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my first novel

thanks for those who texted and commented about my second novel.

My first novel was finished in the year 2000, on a Fulbright grant to the US at Rutgers University in New Jersey. It is my dissertation for my Ph.D. in Creative Writing, which I will defend in the first semester of 2008. Anvil wanted to publish my novel three years ago, in 2005, but I told them I will first defend it before my Ph.D. panel for additional comments.

So it is finished. Don't worry about that. All 350 pages of it. The original draft was 550 pages. I threw away the rest.

As for the short story collection, it is finished, too, and I will give it to a university press. I am choosing one that will not censor the stories, because some of them are too risque by Catholic university press standards. Maybe UP Press is the best bet.

Some people told me I will stop writing once I run. I think they are wrong.

I am giving to the UP Press a manuscript of new poems in English that I have just finished writing. I am also proofreading a new book of essays in Filipino that Anvil will publish in time for the Philippine Book Fair in September.

I am not in the same league as William Butler Yeats and Pablo Neruda. Far, far from it. But remember, guys, when they won as senators, they continued writing as well.

They are role models to emulate.

Thanks.
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Comments

the boomerang kid said…
This is exciting news, indeed. Will surely wait for these to come out. Keep on writing, Danton!
Saturday, May 10, 2008
miss donna said…
Hope I can somehow get hold of these in sunny London :)
Monday, May 19, 2008
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