Welcome to the Other Side of Romance!

FOR much too long, I have breathed magic realism into quite a few Filipino romance pocketbooks, most of them bestsellers. And for much too long, I have borne the burden, in a manner of speaking, of keeping the other side of romance from my readers.

Please let me explain.

Reading romance is synonymous with escapism. On the other hand, writing romance is synonymous with creating characters and situations within a plot, in a specified number of pages, or words, which is half-stripped of life’s realities. In other words, the readers get immersed in a fantasy world while the writer, at least this writer, gets enmeshed in the emotional debris that has been culled from my real people research. I present my readers with a romantic version of, say, Diane’s story, while I get to keep – or conceal – the reality of Diane’s life.

For sure, the romance novels I have written – except for fewer than a dozen pocketbooks – were not entirely based upon true stories. But I must confess that in each of the books I have written, at least one character has been based upon a breathing, living individual. He or she need not be the hero or heroine in the novel. He or she could be the main protagonist’s best friend, or some such character. It was just important to me to include a character out of real life even if I, sometimes, strip her or him of what makes her or him real. And this situation, needless to say, adds to my horde of stories relegated to the other side of romance.

What's on the Other Side of Romance?

UNADULTERATED reality is what’s on the other side of romance. True, romance exists. Romance is real. Romance, coupled with love, is the stuff most women dream of, even if secretly.

But what if you were confronted with what was really on the other side of romance? What if you were served with a slice of real life, previously masked as a romantic situation by an author who now wants to share all those unromantic realities?

The Other Side of Romance is a collection of true-to-life stories that I have gleaned and gathered from my various research, interviews, travels, and unceasing interest in other people’s life over the years. Some were mere glimpses and snatches, some I was able to use as background to my novels, some I was able to dissect and apportion and had later turned into romantic novels; but quite a number of them has to be unleashed – raw, naked, and –

Now!