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THE VERY first book signing as a novelist happened yesterday. It was a very quiet affair, so quiet that only the humming of the mac could be heard as I wrote some words, affixed my signature and stamped the setting: 2 December 2014, Brooklyn. It was to someone at the office, a sculptor who creates–what else?–works of art, and ships them worldwide. My kind of people. (I have always been thinking lately about that thing with Evans who now creates furniture also shipped worldwide while our former boss is still doing advertisements shown on ABS-CBN and run on the Philippine Star. You’re move, badutch.)

THING ARE growing organically. Now that Brooklyn is doing its thing, the fine folks of Dublin have ordered. So has Stockholm and Singapore and Australia and London and Switzerland. These are not orders that would rake in the moolah, but these are orders that matter. I am aiming to be a Fugazi and not a Maroon 5, remember? A cult of subversive little fucks who gets it. The novel is the kind of thing that gets taught in school (of course, all that could only be attributed to the beauty contest as all works winning the grand prize indeed gets taught in school but still) and not sold in airport cafes.

MANILA OF course has ordered, too. Thank you to all my friends. Now, if only the fuckers in Malacañang in all sense of the word fucker. Next year is election year and this book is predicated on that thing. (Of course you knew that underneath all the explicit language, graphic violence, sex and nudity, drug and alcohol abuse in the novel, there is substance right? Har de fucking har.) If I could just have one politician read it, my work is done. I kid: if I could make all voters read it, my work is done.

ORGANIC GROWTH. From Brooklyn. My novel has been in the radar of my boss who is an influencer and tastemaker in her own right. The thing is that she is very careful of what she tweets and blogs the way she is super careful of who she hires. A real artist and graphic designer who believes in the apprenticeship system as has been practiced in Europe for thousands of years. The same boss who gave me an increase after a month on the job for exceptional work ethic. Anyway, two days in a row has she mentioned my being “legit”. For everyone in the room to hear. I can’t wait to see when three of her most trusted of tinyentes gets to the part about Helvetica in the novel and discusses it with her. That would be the day.

ONE THING that was discussed over a very sumptuous French dinner in le Montreal was the proliferation of Speakeasy’s in Manila. Are you fucking kidding me? Why can’t Manila come up with its own shit?