By Izah Morales
INQUIRER.net

BEFORE aspiring writers would need thousands of pesos in order to publish a book.

Today, being published is just a click away. For some, they only need to pay P25 for computer rental.

Blog has revolutionized the way people get published on the Internet. It has opened a window of opportunities to amateurs and professional writers. During the Pistang Panitik at the 29th Manila International Book Fair, literary writers Vlad Gonzales, Marne Kilates, Dean Alfar, Vic Nierva and Sonny Villafania shared their experiences on how they use their blogs and how it helped them promote their literary works.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

A BLOG also lends itself well to fiction and other literary pieces. An interesting example of this is Shiksa from Manila, a series of stories from Brooklyn-based Filipina writer Sophia Romero about a fictional character/online persona named Amapola Gold.

Romero is the author of “Always Hiding,” a 1998 novel whose main character Viola is the daughter of a wealthy Manila socialite who has fled the Marcos regime to live as an illegal immigrant in New York City. Viola’s father, a government official, decides to send Viola to live with her mother in New York to escape the political turmoil, unaware that his daughter plans to bring her mother back to the Philippines.

I haven’t read the book, but the description of Romero’s first novel has certainly piqued my curiosity. For now, I’m glad I’ve stumbled upon the fascinating stories on her blog. By the way, as her blog explains, a “shiksa” is a “term used to describe a woman who is non-Jewish. Usually meant in a pejorative way.”

[Read the rest of this entry »]