Jay E. Tria's Blog

You did it. You made it. After months of researching, applying, praying, planning, and preparation, you’ve finally made it to Sweden. And so begins a brand new adventure. Now what, you ask? I asked myself the same thing. On my first night, I felt so lost and exhausted that I actually had thoughts to turn around and head back home (lol, I know, so dramatic but also valid). I pushed forward, of course. This was a dream come true after all. This article gives a great list of things to do on your first days in Sweden. I totally agree and have been guided by it too. Consider my list below as supplemental reading, with a focus on making this brand-new world feel more like home. Feed yourself and sleep. Food is very, very important. So is sleep. I decided to write them both in the first bullet because we can sometimes choose one over the other when we’re exhausted. I know because I chose sleep on my first night and woke up starving. Not great. Pack a few food items in your carry-on (lost checked-in luggage is too real!) or grab something from a store on your way to […]

Note: Suuuuper late post as in years late. This trip was in 2018 or 2017 (??) lol. But the words are here and they are still informative I think! At the very least, this is a good travel diary. Enjoy 🙂 *** Sounds tiring? You’re not wrong. Will I do it again? Not Amazing Race-style like this, no. I’d take my time and stick to one part of the country next time. But if you’re a first-timer who wants a sampler tour and enjoys the rush of seeing so many firsts at once and also wants to experience riding a shinkansen, then this is for you. I’ve been to Tokyo and Osaka in the summer and Tokyo in spring, but this was my first time coming in the fall. I wanted the pretty autumn leaves, Japan-style, but October was too early for most of them apparently. The weather was supposed to be kinder in October, however, which was the point of choosing this month instead of my usual November. But alas, Typhoon 21 was right on our tail, so what welcomed us was chilly winds and nonstop rain and a full-blown typhoon. And I thought I’d look silly if I […]

Hello! I thought it would be a good time to update where to find my books, and writing a post about it forces me to organize my thoughts and put them down so that I know the answer to this myself (lol). Digital (eBook) – My books are distributed widely across several e-retailers Amazon Snack PH Gumroad Google Play Scribd Apple Books Barnes & Noble Kobo Smashwords Vivlio Apart from some chapters, fics, and possibly works in progress, I also publish complete stories on Wattpad for limited periods. Print International – My Amazon page lists the paperback option for my books. Some are eligible for free shipping, including to the Philippines! Local Komiket Secret HQ‘s online stores – Listed on Secret HQ Facebook page, Shopee page and online bookstore. You can also message them to request to purchase a title. Komiket events – If you want to pick up a specific title at a Komiket event, kindly email sales@romanceclassbooks.com so it can be arranged. Magdamag Market Cafe, QC – available titles are on display. Don’t forget to grab a coffee and lots of bread 🙂 Collective Base, Theater Mall, Greenhills – available titles on display. Romanceclass website – Our website […]

The past few years for me have been the era of the short story. Because the usual novella lengths proved extra challenging to write. And because I’ve had the opportunity to be part of anthology projects and writing prompts that pushed and encouraged me to come out with short kilig work. I wrote ‘The Right Answer’ from a prompt for serialized fiction, and it was initially published in Philippine Daily Inquirer‘s mobile app, Inquirer Plus. Amazingly too, the story is required reading in teacher Ines Bautista-Yao‘s romance elective. Sounds like a fun class to me. ‘How Can I Help You?’ and ‘You Belong With Me’ were in the Tropetastic Kindness bundle, the RomanceClass initiative for charity. I had so much fun going back to these stories and writing new epilogues for this book. ‘Yes to You’ is brand new. Recovered from the depths of my files where it had been languishing for years and brought back to life. This one was created out of a prompt too–fake wedding date. I’m super happy I finally got to finish it and share it with you. More about the stories below:   Forced (thesis) proximity. Fake wedding date. Flirty, younger guy. Sibling’s best […]

Contains spoilers for the Korean drama series “Tomorrow”. Content / Trigger Warning: Suicide Fantasy K-drama Tomorrow is probably the last thing I would have consumed for comfort. I’d been re-watching and rereading the Spy x Family anime and manga to the ground in the worst days of my sickness and isolation. I guess one day I thought, “hmm, how about pain?” Tomorrow’s premise is the main content and trigger warning. It follows a small team of grim reapers tasked not to collect souls but to save lives. Called Risk Management (RM), team leader Koo Ryeon (Kim Heesun) and assistant manager Lim Ryunggu (Yoon Ji-on) monitor negative energies, the kind that leads humans to choose suicide, and stops them before they do. Passionate in their jobs despite being a small and often dismissed unit, their two-person machinery was disrupted by Choi Junwoong (Rowoon), a human who got in the way of one of their missions. Junwoong eventually joins the team on a six-month contract while his mortal body is in a coma. Scrappy, bounding with reckless energy, and brimming with a sense of justice with little knowledge and sometimes willful disregard of the afterlife’s rules, Junwoong’s working relationship with his stone-faced, taciturn […]

Hey hey my books are nominated for the Filipino Readers’ Choice Awards 2022 (FRCA). FRCA is back after seven years and it’s super cool to have my books and more RomanceClass titles among the nominees. Here are my nominated books! You can vote here until September 23, 11:59PM Manila time. Romance in English 13 – Songs of Our Breakup (Playlist #1) (2015) 14 – Songs to Get Over You (Playlist #2) (2016) 20 – You Out of Nowhere (2017) 42 – Songs You Come Back To (Playlist #4) (2020) More about the books and where to read them in the links. Fiction Anthology 47 – Summer Crush by Jay E. Tria, Six de los Reyes and Tara Frejas (2017) 103 – Tropetastic Kindness Bundle by Ana Tejano, Angel C. Aquino, Angeli E. Dumatol, Ines Bautista-Yao, Mina V. Esguerra, Bianca Mori, Carla de Guzman, Dawn Lanuza, C. P. Santi, Suzette de Borja, Jay E. Tria, Katt Briones, Georgette S. Gonzales, Celestine Trinidad, Chris Mariano, (Mina V. Esguerra, 2021) You can read my story on Wattpad. You can find the full list of nominees here. Go go vote for your faves and support Filipino authors! Reminder that voting is only until September […]

Hellooo first post of 2022 and first post in a while (wew). Definitely long overdue. Just like this book! I first started writing Love To Meet You in 2019, finished the first draft quickly by October 2019, and then surprise, a pandemic. It’s been struggs city ever since, and really really slow going, but I’m surrounded by people who love to create and who choose to create despite unprecedented dark, trying times. I’m grateful for the continued push of accountability buddies (always RomanceClass!), and now we have this book.   Expectations vs. Reality At 33, career woman Sol Trinidad wasn’t really looking for anything other than a fun evening when she attended the fan meet of hot Korean celebrity Nam Jihun. She certainly wasn’t expecting to get up close and personal with the actor—like rolling-in-the-sheets-until-dawn personal. It was just one night after all. She will never see him again and he’ll forget about her soon enough. Right? Manila was supposed to be just one of the many cities in 30-year old Nam Jihun’s work itinerary. Just like in any other city, he was excited to greet his fans. Then he met Sol, someone who had a knack for throwing all […]

Episode 4 of the RomanceClass Podcast got us talking about K-ent influences in our books and it was just one of those conversations that could go for days. So much fun and just so much to talk about. Super thrilled to have been part of this panel. If you missed it, it’s up on RomanceClass YouTube and will be in your favorite podcast places soon. Sharing my notes and some additional thoughts that came after (because 2 hours to talk about Kdramas and Kpop, clearly not enough): Kdrama Origin story. My first K-ent consumption was the movie My Sassy Girl, got into the angsty Kdramas (Spring Waltz, Endless Love, Winter Sonata), finally landing on early romcom faves (Full House, My Girl). Influence in writing. Competent leads, soft boys, found family! Kdramas are really great at writing squads and squad dynamics, which I enjoy writing as well. Also small moments that, as author Chris Mariano said in the chat, made the grand gestures feel deserved. “Fixing” things seen in Kdrama in your writing. No wrist grabs, no toxic alpha leads, no love corners. Definitely no truck of doom and no inexplicable plot devices, i.e. sudden death/illness/horrific past reveal/horrific turn of events. […]

We wrote happy endings for charity! <3 The Tropetastic Kindness Bundle is available on Gumroad until April 14, for $5 or the price you set. It started with talk of what if there was one condo (thank you Carla de Guzman), and what if we let the Roleta of Fate choose our tropes (thank you Dawn Lanuza), with visual guidance of a proper floor plan (hail, CP Santi!) and viola, the Tropetastic Kindness Bundle is born. 15 Filipino authors and 15 short stories of romance, set in a fictional condominium building in Ortigas. The roleta gave me enemies to lovers (also known as the Six de los Reyes special), which turned out to be un-write-able at present. I thank the love and friendship of Ines Bautista-Yao for willingly swapping her sibling’s best friend trope, hence I was able to meet the funlines with my story contribution. You Belong With Me (Heat Level 3) is about 33-year old Mira Banzon, recently home and “retired” after years of working in Dubai. She asked her kuya for a place to stay the night in the city but somehow ended up at the door of Johan Antonio, her kuya’s best friend. The same man […]

RomanceClass Podcast is back with Season 4! Kicked off with the launch of The Tropetastic Kindness Bundle (available until April 14, 2021 here, all proceeds to charity!), and now with Episode 2: The Rockstar Trope. Alternate title: Why Are Rockstars?? Super cool to have been part of this panel because 1) I write about rockstars in romance, and 2) turns out it’s good to sit with the questions of why we are fascinated with these musician people and why and how we enjoy them, specially in our romance content. Chatted with gig/music/writer friends Dawn Lanuza, Six de los Reyes, and Tara Frejas, with hosting by producer Mina V. Esguerra and direction from the voice of god (lol) Tania Arpa. The episode is up on RomanceClass Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube. A few of my things from the discussion here, plus some stuff that came to me after, which is how the brain works sometimes. Origin story. Seeing friends and classmates picking up instruments, forming bands, and performing in high school and college. Seeing how funny and cool and awkward it could be, kids trying to work together to create synchronized output, mess and art. The band dynamics that come out of […]