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Hype man

Let me tell you all about how I installed Instagram to promote my novel during the Philippine Book Festival 2025 and how I quickly descended back into scrolling hell like it was yesterday. Sneaky motherfucker! Well, that was the long and short of it. I still need to schedule maybe 10 posts for the month on IG and FB just to keep things fresh and on people’s minds but otherwise it had been fun…

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~ah yes 287 words, how beautiful~

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We won't talk about today

We’ll just write about it. Mondays are historically stressful, and I feel like my body has some hardwired resistance at having to be on for work, or for anything outside its own desires. Today’s big R resistance was so large, both for writing and working, that I let my period migraine (a fact of life at this point) take over. I took a half-day leave to stare into nothingness and marinate in my…

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Sandwich routines and old-school blogs

I woke up later than desired today, but I’m still reeling from the monthly blood bath so I say it doesn’t count. I made myself a sandwich I’ve been timing to make in the shortest amount of time. I’ve been fixated on it for two weeks now. [Skip to the next bracket pair if you don’t want to read me talk about how I make a sandwich] First I turn on the air fryer at 200 degrees for 5 minutes,…

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Where I Read

My scrolling addiction has made reading for pleasure like getting a puppy to sit still for a photo. I’ve been calling it a scrolling addiction now, because even if I have tools to lock myself out of Instagram or YouTube now I still mesmerize myself doing the mindless scroll in discussion boards (no, not Reddit) and search results. But I can’t buy a new fiction book if I don’t finish at least five…

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ダンダダン is funny, gorgeous, and quite possibly epic

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Time for the big guns

I got all the achievements in Baldur’s Gate 3, some not so honourably (thanks, No Party Limit mod), but I needed to push it to the max to get a semblance of completion so I can say I’m more or less done with it. I’ll write about the experience at some point, these are busy times. Christmas is coming, which is a notorious time for people left behind by dead relatives or according to societal…

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Metro Tarak Organ Scouts in Washington Square Review 52

Hello, fellow readers! My first speculative fiction short story Metro Tarak Organ Scouts is out now at Washington Square Review. This story is very hustlers be hustling in a future Philippines where selling organs is where it’s at. You’ll meet Kap, who will do anything to achieve “the good life” and Bok, who speaks organ, and who may or not be key to said “good life.” This was a story that first…

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In which I stream again and finally get somewhere

Story-wise, at least. It’s so gratifying to have that moment where I randomly backread the previous session’s output to reorient myself because I was stuck at one point in the current session only to find out I had already thought about the answer that time except I didn’t remember anything from the previous session! I think this current project has to be in English because I’m going to throw…

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Scrolling detox update and new stream in which I hemmed and hawed

One hour of writing, by the end of it, feels insufficient, but I swear the first ten to fifteen minutes feel like early morning Mass. I do have to make better plans so I can do 2-hour sprints again (or more). I just haven’t been able to wake up wake up these days. I mean, I feel a little clarity today and I know it has something to do with being forced to walk at least 5 thousand steps back from…

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Bagong sulatin

Went to the doctor today and immediately felt my symptoms settle down a bit, effectively gaslighting myself so it felt like I was exaggerating everything I was feeling. Doctor was able to chalk some of it to post-Covid gland swelling, so we’re just going to wait for a bit for the symptoms to either disappear or worsen with the week. Strangely, I found myself compelled to stream because I felt…

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Look who's streaming (Day 2)

Still wonky on the lighting pero madaming narating writing-wise in fairness kapag hindi mo “focus” ang writing (kasi focus ko na makapag-focus dahil nagsi-stream) mas playful ang approach ko sa pagsusulat. Ang weird! Parang that quote about that sideways pursuit of happiness. Baka magstream sa YouTube at Twitch nang sabay kapag sanay na. Hindi ko rin alam kung bakit, hindi na’ko nagtatanong…

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42nd National Book Awards Finalist (Best Novel in Filipino) ang Hoy, Pong!

(Ang featured image ay galing sa pagbating post ng Avenida Books.) Ayus! Napasali ang nobela kong “Hoy, Pong!” bilang finalist sa kategoryang Best Novel in Filipino ng 42nd National Book Awards ng National Book Development Board–Philippines at Manila Critics Circle. Nasa 326 na libro ang na-nominate (sabi ng GMA news online), at kung tama ang bilang ko, nasa 120+ ang finalists across 4…

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Look who's streaming

Posting my first and ugly test stream here to figure out if I like doing it after a few weeks. Don’t watch it, the audio sucks and I cough a lot in it. I’m not exactly aural but even I got very annoyed by both my voice and the keyboard sounds. Some new mic is coming tomorrow so maybe that’ll help. I hope there’s some auto-audio tuner out there somewhere because no way in hell am I ever going to…

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Things I learned from reading for Escape Pod

I wrote about my time reading for Escape Pod.

I’ve learned by being in writing discussion groups that have pro (authors who’ve been paid market rates in exchange for the right to publish their stories on a venue) writers in them (who don’t know me) that submitting to venues is a super important part of getting published. I say that without cheekiness, because for the longest time part of me unconsciously thought that someone is simply going…

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Hoy, Pong! is out in the world

Makikilala niyo na sina Dante, Raya, Keebs, at Pong! So excited for you. Matagal kong tinrabaho ang “side project” na ‘to at inilaban ang mga minutong makapagsulat kahit madaming distractions sa buhay. Ang nobela ko ay nasa young adult category at maituturing na urban fantasy. Tungkol ito sa dalawang college student noong taong 1999, na matapos umahon mula sa ilog para sagipin ang isang batang…

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"Hoy, Pong!" will have inside art!

Hello, I’m in Dublin! I’m on the ground floor of my new digs. There’s squirrels or maybe chipmunks (I haven’t researched yet), this black bird with a white tummy and a royal blue tail, and this chunky maya-looking bird with the red-orange chest. And there’s trees and shrubs and a walkway people from the other wing pass through every now and then, freaking me out sometimes, but it’s been great…