Friday, May 28, 2010

Now in editing

Finally finished the draft for what I've been calling the "FF Project." It's called Fling Flop, and it's about a 29-year-old girl who goes out with a 24-year-old guy.

The idea for it came from a friend. I wish her the best. :)

Friday, May 21, 2010

Fairy Tale Fail's Google Books page

Oh look! A way to browse pages of Fairy Tale Fail in case Amazon and Smashwords aren't enough for you. Google Books has made the book entirely searchable (handy if you want to know if I used your name in a good/bad way), but not all pages can be read online.

The "Buy this book" link is a bit wonky, though. The only link that really works is the one with Mina V. Esguerra on it, which leads to Smashwords.

Consider me persuaded

I have to admit, I was going through the motions while reading Jane Austen's Persuasion. I've read Pride and Prejudice and Emma recently, and because I tend to see them occurring in the same universe, I became lazy when I read the latest one.

So I was ho-humming through maybe 80% of this novel... and then I got to THAT SCENE. (You know, when Anne and Harville were talking about men and women and Wentworth is writing a letter on the other side of the room.)

Man! It was kilig city from that point on. I'm sorry I doubted you, Jane. You brought so much more out of two people walking (and not even really talking) than I ever thought possible.

Get Persuasion free on Project Gutenberg.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

One More Page's review

So I feel a little weird because I started composing a post about one of the coolest things to happen to me this week, which is Tina M's review of Fairy Tale Fail and My Imaginary Ex at her book blog, One More Page.

And then I remembered that I also, I don't know, participated in the first automated elections in my country's history. I still have indelible ink on my finger! The results were so fast, and each little bit of news was discussed by so many people, it feels like so days ago. Or maybe I'm just all electioned out and my brain is recovering by moving on to other things.

I've decided that this will not be the place for discussing politics though. Instead, this post is a shoutout to Tina, who pointed out a few things that'll surely be helpful for other stuff I plan to write (because at this point I can't really go back and change the published work unless... well I can't). I'm thankful for her review and subscribing to her blog has inspired me to read more already. (How long have I been in the middle of Persuasion? Grrr.)

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Updates - Social media, pages, and reviews

Facebook Page for Mina V. Esguerra. Visit and keep in touch, in case blogging or Twitter isn't your thing. :)

That page came about because I discovered what looks like the beginnings of a community page for My Imaginary Ex on FB. I can't keep up with everything that's happening on social media, it seems, and by the time I stumbled upon this it had been "liked" by 60 people. There are also some similarly-named pages ("Imaginary Ex" and "My Imaginary Ex-Boyfriend").

My Imaginary Ex also received more props this week on LivingSocial courtesy of a new review. Also found a blog that said something really nice, but will find a way to ask permission to repost first. (A comments module isn't chic anymore, apparently!)

More FTF: In theory, Fairy Tale Fail should be listed now in Barnes and Noble and the Apple iBook Store but I can't find it. Am I doing it wrong?

I actually should learn how to work the Barnes and Noble site because we apparently are giving my mom a Nook for Mother's day, and I want to be able to send her books as gifts without adding to the boxes of stuff she tends to keep around. (I hope my sister already gave it -- spoiler!)

Monday, May 3, 2010

My Imaginary Ex 1.0

From @leemejia08
@minavesguerra hi! it'll be lovely if u cud post a story in ur blog abt how u planned 2 start writing 'Ex' til it was published! :D ♥

First of all, I apologize for getting back to you more than a month late. I didn't see your tweet until today. I fail at Twitter! But here I am with a post to make it up to you.

What is now My Imaginary Ex started as a short story I wrote in college. It was about a girl being confronted by another girl who was just so threatened by her, for no real reason. Back then I was experimenting with writing in a very restrained way, so I didn't explain why Girl B was threatened, and I don't think my friends who read it understood what the backstory was until I told them.

So yeah, I didn't do that so well. It's always been on the back of my mind though, wondering how I could tell that story better and when. I got the chance to when Summit Books started publishing chick lit again. I wrote an outline for the plot points, filled in the gaps, and had a draft ready in about a month. And then I was told that they wanted to publish it. And then I signed a contract, and within a few months it was on the bookstore shelves.

OK, so it's not that exciting. But I hope it answered your question. :)