children

My 8-year-old Bea keeps saying lately how she wants to be the first lady President.

of the United States of America.

: ) : ) : )

***

i'm scheduled to do a volunteer storytelling session with 3-4 year-olds on Monday at the Provincial Library, whose librarian asked me to do so some weeks ago, in celebration of National Book Month.

it's strange how I'm feeling jittery and self-doubting about my ability to engage my audience, when I've been going around the country these past few years training and speaking to even thousands (1,700 has been my biggest audience so far) of older people!

there's something more special, even sacred, with having a session with 3- to 4-year-olds, i guess. they're purer, clearer, more transparent, more honest-- either you jell with them or you don't.

God help and bless me and these children! May our time together be mutually enriching and blessed!

I'm in Inquirer! : )

Negrense writer goes international < (click)

"Tight Times" nominated for National Book Awards TWICE!

I am honored to learn that "Tight Times" has been nominated in the Manila Critics Circle's and the National Book Development Board's National Book Awards for books published in 2007 not only once but TWICE-- for children's literature and best design.




To think that among the three stories I submitted for PBBY Salanga 2007 before, I thought "Tight Times" was the "weakest" because it required less effort from me in terms of craft, that it just flowed when written...

Hmmm... come to think of it... so did "Papa's House, Mama's House" (PBBY Salanga 2004 grand prize winner)!

***

Maybe the writing flowed in these because the effort was in the months and years of actually living them out.

"My One-Boobed Mamma" Debuts!

You can pre-order it now before it gets to Amazon and the major bookstores! ;D

Please click here.

My Probe Team Interview for "Papa's House, Mama's House"

It's going to be aired tomorrow (Sept. 24, Phil. time) night, at 11:30 p.m., right after Bandila! ;D

For other schedules, channels, countries--

PHILIPPINES
Wednesday, 11:30 PM on ABS-CBN (VHF Channel 2)

Thursday, 4.50 AM on ABS-CBN

Saturday, 5:30 AM on the ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC)

Sunady, 1:30 PM on the ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC)

MIDDLE EAST
Wednesday, 11:30 PM on TFC
Wednesday, 7:30 AM on TFC (replay)

EUROPE
Thursday, 9:30 AM on TFC
Saturday, 5:35 PM on TFC (replay)

NORTH AMERICA - PACIFIC TIME
Friday, 11:55 PM on TFC

NORTH AMERICA - EASTERN TIME
Thursday, 8:50 AM on TFC
Friday, 2:55 AM on TFC (replay)

AUSTRALIA
Thursday, 8:40 PM on TFC
Friday, 7:15 AM on TFC (replay)

***

Do watch and let me know how you find it, please!

My One-Boobed Mamma

Happy surprise!

I found this while surfing.

I thought My One-Boobed Mamma would be released in early 2009 yet; apparently, it's coming out this August already!

The release of one's work to the public always feels like sending your firstborn out to The Big School. I guess I'll never stop feeling this way about my "creative children", aside from my flesh-and-blood creative children...

May My One-Boobed Mamma reach those who need her most, and may their lives be better from reading her.

New Tomorrows

There must be more to life than blaming, complaining, dissing what's going wrong, and generally feeling like helpless victims to the events and forces acting on our lives. That is not the way I want to spend my time on this planet.

The same energies used for blaming, complaining, dissing what's going wrong, and generally feeling like helpless victims (it takes more muscles to frown than to smile!) CAN be used for focusing attention on what does go right, what one can still do, what one envisions for one's self and one's loved ones, working on building that vision, and finding like-minded, fine-spirited people who are engaging in and aiming for similar endeavors.

So, when a group of friends from the futures, education, peace and cultural work communities and I got together some weeks ago to catch up with each other and have fun again just being ourselves as well as sharing what we're trying to do in each of our individual lives, the idea of banding together specifically for putting all our vision, faith, knowledge, experience, expertise, resources and networks to good use in this direction was born.

KalayLah GLocal Network (KGN) was conceived.

"KalayLah" as a coined term for the Filipino terms, "Kalayaan ng Lahi", or freedom of the race, freedom of generations. "GLocal", for the coined term "global" as well as "local", and the implied synergy between the two spheres acting on each other as preferred futures are envisioned, created and built.

In one of our later discussions, though, the idea of extending this community further, not necessarily as part of KGN itself, but just as an online global community of people focused on enabling preferred futures was born.

So many social networks abound on the Net now, and they are mainly for self-promotion and keeping in touch as well as making new friends purposes. What if we utilize this grand (also free) resource and opportunity to harness people's attentions and energies not just to tell others about themselves or to make new friends, but to share how they think and see and what they are doing towards the future?

Imagine what can happen with this harnessed energy and potential.

At the very least, I want to be around when it happens. : )

Please check out the new global community on the web, "New Tomorrows".

"Life is queer with its twists and turns..."

i remember this line now from an old poem, Don't Quit, that Mama used to post around our "home" (the dinghy mezzanine floor above our store in the public market) while we were growing up (she liked to post a lot of quotes and poems on living life the best and noblest and highest way, despite our miserable physical surroundings...), as i am struck now by how queerly indeed my life has twisted and turned, especially in the past year.

first, i decided to take an unpaid year's leave off from university work, just to rest, relax, and follow my bliss. people thought i had lots of moolah stashed for the full 12 months ahead; they thought i was kidding when i said i was living in God's Grace month to month (i was)!

in June, a love which i thought to be The Love of My Life turned sour, but i consciously resolved not to take it like a victim and to keep my faith and hope for True Love still pure and unsullied instead... and then i met B on July 1, on his birthday!!! : )

then there was the awarding ceremony for my second national book award at the Cultural Center of the Philippines last July, and the fun radio interview out of town, which my kids enjoyed as much as i did (the radio station treated us like superstars, with our own coaster to fetch and bring us back to the hotel and wherever else we wanted to go after the interview).

after that was a children's literature conference i attended where i expected to just be a participant but ended up being like a "grand finale" speaker which got the audience very hyped up and involved.

then the U.S. visa interview with my sis, where the visa officer just asked us questions, didn't even look at the rest of the documents we brought, and then granted us 10-year multiple entry visas each!

then the fun, special bonding time with Mama in the States last Sept-Oct, where we got to relive our teenage years again and fill in the "missing link" in our lives (Mama left us when we were teenagers). we didn't know it was to be our last time with her together, but i think now that she knew all along.

then i come back here in October to have my books launched at The Negros Museum, along with the museum's Storytelling Program, in the midst of the Masskara Festival.

in December to February, both Papa and Mama got seriously sick, having to go in and out of the hospital several times, until they couldn't leave the hospital anymore. Papa was last admitted on Jan. 16, while Mama on Jan. 29. Papa died on Feb. 20, and Mama on March 10.

taking care of both, first here in Bacolod, then there in Atlanta, Georgia, was both special and surreal in itself. it was special because i discovered that one gets to forge and develop a new, adult relationship with one's parents one never had before when they were physically healthy and well. now that the tables are turned and they are dependent on you and you are taking care of them, the masks fall off, and you just relate to each other as full human beings in all your best and worst, and you find that if you just show up for them everyday anyway, just dig in there and continue to care for them the best way you can despite the arguments and the rehashing of unfinished business, the Love and Laughter remain and only grow stronger and unbreakable in the end. i would never have exchanged those last moments with Papa and Mama for all the world. it was the sublimest of benedictions.

and it was also most profoundly healing and special that both Papa and Mama just kept on asking about each other in the end. they were in each other's thoughts, even in their semi-conscious and pained states. how's that for deep Love, huh? : )

my brother, Tope, and my sister, Honey, and i-- we kid each other about our parents being Soulmates after all-- despite their stormy and tempestuous love and lives. but we also quietly know that all jokes contain a deep truth in them; we just joke about them because we could only comfortably take them in joke form; the deep truth both scare and awe us so...


yet, it was surreal, too, living in hospitals and around sick and dying people and the medical staff who also help care for them for three months, and then after that, having to deal with the business of funeral homes and cultural and social norms for the dead. it was twilight-zonish, waking up in the morning and not even able to make plans for noontime, because one never knows what happens next. after they died, it was twilight-zonish still, to find that people get so hung up about certain practices and arrangements (and money, yes, money!) and that they can even be the source of a lot of family and friends' dramatics and melodramatics.

in the midst of it all, i was asked to submit a proposal for an international conference, and found out later in April, that i received a full grant for my paper presentation proposal. so now i have been applying for my Schengen visa to Belgium, as well as preparing my paper for the conference.

in the midst of it all, too, B and i found time to be with each other, just the two of us, and it was a most special, special healing and sweet time.

then, there was the most welcome trip to New Jersey and New York, the bonding with cousins we last saw when we were children, and of course, conquering The Big Apple on our own. it was a most precious, healing gift from Tito Tony and Tita Melvi, more than they will ever know...

coming back home, i decided to beautify my home with part of the inheritance funds i received from Papa's estate. so since April, i have been living in home depots and hardware stores most times of the day. : )

now, i am looking forward to spending more special time with B again when his summer vacation starts, even as i prepare to go back to university teaching, refreshed and renewed in my zeal for the calling.

this afternoon, my publisher's staff communicated with me for a single-parenting talk they plan to do in July, a day before i leave for Belgium, and in which i have been invited to speak and share.

then i come home to find an email from Lifestyle Network who wants me to be a guest in their show! ;O

whew.

***

a friend asked me once how i was, and we both laughed when i said, "i'm mastering the art of winging it!"

but it's true. i am discovering now how life is so strange, all the best-laid intelligent plans can fall apart in a moment. no use stressing over the minutiae of the how-tos.

just focus on what brings you joy, and live more of them each moment each day. the rest, just wing it. ; )

true security is found inside, in your knowing and realization that no matter what happens, you can handle it... not really just because of you alone and the strength of character and life skills you have developed, but because somehow, you are taken care of and provided for, always, by both Seen and Unseen Friends of the heart and soul...

another friend shared with me a joke quote once, and which i find most apt now--

Life is short. Don't make it shorter!

: ) : ) : )

On Writing

Writing is an escape from a world that crowds me. I like being alone in a room. It's almost a form of meditation- an investigation of my own life. It has nothing to do with - I've got to get another play ~ Neil Simon

Raising Caring Kids

Live so that when your children think of fairness, caring and integrity, they think of you.

-H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

***
Please click here for the full article.

The Invisible Mother

I got this as a forwarded email from a friend and fellow mother. This is beautiful and makes a ton of sense. To all the wonderful mothers out there!

***

It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the way one of the kids will walk into the room while I'm on the phone and ask to be taken to the store. Inside I'm thinking, 'Can't you see I'm on the phone?' Obviously not; no one can see if I'm on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at all. I'm invisible. The invisible Mom. Some days I am only a pair of hands, nothing more: Can you fix this ? Can you tie this? Can you open this??

Some days I'm not a pair of hands; I'm not even a human being. I'm a clock to ask, 'What time is it?' I'm a satellite guide to answer, 'What number is the Disney Channel?' I'm a car to order, 'Right around 5:30, please.'

I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the eyes that studied history and the mind that graduated summa cum laude - but now they had disappeared into the peanut butter, never to be seen again. She's going, she's going, she's gone!?

One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a friend from England . Janice had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in. I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself. I was feeling pretty pathetic, when Janice turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, 'I brought you this.' It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe . I wasn't exactly sure why she'd given it to me until I read her inscription:
'To Charlotte , with admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees.'

In the days ahead I would read - no, devour - the book. And I would discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths, after which I could pattern my work: No one can say who built the great cathedrals - we have no record of their names. These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished. They made great sacrifices and expected no credit. The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything.

A legendary story in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, 'Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof, No one will ever see it. And the workman replied, 'Because God sees.'

I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place. It was almost as if I heard God whispering to me, 'I see you, Charlotte. I see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does. No act of kindness you've done, no sequin you've sewn on, no cupcake you've baked, is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral, but you can't see right now what it will become.

At times, my invisibility feels like an affliction. But it is not a disease that is erasing my life. It is the cure for the disease of my own self-centeredness. It is the antidote to my strong, stubborn pride.

I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work on something that their name will never be on. The writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever be built in our lifetime because there are so few people willing to sacrifice to that degree.

When I really think about it, I don't want my son to tell the friend he's bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, 'My Mom gets up at 4 in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a turkey for three hours and presses all the linens for the table.' That would mean I'd built a shrine or a monument to myself. I just want him to want to come home. And then, if there is anything more to say to his friend, to add, 'You're gonna love it there.'

As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if we're doing it right. And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible women.

Great Job, MOM!

***

The Will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you.

$26 million might be taken away from children's reading

From Carol H. Rasco, president and CEO, of Reading Is Fundamental (RIF):

President Bush’s proposed budget calling for the elimination of Reading Is Fundamental’s (RIF) Inexpensive Book Distribution program would be devastating to the 4.6 million children and their families who receive free books and reading encouragement from RIF programs at nearly 20,000 locations throughout the U.S.

Unless Congress reinstates $26 million in funding for this program, RIF will not be able to distribute 16 million books annually to the nation’s youngest and most at-risk children. RIF programs in schools, childcare centers, migrant programs, military bases, and other locations serve children from low-income families, children with disabilities, foster and homeless children, and children without access to libraries.

To find out how you can help, please visit:
http://www.rif.org/get-involved/advocate/what/


***

a parable on exits and entrances

I've been reading this book I found in a used bookshop last Feb. 2, when Papa was still in the hospital. It has been helping me cope and come to terms with the struggle of his illness, and then his death, and mama's present illness too, and I hope you find the following parable as healing:

In Why Me?--

From "Gesher Hachayim" by Y. M. Tuckachinsky:

Imagine twins gestating in the mother's womb, speculating and challenging each other with the question, "What will happen to us after we leave the womb?" Since their entire frame of reference is the interior of the womb, there is no way they could conceive through their sense of sight or hearing what their future holds in store for them.

Suppose that one of the twins is a "believer", supported by his traditions that there is a future life in the next world, while the other brother, a "rationalist", accepts only what his logical mind perceives in the here and now. They each take firm stands and debate their respective positions with passion.

Basing his argument on a religious tradition that he is heir to, the believer maintains that when they exit from the womb they will be reborn into a life that is not limiting, that they will eat through their mouths and not be fed through their navels, that they will see a great distance, that they will hear through the funny things on the sides of the head they call ears. Feet will be straightened and they will be walking erect great distances on this planet Earth, in which deep oceans and gentle streams flow, nourishing all living things. Above them will be the wide expanse of heaven containing a golden sun, a silvery moon, and twinkling stars.

The rational twin roars with laughter at his brother, the simpleton. "Incredulous! Are you for real? No one has ever come back from the other side to tell us. It's all a myth. All we know is what our senses perceive, the objective facts that can be tested. Aside from this womb and its limits, the rest is subjective and has no basis in reality. What do you think will happen when you die?" presses the skeptic.

"Clearly," his believing brother answers, "when we exit the space of this world, we will enter into another world."

"Fool!" snaps his brother. "You will fall into an abyss from which you will never return. You will be annihilated as if you've never been."

Suddenly the water in the womb bursts. The rounded womb begins to shake and writhe. The believer makes a precipitous descent, is expelled, and gone from his brother's view.

The rationalist is shocked by his brother's fate and bemoans the tragedy that has befallen him. As he laments his brother's misfortune, he hears a piercing cry and loud shouts from the darkness into which his brother has disappeared. His fears of a terrible end are confirmed.

The skeptical brother is unaware that his supposed dead brother has entered into an exciting new world and that his own turn is near. The wail that he heard was a cry of a baby's health and the commotion was a chorus of congratulations from the doctors and nurses.

From the limited perspective of the fetus left temporarily behind in the womb, his brother had indeed died. He had been brutally torn from the unfamiliar world that provided protection, warmth, and nurture and hurled into the black pit of oblivion and annihilation.

From a larger view, that same event is called "birth". It represents a transition from a smaller world to a larger world, from a world bounded by the womb, where it passively received, to a wide, wide world where activity and free choice and responsibility open one to limitless possibilities.

Kids' Wisdom

i got this from a forwarded email, but thought i'd want to share my enjoyment, and the reminder of the kids' refreshing insights, with you : ) --

A 1st grade school teacher had twenty-six students in her class. She presented each child in her classroom the 1st half of a well-known proverb and asked them to come up with the remainder of the proverb.

It's hard to believe these were actually done by first graders. Their insight may surprise you. While reading, keep in mind that these are first-graders, 6-year-olds, because the last one is a classic!

1.Don't change horses......until they stop running.

2.Strike while the.........bug is close.

3.It's always darkest before.......Daylight Saving Time.

4.Never underestimate the power of..............termites.

5.You can lead a horse to water but..................How?

6.Don't bite the hand that........................looks dirty.

7.No news is.............................impossible

8.A miss is as good as a........................Mr.

9.You can't teach an old dog new.........................Math

10.If you lie down with dogs, you'll.....stink in the morning.

11.Love all, trust..................Me.

12.The pen is mightier than the............................pigs.

13.An idle mind is...........................the best way to relax.

14.Where there's smoke there's.......................pollution.

15.Happy the bride who..................gets all the presents.

16.A penny saved is...........................not much.

17.Two's company, three's........................the Musketeers.

18.Don't put off till tomorrow what......you put on to go to bed.

19.Laugh and the whole world laughs with you, cry and......You have to blow your nose.

20.There are none so blind as....................Stevie Wonder.

21.Children should be seen and not......spanked or grounded.

22.If at first you don't succeed.............get new batteries.

23.You get out of something only what you.........See in the picture on the box

24.When the blind lead the blind...........get out of the way.

25.A bird in the hand.................is going to poop on you.

And the Best for Last . . .

26. Better late than...................Pregnant.

Resources for Parents and Teachers

In my author's website, there are links to resources that might be very helpful to parents and teachers alike.

The parent resources section contains links on introducing children to reading and the importance of reading aloud to children. The photo links point to sites with articles on how to stimulate a child's mind and getting actively involved in your child's education.

The teacher resources section contains free downloadable lesson plans developed by fellow teachers in the field who have tested these plans in their own classes. They are also members of the Reading Association of the Philippines. The section also contains free downloadable papers and articles, as well as links to other websites, which might be helpful for teachers in using my books, as well as other similar books, in their field.

Check them out now by clicking on the highlighted links above.

A Bedtime Story*

the other night, i came home very late at night from the week-long trainers' training my PJ colleagues and i were conducting. i was hungry and tired and sleepy, and after a quick dinner and shower, i was set to retire for the day.

as Bea dozed off beside me, Paolo rummaged through my bedside drawer to look for some stuff of his that he placed in there. i was also dozing off too when he nudged me to ask what the thing that he was holding in his hand was.

it was a sealed box of condoms from long ago.

i mumbled something like, "ohhh... it's for my health, palangga (dear). let's go to sleep." and i took it from him and put it inside the other bedside drawer by my side of the bed.

knowing Paolo, he didn't let me off the hook. "yes, but what does it do for your health?"

after a careful pause, i sighed and said, "it's so babies aren't made before we're ready for them."

paolo: how?

me: let's talk about it some other time... when you're more grown up and ready."

paolo: i want to talk about it now. i'm ready!

me: i don't think you are. you're only 9 years old. you have to grow up to be a young man, at least, to understand these things.

paolo: i am grown up now! and i want to understand now. try me. you said im a smart boy!

me (after a very loooooong pause): ok. you already know how babies are made, right?

paolo: yes, when the sperm and the egg meet.

me: okay, good. and you know where the sperm and the egg come from, right?

paolo: yes, from the penis and the vagina. when a man and a woman have sex.

me (a longer pause): okay. that's right. so the thing in the box that you saw is used to wrap the penis in so the sperm doesn't come out to meet the egg.

paolo (long pause too): so why do you have it with you still? are you having sex?

me: nope, not right now. you see how it's sealed? that means i haven't used it even.

paolo: but why do you keep it still? do you plan on having sex?

me (really long pause): i wouldn't call it just sex, palangga. ... i call it making love. someday, when i fall in love again and marry, i would want to make love with my husband, too.

paolo (loooooong pause, and when he spoke next, his voice was breaking, and he was starting to sob): i don't like it. i don't like it at all.

me (quiet)

paolo: why do you have to make love to your husband?

me (sighing): it's one special way that a man and woman who love each other show their love for each other.

paolo: can you not show it some other ways?

me: of course, palangga. you can, and you should. but when you love your husband or your wife very much, you want to share your body with them too, not just your heart. you feel it in both your body and your heart. it's as natural as breathing and eating.

paolo: where will you do it?

me: in the privacy of our bedroom of course.

paolo: what if i want to go inside your bedroom? and where will i sleep?

me: you will have a room of your own palangga. if you want to go inside, you can just knock.

paolo: and you will stop having sex?

me: yes.

paolo (long pause): ok.

me (quiet)

paolo: i'll just make another bedroom for you that says "do not disturb". you can do it there.

me: ok. thank you.

paolo: what if i don't want you to have sex?

me: i'm sorry, then. even if im your mom and i love you very much, it is my body and my heart. it's my choice on whether id want to share it with a man again, and with whom. love means respect, too. if you love me, you will respect my choice, as i respect yours. don't i respect your choices and not force you to do things you don't want to do?

paolo: yes.

me: let's go to sleep, palangga...

paolo: what if your husband does not want to have sex but you do? will you force him?

me: no palangga. i will wait for him. in the same way that he cannot force me too if he truly loves me.

paolo: i heard that in Sunday School! Love is patient.

me: yes. that's right.

paolo (really long thoughtful pause, but his breaking voice was becoming fuller now): now i know why Manang won't tell me about it.

me: about what, palangga?

paolo: about the thing i just saw.

me: ok.

paolo: but i understand now, see? after 5 minutes, i understand!

me (smiling now): yes, palangga. come here and give me a hug. i am proud of you. you're growing to be a fine little man now."

paolo (hugging me back): and i know what a prostitute is, too!

me: what is it, palangga?

paolo: it's someone who shares their body in sex so they can be paid with money.

me: yes, you are right there, too.

paolo: why do people do that?

me: because it's a way for them to earn the money they need.

paolo: why can't they just work for it some other way?

me: i don't know palangga.... maybe no one will give them work, and they need the money bad. maybe they haven't gone to school and they can't work at other jobs..."

paolo: when you have sex with someone you do not love, you're like being an animal.

me (long, amazed pause): ... yes. you are right, palangga. and it's not a good feeling, too.

me (getting a better grip): " ... and men who have sex with prostitutes; they make the prostitutes even more helpless."

paolo: so love is about respecting choices and being patient.

me: yes, palangga.

paolo (long, thoughtful pause then gives me a tight hug): "good night, ma. i love and respect you ma!"

***

whew!

that was quite a surprising and dangerous call for me!

one never knows when the really important moments and opportunity to mark a young soul's life comes.

children do keep you on your toes.

oohhh, thank you God, i believe i navigated that one well, huh?



*this was originally posted in my other blog, Life Happens.

The Story Behind "My One-Boobed Mamma"

My mother was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer in January 2000; my sister, with stage 2 breast cancer, in August 2003. They have both beautifully survived and are still zestily living their lives today. Both had mastectomy but neither opted for chemotherapy.

My mother simply insisted that if she just had 6 months to live anyway, she would die with her hair and makeup on. Now, seven years later, the doctor who diagnosed her is dead, while she is still beautifully alive!

My sister took to alternative healing paths through diet and lifestyle change and is actually looking slimmer now, aside from being healthier than ever, with all test results looking good.

I also have two best friends and mentors, more than a decade older than I, who were diagnosed with breast cancer at around this time. Like my mom and sister, you would never know they had it just by looking at them, because of their positive spirit and attitude and this glow they had around them.

Both had mastectomy and underwent chemotherapy. They wore beautiful scarves, though, with matching clothes and shoes, and everyone envied them for how fabulous they looked!

Another friend of mine who was diagnosed with breast cancer, had mastectomy, and also had marriage problems soon after with her husband having affairs here and there. One day, she confided to me how she felt very hurt by what her then nine-year-old daughter told her, “It’s your fault that Dad went away. You’re less of a woman now because of your cancer!!!”


Read more of the story here.

The Story Behind "Tight Times"

When my eldest daughter, Thea, was then four years old and in pre-school, I picked her up from school one day with a report from her teacher that she got into a fight with a classmate.

Apparently, her classmate had been asking her how many cars we have and bragged about how many cars they had. Thea said we had one car, and the classmate said, “Whaaaattt? You have only ONE car? We have five cars. You must be poor.”

At that time, Thea had no understanding of the concept of “poor”, but the way the classmate said it must have gotten to her. “No, we’re not!” she retorted back.

And the classmate said, “Yes you are!”

“Not!”

“You are, too!”

It went on and on that way until they got into a shouting match and Thea cried as her classmates ganged up on her. The teacher soon broke it up and discussed what happened with the group.

She told me she was hard put on how to explain “poor” to the children, and focused on discussing with them about good manners and not shouting at others.

After we got home, I asked Thea for her side of the story and she basically confirmed the details as they transpired. Then, she asked me too, “What is poor, Mama?”

Read more of the story here.

The Story Behind "Papa's House, Mama's House"

Some weeks after my husband and I separated, my then five-year-old son, Paolo, after a trip to the neighborhood sari-sari store, asked me, “Mama, what is a broken home?”

Apparently, the neighbors, after learning of the changes in our household, asked my guileless son how he felt now that he was a child of a broken home. How adults can be so irresponsibly cruel!

It was hard to come up with a quick answer: “Hmm… I think it’s a house with broken windows. Do you see any broken windows in our house?” And he said, “Nope.” I asked further, “Do you feel broken?” He thought a while longer, then said, “Nope.” So I concluded, “Then the neighbors are wrong.”

Read more of the story here.

My 2008 Writing Resolutions

1. Immerse my self in reading Newberry-awarded books for first 3 months of the year, even as
2. I dig into the 2008 Children's Book Writers' and Illustrators' Market, in preparation for
3. Writing a fresh batch of children's stories starting April and keep at it until the end of the year.
4. Sell to international publishers after each story is finished.

***
Note: Pending the availability of my professionally-made author website (many thanks to Bob : >), my "interim" author website, which I had fun setting up just yesterday (main pages, subpages and file links to be completed today and tomorrow, at the latest) is now up:

www. jeanettepatindol.weebly.com

The Books

Papa’s House, Mama’s House won the 2004 Philippine Board on Books for Young People (PBBY) Alfredo Salanga Prize for Children’s Literature Award. It was also a finalist for the 2005 Manila Critics’ Circle National Book Awards – Children’s Literature category. The PBBY is the Philippine National Section of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), a world organization founded in Zurich in 1953 that promotes international understanding through children’s books.

It has been included in the list of the Philippines’ best books for children in “The Bookworm Buddy: A Guide to the Best Philippine Children’s Literature,” by Rica Bolipata Santos and Amy Vijaynagar (illustrations by Robert Magnuson; published by Sa Aklat Sisikat Foundation Inc., 2006). It is also included in PBBY board member and children’s book reviewer Neni Sta. Romana-Cruz’ list of favorite books for children.

Tight Times won the 2007 PBBY Alfredo Salanga Prize for Children’s Literature Award. This was first featured in Newsbreak’s Christmas 2006 issue, and described as, “this is the second time (the author has) bagged the annual prize in just three years. But the bigger story is that in both occasions, her winning entries tackled serious family issues that parents and traditional educators wouldn’t expect to find—or would refuse to find—in children’s books."

Both books are published by Adarna House, Inc. and are currently open for international licensing and distribution.

My One-Boobed Mamma is currently being published by Living Waters Publishing Company for international distribution and will be available by 2009, at the latest. It was used by the Philippines’ National Book Development Board in its 2007 Illustrators’ Contest.

Author Website

My very own author website, www.jeanettepatindol.com, is presently under construction. Thanks to my very special friend, Bob Mankivsky, who inspired the idea and offered his professional expertise to help me set it up. I take care of the copy; he takes care of the technicalities and logistics. I have never had a friend support me in my deepest and lifelong Dream this way before, and for this, I am forever touched and grateful.

The website is designed primarily to help parents and teachers who are looking for resources to help them help the children in their care.

The site introduction goes like this--

One of the toughest tasks for any parent or teacher is helping a child cope with a challenging life situation. When your child asks questions that deal with painful truths, how does one find the words to answer them?

A child’s book can help answer these questions.

Writing kids’ books with important lessons for life is what Philippine-based author, Jeanette C. Patindol, has become known for. Her award-winning children’s books, tackling life-challenges like marital separation, money problems and breast cancer, have also become popular among adult readers, described by readers as: “(the books) minister to both adults and children alike”[1], and “written simply but with a mystical meaning.”[2]

---

[1] Mervyn Misajon, PhD., Development Studies and Futures Studies professor, University of St. La Salle, Bacolod City, Philippines

[2] Regina Groyon, M.A., former English Literature professor and Languages Dept. Chair, University of St. La Salle, Bacolod City, Philippines

When the author website is up, this blog is intended to complement that site. It will share experiences, ideas and information here on anything and everything related to-- as this blog's blurb says-- "kids, life with kids, books, reading, writing, lessons for life".

Thank you for visiting!

To keep your self posted to this blog, please click on the RSS feed button (click on "Subscribe to Posts" at the bottom of the page) in this site.

2008: I'm Coming Out

I have always been writing, ever since I learned how to write. I made my first journal at 8 years old, and started writing freelance for national magazines at 14 years old.

But, writing has always been a guilty pleasure, if not a guilty secret altogether. Family and friends saw it as a "hobby"; I treated it as my life-preserver, if not life-saver during the darkest moments of my life. Still, I believed what other people thought and said more than I believed what I thought and said of my writing and my own life.

So, along the way, for most of my life, I publicly announced I wanted to be a doctor, then a nun, but ended up first, a businesswoman, then a wife and mother, then a teacher, then a single parent and reborn woman reclaiming and reinventing herself and handcrafting her life on her own terms this time-- this last occupation starting only in 2002, after I heeded the louder rumblings of my soul around the year 2000, when I also decided to get serious with my creative writing dreams, wrote my first tentative fiction, attended my first creative writing workshop and had one of my first fictions published in a U.S.-based popular book collection at that.

In short, I traveled all over, took many detours, only to finally give in to the tugs of my heart and come back to my first love and passion, creative writing, at 32.

It has been a wonderful journey since then, and I never regret following my heart in this path. In the last five years alone, I have been granted three more fellowships to prestigious and highly-competitive national writing workshops, won 2 national awards for my children's stories, and lately, signed my first Contract with a U.S.-based publishing company for the publication in storybook form and international distribution of another one of my children's stories.

Still, I have always been half-in, half-out with my writing-- teacher, researcher, entrepreneur, and mother by day, then writer only in the depths of the night, when everyone else is asleep and I can finally unclothe my self and just be me, sitting and watching and writing with my mind, heart and soul.

Writing has been like a devoted, faithful lover all throughout my life, frequently spurned or set aside for other more "important" things and pursuits, yet the one thing that also consistently saves me from my self, and keeps my spirit alive and the fires inside aflame.

It is time to give this lasting lover its due and make it my husband for life now, and declare it so for all the world to hear and see.

It deserves nothing less.