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BY PETER SOLIS NERY
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Monday, October 2, 2017
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HELLO, dear readers. As I have already reported, or as you have already known if you are following me on Facebook, I’ve been two weeks in the UK already, and has gone to Barcelona in Spain, too.
I like the Merseyside in England. I’m staying in a town called Prescot, eight miles to the east of Liverpool. It’s just the beginning of autumn, but it’s already pretty cold here.
I liked Barcelona a lot. I totally enjoyed my short trip, and had seen a lot in just two days. I think I will be back there again soon, but in a more relaxed tour.
If not, I’ll probably hit another Spanish city like Madrid or Seville. Which is to say, I am enjoying my UK and European vacation.
In fact, I am right now seriously thinking of buying a month-long Eurail Global Pass which will allow me to travel for a whole month and explore 28 countries in Europe by train. I think it would totally be worth the $1,000 or so.
Europe in a month, with six pieces of underwear. Think about that!
So anyway, I can hardly write my column pieces these days. The sights and cultures are just overwhelming.
I want to truly enjoy my experience without having to worry about my column readers.
I mean, I can just stop writing and make you wait until I decide to write for you again. But I’m not that kind of person.
Because you love me, I try to be responsible for you. And so I thought I should give you something that I have poured my heart into.
Thus, the idea of serializing my novel, “Love in the Time of the Bakunawa”. Yes, that’s the story that got made into a movie, my 2012 full-length feature film “Gugma sa Panahon sang Bakunawa”.
I spent the entire day the other day reading my novella again. And I realized that it is perfect to keep you amused while I enjoy my UK and European vacation.
The chapters are short. And the paragraphs are even shorter.
In fact, there are hardly paragraphs as ‘paragraphs’ because I basically wrote the novel in sentences.
There is a novelty in this novel. And somehow, it is also explained in Chapter 13 called “Novel”. Which I won’t excerpt here so you will be curious to follow the novel in installments.
There are 45 chapters in this novella. But, as have already mentioned, the chapters tend to run very short.
If the editors decide to run two chapters in one issue, I have already given them the permission to do so.
Because this novel is quite short, it is pretty much underrated. But I like the exercise in conciseness here. I think I am at my best in short forms.
I have written romance novels before this. I mean, by copying the style of the romance novels in the Philippines.
But this one is different. This one is more seriously crafted, more literary, more original in style. Like a true Peter Solis Nery. Not a run of the mill Valentine Romances.
I hope you will enjoy reading it. I really enjoyed writing it. And when I edited it for serialization in Panay News the other day, I was totally floored by its beauty and utter simplicity.
I am very proud of this novella. And I only wish that when I have adjusted here in the UK and Europe, I will finally find time and quiet to write another one like this.
There is no other way to experience this novel than by actually reading it. The book version has already been published in the US, and has been made available to Amazon.com since 2012.
Sadly, it’s not even my personal bestseller. I mean, my play on Imelda Marcos, “If the Shoe Fits: Or, the Five Men Imelda Marcos Meets in Heaven” sells much faster.
Or, my collection of Hiligaynon short stories, “Stories in a Mellifluous Language”.
Still, it is as I say: This novella, “Love in the Time of the Bakunawa”, is a proud Peter Solis Nery original. It is a novelty novel. A new thing. And I am so proud I have written it.
Because it lends itself easily to the allocated space for my column, I would like to replicate my Ilonggo journalism history.
Question: What was the first novel in the English language that was serialized in an Ilonggo newspaper?
Answer: “The Sensualist” by Peter Solis Nery, which ran sometime in 2002-2003 on the Entertainment Pages of the now defunct The News Today.
Question: What will be the first novel in the English language to be serialized on the Opinion Pages of Panay News, the widest circulating regional Ilonggo newspaper in the Philippines, starting October 4, 2017?
Answer: “Love in the Time of the Bakunawa” by Peter Solis Nery.
There is a reason why Ilonggo novels in English are not serialized in newspapers.
There is a reason why novels are not generally run on the opinion pages of a newspaper.
And then, there is Peter Solis Nery.
And that, my friends, is how the legend of Peter Solis Nery, the Ilonggo novelist, is made. (500tinaga@gmail.com/PN)
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