in my mind already about the mystery of Max’s life. When I reached half the book, I felt confused and it seems that things got mixed up in my mind. It’s like I’m time travelling with time then and now. After finishing the book, I was still a little confused because some things are still not clear but the ending was good. Max returned to the place where he valued so much because of Shelley, and then they meet again. Maybe I’d read the book again, to make things clearer. Just like watching movies, if I don’t understand some parts on the first time I watch it, I would watch it again to apprehend things more.

Most parts of the story were told in flashbacks, and each one reveals a new aspect of the mystery about Max. In the middle of reading, there are times that I wanted to stop, but when I stop, questions kept on popping in my head on what will happen next and what really happened to Max. I think the connected lives of the characters, and the time travels are the author’s way of keeping the readers guessing until they finished reading the book. So for me, I don’t need anything that the author could have done to make things more clear. I appreciated her style.

After reading the book, I have changed some of my perspectives in life. I realized that life is really short, whether we are immortal or not. Some things happen so fast that sometimes we feel like they really never happened at all. People come and go in our lives. There are people that we want to stay longer, but they go immediately and the ones that we don’t want to have are the ones who stay. Sometimes, they were like magic – it happens in a blink of an eye. So we need to appreciate every little thing that happens in our lives.

*Among filipino authors, I only read the works of Bob Ong. But when I came upon this book by Samantha Sotto, I  suddenly felt love for other filipino authors so from now on, I'll start buying Filipino novels as well.