My Voice Isn’t Yours — On Audience, Identity, and Don’t Order Adobo if You’re Gonna Judge It Like a Burger

It’s been years since BIPOC writers have heard the call for more diversity, more stories “from the other,” and other marginalized perspectives. And it’s wild how one of the takeaways for many of us is that even when they ask for it, they don’t get it. So many of these “calls for diversity and marginalized …

Narcissism and Survival

I’ve dealt with a lot of narcissists my whole life. An observation I made over the years is how the Filipino culture, and the difficulty of life back home and abroad for the common Filipino, has made narcissism almost a cultural trait. In my school days in Manila, “talent contests” were pretty common–kids who won …

Sneak Peek from Today’s WIP

I won’t make my current WIP a big secret: it’s the third installment to the Blackwood Marauders series of action-packed fantasy standalones. I tend to write the Blackwood Marauders novels as palate cleansers between heavy projects. They’re fun, action-filled fantasies (the old term was sword and sorcery), and they used to be these pulpy, plot-driven, …

What Self-Publishing Looks Like in 2023

I sometimes can’t believe I’ve been on this grind for at least six years. Six years ever since I started taking my self-publishing journey seriously. Six years ever since I burned all the ships, so to speak, and said goodbye to my engineering career so I could focus on writing full-time, with no guarantees that …