Last Saturday, I was holed up at Libreria again with fellow Flippers and book bloggers for a meetup with author Marianne Villanueva, arranged by Rocket Kapre. The Flippers were supposed to have a breakfast meeting, but I went home well past midnight from the previous night’s office party, got an hour’s sleep before dragging myself out of bed for the dawn mass, and then went back to sleep. I was alarmed when Gege’s text woke me up at 10am, when we were designated to meet! I threw on a shirt, shorts and flipflops (and I forgot my camera, too!) and hightailed it to Cubao, just in time for lunch at Ali Mall.
I was still bleary eyed by the time we went back to Libreria, but the discussion was well underway, and I think I was barely coherent while I was nursing a couple cups coffee. Unfortunately I had to hightail it again back home to Makati for a change of clothes for a girls’ night out with my high school friends, but I did get my copy of The Lost Language: Stories signed, and enough interesting factoids about the author to make me want to read the book!
Here are ten interesting things about Marianne Villanueva:
1. Refers to herself as “self” in her blog, Kanlaon
2. Is friends with great writers (and only great writers!), such as Jeffrey Eugenides
3. Has taught her niece to say “Dear God”
4. Can talk at an average rate of 5.67540392 words per second
5. Has actually written an opera libretto
6. Shocked her family with her book The Lost Language
7. Drove through Negros (Oriental and Occidental) in style
8. Is a stalker of The Bibliophile Stalker
9. Thinks Creative Writing courses won’t teach you how to write, but will teach you how it is to be a writer
10. Considers the meetup with the Filipino Book Bloggers one of her most “fun” conversations in her visit to the country!
I would have to say that I also count the get-together as one of my most memorable writer meetups — Marianne is so disarmingly candid; I think she charmed the socks off all of us! Looking forward to reading The Lost Language soon!
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Marianne Villanueva answers more questions from Mich on Kanlaon, be sure to check it out!
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