How/why did you start to write?
I started writing simple rhymes, stories, and essays when I
was very young and had a whole notebook of poems by the time I was 10 years
old. I knew I had a knack for it because the words came out very easily and the
sentences just flowed. I never had problems with composition classes and
enjoyed all my writing assignments as much as I enjoyed reading. I imagined,
from a very young age, that I would be a novelist and a poet and read all kinds
of literature for enjoyment and to remind myself that one day, my work would be
in books that other people would read.
How did you become an author?
By the time I was in sixth grade, I decided I should be part
of the school paper and contributed poetry. In high school and college, I was on
the school paper and learned a lot about journalism and publishing, and
continued writing for or editing newsletters and academic publications
throughout my career as a teacher. In my work with theatre, I also wrote
several feature articles, interviews, and press releases that were published in
national newspapers and magazines.
What was your first published piece?
Besides all the work I published in school papers, my first
professionally published work was a booklet published by the Fund for Assistance
to Private Education in the Philippines. A friend of mine, who was also a
professor and a published author asked me to write on one of the topics I
delivered in seminar-workshops around the Philippines: How to Write Behavioural
Objectives. It was my first paid work outside of school publishing and I was
very proud of it.
Where was it published?
The funny thing is, while it was published in the
Philippines, where I came from, I never saw a copy of the booklet. Apparently,
it had been distributed all over the country in private schools mostly outside
the National Capital Region. I only found out about that when, while giving a
workshop in one of the southern provinces of the Philippines, I found out that
most of the participants knew me by name, because of that pamphlet. It seems to
have been a “bible” of sorts for teachers looking to improve their syllabi and
lesson plans.
How long ago?
That was back in the mid-80s.
What did you do before embarking on your writing career?
Was it an asset to your writing? How?
Writing has always been a big part of my life, just as
reading. Unfortunately, when I was ready to choose a University course, there
were no Creative Writing degrees available in the Philippines. I chose a course
in Communications Research instead, which was the newest and hottest course
related to writing—and would have brought me to a career in Communications,
possibly journalism and broadcasting, or something of the sort. Two days into
the course, I received a telegram from the National Science Development Board
offering me a full scholarship with a full allowance and expenses if I took an
Education degree in either Mathematics or Physics. It was my big opportunity to
become independent, so I took Mathematics (I had a horrible experience with my
high school physics teacher and I hated writing up lab reports) with Education.
That, of course, had nothing to do with my writing, except that I became very
active with school journalism during a time when freedom of speech was
curtailed in the Philippines. (I was so close to getting arrested as a result
of writing too freely.) Once I graduated, I was invited by the principal of the
high school I had graduated from to teach, but she wanted me to teach English
because she knew that it was my forte. That led to a Master of Arts degree in
English Literature with a specialization in Drama and focus on Creative
Writing. How that happened is another long story. Since then, I have taught
High School, College/University, and adult/professional learners. I had a 5-year
stint as an indexer and abstracter, writing material that can be found on
online databases such as Infotext and Ebsco. I have worked in theatre in nearly
all areas from acting to directing, almost as long as I have been a writer,
although I have earned more from my writing than my acting or production work.
Around 2006, an old friend of mine, who had been my teacher
in high school, then the principal when I taught there, and then the dean when
I taught in the college department, asked me to join a team of talented
teachers to write a series of textbooks in English and critical thinking. I
co-authored the first volume with another friend and former co-teacher who had
moved to Australia, so we completed the project via email with him in Australia,
me in Canada, and my friend as series coordinator in the Philippines. The
project is currently with a publisher and will, hopefully, be finally published
for school year 2014-2015, after so many obstacles with the publishing industry
that got in the way.
My first major success as a writer was winning the 3rd
place in the 2007 Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, the biggest
and most prestigious Literary Awards in the Philippines, for the full-length
play The Piano. I submitted my entry
in April 2007, then moved to Canada in July of the same year, so I never got to
attend the Awards Gala because I received the news when I was already in Canada
and I could not afford to go back.
Last year, I became a Canadian statistic when I was laid off
from a full-time teaching job. I was taking on freelance writing and editing
jobs online when I came across the National Novel Writing Month challenge and
decided I would do it this year, since I had the time anyway. I completed my
first novel as a result and am working on revising it while looking for a
publisher. I have since decided to focus on my writing and my art full time and
believe I am ready to launch myself as a business very soon.
Meanwhile, I took a manuscript I had completed in the
Philippines (one of quite a few) that was a compilation of games, activities, and projects that I had used to make my English classes more lively and
interesting. I have turned it into a 5-volume series: 101 Fun Games, Activities, and Projects for English Classes by Cynthia Lapeña that I very recently
published in two editions: a Kindle edition, available on Amazon, and a full-colour print edition, available on both CreateSpace and Amazon. I also have a workbook series for Pre-School that I prepared when
I was homeschooling my youngest son, and, because only the 1st book
of the 4-volume series was published, I plan to work on it for publishing as
well on CreateSpace and Amazon as my next big project. I also plan to put
together some volumes of poetry to bring to local publishers.
My first novel, The
Lost Amulets, is the first book in the series that I call The Amulets of Pangaea. I tried to see
how it would fare in the Next Best Author Series and, while I did not make it
past the first of three rounds, I have received so much positive feedback from
other authors that I know it’s just a matter of finding the right publisher.
Besides being an adventure involving teenagers, it is a fantasy tale that
brings to life creatures, characters, and stories from Philippine myths and
legends. I intend to incorporate elements from Philippine myths and legends as
an alternative to the current book offerings that are satiated with all kinds
of vampire, werewolf, and zombie stories. My oldest son, Kitt Lapeña, is with
me on this project, having agreed to create the cover art for the book.
Here’s the
blurb:
If you are
looking for something totally new, interesting, and awesome, The Lost
Amulets is just the book you want to see. Ms. Lapeña makes use of
folklore from the Philippines, where she was born. She wants to introduce a
whole new class of fantasy creatures to the world while sharing myths, legends,
folktales, beliefs, and superstitions from the Philippines.
The Lost
Amulets is a
YA fantasy adventure story about four teenagers who are recruited by Littlefolk
to find their missing king and three amulets that will restore natural order to
the parallel world Dapit-Adlaw where fantastic and mythical beings exist. They
encounter these beings, both good and evil, and race against time to solve the
riddles and find the amulets that will help to restore vital elements in
Dapit-Adlaw. Their final mission is to release the God of the Hunt from a
curse. As the children make many new friends and help defeat the followers of
the evil Tasu Wey, they discover strength and build confidence and the
16-year-old lead character, in particular, learns to accept that mythical
beings and magic do exist.
The Lost
Amulets is the first book of the
series The Amulets of Pangaea.
What inspires you?
Everything inspires, but mostly people and all the things
they go through. I love people watching and write poems or makeup stories
about them. I watch nature and I am inspired to write poetry. My life is so full
of experiences and encounters of all sorts that it is an endless source of
stories to tell. I have ups and downs and I write about those. I read almost
incessantly—you can’t tear me away from books, and all those inspire me—either
to write something better or something similar to what I like. Most of all, I
love myths and legends, and my first novel makes use of those. I have so many
ideas about books I would like to write that I will have things to write about
well into my old age. I have also shared so much as a teacher that I want to
share my inexhaustible collection of teaching ideas with other teachers, so I
write teaching resources and textbooks.
Please share one of your successful author platform
building techniques
The publishing industry today is very different from what it
was before the Internet became huge. Nowadays, authors need to promote
themselves using every possible means. So far, I began building my platform
when I started a blog, then joined Facebook, and recently, Twitter. I connected
with everyone I could whom I had met in the past and constantly try to build
new connections, join groups, and make new “friends” and acquaintances. Once
you’re online, you need to make yourself heard, so I keep on writing. Every
time I write something, I publish it on my Facebook author page (Cindy Lapeña) and my blog (Cindy Lapeña: Creativity Unlimited) with
over 14,700 views to date, and then post links to it in all my groups, on my FB
wall, and on Twitter (@mimrlith). The
trick is to keep on writing regularly, keep on publicizing, and offer something
useful, entertaining, or thought-provoking each time.
Parting words
I always tell my students, workshop participants, mentees, and just about anyone who comes to me for help or advice to never give up
because success does not always come instantaneously nor when it is there,
does not stay by itself. You need to keep on working at it to remain
successful. I believe in doing what I am passionate about, doing what I enjoy,
and if it can become my source of income and support as well, then all the much
better! Over and above that, I tell everyone that nothing is impossible as long
as you can imagine it because your
creativity is limited only by your imagination.
