Growing Up Filipino II, by Rebecca Mabanglo-Mayor

Thoughts on the new book Growing Up Filipino II, by Rebecca Mabanglo-Mayor

I love books. The weight. The smell. The deliberate slowness of reading and turning a page and reading some more.

The screen just isn't the same and that's good and bad. Good for scanning and absorbing information quickly. Bad for reflection and immersion.

I get lost in the process of reading books, lost in new worlds and new people.

Escapism doesn't begin to cover the sensation of unfolding a completely different universe with the flick of the wrist as each page turns.

My author copies of Growing Up Filipino II: More Stories for Young Adults arrived a couple of weeks ago.

In the run-up to Christmas, I had just enough time to show it off to a few friends and family, but very little time to really absorb what I held in my hands.

My first in-book publication.

Don't misunderstand - I'm grateful to the print and online magazines that have published my poetry and reviews. Each byline meant that I became less a could-be writer and more a in-fact writer.

But to hold my story in my hands, all printed and bound up with fabulous work by authors I admire as really-real writers, I stepped into a whole new world I knew existed, but didn't think I had the key to open.

With a flick of my wrist, I was there, in the book, a story peering back at me the reader, a reader peering into a writer's world and that writer was me.

And by 'was' I mean a past me, the one who wrote the snippet of the story over 5 years ago, polished it and submitted it 2 years ago, received an acceptance and proofed my galley last year, and proofed it again this year.

I'd been told that the birthing of a story takes a long time, and I thought that only meant the creation of it. I understand now that there's also the production of it, the long steps from one universe to the next. Who knew that the the distance from the front of the wardrobe to the back was so long, Lucy?

So, there's writing, then there's book-making, and now comes the book promoting.

The hardcover version is now available at Amazon and the soft and hardcopy versions can be ordered from your local brick and mortar store. Just tell them that they can get them from Ingram or Baker & Taylor.

If you know any of the contributors (Dean Francis Alfar, Katrina Ramos Atienza, Maria Victoria Beltran, M.G. Bertulfo, Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, Amalia B. Bueno, Max Gutierrez, Leslieann Hobayan, Jaime An Lim, Paulino Lim Jr., Rebecca Mabanglo-Mayor, Dolores de Manuel, Rashaan Alexis Meneses, Veronica Montes, Charlson Ong, Marily Ysip Orosa, Kannika Claudine D. Peña, Oscar Peñaranda, Edgar Poma, Tony Robles, Brian Ascalon Roley, Jonathan Jimena Siason, Aileen Suzara, Geronimo G. Tagatac, Marianne Villanueva) ask your bookstore owner if they'll set up a reading to promo the book, then let your friends, family, and total strangers you meet at the coffee shop or grocery store know.

Step into the stories imagined in a post-9/11 world, written from the perspective of the young adult but accessible to anyone who has struggled with issues of family, love, sexuality, home, and social change in the current modern age.

Tuloy! Come share our world.
Rebecca Mabanglo-Mayor's blog is http://wordbinder.blogspot.com/

LISTED IN AMAZON.COM GROWING UP FILIPINO II: More Stories for Young Adults

Amazon.com now lists the hardcover of Growing Up Filipino II: More Stories for Young Adults, click on this site:

<http://www.amazon.com/Growing-Up-Filipino-II-Stories/dp/0971945829/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259619206&sr=1-2>

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DISTRIBUTED BY: Ingram, Baker & Taylor, Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, among others
PUBLISHED BY:
PALH
P. O. Box 5099
S.M., CA 90409
Tel/fax: 310-452-1195; email:palh@aol.com; palhbooks@gmail.com;http://www.palhbooks.com

BOOK DESCRIPTION: Growing Up Filipino II: More Stories for Young Adults is the second volume of the Growing Up Filipino series by PALH. In this collection of 27 short stories, Filipino and Filipino American writers explore the universal challenges and experiences of Filipino teens after the historic events of 9/11. The modern demands do not hinder Filipino youth from dealing with the universal concerns of growing up: family, friends, love, home, budding sexuality, leaving home. The delightful stories are written by well known as well as emerging writers. While the target audience of this fine anthology is young adults, the stories can be enjoyed by adult readers as well. There is a scarcity of Filipino American literature and this book is a welcome addition.
CONTRIBUTORS: Dean Francis Alfar, Katrina Ramos Atienza, Maria Victoria Beltran, M.G. Bertulfo, Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, Amalia B. Bueno, Max Gutierrez, Leslieann Hobayan, Jaime An Lim, Paulino Lim Jr., Rebecca Mabanglo-Mayor, Dolores de Manuel, Rashaan Alexis Meneses, Veronica Montes, Charlson Ong, Marily Ysip Orosa, Kannika Claudine D. Peña, Oscar Peñaranda, Edgar Poma, Tony Robles, Brian Ascalon Roley, Jonathan Jimena Siason, Aileen Suzara, Geronimo G. Tagatac, Marianne Villanueva

BIO OF EDITOR: Cecilia Manguerra Brainard is the award-winning author and editor of over a dozen books, including the internationally-acclaimed novel, When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, Magdalena and Acapulco at Sunset and Other Stories. She edited Growing Up Filipino: Stories for Young Adults, Fiction by Filipinos in America, and Contemporary Fiction by Filipinos in America, and co-edited four other books. Cecilia also wrote Fundamentals of Creative Writing (2009) for classroom use. She teaches at UCLA-Extension’s Writers Program.

Update ~ GROWING UP FILIPINO II: MORE STORIES FOR YOUNG ADULTS

I started the book project, Growing Up Filipino II: More Stories for Young Adults in 2007. It took about a year to collect the stories, after which I submitted the manuscript to my Philippine publisher. I thought the publisher and I had an oral agreement that I would retain US publishing rights. Since Growing Up Filipino I was published by PALH in the US, I wanted this sequel to be published in the US as well. After hanging on to the manuscript for 9 months, the Philippine publisher said they wanted all publishing rights after all, not just Philippine rights. I withdrew my work and decided PALH would go ahead and do the US publication. It was now late 2008.

A friend offered to design the cover and book (for a fee), but unfortunately her husband passed away in early 2009. Understandably, the book project was hung up for months. It wasn't until August before attention was given Growing Up Filipino II. The inside pages and cover were completed this October. I had to continuously proof the work because mistakes were constantly being picked up - lines disappeared in the cover for instance. A contributor's name was misspelled on the cover, and in the last minute I had to resend cover files to the printer, and when you make corrections late in the game, you pay to have those mistakes corrected. The delay also means the book misses out on mainstream reviews because you have to send galleys 3-4 months before the book is released. The scheduling for Growing Up Filipino II has been so messed up, I'll be relieved if the book comes out at all, much less dream of mainstream reviews for the book (as GUFI received).

It's been truly a long haul, but the files are with a US printer and I am hoping the book will be out by mid-December. Wow - three years! It's taken three years to complete this book.

This experience prompted me to take an InDesign class so I can handle some production work myself, if I ever take on another book project. It's difficult to be dependent on other people. Even though you pay them, their priorities may not be your priorities.

Getting past all of that and looking forward, here's information about this wonderful collection. The cover is beautiful; the contributors great. The short stories are really quite good and I hope the book will be as successful as Growing Up Filipino I.

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

Growing Up Filipino II: More Stories for Young Adults is the second volume of the Growing Up Filipino series by PALH. In this collection of 27 short stories, Filipino and Filipino American writers explore the universal challenges and experiences of Filipino teens after the historic events of 9/11. The modern demands do not hinder Filipino youth from dealing with the universal concerns of growing up: family, friends, love, home, budding sexuality, leaving home. The delightful stories are written by well known as well as emerging writers. While the target audience of this fine anthology is young adults, the stories can be enjoyed by adult readers as well. There is a scarcity of Filipino American literature and this book is a welcome addition.

CONTRIBUTORS:

Dean Francis Alfar, Katrina Ramos Atienza, Maria Victoria Beltran, M.G. Bertulfo, Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, Amalia B. Bueno, Max Gutierrez, Leslieann Hobayan, Jaime An Lim, Paulino Lim Jr., Rebecca Mabanglo-Mayor, Dolores de Manuel, Rashaan Alexis Meneses, Veronica Montes, Charlson Ong, Marily Ysip Orosa, Kannika Claudine D. Peña, Oscar Peñaranda, Edgar Poma, Tony Robles, Brian Ascalon Roley, Jonathan Jimena Siason, Aileen Suzara, Geronimo G. Tagatac, Marianne Villanueva

Blurbs:
This collection of twenty-eight stories--of growing up Filipino in the Philippines, in the United States, in Canada--presents adolescents grappling, with some confusion and anxiety, about their place as affected by social and cultural mobility that separate and also enclose them. These are stories of discoveries about the young self at the brink of adulthood; of longing for a once-comfortable past, of fears arising from present economic hardships which threaten the future; of loneliness in family gatherings and in school, of racism, single parenthood…These are impeccable stories in range of subject matter and modes of narration: part of the story of the Philippines and wherever Filipinos live; part of the world's story.
Linda Ty-Casper, Novelist

Every story in this collection authentically captures the interdependence of society-at-large and some individual's growth, within extended families, both natural and ritual.
Leonard Casper
Professor Emeritus, American Studies
Boston College.


When read collectively, these stories become an embodiment of the Philippine mosaic, to highlight the fluidity of Filipino/American identity.
Rocio G. Davis
Associate Professor of American Literatures
University of Navarre

GROWING UP FILIPINO II - CONTRIBUTORS

Here's the lineup of contributors to the second volume of Growing Up Fiipino that I'm currently editing. I'm still waiting for a few more writers to send in their work.

Amalia Bueno, Leslieann Hobayan, Rashaan Alexis Meneses, Paulino Lim,
Dean Francis Alfar, Marianne Villanueva, Jonathan Jimena Siason, Veronica Montes, Edgar Poma, Tony Robles, Kannika Claudine Pena, Erwin Cabucos, Aileen Suzura, Jaime L. An Lim, Elsa Orejudos Valdimiano, Dolores De Manuel, Maria Victoria Beltran, M. G. Bertulfo, Rebecca Mabanglo-Mayor, Katrina Ramos Atienza, Oscar Penaranda, Geronimo G. Tagatac.

Great stories in this anthology! Will keep you posted!