Nick Joaquin Literary Awards 2015

It was a quiet night with good food---absolutely memorable artisan suman with fondue---and excellent wine.

Thanks Johanna Carissa Fernandez for letting me use this, forgot to take pics

We enjoyed the reading of excerpts of Nick Joaquin's "May Day Eve", performed by no other than the Literary Editor, Ms. Alma Anonas-Carpio.

Met and chatted with fellow writers about how we ended up in the advertising industry.... *moment of silence* har har!

Congratulations, winners! Ed Maranan (1st), Beting Laygo Dolor (2nd),Jenny Ortuoste (3rd) and Publisher's Choice Poet of the Year Jose Victor Penaranda.

I received special recognition for my story "Sage's Reckoning." THIS MADE MY YEAR, YOU KNOW. Also, more than happy to receive the  Manny O. Wines wine... first time I liked wine. It wasn't too strong.

I'm an excellent photographer.

I ramble. I'm writing again. I'm heading back home. The dry spell's over! :D

The Light Bringer's Kingdom now available in print! :)

Here it is: My blood, sweat and tears! Now available in print from Amazon!

As one review says in Amazon:

"In all the tellings and re-tellings of the stories of Lucifer and his rebellion against Heaven, he’s been a lot of things, but never an interplanetary, trans-dimensional being, as he appears in The Light Bringer’s Kingdom. Although Lucifer remains tremendously powerful, menacing, and filled with contempt for humans, this novel is a wholly unique twist on a very old story. Lucifer, along with all the other angels, originate on a planet in another dimension, Spheris, and they journey between realms—including Heaven, Hell, and Earth—as they follow various paths. Abad blends this science fiction-infused version of the cosmos with elements of religious lore and folklore, particularly legends from southeast Asia and the Philippines, to create a new and diverse set of villains out of familiar tropes. While the array of monsters and demons, and their complex relationship with angels and seers, is something of a challenge to keep up with, the literary payoff is substantial."-Amanda Smith

About the Novel:

Path Liang is the last person you would expect to believe in spirits or the supernatural. Her father, Hector Liang, is the inventor of the Wireless Command System (WCS), a technology that amplifies brainwaves to operate machines and computers and has revolutionized the society of the Phillipines in 2066. By day Path is a talented badminton star, and by night she is a hypergamer, immersing herself in the super-fast WCS-enabled virtual world.

But despite Path's best efforts, she has been haunted by a strange dreamworld since she was seven years old. Little does she know that she is a descendant of a powerful babaylan, shamans of ancient Phillippine society. Path will need all the help she can get to master her newfound powers. Demons, led by Lucifer himself, want to use her abilities in a new rebellion against Heaven.

Path is protected by Elantiel "Eli" Clementir, a revenge-driven young man with a mysterious connection to the angels and an ancestral magic of his own. As apocalypse looms ever closer, Path realizes their fates are more entwined than she could have ever imagined. To protect all they hold dear, Path and Eli must face their own families' tragic pasts and confront a cosmic rebellion a millennia in the making.