My new stories

I think I am in my most productive this time. I am in the middle of finalizing my fourth book "Ugsad kang Kinaray-a", to be launched in October, and I have written four stories in a span of two weeks. I need two or three more to complete another collection of stories. Yehey!

I finished "Library", which I started writing in July 2007. I stopped halfway through it, because I did not know where the story is leading to. Last month I saw the unfinished story and decided to finish it. Right there.

Then one night I could not sleep. I opened my notebook and started typing anything. Then I remembered a story idea that a friend gave me three years ago. This is how "Trip-trip" got written. it's meant to be a short, a quickie, because it really is. But I don't want it to be a simple soft-porn story. It's actually about how young people now are ready to get what they want, and willing to pay for it too.

Another night, I could not sleep because I was hungry. So I ate. It was past midnight. Then I recalled Scarlet O'Hara in "Gone with the Wind." (As god is my witness, I shall never go hungry again!) So, after eating, I got my notebook again and started typing. I didn't finish the story because I felt really sleepy, but in the morning, I did not report to work. After breakfast, I said I will finish it. Before lunch, I had a story called "Gutum."

So I went to work, and while going over my folders in the computer, I discovered I have an unfinished story called "Imelda." I have managed to write a monologue to begin it, and a synopsis, too. That helped me a lot in recalling what I wanted to do. It was an idea I had after visiting Tibiao. I saw how people are very hardworking, and I thought I would write about it. It is about a woman who lost all her children and husband, but never loses the zest for living.

I have two more stories in file - "Tamawo" and "Sag-ub". These are actually the first stories I have written, but I did not include it in "Agi, agi may putay sa dahi" collection because they don't belong. Actually, the first story I wrote was "Flores de Mayo" published in Hiligaynon Magazine, like twenty years ago. I wonder if I could still find a copy of it.

So my next collection would include these, and the two or three more I am going to write. I hope I don't lose this momentum.