FilAm author signs major deal with Disney

Best-selling author Melissa de la Cruz has signed a deal with Disney Publishing Worldwide to launch a new studio to create and develop stories across multiple platforms of the Disney company.

“Disney Publishing has been the home for many of my novels throughout the years and I am so thankful to continue the collaboration,” de la Cruz added. “I am beyond thrilled to forge a new journey with the team, full of even more incredible opportunities, nestled within The Walt Disney Company powerhouse. It is a dream come true.”

The new deal expands on de la Cruz’s existing relationship with Disney, reports The Hollywood Reporter. Disney is developing a 29 Dates movie, based on her book of the same name. 

The prolific FilAm author has also written the best-selling "Isle of the Lost" series of novels based on the Disney Channel property The Descendants, and is in the process of writing a novel based on Disney+’s High School Musical: The Series. 

“As an author within the Disney Publishing Worldwide family, we have seen firsthand how Melissa de la Cruz cultivates a story and develops content for multiple platforms and media,” said Disney Hyperion & New Intellectual Property vice president and publisher Emily Meehan in a statement. “Her strong creative vision will inspire the next generation of best sellers and content creators for entertainment beyond the pages of a book.”

Additionally, Disney will be publishing new installments of de la Cruz’s "Blue Bloods" series starting next year, according to Disney.

Besides her own work, the new studio, Melissa de la Cruz Studio, will work with new and established authors to create original content for development.

The new studio will have a wealth of material to work from based on the Manila-born author's own novels aimed at the young adult audience.

De la Cruz is the author of the Blue Bloods series (with three million copies in print), among many others. Her first series for adults launched with "Witches of East End." The bestseller was followed by "Serpent’s Kiss" and "Winds of Salem." 

Lifetime Television aired a two-season drama series based on Witches of East End, starring Julia Ormond, Jenna Dewan-Tatum, Rachel Boston and Mädchen Amick. De la Cruz’s young adult spin-off of the series, "Summer on East End" has also been optioned for television.

Her books include "Something in Between," a YA contemporary novel inspired by de la Cruz’s own immigrant experience coming from the Philippines, as well as "Alex and Eliza," a historical novel about the romance between Alexander Hamilton and Elizabeth Schuyler.

College student publishes book about today's young Filipino Americans

THE POLY POST / LEON STREYER

Cal Poly student Dwight Ong shows his first self-published book.

By Elizabeth Aquino
Reprinted by Permission 
of The Poly Post

Born in Cebu City, Philippines, but raised in the United States, fourth-year business administration student Dwight Ong said he grew up feeling disconnected from his Filipino culture.

After becoming inspired to read about different Filipino experiences, Ong noticed a gap in Filipino literature.

He said he realized that not many people were writing stories about today’s Filipinos, so he decided to reach out to Filipino Americans all over the United States and publish his own book, Voices of the New Gen. Fil-Am Community.

With 37 narratives, all told by Filipino Americans, the book covers themes such as family, immigration, racism, education, LGBTQ culture and more.

“I’ve never really had the chance to know about these stories,” Ong explained. “I lived in a community where there (weren’t) that many Filipinos and when I came here to Cal Poly [Pomona], where there’s so many Filipinos, I thought it was really interesting to find out more about these stories and that’s why I kind of reached out to all the other people in the U.S.”

Ong said he became passionate about promoting Filipino culture after becoming actively involved in Barkada, Cal Poly Pomona’s Filipino student organization.

He helps organize events such as cultural nights and Filipino American History Month celebrations, as well as publishing Anong Balita, Barkada’s monthly magazine.

Kamille Magante, a fourth-year biology student with a minor in Asian Pacific studies and sociology at Cal State Dominguez Hills and the 2018-2019 chairperson of the Southern California Pilipino American Student Alliance, said she met Ong through his involvement with Barkada.

She said she commended the impact of Ong’s book on today’s generation of Filipinos.

“A lot of books in regard to Filipino American identity are more from like the ‘90s (to) early 2000s but I haven’t seen anything too recent,” Magante said. “So, the fact that he did a compilation of people and their stories, it gives a representation of the current population of Filipino Americans and their narratives. It helps in so many ways. It’s honestly one of the first of its kind, especially in our generation.”

Magante also had the opportunity to share her Filipino American story and is featured as one of the 37 stories.

“I thought it was an amazing opportunity,” she said. “A lot of our narratives aren’t shared so this was really cool.”

Although Ong mostly assembled the book himself, he sought advice from Anthony Ocampo, associate professor of sociology, who published his own book titled “The Latinos of Asia: How Filipino Americans Break the Rules of Race” in 2016.

“When I wrote my book, I wanted to write the book I never got to read,” Ocampo said. “Dwight [Ong] was motivated by the same thing,” he said. “It’s really inspiring to meet someone that’s in his shoes, a college student who’s so fearless to just execute the project and put it out there in the world.”

Ocampo also mentioned the importance of Ong’s book in promoting literature about racial identity.

“What books about race teach you is that our present today is shaped by many historical factors, like systems of colonialism and systems of racism and those things matter,” Ocampo said.

He also said books of that nature help expand our knowledge of colonialism today.

“Even though colonialism is something we consider to be part of the past, what I try to show in my book, and what [Ong] does a good job in writing, is that the past still affects people in the present day,” Ocampo said. “If you want to figure out how to address inequality, the best way to do that is understand how groups got here in the first place. You do that by reading books about history …. This book is like a love letter to the Filipino American community.”

Ong said he hopes Voices of the New Gen. Fil-Am Community will have a positive impact on his community.

“I want (Filipinos) to be able to see that they’re not alone and that they have the same type of experiences as others, so they can look up to other people for guidance or assistance,” Ong said. “For those who are not Filipino, it’s just another insight for them to see the Filipino culture, see how it is and what things we experience.”

Ong said he plans on publishing more books about the Filipino American community in the future.

Read the original article in The Poly Post, the Cal Poly Pomona student newspaper.
_______________________________________________________________________________

TGIF Feature: Helen Hoang 'saying it with love story,'

HELEN HOANG

ASAM NEWS

The Kiss Quotient, the debut novel of Helen Hoang, has received critical acclaim and appreciation among the literary community.

Since the novel’s release, The Kiss Quotient has garnered over 7,000 positive reviews on Goodreads, a 4.7-star rating on Amazon, and has already been printed four times.

Despite its major literary success, The Kiss Quotient is a story that is deeply personal to Hoang — a reflection of her own experience coming to terms with her Autism.

Growing up, Hoang experienced intense social anxiety that hindered her ability to make friends. Escaping from the trials and tribulations of relationship building, Hoang found refuge in romance novels — entranced by the deep emotions she felt reading them. “It was like I found a pure, undiluted drug,” she said to the New York Times.

It was only until she was in her 30s – as a wife and a mother of two kids – when she realized that her inability to build relationships during her youth was a result of autism; a neurodevelopmental condition that makes socializing and understanding emotional cues difficult.

Hoang modeled Stella, the heroine of the novel, after herself as a way to confront her diagnosis and to help her understand how autism has affected her life. Her idiosyncrasies are channeled into Stella.

“I would tap my fingers when I was little, but I do have a pattern that I used to tap in, then I started tapping with my teeth because you can’t see it, and that’s something that Stella does throughout the book”, Hoang explained to NBC news. “I gave her my mannerisms, my tendency to be logical and literal, and my social anxiety.”

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Hoang further explains how writing Stella as a resemblance of herself helped her reconcile with the insecurities she had.

“Those are the things that have always plagued me as unhappy things I have to live with and hide or try to cover up” she states. “Writing them intentionally felt healthy”.

Hoang also believes that Stella is an important character because there is a lack of autistic representation across the spectrum in the media.

Further explained to NBC news, Hoang states that “Two stereotypes I’ve seen is that autistic people are geniuses. Some autistic people have average intelligence and I don’t think that’s right to say they all are because those who aren’t might feel disappointed. Another is that autistic people lack empathy or heartless”.

While The Kiss Quotient showcases a personal, nuanced perspective of what it means to experience romance as an autistic woman, Hoang’s heart-warming story is one that any fan of romance novels can enjoy.

“I wanted to share the perspective of an autistic woman because I don’t think that’s a perspective you see very much,” she tells the NY Times. “Why can’t you make an impact with romance? It seems like the perfect place to do it.”

_________________________________________________________________________________

Author alleges that Russel Simmons raped her

SIL LAI ABRAMS

CHINESE AMERICAN author Sil Lai Abrams accused music mogul Russell Simmons of rape and Extra host A.J. Calloway of sexual assault in a recent report by The Hollywood Reporter.

“I needed to tell my story, to say his name out loud, to let people know what he had done to me,” Abrams, 47, told THR in an article published Thursday (July 5).

The Hawaii-born Abrams, whose mother is a Chinese immigrant, is an anti-domestic violence advocate, author and former model. She said that Simmons raped her in 1994 and she was sexually assaulted by Extra host A.J. Calloway 12 eyars later in 2006.

She first wrote about the sexual assaults in her 2007 in her book No More Drama, but didn't reveal who her assailants were. In the book, she describes being raped in 1994 by “Ronald,” a man “well known for only dating models and for his hard-partying lifestyle funded by his very successful record label.” A “well-spoken B-list celebrity Ray,” she claims, assaulted her in 2006.

In response to the Hollywood Reporter story, Simmons’ lawyer, Patricia Glaser, said in a statement on Simmons’ behalf:

Russell Simmons provided overwhelming material to THR [The Hollywood Reporter) (some on the record and some off the record) to support his unequivocal denial of any wrongdoing and THR chose to ignore it. It is extremely disappointing that a 24-year-old story, which did not get past very credible news outlets, was published in light of the massive contrary evidence.

Attorney Lisa E. Davis sent this statement from Calloway:

I was disappointed to read the false allegations about me in The Hollywood Reporter. As I have maintained from the beginning, these allegations are not true. When I was first notified about these allegations by law enforcement more than a decade ago, I fully cooperated from the beginning and the case was dismissed.

THR chose to publish these meritless allegations without a thorough investigation of the facts. I intend to vigorously defend my reputation against these false accusations and will not let this cause further harm to my family.

A total of 17 women have now accused music producer and entrepreneur Russell Simmons of sexual misconduct, all of which he has denied. 

In a statement from his representative, Simmons denied the allegations to PEOPLE magazine: 

“I vehemently deny all the allegations made against me. They have shocked me to my core as I have never been abusive or violent in any way in my relations with women. I have submitted myself to multiple lie detector tests. I denied forced sex and sexual harassment allegations brought against me in each test; I also answered no to the question, “Have you ever physically forced any woman to have sexual intercourse?” I passed all of the lie detector tests.”

________________________________________________________________________________

Amy Tan has a message for racists

WARNING! Harsh language ahead!

TWO AMERICAN women were waiting in line at a gas station to buy eggs and milk when a Border Patrol agent asked them for their ID's and questioned them for 40 minutes.

What were they doing to warrant this interrogation? They were speaking Spanish.

Ana Suda and her friend are furious at the encounter that occurred in Montana.  What's infuriating is that it's lentirely legal.

Although the practice is more common near the border with Mexico, ICE gents have the power to stop anyone they suspect is in this country without documentation if they are within 100 miles of any border. In this case, the border in question is the one shared with Canada, which was 35 miles away.

Legal or not, Joy Luck Club author Amy Tan thought the agent's actions and the fear that foreign languages stirs up with monolingual Americans was out of line and not in the tradition of our country's values.

She used social media to convey her video message in Spanish (except for the two last words.) She also provided a translation:

After a few responses from people who were offended by her use of street language, Tan followed up with this message:

The women spoke Spanish, but it could just as well have been Tagalog, Cantonese, Vietnamese or any one of the scores of languages used in Asia. The incident occurred in Montana but it could just as well have happened in Buffalo, NY, or San Diego. Technically, the East and West coasts are borders so ICE could argue that rule might applies to New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Boston and and a host of other coastal cities.

Note tin the CNN interview above that Suda says an agent told her that Canadians speaking French are not stopped and questioned by ICE. Clearly, a case of racial profiling.

How in the world did ICE get this Gestapo-like authority?  Apparently, the Supreme Court, dominated by Republican-nominated justices, approved the law. See what happens when we're not paying attention?

Instead of being offended by two words - no matter how harsh - Americans should be offended by the actions of ICE.
_____________________________________________________________________________