The Pettiness and Spite of Book Writing + A Playlist

Manila Takes Manhattan is out today! As celebratory and cake-having as I feel, I wanted to acknowledge the two things that really pushed me to change this book and make it the version it became.

Pettiness and Spite. :D

What motivates an Earth sign more than that, right? A lot of this book talks about frustration with the world around you—the way people voted, the way people treat you and make you feel small. The way they completely dismiss you until you’re worth their time because, ‘wow suddenly she’s published worldwide!’ when her books were always available worldwide. Wow, you can do this? Yes I can. And I have!

It’s a lot of that. And the fun thing about writing with pettiness and spite is that you get to create a world where someone acknowledges that spite and says, ‘oo nga, it’s wrong,’ or ‘oo nga, that sucks.’ It’s freeing. And you get the chance to kind of laugh at the little things you write to make yourself feel better. So here we are. A book that took several years to write, a year to publish. I couldn’t be happier with the way it turned out.

I want to say I poured my heart into this one, but really, it was more of a surrender. Leaving it all on the page and saying, "bahala ka na batman,” and just…letting go. Whatever anyone says, I did this thing! I’ve been wondering all this time what pushes me in writing books, and it’s really just this.

So if you see it, if you feel it, if bato bato sa langit natamaan ka, well. Just know that I can’t hear you from over here :) Good luck to you.