Note: They're meant to be funny!
Former lifestyle journalist Elvira Mata has published a book of her essays written, she says, before she was hit by writer's block.
Positively Mental (Stories Written on the Verge) was launched last month with children's books at National Book Store-Bestsellers at Robinsons Galleria.
Flavored taho—Elvira's favorite snack—was served, but the author was a no-show.
Positively Mental is not a children's book, even if Elvira believes she was developmentally arrested at age 10, which explains her fascination for Grimm (sic) fairy tales and Harry Potter books, and her terse writing style.
The book is a collection of 30 essays written between 1994 and 2004 when "my life was going through various transitions—from working abroad to coming home jobless to immigrating to Canada to coming home to take care of my father who died soon after," she writes in her "Forewarning" instead of the usual "Foreword."
Most of the stories were originally published in the column "Mental Blot" in the Women's Journal under the pen name May Luna Sy.
Two longish articles were published in HerWorld, a fashion magazine in Singapore.
Her late cats, Lilly and Moo (not their real names) also wrote pieces on what it's like to live with a journalist on the verge of writer's block/homicide while attempting to end, re-start, and finally, really end a relationship.
Some of the stories are funny; at least that's what she's been led to believe.
Positively Mental (Stories Written on the Verge), published by Anvil, is available at all National Book Store branches, as well as Powerbooks.