This week's episode features an interview with romance author Tara Frejas. We met over dinner at Barcino on a Sunday night, and she shared with me her writing process and why she writes the stories she does, among a lot of things. We also chat about the upcoming #RomanceClass film project and a romance anthology she's co-authoring with five other writers. And as a special treat, this episode also includes a recording of a live reading of an excerpt of one of Tara's books. Check out Tara's bio below, and further down, the episode shownotes.

Music:

Bright Wish by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Tara Frejas is a cloud-walker who needs caffeine to fuel her travels. When she's not on work mode, she keeps herself busy by weaving her daydreams into stories.

Aside from her obvious love affair with words and persistent muses, Tara is very passionate about being caffeinated, musical theatre, certain genres of music, dancing, dogs, good food, and romancing Norae, her ukelele. She owns a male bunny named Max who sometimes tries to nibble on her writing notes.

Fun fact: She's a Piscean. Go figure.

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Show Notes

00:00:00 - Intro00:00:10 - Welcome00:00:29 - Introduction to the episode00:01:03 - About Tara Frejas00:01:44 - End of intro00:01:50 - Start of interview00:02:00 - Tara tells us about herself00:02:34 - #RomanceClass00:04:00 - We're at Barcino00:04:33 - What we ate00:05:33 - Tara's Zomato Gold subscription discount code (use this to get a 20% discount): TARA4734Q00:06:00 - Carla de Guzman hangs with us00:06:15 - Tara tells us whether she's a plotter or a pantser00:07:14 - Tara's book Like Nobody's Watching00:07:42 - Tara's book Scandalized00:07:45 - Anvil's Spark New Adult workshop00:08:00 - Mina V. Esguerra organized the Spark NA Workshop00:10:28 - The Author at Once workshop00:11:36 - Using spreadsheets to outline stories00:12:13 - About Play It By Ear (Backstage Pass Series #2) by Tara00:15:17 - About #RomanceClass April Feels Day00:15:27 - Tara's editor Layla S. Tanjutco00:16:02 - Productivity tool: ColorNote on Android00:17:40 - Pio Alvez, the third wheel character in Waiting in the Wings00:18:32 - Live reading of an excerpt of Waiting in the Wings at April Feels Day 2017 (YouTube)00:20:00 - Carla is the president of the Official Pio Alvez Fan Club (Philippine Chapter)00:20:56 - Productivity tool: Daily Note app on Android00:21:05 - Productivity tool: Writeometer app on Android00:20:00 - Tara talks about her day job00:23:00 - On writing every day00:24:42 - Tara's non-digital productivity tools: notebooks and planners00:24:45 - The Starbucks planner00:25:10 - On using post-its00:25:28 - Scrivener00:26:19 - On writing songs (with lyrics!) in books00:27:32 - Tara's most productive hours of the day00:32:47 - On words not used + Tara's multiple drafts00:34:00 - Who's writing career does Tara aspire to?00:35:45 - Mina V. Esguerra's books: Iris After the Incident, The Future Chosen, My Imaginary Ex00:37:00 - Why Tara writes about theater and kpop culture00:38:00 - Tara's upcoming book: Play It By Ear00:39:50 - On fans shipping idols00:41:35 - What Tara is currently working on00:41:53 - Tara's upcoming book: wedding anthology, co-authored with Ana Tejano, Mina V. Esguerra, Jay E. Tria, Carla de Guzman, Six de los Reyes (coming in 2019)00:42:27 - The Fake Date trope00:44:00 - #ProjectDatu00:44:38 - On how #ProjectDatu happened ahead of schedule00:45:30 - On diva characters00:46:00 - On how Pio's story got written ahead of schedule00:47:08 - About the #RomanceClass short films00:47:34 - The books-turned-to-films: (1) Beginner's Guide, (2) Songs to Get Over You, (3) What Kind of Day00:47:51 - #Romance Class films teaser (#RCU)00:48:00 - How the #RomanceClass films got made00:49:20 - I Didn't Write This Episode 1 "Ode by Arthur O'Shaughnessy" by Yulin Kuang (YouTube)00:5