Hi guys! I got a nifty new feature for you today. All of my web stories will now be available for download through Bookfunnel as epubs, mobi, or pdfs. So for any of you who would like the chance to read my stories but don't like reading through the web, you can now get a copy to put on your eReader.

My favourite genre is fantasy, but like most people, I too have some issues with my fave. Like they all say, nothing is perfect, right? So today, I'll go over some tropes or concepts or common occurrences that I see in this genre that aren't really my cup of tea. It doesn't mean that these are bad or that the authors who employ these in their stories aren't skilled. I can even understand why these concepts make sense in certain contexts or might appeal to some readers. But they just don't work for me.

It's a little difficult having a birthday in the first week of the new year. Nothing puts your life in perspective and under a microscope than having family gatherings or virtual catch-ups during the last two weeks, and a mainstream culture that hammers the importance of new year's resolutions. Admittedly, it only became difficult after I finished school. Suddenly the next steps people are anticipating from me seem largely out of my control or things I just don't feel ready for. I've come to face my birthdays with some trepidation, nervous about the next year where nothing might change for the better or everything might change for the worse.

I stumbled upon an author website a couple of months ago, one that has a personal blog that's surprisingly regularly updated. The author writes a hodgepodge of things, from free short stories to her writing process, and even introspective accounts of how she's handling the pandemic. I couldn't help but feel like I was sitting down and having a cup of tea with her, this stranger whom I don't know, but was able to put me at ease during a day when I felt a bit overwhelmed.

The short version? It was extremely difficult, much more challenging than I assumed it would be at the outset. More times than I am proud to say, I wanted to abandon the project altogether. How many people will read a Filipino high-fantasy story anyway? How much time and effort am I wasting working on something few people will read, when I could be working on a new story in English? These thoughts often crossed my mind.

If you follow me on Tumblr, I've posted about my current WIP twice, although they're both just small sneak peeks. On this blog, I mentioned the idea for this WIP in a previous post, but it was still in the very early stages of ideation. So here's an entire post that hopefully gives a better introduction of Metalmade.

For a long time, I've touted that my stories are geared towards middle-grade readers and above. However, because of tougher regulations for online privacy, I've decided to no longer market my stories to younger audiences.

I'm always on the lookout for new things to try to improve my writing skills and my process. I follow blogs by other writers or editors who like to share advice on these topics, and I have to admit, they're usually a hit or miss for me. Some worked well, others were frustrating to implement from the start. I want to share some of my experiences, and why some advice worked for me while others did not.

I'm going to skip my usual monthly books review, and dedicate an entire post to my favourite series, The Queen's Thief by Megan Whalen Turner. The last book, Return of the Thief, came out last Tuesday, and it took me a record of 1.5 days to finish it.

At the beginning of the month, I sat down and started the first ever Tagalog draft of my story, The Malicious Wind. In the last year, I've been trying to hone my Tagalog skills by reading a lot more in this language. So while I didn't think the translation process would be smooth sailing, I thought I could churn out perhaps a chapter a night of translations.