The editor of the Australian Filipina magazine asked if I would write an obituary for RJ Rosales. I only had his CV up to 2007, so you may notice that it’s light on the details after that. I hope I did him justice. You can find the original article here.

RJ Rosales, who has died aged 37, was one of the Australian Filipino community’s favourite sons. Best known for his stint as co-host of ABS-CBN Philippines variety show ASAP, he was a critically acclaimed actor and musical theatre performer, receiving a Helpmann Award nomination for his role in the 2007-08 Australian season of Miss Saigon. His smooth but strong balladeer’s voice, equally suited to popular music as show tunes, found fans across generations from all over the world. Read the rest of this article.

You can find my posts on my first trip back to Manila since 1996—my second trip since my family migrated to Australia—at Delicious Burdens.

If you would like to add a tribute to RJ or send words of comfort to his family, you may do so here:

http://www.heavenaddress.com/funeral-notice/Roseo-Jose-Rosales/401148/obituary.aspx

RJ Rosales
24 March 1974 — 5 December 2011

The funeral service starts at 10.30am on Saturday, December 10 at Blessed John XXIII Catholic Church, Stanhope Gardens. Interment will follow at Pinegrove Cemetery, Michinbury. Click on the link above for more details.

www.beyondblue.org.au

Many of my bookish friends have heard my stance on reading the back of the book first. On Twitter, people replied to me with such shock that we created a hashtag to refer to peeking at a book’s ending: #killafairy or #afairydies.

After talking about it for so long, I’ve finally gone and set up a spoiler website for people who want to look up how a book ends: killafairy.wordpress.com. It will be a collaborative blog with a few other readers who like to kill fairies.

We haven’t publicised the site much because we’re still building up the titles listed, but if you’re a fairy killer, too, you might want to have a peek. And if you do, I’m happy to hear suggestions and comments!

I was supposed to write a review for BOOKSELLER+PUBLISHER blog, Fancy Goods, but they needed a review on short notice so I made it into the print edition.

My review of Haunted Heart by Tania Donald is on page 27 of the June 2011 issue of BOOKSELLER+PUBLISHER. My verdict:

It won’t shock readers familiar with erotic fiction, but may provide an edge for those who aren’t. Despite parallels with Twilight, this novel is darker and its conclusion isn’t as simple—nor as satisfying.

On the weekend I attended the second Australian Romance Readers Convention. At the awards dinner, I won the prize—chocolates from San Churro and some books—for the Readers Challenge. Books and chocolate—can there be a better combination?

I’ve previously posted this article, but now it’s up at the Australian Filipina.

‘When are you having kids?’ It’s a refrain that many Filipinas are familiar with. Before the ink dries on your marriage contract, family and friends are already anticipating the most rewarding – and most difficult – time in your life. But having children in Australia today is a different experience to what our mothers and grandmothers went through in the Philippines.

Read this article at the Australian Filipina.

(If you’re wondering, that’s not my picture. It’s been a while since I was preggers.)

NaNoWriMo is upon us once again, and this year I’m finally biting the bullet. Briefly, this is what NaNo is all about:

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

If you want to be writing buddies, I’m here. I have no plot to speak of and a character I would vaguely describe as a Filipino Australian in her early 20s. How I’ll pull 50,000 words out of this, I have no idea. But there you go. Commitment is the first step. See you on the other side of November!

This was an article I wrote for the ARRA newsletter last year. A lot of the information is outdated and there are now a lot more devices in the market, so I’m posting it here as an archive rather than at Book Thingo.

A couple of months ago, Amazon finally made the Kindle available to Australia. If you’re a book lover like me, this may not impress you much. After all, it’s hard to imagine life without paperbacks! Most readers are also skeptical about being able to read on an electronic device for long periods of time.

But the Kindle, along with most ebook readers, uses E-Ink technology, which causes less strain for the eyes than a normal computer. It also requires less power, so an ebook reader will last much longer between charges than a laptop. I love the feel of books, but I have to say that I’m impressed with the clarity of eInk. Many devices also allow you to change font sizes, so it’s great for people who have impaired vision.

What makes Kindle’s entry to the Australian market such a big deal is the way it changes the book buying process. The Kindle has two advantages over its rivals. Read the rest of this article.