How to hope when you wake up to hate

By Candy Gourlay

From my Facebook page

This morning I woke up to helicopters circling nearby Finsbury Park where a van had plowed into worshippers at the local mosque. Waking up to hate and despair has become a bit of a regular thing lately – terrorist attacks in Manchester, London Bridge, the Grenfell fire, war in Marawi in my native Philippines, Syria, hate, hate, hate from the either side of every divide in the Philippines, the United States, and elsewhere in the world.

Every time something bad happens, I fortify myself by looking into the upturned faces of the beautiful children I work with as an author in schools. The children always give me hope.

Yesterday my neighbours and I had a mini street party for the Great Get Together, an act of unity and defiance in the name of the MP Jo Cox, who was murdered by a right-wing extremist.

But we couldn't help talking about the long shadows that had of late fallen over our society. 'These are such dark times,' I said to Myra, my elderly neighbour who lives opposite.

Myra smiled and began to tell me a story. 'I lived in China as a child, I remember crossing the Great Wall to get to the beach. I was eight years old when the Japanese invaded. They gave us our lives, but nothing else. We fled with the clothes on our backs. All the railway lines had been destroyed and so we took a bus with all its windows blown out. We were taken to an island where a group of women met us. The first thing they did was hold up some donated clothing against me, measuring me up so that they could find me something to wear.'

Myra went on to tell me about being a teenager in South Shields during the second World War, when bedtime meant queuing into a bomb shelter as German bombers raced up the River Tyne on nightly runs. She remembered sitting in a row with her family on a bench that rocked everytime a bomb landed on a nearby street.

In the morning, they all set off for school, as normal. Except her parents would send her a different route everyday, to avoid the street that had been bombed, so that she would not have to witness the horror of the night before.

Listening to these stories, strangely, gave me hope. It reminded me that I too had once lived in a dark era, the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines, which claimed our freedom and many lives with it, including members of my extended family. And I look at Myra, wise and wonderful and sparkling with life despite all the dark times she had experienced, and I think: here is hope.

We must grieve and we must struggle and we must fight against forces that bring darkness to our lives. But at the same time, dear parents, teachers and children, we can take strength from the knowledge that humanity does manage to overcome, and we can build good lives that will bring light into the shadows.

Please look out for announcements of Authors for Grenfell, an online author auction to support the survivors of the disaster (along the lines of Authors for the Philippines, Authors for Refugees) organised by Harriet Reuter Hapgood, Molly Ker Hawn and Sara Bernard. Authors who want to participate can email authorsforgrenfell@gmail.com

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Truth and Fiction in the Age of the Strongman

By Candy Gourlay

Candy and Miguel

Last night, I met Miguel Syjuco, a Filipino journalist and author who won the Man Asian Booker Prize for his novel Ilustrado.

Miguel was the star attraction at an event at the venerable School of Oriental and African Studies titled: Truth and Fiction in the Age of the Strongman.  Miguel gave the keynote address and I delivered a response.

Miguel is highly regarded for his award-winning first novel (the Guardian review described Miguel as 'a writer already touched by greatness'), and he has developed a following of his own through his journalism and commentary in social media – indeed his feed is regularly the target of pretty horrible attacks by defenders of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.

But what has caught my attention over the past year has been Miguel's willingness to use his own resources to see for himself the state of affairs in our native land though based in Abu Dhabi where he is a professor of Literature and Creative Writing.

He has written columns for the New York Times about his visits to slums and prisons to witness the "Injustice System" in the Philippines ... he even joined Filipino reporters and photojournalists on the EJK beat  – EJK is the depressing shorthand for extra judicial killings in my native land, which currently stands at more than 8,000 killed both by the authorities and unknown forces since Duterte came to power – to see for himself the nightly toll inflicted on poor communities in our country.

Most recently, he visited the President's hometown Davao City, in an effort to understand the saviour narrative that surrounds our President, who is lauded for transforming this strife-torn city into a peaceful and prosperous place over the 22 years that Duterte was its mayor. He promises to write about his findings soon.

Our topic – Truth and Fiction – are two words that seem poles apart. Surely fiction by definition, is a lie? Can fiction reveal any truths? What is truth? Whose truth?

Miguel teaches a course in Abu Dhabi titled 'Novels that Changed the World' – exploring fictions such as Noli Me Tangere by Jose Rizal, satirising the abuses of Spanish friars in the 19th century Philippines – it led to Rizal's execution and the Philippine revolution – and All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarche, published in the 1930s, condemning Nazi thuggery – Remarche had to flee for his life.

'My students discovered that each novel on our reading list spoke against the injustices of its time, and in doing so highlighted the injustices of today,' he said. 'We found in every book a stubborn insistence on speaking out.'

But here we are now living in the Post Truth era – Miguel describes clashing with someone posting fake news who argued: it's not about the facts, it's about the message!

Is fake news something new? Is it a thing for our time, the age of social media?

Ah but fake news has been around since the beginning of time, I argued. The message has always twisted and turned according to the bearer's intention. Having been a journalist during the twilight years of the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines, I knew what it was like to live in the shadow of fake/untrustworthy news when all the major dailies were controlled by Marcos cronies. I regaled the audience with the story of how I somewhat inadvertently ended up working for an opposition magazine against Marcos hilariously named Mr & Ms Special Edition.

I also offered up another example of fake news – from another era.

I have spent the past few years researching a new novel set at the beginning of the Philippine American war. My goal had been to write a novel from the point of view of a tribal child, to describe how his world turns with the invasion of the Philippines by the United States in 1899. The usual way a novelist would create such a voice would be to read up on the era, trying to hear the voices of similar characters through memoirs and accounts.

I found none. There were no primary sources. No memoirs capturing the voices of the Filipinos who lived through a war that killed a quarter of the population.

Another Filipino novelist writing about the era, explains it far better than I could. Gina Apostol, author of Gun Dealer's Daughter, in a talk at Cornell University, describes the black hole she found while researching her book set in the Philippine American War:

In this war the voice of the Filipino is silent occurring mainly in captured documents within military records. The Filipino voice being a text within a text, mediated annotated and translated by her enemy.

So in this case, we only get one side of the truth. The American histories, fully illustrated with photographs (Kodak was rising) of grim-faced natives dressed in g-strings, with unsympathetic captions that discussed the ugliness of the Malay countenance, the ignorance, the savagery, the lack of intelligence ... of people who look like me.

So now novelists like me are trying to fill in the gaps, to show that there is a possibility of a more complex, more human narrative from that voiceless era. But is there truth in it if  I'm making up voices? That is the challenge.

The curious thing about today though is how the unheard have in fact found a voice – through the medium of social media. Suddenly everyone's got a platform. And it's aggressive. Here's a bit from Miguel's presentation:

The aggressive populism we see today seems to be a testament to people refusing to be silent — and rightly so. Our societies have largely failed to provide equally for all, and technology now gives us new avenues through which to to be heard, and with which to rebel against repressive ideas and structures. New leaders have latched onto that and now seek to speak for us, even though many of them are rallying us crudely around fear and mistrust.

What is perilous, Miguel says, is when corrupted stories are believed by others. 'In the Philippines, where I am from, a subtle war is taking place — one of narrative; righteousness is its abiding theme.'

I am not used to audiences like the one we had last night – made up of adults, scholars, intellectuals, people with an interest in current affairs in the Philippines. The audience discussed post-Modernism, there were lots of long words, and when I jokingly threatened to Google 'palimpsest' someone in the audience actually gave me the definition in a complete sentence.

One comment though really caught my attention. A young student who had family in Baguio City, in mountains north of the main island of Luzon, described how, growing up, his elders described a disconnection with our sprawling capital, Manila. Manila dictated everything and yet understood nothing about their lives.

When one thinks about how this feeling is multiplied across our 7,107 islands, the rise of a creature like potty-mouthed, promise-everything, icon-busting Duterte – who is definitely nothing like the Manila technocrats or the dynastic classes that have traditionally held power in the Philippines – becomes somehow more plausible.


Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is greeted by overseas Filipino workers on a visit to Vietnam.  Photo: King Rodriguez | Public Domain Photo

In his keynote, Miguel said, 'While art itself might not change the world, it's abundantly clear that it can empower those who will.'

Which is a comfort really. As a children's author, I am conscious of the powerful impact my fiction can have on my young readers. And even though I feel helpless in the surging tides of events around me, I do take solace in what my art has the power to do.

Dalisay puts it best:

I submit that the creative writer’s true task is to do what we have always done which is to go beyond the simple truth and the obvious to get at the truth of life, the complicated truth, the inconvenient truth, the truth that will drive evil out of the shadows and into the withering light. By this, I don’t mean just establishing the facts although that is difficult and deserving enough. I mean the persistent affirmation of our worth and our infinite complexity as humans against the political powers that seek to oversimplify and dehumanize people by fixing labels on their bloody chests.

With thanks to the School of Oriental and African Studies and organiser Dr. Cristina Martinez-Juan, who teaches Philippine Literature in English at the Department of Southeast Asia. 

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How to be the Old Man, the Crone, the Spirit Guide, the Mentor

By Candy Gourlay

A few weeks ago, I received this mind-blowing video from Miriam College Middle School created by readers of my book Tall Story:



I was stunned. Every time I watch it, I feel a little bit tearful. How can I even begin to respond to such a mind-blowing message?

Thank you, with all my heart.

Someone, commenting on Facebook, said: 'This is success' ... and she is right. For someone like me who spends long, lonely days wracking her brains in front of a computer screen, your video is a validation. You are why I write.

Your video also makes me think of all the people who figured in my life, took my hand, and led me in directions that, on my own, I would never have taken. All the extraordinary people who mentored me and showed me that the world is more than just the tiny box I was born into.

When I visit schools, I give a presentation on the Hero's Journey, a universal motif that runs through virtually all the world's mythic traditions.

Writers from George Lucas (Star Wars) to Andrew Stanton (Toy Story) have been inspired by the Hero's Journey, outlined by the mythologist Joseph Campbell in his book The Hero With a Thousand Faces. 

Campbell writes that at some point in every adventure, the hero meets another character – often 'an old man or a crone' – 'who provides the adventurer with amulets against the forces he is about to pass'. It is the decrepit old woman of East African legend, who leads impoverished Kyazimba to prosperity, it is the Spider Woman of Navaho lore, who provides the charms that lead lost sons to their father, it is the fairy godmother who grants three wishes, it is Ariadne who brings Theseus safely through the labyrinth, it is Beatrice leading Dante through the inferno.

Does life reflect story or does story reflect life?

We meet gazillions of people as we journey through our own lives ... and we must pay attention. Because some very special people have that power Campbell described to lead us out of our ordinary worlds into adventure.

Will you take their hand and accept the adventure? Or will you refuse and remain in your familiar world?

Christopher Vogler – a screen writer who boiled Cambell's mythic template down to story structure for writers in his book The Writer's Journey – calls the wise old woman character the Mentor (Mentor was a character in The Odyssey who guides young Telemachus on his journey).  He writes:

Mentor figures, whether encountered in dreams, fairy tales, myths, or screenplays, stand for the hero's highest aspirations. They are what the hero may become if she persists on the Road of Heroes. Mentors are often former heroes who have survived life's early trials and are now passing on the gift of their knowledge and wisdom. Christopher Vogler in The Writer's Journey

There's Obi Wan Kenobi in Star Wars, teaching Luke how to use the Force. There's Jiminy Cricket in Pinnochio, teaching the puppet how to become a real boy. There's Merlin showing Arthur how to be a King.  There's the clever slave girl Morgiana who reveals the deceptions of the thieves to Ali Baba.

There's my primary school librarian, Miss Diaz, who gave me permission to read as much as I wanted. There's my friend Frankie who made me dare to leave home. There's my friend Mandy who showed me how to drive while eating a whole pineapple. There's Letty Magsanoc and Eggy Apostol, editor and publisher at my first job, who showed me that it was possible to tell the truth under a dictatorship. There's my husband Richard who literally extracted me from my ordinary world in Manila and took me to London.

Life is full of mentors, if you try notice them.

Vogler writes:

The function of Mentors is to prepare the hero to face the unknown. They may give advice, guidance or magic equipment ... However, the Mentor can only go so far with the hero. Eventually, the hero must face the unknown alone. Someties the Mentor is required to give the hero a swift kick in the pants to get the adventure going. The Writer's Journey

Interestingly, mentors don't often realise what they are. The amazing video sent to me by these readers told me things that I don't think about as I go about my daily job. It is wonderful to be thanked in such an extraordinary way. It is incredible. Because all I was doing was telling a story.

I think we are all mentors in our own ways.

We all have the power to light a spark in someone else.

So, thank you once more to the girls, who so kindly and imaginatively sent me this video. May the Force be with you. Now make sure you continue to pass it on.

With love to Erin Cacayorin, Zoe Donesa, Sophia Espaldon, Keira Evangelista, Alexis Gidaya, Clarisse Longboan, Mikaela Mendoza, Sam Ubay, Phylicia Abary, Jessica Bandol, Aly del Prado, Angelina Perez, Bianca Villarama and their Spirit Guides: Katrina Concepcion, Ida-Karla Manzo and Emil Pandy. With thanks to Isabela Aguilar who sent the video.

---

Candy Gourlay is a Filipino author based in London. Her debut Tall Story won the Crystal Kite Prize for Europe and the National Book Award in the Philippines. Her books have also been listed for the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Children's Book Prize. Like what you see? Click here to subscribe to email updates from my blog

A Letter to the #DubaiLitfest 2017

One of the things that really made me think  at the recent Emirates Festival of Literature in Dubai was hearing an Emirati speak about how hurtful it was to hear the rest of the world call his home a "soulless" place. Well, I have news for anyone who has thought this – Dubai is not a desert, it's packed with souls. The festival had a running theme of letter-writing and this is a letter to all the kind souls I met on that extraordinary week.

Dear Layal, Krishnaa, Massyl, Aarav, Jayden, Tansy, Sharon, Joanna, Shagun, Mondiel, Sheresa, Emily, Muneera, Dolyn, Jane, Chielo Jean, Mona, Ahmed, Anisha, Maryann, Sahar, Tania, Seo Young, Vaania, Xin Xin, Ben, Anya, Sarah, Bhavna, Mishti, Ada, Anna, Tess, Zalal, Robert, Jessica, Aamiraa, Jack, Syed, Natasha, Sarah, Sewar, Ruchika, Kayde, Zoya, Trisha, Brian, Freddie, Sanika, Hditi, Amanda, Rose, Iman, Joao, Maja, Andy, Joe, Isobel, Yvette, Cathy, Maryann, Joan, Gillian, Jo, Mia, Monita and Ronita ...

This is me with the children queuing to have their books signed after my first event

I remember your names

If books are mirrors, where are our reflections?

By Candy Gourlay

I posted this on my Facebook Page on 2 March 2017

What happens if you’ve never seen yourself in a mirror and only ever gaze out a window?

We all say that books should be, not just windows to other worlds but mirrors reflecting the reader’s own experience. Yesterday, I was one of the featured authors in a teacher conference focused on the idea of books as mirrors – Reflecting Realities: British Values in Children’s Literature organised by the very excellent CLPE (Centre for Literacy in Primary Education).

I was astonished to see the word ‘Diversity’ carefully being avoided.

‘We chose “Reflecting Realities” instead,’ said Farrah Seroukh, CLPE’s learning programme leader, ‘because the word ‘Diversity’ presumes the notion of diversifying from a normative standard.’

A live interview with My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish author Mo O'Hara

I interviewed New York Times bestselling author Mo O'Hara (My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish) on Facebook Live for SCBWI in the British Isles (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators). Mo and I are good friends and doing the Q&A was great fun! I'd love to do more videos, perhaps on my Facebook page (do like my new Facebook page, not that I'm begging) so watch this space!

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May the Librarians Be With You: Top Tips for a Perfect School Visit

 Happy World Book Day er Week! Here's something I posted on my Facebook Page on 25 February 2017.

With World Book Day at hand, schools are gearing up for author visits and I’d love to share some Best Practice demonstrated by the scintillating librarians who had me visiting their schools this week. With many thanks to my kind hosts at the Queen Elizabeth School for Girls in North London and Linton Village College in Cambridgeshire.

So here are four tips I can offer based on these two shining school visits:

The People Power Revolution of 1986

By Candy Gourlay

Posted this note on my Facebook author page today



This photo crops up on my timeline on the anniversary of the 1986 People Power Revolution in the Philippines. It was my only photo during those heady times and you can only just see me behind the crowd of photojournalists and soldiers.

So many people now smirk at that uprising, I am sorry to report. Some say, it didn't achieve anything except unseat the dictator Ferdinand Marcos who had been leaching Philippine coffers for more than 20 years. Some now even say life was better under Marcos’ dictatorship. In fact, the villains of that era are now enjoying a strange ascendance and popularity buoyed by my native land’s personality-led politics and powerplay.

What in the world is a Diverse Author?

By Candy Gourlay
@candygourlay

This time last year I guested on Luna's Little Library Diversity Month. Here's the piece I wrote.

Author Candy Gourlay holds dual British and Filipino citizenship but always describes herself as "A Filipino author living in London". She is the author of Tall Story, in which the Philippines and London get equal billing. Her second book, Shine, does not identify the country that her mysterious island of Mirasol is set in, but her heroine is a British girl of mixed race who can live an easier life in the UK but chooses to live on the island where her life is in danger. 

Several times now, teachers and librarians here in the UK have asked me to recommend diverse authors like myself to perform author visits to their schools.

I always oblige, with a list of lovely author friends who I can guarantee will give them a good show ... but it does give me pause to be called a "Diverse Author".

What in the world is a Diverse Author?

My Recommended Reads for Filipino American History Month

By Candy Gourlay

It's Filipino American History Month! I didn't know this until @sueYAHollywood referenced books by me and my fellow middle grade author Erin Kelly on the Hollywood News Source blog. Thanks, Sue!

For #FilAmHistoryMonth, I talked about WHY @candygourlay and @erinkellytweets MG books are important & moving. https://t.co/qfmZ7fddki

— Sue (@SueYAHollywood) October 9, 2016

The Filipino American community is the second largest Asian American population in the United States (19.7 percent of all Asian Americans according to a 2010 census).

In 2015, I had the privilege of appearing in the Filipino American International Literary Festival in San Francisco.

Looking for Middle Grade

By Candy Gourlay

This article was first published last year in Our Book Reviews. With warm thanks to the UKMG Extravaganza Book Tour and Maryom and the Mole for hosting me! 

The Gr8 Book Debate - a message from me

By Candy Gourlay

I was thrilled to hear that Shine was one of the five books chosen for The Gr8 Book Debate, held between Ridgeway School and Sixth Form College, Isambard Community School and Nova Hreod Academy, all in Swindon. Here is a quick message to spur the debaters on for the grand finale on 6 July 2016. Thanks to LRC managers Sarah Day, Stella Rogers and Jacqui Fawcett for the heads up. Have an amazing time, everyone!

Fun Ways to Teach Tommy Donbavand's Scream Street

By Candy Gourlay

So my friend, the author Tommy Donbavand, is having a terrible, terrible time at the moment. His illness means he's had to cancel all his school visits, which is the bread and butter of children's authors.

Tommy has to be one of the most impressive figures in the UK children's book scene. He's got a majestic output -- he wrote the Scream Street books on which the CBBC TV series is based, he's written a Doctor Who book, he has written for Beano, and has written plenty of other hilarious, creepy, scary books that children love.

Not only that, Tommy used to be a CLOWN.

I will let that sink in.

One Immigrant's Story

By Candy Gourlay

Last week's referendum has revealed us to be a divided society here in Britain. Watching jubilant Leave voters on TV explaining that they wanted to rid the country of immigrants is not easy for someone who is exactly that.

Oddly enough, when I arrived in this country as a blushing bride twenty-seven long years ago, the thing that most astonished me about the UK was its incredible diversity.

We moved here from Manila, which at the time was pretty homogenous - my English husband and I suffered catcalls and rude comments because my fellowmen assumed that  any Filipina in the company of a Westerner had to be a prostitute. What a relief to move to multicultural North London where not an eyelash was batted at our two-tone relationship.

Having grown up in the Philippines where my only exposure to Brits was of the cinematic kind, I expected the UK's denizens to speak in round, well enunciated syllables ... the men pale and foppish like Michael York or dark and villainous like Oliver Reed, all the little children sweetly singing 'Whe-heh-heh-her is love?', and all the women twinkling like Vanessa Redgrave in Camelot.

"Candy was one of the best authors that we've ever seen. She never stopped talking." Plus: How not to take photos of children

By Candy Gourlay

 One of the best compliments I've ever received after a school visit!

Also loved this one saying that my Powerpoint was "well finished".

These were written by young people from St Mary's Primary School after I visited St Mary's and Middle Barton Primary School  as part of the Chiplitfest Schools Programme.

The Chichester Lit Quiz of 2016

The Chichester Literary Quiz 2016 from Candy Gourlay

Here is a photo-report of the shenanigans we got up to at the Chichester Lit Quiz. If it looks ever so slightly familiar, it's because the same authors were featured as last February's Portsmouth Lit Quiz apart from a shocking attempt to ... well you've got to watch the slideshow to find out!

This Quiz Lit was the very last one for quizmaster of many years Peter Bone, who is soon retiring, apparently to watch birds. Have an exciting retirement, Peter, and I hope to see you at the Lit Quiz (if I'm ever invited again, that is, after all the high jinks with the other authors).

Thanks to the author team, Ali Sparkes, Jeff Norton (who bunked Chichester for Hollywood), Kathryn Evans and the enchanting Dark Lord, Jamie Thomson (who is never without his little coffin). Thank you too to the team behind the Portsmouth and Chichester Lit Quizzes ... and the teachers who trawled through my photographs to check permissions.

Happy World Book Day 2016

By Candy Gourlay

With happy readers at King Alfred School yesterday. 

Portsmouth Lit Quiz 2016

I made a resolution this year to document more of the events I attend on my blog. I'm now behind by a month, but hey, better late than never! Here is a photo story about the Portsmouth Literary Quiz this year. It was such fun ... until the quiz began to ask questions about books written by the guest authors. Oh the humiliation!

The Portsmouth Literary Quiz 2016 from Candy Gourlay

Thanks to Peter Bone, School Library Service Manager of Portsmouth, Colin Telford of the Hayling Island Bookshop, my fellow authors Ali Sparkes (Carjacked), Jamie Thomson (Dark Lord: Teenage Years), Jeff Norton (Metawars) and the teachers and librarians who made the day work like clockwork!

Thirty years ago

By Candy Gourlay

My Facebook feed from the Philippines has been awash with throwback photos of the People Power  revolution. It made me a little bit jealous because I have no photographic record of myself being there. And then this photo appeared on my timeline. It was taken by a dear photographer colleague who died two years ago. And there I am, peeking over the shoulder of a soldier. I shared the photo on Facebook and I thought for posterity's sake, I should also archive that heart-felt post here on my blog. I have embedded the FB post immediately below, followed by the complete text. 

I can't believe it has been 30 years since the People Power Revolution which happened in the Philippines between 22 to...
Posted by Candy Gourlay on Wednesday, 24 February 2016

In the photo are photojournalist colleagues Alex Baluyut and Luis Liwanag (on the wall) and next to me in the check shirt, Joe Galvez. Click to enlarge

I can't believe it has been 30 years since the People Power Revolution which happened in the Philippines between 22 to 25 February 1986. My late friend Rey Vivo took this photo, which is the only one I've seen of myself during that time (you can see my glasses peeking out behind the soldiers). Here in the UK, keeping my head down to meet a deadline, that experience seems like a dream.

This photo was taken when tanks and APCs appeared on Ortigas Avenue near an area of posh gated villages. The air was filled with the smell of gasoline, oil and exhaust. The crowd immediately surged in front of the tanks, some people literally trying to push them back. Women clutching rosaries were sobbing, convinced that the tanks were going to run them over. And yet they didn't move away.
I was really scared and I stood to the side. So I didn't get into all the famous photos of Filipinos defying tanks that later hit the front pages all over the world. The APCs revved their engines to try to frighten the crowd away. It was a blood curdling sound. But nobody moved and there was a long standoff.

The army had yet to turn against Marcos and in the photo, these soldiers were doing what police controlling football crowds call "kettling". At some point during this time, I remember losing my rag as the soldiers shoved us around roughly. I was imagining the bloodbath that was about to happen, with me in the middle of it. I yelled at the soldier in front of me, 'We could be your family. I could be your sister. How can you treat us like this?'

But there was no bloodbath. To his credit, he showed no emotion and didn't retaliate. He could have just lashed out with the butt of his gun and everything would have been different. Such a contrast to the many demonstrations I'd covered as a journalist when it didn't take much for police to start using their batons, electric cattle prods, tear gas and water cannon against the opposition. As a journalist, I had visited detention centres and listened to the stories of torture and murder committed by the military under Marcos' command. I once visited a village burned to the ground because the people sympathised with the New People's Army. I've spent time visiting hospitals to count the casualties after violent dispersals of demonstrations.

I guess at the time, the military was already considering its position and were not going to allow things to go out of control. Soon after, the military declared on the side of the people.
When I think of this scene and remember the heat, the stench of so many people, the smell of the guns, I remember my fear. Later, I read all the complete sentences written by journalist colleagues and marvelled at how they could so neatly describe it all.

The Philippines is remembering those three days in February right now, in the midst of an election which includes Marcos' son, Bong Bong, running for Vice President.

Now I was not persecuted or tortured, like the brave souls who stood up against Marcos, but I was part of a passive, walking dead population that surrendered my rights and my future to the dictator. When Marcos fled, the catharsis was almost unbearable.

Thirty years on, the Philippines is marginally wealthier but still on an economic and political rollercoaster because of an impermeable layer of elites who prevent wealth from trickling down to the grindingly poor majority. It saddens me that the Marcoses and their cronies are still in power, with a well-oiled social media and marketing campaign to retrieve their reputations. Most of all, it saddens me that there are so many young Filipinos who discount that time and say that our situation was better under Marcos.

They don't know what it's like to feel hope for the first time in their lives.

More reminiscences about the revolution:

The last time I overthrew a dictator (February 2011)
A farewell to Letty Magsanoc who wanted to change the world one dictator at a time (December 2015)
She taught me writing is never about the writer (December 2015)

Is the Calm Real? A Teaching Resource for Shine

World Book Day is fast approaching and I'm excited to say my days are going to be packed with school visits --  I can't wait! It's been a while since I last made a teaching resource so here's a brand new one - focusing on Shine. If any work comes out of this resource, do let me know via the contact form below.

Candy Gourlay's Teaching Resources: SHINE - Is the Calm real? from Candy Gourlay

HALF TERM SHENANIGANS

This coming half term, I will be featured in the very popular Imagine Festival in the South Bank alongside lovely Laura Dockrill, author of Loreli (AMAZING read - go get it!) and the Darcy Burdock series. We're going to be talking about how realism and myth meet in young fiction. Emily Drabble, fastest children's journalist in the West, will be chairing our event. If you happen to be in London, do come and watch - we're on at 1 pm, 16 February, Level 5, Royal Festival Hall - you can book tickets here.

Laura's famous for her blue lipstick, so in an attempt to keep up here I am with ... er ... green lips.

I'm also participating in Dahl in a Day, basically it's a Matildathon - with authors and various others reading Matilda in a day on Thursday, 18 Feb from 10.30 am. It's FREE! The cast of Matilda the Musical is performing soon after 10.30 ... and if you're still around about 1.30, I'll be reading Chapter 19!

In fact, Laura and I were in the Guardian talking about the intersection between realism and enchantment in young fiction. Go read!

SPEAK UP FOR LIBRARIES

Today authors, educators and librarians marched on parliament to demand an end to the apathy and ignorance in local and central government that has led to the closure of many libraries.

Writers & illustrators supporting libraries at #SUFLlobby16!! @JohnDougherty8 @PhilipArdagh @mygibbo #JakeAinott pic.twitter.com/Rdl4QZPke1

— Sarah McIntyre (@jabberworks) February 9, 2016

High-profile writers including @cathycassidyxx, Jake Arnott and @PhilipArdagh joined this morning's #SUFLlobby16: https://t.co/nFMXD1sVRb

— The Bookseller (@thebookseller) February 9, 2016

Inspiring day thanks to #SUFLlobby16 & everyone who came to speak up for libraries. @SpeakUp4Libs #MyLibraryByRight pic.twitter.com/TrLGONwkgE

— Dawn Finch (@dawnafinch) February 9, 2016

Now you can print this year's library poster! Link to the free downloads: https://t.co/U0djqejadY #SUFLlobby16 pic.twitter.com/6mCOYUxgTC

— Sarah McIntyre (@jabberworks) February 9, 2016

I am an author today because a librarian helped me discover my lifelong love of books. Please, everyone, do what it says in the campaign: SPEAK UP FOR LIBRARIES.

Children and Teens Who Want to Write

By Candy Gourlay

I visited Ormiston Bushfield School in Peterborough
yesterday as part of the Pop Up Schools Programme.
I wore these socks.

I get a lot of mail on Facebook from young people who are trying to write. They ask me: Will you read my manuscript? Will you help me finish my book?

Sometimes, they ask me: How do I get famous?

And when I visit schools, the question always pops up: How do I get published?

These are HUGE questions.

And before anybody says anything snarky, they are all questions that once passed my own lips on my own long writing journey. They are questions that deserve to be answered with kindness and consideration.

For a while now, I've been meaning to write a blog post for young people who want to write.

Lucky for me, former Writer's Digest publisher Jane Friedman beat me to it. Here are the links:

Writing Advice for Children and Teens

How to Get Your Book Published

Jane suggests that mentors can speed one's development as a writer. I am glad though that she gives the following counsel: "Don't ask a famous person to be your mentor or give feedback on your work. You don't need someone really famous."

At this point, may I apologise to all the young people who have asked me to help them with their books. I just can't do it -- not just because of the sheer number of requests I get, but because I am working full time as a children's author, writing my own books and appearing in schools. 

'Mentors speed growth,' Jane writes. And to all you grown-ups reading this: do you realise that you -- YES, you! -- may already be mentoring a young writer?

You might be the teacher whose warm encouragement has inspired a student to explore his or her writing.

You might be a librarian who suggested the book that ignited that love for words.

You might be the parent who has unwittingly nurtured a writer by relentlessly reading aloud to your children at bedtime.

If so, you too have to skill up. Your mentee is counting on you. Do bookmark Jane's article on writing advice, there is a lot of really good stuff in there, including suggesting online writing communities like Figment and Wattpad (I suggested Wattpad to a young friend the other day who was wondering if she should set up a blog to share her writing -- if you're interested in sharing your writing, that's not really blogging ).

Not everyone has the drive to write however. But everybody loves a good story. When I visit schools, children never fail to astonish me with their creativity and storytelling ability. 

Yesterday, during a visit to Ormiston Bushfield Academy in Peterborough (part of the Pop Up Schools Programme), the children planned out novels in just thirty minutes! Here are synopses of the two books we made up. If children can do this in thirty minutes, think what other magnificent things they can achieve!

Twelve year old John and his parents live on Mars. It's a settlement of refugees who have fled the toxic wasteland that Earth has become. John is the only young person on the planet and he hates it. Not only is he lonely, he is forced to wear a survival suit at all times. He would do anything to leave Mars, but where would he go? One day he  stumbles upon a six year old girl hidden in a survival unit. There is an explosion and John and the girl end up in an escape pod that slingshots them to Earth. When they emerge, they discover that Earth is no longer toxic but it has been overwhelmed by wild animals. John, who had been desperate for young company, discovers that it is a great responsibility as well as he protects his new friend (who is a bit annoying) from the wild creatures. Now he just wants to go home. To Mars.

Christopher, a BMX biker, is plagued by strange dreams of apocalyptic scenes. The dreams never change, following a series of events that end with terrible destruction. It has gotten to the point that he dreads falling asleep. He is so distraught he moves into a remote forest, to get away from the places that he sees in his dream. One day, he discovers that one of the things that happen in his dream, the one that sets off a series of destructive events, actually happens. That night, the dream changes. A man, who had not appeared in the dream before, speaks to him. He tells him that his dream of apocalypse is going to come true unless Christopher crosses into his dream and stops the events from happening. At first Christopher finds it hard to believe. He returns to the locations he sees in his dreams and something makes him realise that the man's warning is true. He also discovers that he has no choice. If he doesn't enter his dream, he will die. In the final chase scene, he uses his BMX skills to escape the dream baddy.

With thanks to the children and staff of Ormiston Bushfield who made me welcome. And to Pop Up for having me on the programme. Thanks to Kyhiro for the badass apocalyptic creative commons image.

My Long and Winding Road Trip

Hello, readers!

I'm just back from a research trip to the Philippines with an SD card packed full of amazing photographs. As you may know, I'm desperately in love with photography ... so I'm testing out a Photo Essay site, Exposure.co, which allows you to post full width, high resolution images. Here are some photo stories about my recent trip. Hope you like them!


Long and Winding Road Trip by Candy Gourlay on Exposure


Sea of Clouds by Candy Gourlay on Exposure

Happy New Year!

Dear Readers,

Today, I woke up at four in the morning and marched up to a summit where I saw this.

Watching the sun rise over Maligcong Rice Terraces, Mountain Province.

Isn't that a great start to 2016? Wishing you all a year of greats!

A Farewell to Letty Jimenez Magsanoc who wanted to Change the Future, One Dictator at a Time

Letty waving my book around during the
2014 launch of SHINE in Manila.

On Christmas Eve, I was shocked and upset to hear that my lifelong mentor, Letty Jimenez Magsanoc -- who gave me my first job in journalism -- suddenly died. The Philippine Daily Inquirer gave me until 1 P.M. (Philippine time) on Boxing Day to submit a tribute. So after celebrating Christmas with my family, I worked late into the night writing my contribution, the first time I've had a news deadline in more than two decades. When I sat down to write the tribute, I found I wanted to write about all the things I learned from Letty as a writer. You can read my tribute: She taught me writing was never about the writer. 

Thirty one years ago, Letty recruited me and my best friend Frankie Joaquin Drogin to the staff of Mr &Ms Special Edition, a magazine dedicated to opposing the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos in the 1980s. Her daughter, Kara, invited us to write a tandem eulogy for the funeral. Amazingly, I just so happened to be in the Philippines to visit my family and so I was able to deliver the eulogy on behalf of Frankie and myself. 

Here it is, written by Frankie in Washington and me in London via the magic of Facebook  Messenger. Fellow reporters on the magazine JP Fenix and Fe Zamora helped us piece the story together.

---

The LJM Garments Factory.

This is where it all began. A makeshift sign stuck to an office door on the premises of the lifestyle magazine Mr &Ms.  Behind the door was an editor with some of the biggest balls in Manila, trying to tell a story that a dictator didn’t want told.

But if you flip through the first issues of the Mr &Ms Special Edition from 1983, you will find no mention of Letty Jimenez Magsanoc. Eggie Apostol was listed as Editor and Publisher, and until 1984, Letty kept her role a secret behind the LJM Garments Factory sign.

The two women were good friends, and when Letty was fired from Panorama for a critical piece on the inauguration of President Marcos, it was Eggie who dared publish in full what other media censored or rejected, such as “The Letty Magsanoc Story” by Noree Briscoe and “The Silencing of Letty Magsanoc” by SP Lopez.

Then Ninoy Aquino was assassinated, and the two women went into battle mode, creating Mr &Ms Special Edition to fill the news vacuum left by the Marcos-dominated media in the Philippines.

That first Special Edition  with a close-up of Ninoy’s bloodied face on its cover, sold hundreds of thousands of copies and Eggie made the decision to turn it into a weekly.

In that secret batcave worked a tiny editorial staff made up of Eggie, Letty, writer Fe Zamora, cartoonist Jess Abrera, layout artist Marlon Diamante and Nitz "Beauty" del Rosario. The photographer Mandy Navasero, who previously shot fashion and lifestyle for Letty’s previous magazine, switched modes to photojournalism, shooting many of the rallies that Fe Zamora wrote up for the Special Edition.

Frankie and I came into the picture when we asked Kara to get us an interview with her famous mother. We were college seniors writing a group thesis on Press Freedom with another good friend. When we met Letty, graduation and joblessness were months away so we asked Letty if she had any openings. To our surprise she told us to see her after we graduated.

Frankie and Candy as college seniors

We did, and she greeted us by saying, “Oh good, I need reporters. One of you can cover the opposition. The other, the KBL (Marcos' party). You decide.” And just like that, she gave us our jobs. It was typical of her management style. By treating these two know-nothing newbies as equals worthy of picking our own assignments, she gifted us with a sense of professional worth way beyond our due.

Frankie and Candy, now reporters for Mr & Ms Special Edition, posing while a demonstration is dispersed in the background.

Frankie and I were in the inseparable phase of our friendship. But that very first assignment during the 1984 parliamentary elections took us to opposite sides of the political divide. Though Frankie chose the Opposition and I, the KBL, we decided it would be fun to cover everything together (our reportage tended to focus on how much food was being served at a press conference). Letty finally found us out one night when she was watching the evening news. Frankie and I were caught on camera -- first, at a KBL press conference, and then, on the very same day, at an Opposition press conference.

I tell people that I think Letty hired two totally inexperienced and naive writers because we were so "tanga" we wouldn't be corrupted by the powers that be. The truth was that Letty got a kick out of discovering new talent and loved being around young people. Her protégés and apprentices could easily fill this room. Almost all of us who have worked with Letty have our own stories about how she singled us out and said, in her famous gravelly voice, “You GET it. You’ve GOT it.” Her heart was so big that she could fit us all into it. Her spirit was so generous it could embrace each of us fully.

A more recent pic of Frankie and me.

When a young Fe Zamora witnessed the Sept. 21 demonstration at Mendiola which left 11 rallyists dead, she took her account to Letty and Eggie. Fe was in the right place at the right time. Mr & Ms had loads of pictures, but no words to go along with them. They bought Fe's story.

In the age before mobile phones, Fe didn't even have a telephone at the boarding house where she lived. Two weeks after her article came out, she saw a notice in the letters section: "If you know Fe Zamora, please tell her to report to Mr &Ms.” And so it was that Fe became Letty’s most senior reporter.

Joey Nolasco, Tita Eggie’s nephew, found his way from the Times Journal to a desk at the Special Edition and has worked at Letty’s side every since.

Mr &Ms bought a lot of stories from a local news service, and Letty noticed most of the bylines belonged to Jp Fenix, a friend of Kara’s. "Why don't we hire you na lang?" Letty said to JP. “We can probably save some money.” And so JP joined the staff, which later came to include the sandal-wearing JR Alibutud, the poetic Roland Pascual, and a smiley Dante Javier.

The pantheon of contributors is a respectable list: Aida Sevilla-Mendoza, Ceres P Doyo, SP Lopez, Doris Nuyda, Belinda Olivares-Cunanan, Cherie Querol, Ninotska Rosca, Ike Suarez, Louie Beltran, Joker Arroyo, Monica Feria, Paulynn Sicam, Ducky Paredes, Gilda Cordero-Fernando, Max Soliven, Larry Henares, Tony Gatmaitan, Sylvia Mayuga, Lita Logarta, Esther Dipasupil, Corito Fiel, Erness Sanchez, Edith Regalado, Maynard Macaraig and so many more.

The Special Edition’s narrow, rectangular room was the only smoking zone in Mr &Ms. We worked in an un-lifting fog, and our clothes reeked of tobacco. A few desks sporting typewriters and piles of newsprint crowded the space. Letty presided at a desk at the far end of the room, her hands moving between her keyboard, the ubiquitous green pen she used for editing, and a lit cigarette.

Before there was cut and paste, there was tear and staple. We banged out our stories on long swaths of newsprint, tore them into manageable pages, and marched our offerings to Letty’s desk. Letty was the master of the art of rearranging paragraphs to suit her style of storytelling. It would evolve into the signature style of the magazine and later the Inquirer. A detail would catch her eye, and she’d move it to the top.

“This is a good paragraph. This should go higher!” was a refrain of her editing.

Her nose for news was unerring, but she also had a taste for the weird and the wonderful, for irony and sarcasm. She knew the Pinoy appetite for entertainment and humor, and served hard news with a side of light. She wanted both her reporters and readers to have fun. Writing for Mr &Ms sometimes felt like writing for MAD Magazine.

Above all, Letty demanded heart from her writers. She was bored by dry recitations of facts. She put a premium on passion and on the human face of a story.

She always said the people she worked with made her look good. It’s important to remember the crew members who supported editorial over the Special Edition's lifetime: the production group led by Mang Joe Ocampo, artists Chuchi Quevedo Sy and Gij Ramos, subeditor Sarah Carino, Rebecca Vinavilles, Lani Montreal, admin guys Eres, Lolita, Josie Magtoto and Butchie Tan.

A parade of the best photographers in the Philippines marched through our doors. Johnny Villena, Melvyn Calderon, Val Rodriguez, Claro Cortes, Bullit Marquez, Romeo Gacad, Joe Galvez, Luis Liwanag, Erik De Castro, Alex Baluyut, Rey Vivo, Ed Santiago, Mandy Navasero, Ding Navasero, Jun Aniceta, Momoy Fuentabella, Albert Garcia, Edwin Tuyay, Rhodel Pena, and on and on.

It was a photographer’s magazine, every spread covered with black and white images, some of which became iconic photos of the era. Letty used photography to demonstrate the bitter ironies of strongman rule. When Marcos used the campaign slogan "Now More than Ever," she used the blurb over a picture of a beggar and an emaciated baby. When the regime published a pamphlet giving the government answers to questions like "What is the state of the President's health?" (answer: "These are irresponsible reports in the Western press") and "Has the president lost popular support as claimed by some segments of local and foreign media?" (answer: No), Letty published the complete text of the propaganda alongside photographs of Marcos looking deathly ill and other images that provided a sharp contrast to the words.

In 1985, Malacanang announced that the soldiers accused of murdering Aquino would stand trial at the Sandiganbayan. Letty and Eggie decided to launch another tabloid-sized weekly. They called a meeting with the Special Edition staff at Eggie's house to discuss it. Letty wanted to call it The Philippine Inquirer. But Eggie thought it should be something like “JAJA”, a take-off from the Justice for Aquino, Justice for All – which would be easier for newsboys to say than ‘In-queerer” or “In-querrer!’” Luckily Letty won the argument, otherwise we’d all be talking about the Philippine Daily Jaja today, which sounds like a bad character from Star Wars.

Letty asked JP and me to become staff writers at the Philippine Inquirer weekly. But I was reluctant. I really didn't want to go. I was happy at the Special Edition. It was obvious to me that covering boring lawyers at the Aquino-Galman murder trial wouldn't be as fun as working at Mr &Ms.  Letty got us to join the Inquirer by giving us a raise. Apparently she fought hard to give us more money. In the end our monthly pay -- the princely sum of P1,760 – was raised to P2,350.

Letty, me and JP soon after the Philippine Inquirer weekly was launched.

Letty edited both papers at the same time. The Special Edition went to bed past midnight on a Thursday so it could hit the streets on Friday morning. The weekly Inquirer was put to bed on a Friday night to hit the streets on Mondays. I say night but it was really morning by the time we finished.

Letty was constantly on the phone. "Marty, go na to bed" " Marty, you were bitten by mosquitoes?" "Marty, almost there." (Her youngest, Marty, was about seven years old, and very persistent) But by then it would be three, four or five am. Time for bibingka or tapsilog at Good-Ah in Greenhills.

I was surprised when Letty introduced society pages to the Inquirer, written by Maurice Arcache and photographed by Alex Van Hagen. Maurice swanned in and swanned out with the tall brooding Alex – leaving the office fragrant for weeks afterward. It was my job to write the captions for the photos of society events and parties.

I have to be honest. Captioning those photos -- with a French dictionary because "tres tres chic" sounded so much more stylish than my own vocabulary -- felt like a demotion. Why do we have to have a society page? I whined to Letty. Her reply: "Every person who is featured is likely to buy ten copies each." JP asked Eggie and Letty the same question but got a different answer. They said: "We are doing it for the NPA. When they finally take over after Marcos they will have a hit list." I'm sure they were just joking.

The weekly Inquirer became the Philippine Daily Inquirer. JP went off to work on the daily and I returned to the Special Edition as associate editor. By then Frankie had moved on to a job with an American network. When the People Power Revolution (also known as EDSA, which was where it happened) ended the rule of Marcos, it also ended the run of the Special Edition. We had won. We had achieved our goal. Marcos was gone. But what were we to do next?

Letty and Eggie in front of the Mr & Ms offices cheering a celebration rally of the downfall of Marcos in 1986

I found out quickly enough. A few weeks after the revolution, I turned up at the office to discover that Eggie had turned the Special Edition into the Agribusiness Weekly. Imagine coming to work thinking that you were a political writer only to find that you were now going to be a farm reporter. I quickly applied to move to the Daily Inquirer.

Soon after, I married my foreign correspondent and left to live in London. Frankie, who returned to work for the Inquirer for a spell in the 90's, also married her foreign correspondent and moved to Washington. “Leave your husband!” Letty told Frankie every chance she got. “Leave him and come back to the Inquirer.” I can’t say she said that to me. I wonder why.

With Letty at my book launch in 2014

Whenever one of her former reporters turned up for a visit, Letty would make a lovely fuss. At one dinner Letty hosted for me, she had a beautiful buffet with a large portrait of me in the middle. It looked like some kind of altar.

Except the portrait ... it wasn't me. it was Lani Montreal, who worked at the Special Edition in 1985-1986. "Letty," I said, trying to be diplomatic. "I don't think that's me." "It's definitely you," she said. "I got it out of the Photo library and it was in your file. You really used to look like that." Someday, when I pass away, the Inquirer is going to publish an obiturary about me and they are going to publish it with a photograph of Lani Montreal.

Mr & Ms Special Edition was an important moment to those of us who were a part of it. Many of us were at the beginning of our lives as writers and the time we spent with Letty was a coming of age. In storytelling, there is always a character – an Obi Wan Kenobi, a Yoda -- who takes the hero by the hand and leads him or her into adventure. For us, that special character was Letty Jimenez Magsanoc.

After the fall of Marcos, Letty liked to say: “Edsa is our backstory. It’s in our DNA.” Generations of journalists can say the same of her. LJM is our backstory. She’s in our DNA.

Read my tribute to Letty which appeared on the front page of the Inquirer on 27 December 2015