Writing is about creating something original. It's about sharing a part of yourself through characters that reflect your own, or about sharing the experiences you went through and the insights you've gained along the way. I feel keenly the need to express my thoughts that I even have a journal. Writing a diary is like a mystical revelation: I achieve detachment, yet my senses are heightened so I live more fully in the Moment.

As a kid, I grew up reading Enid Blyton's The Five Find-Outers and Franklin W. Dixon's The Hardy Boys during grade school. But the first adult book I read was Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird so it's special to me. Then, when I became a teenager, two other books also became part of my life. I was the same age and going through the same adolescent angst as Finny in John Knowle's A Separate Peace and Euripides in William Goldman's The Temple of Gold.

Wayne Dyer's Your Erroneous Zones changed my life and made me who I am now: one who values his own worth without the need for other people's approval.

Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingston Seagull gave me the freedom to be who I want by showing me that my true nature is more important than how others expect me to conform.

Carlos Castañeda's Journey To Ixtlan is the first to open my eyes about the infinite mysteries beyond the everyday world and made me see Death in an entirely different way.

Trevanian's Shibumi became my favorite novel because never have I identified to a literary character so viscerally as with the semi-telepathic protagonist Nicholai, except for the assassin part.

Shirley MacLaine's Out On A Limb set me off on my own spiritual journey. I came across a battered copy last year through serendipity. Then I found an out-print-copy of her Dancing In The Light too. I believe that "coincidences" happen because there is a Higher Power that guides us.

I grew up in the Philippines, in Antipolo, about 40 kms. east of Manila. But I have lived in so many different places since I started living alone when I was fourteen. It's my travels and adventures that shaped my character and brought out the artist in me, so to speak. There was no "Eureka!" moment. I just came to accept as a matter of course that all I want to be in life is a writer.

Let me tell you a story. There's been a lot of times when I'd be in a bookstore but I don't have the budget to buy everything I want. I promised myself that when my books get published, they will be worth people's hard-earned money. I'm a freelancer so I'm used to my manuscripts being rejected or ignored, so I am deeply grateful to folks who would take the time to check out my books. I don't think of them as "fans" because I find it condescending. I think of the eBook industry as a community so I'd rather think of them as "friends," and I hope they won't find that too presumptious.