Seedlings: A Short Story Collection
Stories, plants, trees, and people grow with the presence of both sun and rain.
Seedlings: A Short Story Collection is my first self-published e-book, launched last September 2017. It is a compilation of short stories and prose about loneliness, sadness, and longing, hand-in-hand with light, joy, hope, faith, and love. My role consisted of being the writer, illustrator, layout artist, editor, and marketer for this project. It contains 60+ short stories and prose with tiny pencil drawings accompanying them. As of this writing, it has now a printed version, thanks to Ms. Cindy Wong Dela Cruz of 8letters.
For Komiket this Feb. 2018, I made limited edition art prints of the illustrations with their corresponding excerpts.
A few of the tiny pencil illustrations I made which accompanied their corresponding stories and prose:
Sharing a few excerpts:
“Sometimes, when the town sleeps at night and everyone is under the covers, one girl goes out and grows and grows to the size of mountains.” – Moontalks
“It felt as if we were about to die then and there. The bus was going really fast, and I could see a bright light ahead of us.” – Going Home
“Here was once a girl who was too sad for a boy named Happiness.” – Happiness and Sadness
The Boy who Jumped from Roof to Roof
A sample page from the book.
These are the other tiny illustrations I made as design elements to be with the Foreword, Author's Note, Acknowledgments, and Chapter Titles.
The e-book is currently available at www.gum.co/seedlings should you want to read it! :-)
I did not know I was writing stories, until I realized that I had written several already over the years.
I had notes and ideas in my notebooks and drawing books, and I had mostly shared stories in my previous blogs as well. When I started Instagram around December 2013, it became a platform for me to share my drawings too and stories to accompany them.
Ever since I was young, I recall my Dad saying to me to write a book someday. He told me this several times all throughout. Recently, kind people gently tell me to write more as well.
So write I did.
For hours, I gathered the stories and short prose I did since 2009. While doing so, I went back to my memories and my life before. I remembered the reasons that led me to write those particular tales.
As if another needed affirmation, my friend whom I have not talked to in a while messaged me the night before I was about to finish my first book. She sent one sentence with a screenshot. The screenshot showed an award-winning author having her own exhibit.
My friend’s words were “Continue writing, Li.”
I did not know I was going to make a book, until I realized I had written all the content I needed for one for eight years.
