I turn 39 today 🙂 There’s a pandemic going on so this is definitely a cause for celebration—a socially-responsible celebration, of course!

To celebrate my birthday, I’m giving away this set of fun prizes!

Aren’t they the prettiest? ❤️ Read my post for the giveaway details!

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The submission period for Pitch Wars 2020 is right around the corner! Are you excited? Anxious? Excited and anxious? I totally get you’re feeling both. After all, we all want to put our best foot forward.

Fortunately, the Pitch Wars team has put together a lot of resources for you to help lessen the anxious feelings.

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Every once in a while, we writers get inspired with an idea that just wouldn’t let us go. But while writing it down is always totally fine, there are instances when you’ll need to stop and think and ask yourself if this story that you should publish. I’m talking about stories where the point-of-view character is marginalized, and you, the author, don’t share this marginalization.

There are a lot of discussions online about this. Some say it’s okay, while others say it’s not. I can’t speak for anyone else but myself, so here’s what I think! 🙂

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Hello! Welcome to my 2020 Pitch Wars wish list post, where you’ll get to know about me and what Middle Grade manuscripts I’m hoping to mentor this year. Pitch Wars is a mentoring program where published/agented authors, editors, or industry interns choose a writer to guide and help them polish their manuscript till it shines for an agent showcase.

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I know, I know. I need to stop changing my website. 😂

Thing is, I never felt my previous web designs for this author site were “me.” Like, “me as an author.” I kept including stuff that was reflective of me an a web designer / developer too, and that just doesn’t work for my author brand.

Looking back now, I don’t think I really knew as a designer what my author brand was.

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One of the best things about being a 2019 middle grade debut is sharing an on-sale date with wonderful people! In my case, it’s Jess Redman and Mariama J. Lockington 🙂

Since we’re all excited for our upcoming book releases, we decided to have a giveaway for teachers, librarians, and book bloggers in the United States. Logistics make it difficult to open this internationally, but don’t despair! It’s just the start of the year… We’ve got more giveaways coming your way in the next few months! ❤️

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It’s August, and that means it’s the Buwan ng Wika (National Language Month)! For this month, I’m putting this post out as a part of Shealea’s #Augvocacy2018 blog hop.

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Hey there, Pitch Wars Hopefuls. Are you excited for this year’s Pitch Wars? Well, we are. Team Patatas can’t wait to get started!

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I meant to write a New Year post in January, but I just couldn’t bring myself to. You see, 2016 had been great and terrible for me. In writing, I’ve met awesome new friends (waves at my literary soulmate and bad juju repellent), mentors, and critique partners who have made my writing so much better. But my personal life didn’t fare too well. My husband and I also lost family members, both human and creature. I still get choked up every time I think about them, especially my furry little boy Kubrick, who’d been my alter ego for so many years. Thing is, this wasn’t the first time crappier than crap happened to my family. Every time, we managed to pick ourselves up, and somehow be in a-bit-better situation than we were before the crappy stuff happened. It was as if crap 💩 was precursor for something good.

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Let’s interrupt another hiatus! This time, with a book tour 🙂 But this isn’t your ordinary book tour post, mind you. It’s so happened that I don’t just know the author, but I was the one who made the book cover as well! In this post, I’ll tell you as much as I can about my process, and how we eventually got to the cover you’re seeing now.

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