running around

ateneo high

Met up with Andrew and El and had a great time at the Real People, Real Stuff talk. I was paired with UP Kid Lit Writer Lalaine Aquino (who is a friend of Carla Pacis, so I couldn't resist gently ribbing her about the little furor a few weeks back) and spoke to around 100-120 sophomores.

I was asked to specifically talk about how to write fiction, so I did, even if it meant sacrificing the stuff I prepared for grafiction. I whipped out the power point presentation I have sitting around my laptop and took it from there.

I like these young guys - they're intelligent and vibrant and possessed of a great sense of humor. I hope that some of them become writers too.

booktopia

With El in tow, I finally visited Booktopia in Libis, made friends with Robert and bought 3 books: Year's Best Fantasy & Horror volumes 12 & 13 (which means I now have everything from volume 8 onwards, except for the latest one that has my story, but that's what Borders is for next week) and The Mysterious Case of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys (a funky read for someone is grew up a diehard fan of the Bayport Brothers).

There were tons of books worth buying, but the need to save overwhelmed my magpie instincts.

all hell breaks loose

Occassionally, you realize that trouble likes to come in packs of three.

In one fell swoop, I found myself juggling outrageous happenstances, all business-related, rather unexpectedly. My staff and I were able to handle the thingies, but my disposition did not improve - considering the fact that everything happened after office hours.

But still, that's part of having a business. So, no big.

blah blah wins again

I asked Nikki to accompany me to the holiday pitch for our garment client since she thought of some of the great ideas we planned to propose.

Client was charmed by her beauty, naturally, but more importantly, bought in to our ideas, after a little verbal massage on my part.

The happy result? We got the campaign, which means we get to spread the joy around the office come Christmas.

how much to read

An American film producer and film writer has asked me to review a script, give recommendations and rewrite if needed.

Apart from the fact that I have so little time (because we fly off Monday morning), I actually have no idea how much to charge.

My film industry friends tell me I can ask from $0 (free) to $50,000, depending on the size of the outfit and what needs to be done. While I am absolutely certain that no one in his right mind would pay the upper amounts, I'm thinking that it would be nice to have some extra pocket money for the trip.

So there you go, another example of how writing can generate money.

Or maybe I'll just skip this one.

We'll see.