SANTELMO #14 FOCUSES ON THE "CULTURES OF EDSA"!

Remember. Never Forget. Never Again.

I am honored to be part of Santelmo 14's special issue on the EDSA People Power Uprising ("EDSA")  edited by Charlie Samuya Veric. It's a needed analysis of EDSA which marks its 40th year anniversary this year. The publication will be launched on May 23, 2026 but since I won't be in Manila, I want to share my essay's first page and ending poem below; most people don't know just how impactful EDSA was on me as a writer and person:

PRE-RELEASE NOTES: COLLATERAL DAMAGE BLUES (2)

(I’ll be posting here some Notes in anticipation of the 2027 release of one of my most ambitious projects, COLLATERAL DAMAGE BLUES (CDB). The book will be published by Marsh Hawk Press and I share its Author’s Note below to describe the book.) 

5/14/2026

Finished my first cut at proofing COLLATERAL DAMAGE BLUES. And I was reminded of several poets and writers who inspired some parts of my 2027 book. They inspired with their novels, poems, essay and even Facebook posts--I was just lucky to read their powerful or wonderful words. Writing can be a community. I feature images below (their names are either in the works or footnotes) and thank, in the order of the images:

 

Leny Strobel

Michelle Bautista 

Murat Nemet-Nejat

Janice Lee

Gina Apostol

Raymond de Borja

Jessica Hagedorn 

Sean Dougherty

Titania Buchholdt 

Tom Weso

 

COMMENTS: Thank you Michelle Bautista Leny Strobel Murat Nemet-Nejat (remember when I asked you for favorite Turkish poets?) Janice Lee Raymond de Borja Sean Thomas Dougherty Titania Buchholdt Denise Low-Weso (Tom was so charismatic on Facebook!)

 

PRE-RELEASE NOTES: COLLATERAL DAMAGE BLUES (1)

(Since I’ve slowed on using this blog, I plan to revitalize it by posting on here some Notes in anticipation of the 2027 release of one of my most ambitious projects, COLLATERAL DAMAGE BLUES (CDB). The book will be published by Marsh Hawk Press and I share its Author’s Note below to describe the book.)

 

May 13, 2026

Big workday today for me. And an exercise in joy. One of the greatest happiness an author can experience in the process of creating a book is receiving the first "proof" from the book designer, assuming you have a brilliant and conscientious designer, which I do in Mark Melnick who I recommend. Today I'll be proofing my 2027 book COLLATERAL DAMAGE BLUES which, to my relief, pulls off one of my most ambitious literary structures to date. That is, I first wrote a novel. Then I had one of the novel's characters create a poetry collection. Both are featured in CDB.

 

It was an arduous process over the past 3-4 years to create CDB. I first wrote another novel that wasn't good enough (yet) to leave my files where it's shelved as a "trunk novel." I wrote a second novel, and from that novel birthed CDB. Literally a poet-novelist I am. From my Author's Note, you'll see that CDB has something for every type of literary reader.

 

The featured doll by my manuscript is the avatar for my novel's primary protagonist, Kris--an orphan, a spy, a lethal killer, former head of the C I A, a community organizer, and a lover. He's stared at me in my writing studio for the years it took me to create this book. He's been ensconced over my computer to encourage--and pressure--me to finish this project. I look forward to the day I can present the actual book before his nose and hear him say, "I told you so!"

And someday I hope you will read CDB, which critiques Empire by going right to its root source: Sargon of Akkad, known for his conquests of Sumerian city-states in the 24th to 23rd centuries BC (last image). He's been identified as the first person in recorded history to rule over an empire.

 

And yet this is also a rom-com. So: something for everyone 

 

May I and you have a great day!