Writing Again!!!

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I'm pretty hopeful, folks. After a long bout of depression (with no guarantee against a relapse), I have begun writing again.

The depression was brought about by my parents' passing within a year of each other - my Dad in May last year and my Mom in May this year. Recovery is still a work in progress but at least I am being productive again.

I found myself shying away from writing my Filipino romance novels. I'm in no mood to create romantic scenes, I guess. It's a blessing in disguise, though, because I finally plunged into the new field I have always been wanting to explore - speculative fiction. And in English.

Speculative fiction excites me these days. It opens up unlimited possibilities and stretches the imagination. And writing in English is my attempt to contribute to the improvement of our country's English literacy levels. I'm hoping that light entertaining fiction in English will encourage more young people to develop a love of reading. I already see this beginning to happen with the proliferation of local popular fiction in English.

Now that I'm writing my fiction again offline,I may not be as active online as before (before my hiatus, that is.) It seems that creative writing is a jealous master. I have to focus my creative energies on it to be able to write effectively. Writing in my blogs seems to dissipate the energy somehow. I think I will be writing online only during the lulls in my offline writing.

By the way, I'm glad to note that my good friend and fellow writer, Glady Gimena, has put up her own blog on writing, and discusses horror stories, among other genres. Do check out her very entertaining and informative blog.

P.S.



"Bukal Sa Dibdib" has been printed and is now being distributed by the DOH and WHO for free in communities. It has also been adapted into a radio drama and a TV drama. Of course, the material had to be changed a lot to fit the limitations of the two media. I'm very happy to have been a part of the breastfeeding campaign, though.