LAST YEAR, I was contracted to prepare the second edition of the Creative Writing textbook that I have written for the Philippine senior high school in late 2015 to early 2016.
The original book was published and distributed in 2017.
Early in 2018, they gave me a heads up for a second edition to come out in 2019.
It kind of drove me crazy because I was thinking, Why mess with a perfect first edition?
But it was explained to me that the newer edition would help the teachers who are using the book year after year.
They don’t want the teachers to be complacent. Or, bored!
And besides, shouldn’t my references be updated?
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They waved a fat check (Philippine standard) before my eyes, so I said, Okay.
And besides, I already did the brilliant original, so why not cash in on the revision.
I’d still be saying the same brilliant lecture, I just needed to update my references, create new output requirements and challenges for the new textbook users.
They gave me four to six months to do it.
Which, of course, I kind of did in just two months.
Like, they gave me April, May, June, July, August, September.
And I finished it all in May and June.
And spent the fat check during my vacation in the Philippines in August, September, and October last year.
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And then, the brilliant publisher submitted my second edition to a reviewer/consultant.
Someone with a PhD or something to make sure that my work has no factual errors.
Or was sufficient enough for the education of senior high students.
And I was thinking, Duh! My book is well loved by its current and previous users.
I know because the teachers and students contact me online to say so.
So, anyway, I thought, If the publisher wants to spend the company money on a reviewer that way, that money is not mine to lose.
The reviewer came back to them in February.
With brilliant comments on my book!
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Of course, it was sufficient.
Of course, there were no negative comments.
Of course, it was well done.
Of course, I got all praises for my book.
So, Duh! Publisher’s money not very well spent.
But I’m not really the best judge of that.
Maybe, the reviewer’s/consultant’s endorsement would make my publisher trust me more in the future.
Maybe, it will establish that the publisher can bypass that reviewer/consultant step in the future Peter Solis Nery books.
Who is to say?
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So, anyway, the production department had several new concerns regarding the second edition.
It looks like some of my online sources aren’t as reliable as my first edition sources.
I’m thinking, Why mess with a perfect first edition, in the first place?!!!
But because I was paid to do the job, I did the job.
I did most of it in February and March.
I could have done it all in one or two weeks, but the issues were not raised all at once.
So, that’s what happened in February and March.
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In mid-April, the Palanca announced the opening of the contest for 2019.
Of course, it made me excited.
It drove me anxious.
But just a little bit.
Mostly, it was just excitement.
I just wanted to write for the Palanca.
I just love the challenge of the contest.
It’s something I can win.
And I kind of like the idea of winning.
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And so that’s what I did in May.
I wrote pieces that I deemed worthy of a Palanca.
Or, at least, have a fighting chance.
I really think I did well considering the quality and quantity of the output I have generated.
Whether they end up as prizewinners or not, that’s not really important to me anymore.
I mean, sure, winning would be great.
But as any great writer will tell you, it’s in the journey that the fun is found most.
I am mostly changed by my works.
I mean, I feel that my understanding of the world is better after my pieces are done.
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Writing is really a most transformative activity for me.
I mean, speaking, too, for sure.
And to a great extent, reading.
But it is when I think and write my deepest beliefs that I feel most powerful and renewed.
Sure, I am influenced by everything that I’ve heard, seen, read, and so on, but until I have made these bits part of my own writing, they really don’t stick.
In so many ways, I like what I’m doing in the newspaper.
I like how I write in My Life As Art because I have a space and a real chance at verifying my thoughts.
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I feel that my life is most considered.
Carefully sifted and pondered upon.
A most examined life.
I mean, who does that in a newspaper?
I write about my life, and it’s fodder for people’s entertainment at the very least.
It’s not lost on me that this feeds my celebrity.
I mean, seriously, Whose life in Iloilo, or even in the whole Western Visayas, is more publicized than mine?
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Some people need a scandal to land in the newspaper.
Some people have to sell their souls to the Devil to merit the column space I have.
And what do I have to do to enjoy this?
Nothing.
Just a commitment to be true to you.
To write honestly, and with conviction.
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I did not promise high literary quality in my column.
I only promised a real journey.
We laugh, we cry, we wonder why.
We live, we get inspired, we mourn, we get mad.
But you and I are always 100 percent real even if this is just… My Life As Art! (500tinaga@gmail.com/PN)
