God Wrote My Love Story In Kanji

Synopsis

Athemis Sanvictores, 28-years-old, technically a virgin (mentally, definitely not, and her hands aren’t innocent either), writer, and Anti-Mary Sue (with a noisy and foul-mouthed brain mouth) decides to push through with her lifelong dream of becoming a published author.

       For a perfect story, she needs a perfect setting. She decides on Japan because of the Pull—a sudden longing of her soul to be in Japan that she feels since the beginning of the year.

       While exploring the wonders of Tokyo and searching for the perfect story, she meets a lot of interesting people, who show her different facets of love—Mathon, a British ALT, who is in love with Mai, her college friend who's also an ALT, and Ichiro and Hiroku—best friends slash models, who are in love with each other, giving Athemis her live yaoi couple.      

       Witnessing how different people struggle to fight for their own hearts wakes up her dormant heart. As she gets caught up with everyone’s love stories, her supposed story starts to become a real love story—her love story—which she doesn’t expect.

      She meets two guys who spin her loveless life around—Minakawa Yori and Takuma Ryuunosuke. Minakawa Yori is a happy-go-lucky guy, who kisses her the first time they meet and who later becomes her personified diary. Takuma Ryuunosuke is an actor with a complicated persona, who treats her like how his movie characters treat other characters—coldly or passionately, depending on the situation.

      As she starts to fall for Yori, he starts to avoid her. Then Takuma enters the scene, treating her like dirt yet showering her with affection that touches the coldest parts of her soul.

      Will Athemis leave Japan with a story or with a broken heart and a tattered soul?

The Vardøger

Synopsis

            Roseus, a stunning boy born with a diamond spoon in his mouth, had his life laid out for him even before he could talk. Despite his rebellious nature, he accepts his fate and continues to live his privileged yet routine life, until his father brings home Kai, an orphaned enigmatic girl, who could not remember anything from her past except the scholastic knowledge she must have learned somewhere.

            Despite his father’s strong reluctance to a potential friendship and the girl’s oddities, Roseus finds himself drawn towards her dark aura. As he and Kai start to become each other’s worlds, Roseus’ father starts interfering and sends him away to college. College becomes his new life, where he finds independence and meets his first real love, Cammie.

            When Roseus comes back, he is surprised to find Kai different. She has retreated back to her dark shield and he is unable to penetrate it.  Frustrated, he tries to bring his Kai back and in the process, his feelings start to change, causing him to break up with Cammie. When he is finally ready to accept his feelings, the mysteries surrounding Kai start to reveal themselves, causing him to realize that he and Kai are mere actors to a script someone has written.

            And that Kai is not who she seems to be.

           Love’s choices always result to either joy or pain, and Roseus has to make a choice—set Kai’s soul free or recycle it?

INTRODUCTION or better yet, WELCOME POST aka THE STORY OF MY WRITING LIFE

Hi! Konnichiwa!

Before anything else, let's get over the boring part. Let me introduce myself.

WARNING: This might be a little dramatic because I've been a drama queen since I was a kid.

I'm Katrina Saba, 28-years-old, a freelance writer, aaanddd finally... a Novelist. Japanese name: カトリナ。サバ (Katorina saba)。Why a Japanese name? Because Japan is a huge part of my soul, which I just recently discovered. You can call me Kat or Katto (the Japanese counterpart).

Three years ago (2012), I resigned from my corporate job to finally pursue my dream to become a novelist. It was a huge risk and it was the most beautiful risk I have taken.

It's been a struggle for me. I had no permanent job. I did freelance writing and while there were what I call Golden Days, there were more Nganga Days. 

Why not apply to another corporate job while writing a novel?, you might ask. Well, you might not find my reasons sufficient, but let me still tell you. 

I had tried it. 

Right after my college graduation (2008), I had immediately landed a corporate job. It wasn't my dream job (my dream job was to work in a magazine publication company), but I had accepted it because of financial matters. I came from a middle class family, and while we never really starved, it was always needs over wants. So it was the Corporate World for me.

My predicament back then wasn't about time management. It was about focus. While writing was (still is) my life, it wasn't a responsibility. My corporate job was my responsibility. So of course, my focus was on my corporate job. Yes, of course I still wrote (because I can't not write), but the products of my mind back then were more... fanfiction-al than novel-material. They lacked originality. They lacked depth. They lacked the real Katrina Saba touch.

When I resigned a year after, it took me eight months of bumming around. I had time to write. I tried hard to create an acceptable first novel, but all I was able to do was write Twilight fanfiction about Jasper and Bella (I ship them!).

Some writers can probably relate with me. Writers can always write, but not everything we write ends up as the one. My eight months weren't wasted, but they were not enough for me to... find the one.

Then there was always that nagging guilt. I needed to work because I needed to help. So I did work. Again. I had landed a marketing job in a real estate company after eight months of corporate hiatus. I worked there for almost three years.

And then I just woke up one day and asked myself, "Is this the life I really want?"

I passed a resignation letter a week after I answered that question. 

Nine months. It took me a nine months of frustrated soul-searching to find the perfect story for my very first novel--- The Vardoger. It took me one month to write it.


Then there were the two-year compilation of rejection letters from agents and major publishers. The other publishers, you ask? They didn't even bother to reply.

November 2014. I went to Japan and got inspired. I loved the place so much and it felt like home to me. Five days. It took me five days to finish writing God Wrote My Love Story In Kanji. It's set in Japan. Obviously. 

I tried passing GWMLSIK to local publishers. Again, I received no response. Not even a single rejection letter.   

I didn't want to give up, but my wallet was already crying for help. And then a miracle happened.

My Mom, (I think she finally realized I really want nothing to do with my life other than this) decided to fully support me. She decided to help me self-publish. And Mom's friend, let's just call her Non-Christmas Santa, heard about Mom's plans and decided to fund me too.

Yes, self-publishing is hard work. You don't have the constant support of an Editorial Staff behind you. You have to pay for everything or if you don't want to, you have to do things your own way (Which is what I'm doing right now). 

But the process is almost done! 

So here I am, just waiting for that final product. :)

Welcome to my page. And I hope you'll love my double header book. :)

KAT/ KATTO