Behind the Scenes of Blooming Love
I have always, always wanted to write a cozy witch romance. I could feel it in my soul that it was there somewhere for me, but it took me ~years to decide how to do it. It was brought from the two opposing forces in my life—my favorite witchy movies and shows being so amazing in comparison to extremely lackluster cozy witch romances I had read. Good for the other girlies, that they can just throw in mythologies from every which (witch?) place. But as a Filipino who knows to wear stripes for New Year (for money!), I knew the decision to write a cozy witch romance wasn’t going to be easy.
There’s the burden, I think, for a Filipino to be able to full understand their own mythology. We are raised on stories. We move around our cities based on stories and where you know places to be. It’s a little scary to decide to just throw romance into the pot. Eh ano bang alam ko diba.
But others have done it, and really well! My biggest inspiration for this was Mina V Esguerra’s Interim Goddess of Love, one of my favorite YA books that delve into Philippine mythology without getting too lost in it. The entire first book of the trilogy is free to read on Wattpad here, and I highly recommend it, if you’ve enjoyed Blooming Love. I grew up watching Practical Magic and reading Sarah Addison Allen (Garden Spells was one of my gateway books into romance), and going back to those, breaking down what I enjoyed about them, really gave me the boost to write.
Cover studies for Blooming Love. Babs got it right away, I think!
One of my goals in releasing Blooming Love was to make it the prettiest book I had ever made, and I am so happy that the stars aligned and that I got to work with Alyssa Babasa (the increadible babsilog_ on Instagram). She was actually the first person to read the first draft of the book, and I think that’s one of the big reasons why I feel so happy with how it turned out! The exact plants and the little references, the touch of Bas’ hand on Ana’s cheek. Ugh. Beautiful.
And the rest of the illustrations were just supporting characters to Babs’ art, really. One of the things I took away from this, I think, is that I really like working with artists that I love. It’s been such a joy being able to have their work on the covers of my books. Filipino artists that can express what you wanted, without having to resort to trite, token symbols, who knew it was possible.
Who knows if I have another cozy witch romance book in me? For now, we have Blooming Love, and the magic in the lands of the Batangas mountain regions. We will have to see where the magic takes us next.