Author interview

by Lynn Lopez

With a book as fun-to-read and wacky as Drama Queen, how much are you willing to bet that the author is just as fun? Abigail Aquino, the girl behind Drama Queen, Summit Books' first offering, takes some time off to dish about writing and her first-ever novel.

What's Drama Queen all about?

I'm almost tempted to say it's a "sweeping saga about one woman's struggle to discover the meaning of true love amidst the turbulent background of theatre..." but it's actually a fun romp through the muddled head of one very loud, amusing, confused theater actress named Kach.

You dabble in theatre, and Drama Queen's protagonist Kach is in theatre, too. Any chance that the book is autobiographical?

I wish! I think that Kach has it better than most women I know (including me!) -- she's confident, talented, and gets to choose between these two hunkahunka burning loves! But the book is autobiographical in the sense that my sentiments on friendship, career, and luuuuvvvv is the same as Kach's. Oh, and if I were living in the book, I would have this huuuge crush on Jorge.

Of all the characters in Drama Queen, for whom do you have a soft spot?

Raquel. She's so efficient and yet her heart is all over the place! And her story (which I won't go into right now so as not spoil it for the readers) is such a funny, common, arrrgh-inducing situation that lots of women can identify with today. I feel for her.

What got you started on writing?

I was (and still am) a reader before I was a writer, and I guess it was the books that I read when I was a kid that got me started on writing my own stories. Oh, and the sound of typewriter keys clacking away is quite addicting. I kid you not.

How accurately do you think you've represented the local theatre scene in Drama Queen?

Naku, sana pretty accurately! I only have a couple of years' experience in theater, and with just one company at that, but talking to actors and listening to their experience with other theater companies gives one a pretty good idea of what the whole scene is like here. I wanted to paint a colorful background for Kach, but I didn't want to get so technical or clique-ish that only theater people would understand it, so I just illustrated common truths about what it's like to be in and love theater.

I would like to clarify a little fib I wrote in the book -- in real life, the orange juice is always ice cold during rehearsals. Sometimes, it's grape.

Are you hoping to carve a niche for yourself as one of contemporary Philippine literature's burgeoning talents?

Oh my gulay! At this point I'm just hoping the readers will just enjoy the story and not hurl their beinte singkos at me when they see me at the mall ("Laos! Laos ang kwento mo! Refund!")

What kind of books do you read, and who are your literary influences?

Some of my favorite authors include Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Stephen King, John Updike, Jeanette Winterson, Elizabeth McCracken, Simon Mawer, Lloyd Alexander, and Madeleine L'Engle. But I find myself gravitating towards books that use humour to shape the story.

I like to think my writing is humorous, and I'm not quite sure how it got that way. I tried being really deep and angsty once, and the story turned out to be shallow and artificial, so I just write the way I think. Somebody told me once that my short stories are in the literary tradition of James Thurber, this American writer and humourist, and that is a HUGE compliment for me.

Let's say the book caught the attention of our local filmmakers and they wanted to put it on the silver screen. Would you agree? And if so, who would you want to star in the film?

Wow, I'd be thrilled. And then I'd be worried--haha!

Mylene Dizon would be a good choice to play Kach. Not many people realize it, but she's an amazing actor -- she knows how to avoid the huhuhu-niloko-mo-ko cliché acting that we see on TV and in the movies.

Do you think Drama Queen will generate some comparison with other fictional single career women like Bridget Jones?

Definitely. It's been the trend nowadays, what they call "chick lit." So you have all these books written by women for women. But I've tried to make Kach unique by making her as Pinay as possible -- confident, courageous, stupid, funny, smart, charming and sexy all at the same time.

Can we expect other books from you soon and would they be anything like Drama Queen or are you going to branch out into other literary genres?

I soooooo suck at poetry, it's not even funny! So trust that I will safely stay in the realm of fiction -- as long as I enjoy writing stories, and as long as people enjoy reading them, I will continue to write. Naks. Get your copy at your favorite magazine stand!

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