THE CUTTING

I HAVE rearranged the dining table by making space for me to sit so that i could face the window as i attempt to trim off 20, 000 words over the manuscript and catch grammatical lapses in the process. some say that this is a tedious process but just seeing the heft of the printed words excites me. maybe i am just a youngling in this game but i really love everything in this writing life, even the mechanical ones like editing and submitting.

 

FIRST COFFEE, and then i pick up the red pen and do the cutting. no excuses. kill all your darlings.

 

EUROPA! EUROPA!

AND SO joy’s work permit arrives and all we need to do is to appear at the irish embassy and have our pasaportes stamped so we can fly out of new york for the summer. we’ll be gone for around six months, just in time for me to at least write half a novel, based on the predicate that i at least get agented before we leave. that would really rule. one thing that would also rule is getting that green card so we can hop on and off all over europe. amsterdam (weed!) and prague (books), here we come. tomorrow we devote the entire day to church, laundry and paperwork. i will also collate all NYtimes articles i could find online on top of the lonely planet guide i am buying.

 

THE TRIP will definitely affect the submission timeline giving me no choice but to trim the novel in one week and submit it the following week. at least madam rica and sir JC has now a new york address where i can forward the correspondences. so it’s a bit of mission impossible to submit in two weeks but i really have no choice. the next novel is raring to be written down and i have promised not to do that unless i have sold this one.

 

MOTIVATION IF and when this gets sold: i will buy an iPad, a moscot frame, and a hundred dollar cabernet sauvignon.

 

ONE MORE motivation is that i also promised myself to get a job at uniqlo if this does not get sold and having spent almost two weeks at the festival, i don’t think i can stand for the whole day and do small talk. it’s not the standing but the small talking. the thing is that there is the level of “appropriateness” that must be observed. there are no “oversharing” of information. this means, that the more exciting topics like sex and drugs and rock and roll are prohibited. the work environment of this great nation is as bland as their food. the culprit is of course litigation and it seems that the logical thing to do is to rather be square than be colorful.

 

 

TWO THOUGHTS

JUST WOKE up from my reverse siesta and as i stared at the ceiling, two things occured to me before i got up:

THOUGHT ONE:

we are at the phase in human history where almost everyone is involved in the fleeting. it is the one thing that is being celebrated right now. a lot of time, money, and brain power is being devoted to do something fleeting as if there is a race as to who could produced the fastest-disappearing product ever. while our forebears did their best build something that would last, we are doing the opposite. just take a look at the app store. being a flash in the pan is the goal of all the apps. no one wants to be immortal by their toil anymore.

me, i am doing it old school. i am building something with my own brain and hands and having that fucker preserved for all eternity. it is called writing stories. i’ve said it before and i will say it again. i will never discover the cure for AIDS, be rich enough to have a foundation to my name, or be corrupt enough to be the next leader of a nation. but i can write.

THOUGHT TWO:

since august last year, facebook page views dropped by 54 per cent. yes, 54 percent. other fact worth nothing: 99.95 per cent of facebook ads do not get clicked on (and i’m betting that the negligible clicks come from either the client or the agency, if not, there is always the accidental click that occurs randomly from faulty trackpads and mice). then there is facebook engagement rate of less than .5 of 1 percent.

now, if facebook’s value of a gazillion billion dollars is built on ads, you decide what is the next logical progression, say, a year from now, when it is becomes a public company with real money involved.

SO THE common thing among us volunteers is to ask each other what movies have we seen already from the entire festival menu. and out of the ones that i have talked to, the answer is “replicas”, a canadian film marketed as domestic invasion. luckily i was able to secure two tickets before it went into the rush lines this saturday.

FILMS SEEN

OUT OF the 3 films i plan to see from the tribeca film fest, i was able to see two already. that would be “headshot” from thailand and “jackpot” from norway, both scored during the 9.15  PM rush line, 10 PM screening. “graceland” from USA/philippines i am sure to  miss due to schedule conflicts so i might go to “everyman’s journey” from the philippines and sing with the rest of the pinoys in the audience.

 

WHAT IS worth lining up for is the director Q & A after the screenings where half the films story are brought to life, story-wise and production-wise. the thai director is very funny without any effort. also very polite as thai people are.

one question that stood out is this: are you trying to say something about thai society with this film with its subject matter of corruption, prostitution, buddhism?

answer: if you live in my country, these things, corruption, prostitution, buddhism, they exist side by side. so it’s fun. i’m not trying to say something, i just say it like it is.

 

HIS DISPLAY of humor started with the very quick intro: this is a thai film and so all characters will be speaking in thai. but don’t worry, there are subtitles.

another question: have you found a distributor?

answer: yes i have. but if you are willing to offer a higher price…

 

FOR THE norwegian film, the director brought the lead star with him, a stage actor turned film actor who now does comedy. he kind of stole the show, but the director was cool too. most of the cultural humor was explained about norway and sweden. the script development was also highly discussed with the film being based on a jo nesbo story purposely written for film. the director has to sort of clear the shooting script with the famous writer   and one could only imagine the pressure.

 

ABOUT CREW duty, i have learned that standing from 1.30 to 7.30 PM brings body pain. body pain across all points of articulation and not just on the legs. also rehydration is a must.  but it is fun. doubly fun is being on the walkie-talkie where i can hear what is happening behind the scenes. like who’s the latest celebrity arriving in a few minutes, or why is somebody going ballistics at theater 2. there’s a lot more things but i signed a confidentiality clause.

 

NOW I write my author’s bio for that UP press anthology and then cook pancit for breakfast.

4.44 AM MOTIVATION

MY SHORT story “all we need is five meals a day” is being republished by the University of the Philippines Press. huzzah. this couldn’t haven been timed better. i need all the bullets as i write that query letter.

NOW I write another version of the aforementioned letter. again, if i don’t have a background of writing ads (with all versions and studies and what have you) i’ll be mad by now. i can’t wait to mail it and the only thing that is holding me back is that i have yet to revise the manuscript. good thing that it is currently being housed by madam rica yulo and i have committed almost two full weeks to volunteering at the tribeca film fest. otherwise, i will be messing it up by touching it before it ages (beautifully, i hope).

THERE IS also the itch to open another notebook and start the notes for the next novel. resist. resist. resist.

TIME TO stare at the blank page.

WORD KARATE

SO I have began writing the query letter that i will be sending to literary agents. i find writing this business letter so demanding that i’ve christened it as “word karate”. it is what it is. everything is exacting from the form to the content. with the aid of three books and unlimited websites, i have drafted a gazillion letters but nothing seems to cut it. mostly because there’s the middle portion that should summarize the novel into about a hundred and fifty words, max. the only thing that’s keeping me insane is that i have done copy for ads before where a gazillion studies is part of the game. except this time, i have no boss to run it with it and the only client is me. fuck. at the very least i have my bio where it states that i have a degree in english lit and has published a couple of short stories.

 

SUNSHINE IS all around me. i have started reading in the park to forget about the novel and take my mind off what still needs to be done. the park is the best way to go despite the tourists that are beginning to pour in with the nice weather. everything is green, the women are half-naked, and the air smells of grass (both the turf and the medicinal kind). i settle myself on a bench and catch up on my readings until the sun gets too hot and then i walk one round on the inner loop so i could sweat as i head home. i  miss running but i can’t afford to tempt gout now that the volunteer work is so near. so walking it is going to be, at least for know.

 

ONCE AGAIN, the dialogue in the series “the killing” is continuing to surprise me.

 

NOW I  write another study of the aforementioned letter to my future agent.

 

LASTLY, FUCK of fucks. my favorite author alive is canceling her KGB appearance due to microbe infection. fuck, indeed. here i am ready with all of her books for signing and just like that, unseen forces have other plans.  i’ve waited years for this. fuck, fuck, fuckity fuck.

LIFE RESUMES

THERE’S THE going out of the house. from attending the volunteer orientation to buying a book from the strand to watching a movie in times square (big screen and real seats). most of these are done by powerwalking to and from home to both for cardio and vitamin D. there’s also the almost daily trip to barnes  & noble to check out titles that i will borrow from the library and read sone magazines. and of course, there’s a KGB reading this wednesday and the opening of the tribeca film fest the day after.

 

IT’S ALSO to get back to the cooking, another thing that took the backseat the whole winter. it’s going to be pancit and bihon time season from the usual adobo, sinigang, chicken curry, etc. thank gods for chinatown. i hope to time a slab of tuna for kilawin one of these days.

 

THERE’S THE television. “the killing” is getting excellent the writing of its dialogue. and “fringe” is really kicking ass this season as the events are now happening on both worlds. i can’t wait to start “game of thrones” and “girls”.

 

IN THE meantime, i am making notes on how to write a query letter to agents after reading all there is to be read from “writer’s market” and “the 2012 guide to literary agents”. that’s on top of a gazillion agent blogs and literary forums. the task–a one pager that would contain the pitch and summary and the bio–is intimidating by itself. from the list of ten agents, all have been ranked and two names made it to the top of the list. if only the manuscript has been edited and ready to submit. but no.

 

 

PRINTING DONE

AND SO it took me around three hours to print the manuscript using our colored printer that is a guzzler of ink. i have to change black (K) twice before the 600+ pages could be done.

 

IN THE picture is the notebook that will contain the notes for the next novel, something that i will write only when this one is being sent to lit agents. the missus has already joked after seeing its heft that i better not leave it to gather dust like the first one. the notebook is there to cover the title as i am paranoid about these kinds of things. for now  the project tittle is “a ransom for many”

 

IN THE picture is also the celebratory cheap ass wine.

 

NOT IN the picture is stephen king’s “on writing: a memoir of the craft” which i will reread in the coming days as i try to forget the manuscript as it mellows before the rewrite.

 

NOW I attend the tribeca key crew volunteer orientation. but first, an early lunch of pho.

 

FORMATTING DONE

FINALLY FINISHED the formatting of the manuscript as i read it for cadence and fixed the little things like commas. tomorrow, i print all 600 plus pages of it so i can forget about it until the last week of the month. tribeca film fest is right around the corner so i won’t have trouble forgetting.

 

I HOPE we have enough ink.

 

THE BETA readers are still a mystery that needs to be solved. and so is our mailing address should we fly to europa by mid may. manuscript readings by lit agents take as much as two months, assuming that they respond soon.

 

NOW I finish this lemon yogurt and wait for morpheus.

QUICK NOTES

THE END came today and the manuscript is at 19 chapters with   621 pages and 136, 424 words. i am writing the epilogue in an hour after the wine takes its desired effect and i hope to finish everything before easter sunday. that would rule. then, next week will be devoted to a read-through of every single word aloud so as to catch any irregular beats in the writing and then it is printing time. only be then could i forget about it, at least until the rewrite as i ready it for submission.

THE EUROPE visa is arriving in exactly a month so by mid-may, we could be flying out of new york. i am both excited and irritated by this piece of news. excited because it is fucking europa and irritated because i need a new york address to sell this novel. from my research, literary agents do not respond to any special instructions about forwarding addresses. they just don’t have the time.

THAT PROBLEM about beta readers is still unresolved. i am thinking of vangie’s sister, mia, but she is in manila. crap.

NOW I write the fucking epilogue.