Photo taken at literary event hosted by Cebuano Studies Center last Feb. 2023
Venice Rian Ong, 12th grader from Saint Lorenzo Ruiz school in Cebu interviewed me recently. I am sharing his questions and my answers.
1. When did you first
realize you wanted to be a writer?
While I’d been writing since I was around 9 or 10 years old, I
didn’t fully realize I wanted or was meant to be a writer until I was a grown
woman with three young children.
Let me elaborate: After my father died when I was nine, I began
writing him letters to update him of my life. These were my early writings.
When I was a teenager I began diary writing. I always enjoyed writing, but
after high school I thought I wanted to be an engineer. Later I thought I
wanted to be a film maker. It was this interest in film making that led me to
California where I went to film school at UCLA. I discovered that film making
is an expensive and highly collaborative venture. I did not pursue this career.
By this time I
was a young wife and mother and focused on taking care of my family. It was
during this time when stories would come into my head and I had to write them
down. I later took Creative Writing Classes at UCLA-Extension’s Writers Program
to learn the craft and business. Bit by bit I started to get stories published.
But it wasn’t until the children were in school and I looked for work and found
work as a fund raiser when I realized that I couldn’t work, take care of the
family, and write. I talked to my husband about this and he told me to do what
I wanted to do. I told the office that was ready to hire me that I couldn’t
take the job, and I decided then to be a writer and take care of my
family.
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