The Coño Boy: Still With You [ 7th Anniversary Mini Book ]

FOREWORD: Here's to 7 Years and the Messy Bits

There was a time when I believed how much love holds sway over everything. Yung 113% "love conquers all" mode pa ako before. But as change in our lives is ever constant, I have to admit, at this point in my life, romantic love is 50/50 na: 50% pain and love lasts only 50% of the time. All my life I have personally struggled with the debate in my head that keeps asking: Is it love or is it co-dependency? In the context of The Coño Boy series, does Sean really need Joaquin? Or is Sean settling for Joaquin 'cause siya lang din naman yung nandiyan? Gulo ng questions ko -just to give you an idea how my head works.

Losing a lot of people in the past few years due to COVID and the realization that everyone will eventually go, leaves one feeling half empty for quite some time. I still grieve for my now dead mentors and my friends who went ahead to the next life.

And when I say that love is 50% pain, believe me, it takes a lot from one's sanity to write about how beautiful romantic love is -to give readers a sliver of hope in words kahit saglit lang- even if I don't believe in it as much.

For the past few years, I keep saying to myself, any chance at love or romance is not for me anymore. Jaded na si Author niyo kasi.

Reality and the world I built with my stories are separate parts of my consciousness that struggle to make the stories of our beloved characters come to life.

Minsan pakiramdam ko, I owe the loyal readers to keep on writing. I do enjoy the kilig and the emotional rollercoaster ride you guys go through when I read yout comments.

Kahit na feeling ko I am sabotaging my plot or I am drowning na in my storytelling na nalilimutan ko yung point ng The Coño Boy 6: Ten Lifetimes With You, I do wanna finish it. Time na lang siguro will tell. That explains why super duper delayed ng updates niya. Admittedly, I keep using work as an excuse. But I promise to fix Migz and Drake's story soon.

I need to keep writing, sabi sa'kin ng Feng Shui expert friend who keeps telling me, "Sayang yung intelligence stars mo".

But like I said before, "I cannot write about something that I do not know." I keep repeating that to myself when I embark on any writing project. And repeatedly, I am reminded of the kinds of love I have felt and come to know despite it being both ice and fire for me.

So, I also keep reminding myself to be grateful because I got to experience love despite it's infinitely "messy" variety. Yes, maniwala kayo when I say messy. And siguro naman, if ever any of you can relate to what happens to the characters, or any of you napa-"sana all", and kahit paano I transported you to a better world -worth it na yon para sa'kin.

I should be resting my mind.
I should be recharging my spirit.
I should be healing.
But I choose to celebrate seven years worth of stories with you, my readers.

Binasa ko uli lahat from Books 1-5. And as I read on, years worth of memories of the times when I wrote those chapters flooded in over me the last week or so. All the Easter Eggs, Inside Jokes, Pop Culture and Trending References na na-insert ko sa stories reminded me of specific times in my life in the last seven years.

Even the lessons from Doña Idang, Aunt Agatha, Tita Agnes, Tito Bonie -lessons that I put there- parang di ko natutunan myself recently kaya imagine tawa me nang tawa 'cause I keep telling myself "Di ba dapat alam mo to, Q? Di ba? How can you forget?"

I want to write The Coño Boy 7th Anniversary Mini-Book so I can have a record of this specific time in my life na babalikan ko a few years from now. Hopefully those future years will be "great" years, or kahit  "good" years okay na rin.

This foreword doesn't even make sense to me as of 31st July, 2023 at 10:50PM. Feeling ko, sobrang affected ako a lot with just anything lately. Just a few minutes ago, as I was writing this foreword, I learned that Forthsky Padrigao isn't playing for the Blue Eagles anymore and had to leave the Ateneo as a consequence of what happened in his personal life and academics. Whatever his faults, I do hope justice is served. And if second chances are a thing, I hope he gets his. Reminds me of what happened to Jake in Book 4 when he had to quit and sit out playing the rest of the UAAP season in the story. May social media backlash din kasi sa story natin. Sorry haba na nito. Pero naantig ako eh. Oh well...

I do hope you enjoy this mini-book.

Again, THANK YOU FOR SEVEN YEARS! I would not have a space to settle the swirling mist in my mind if it were not for you readers -some of you became dear friends pa since COVID started.

I will probably edit this foreword later, but let us keep it like this muna. I hope you are all in bright, happy, and safe places.

Your Author,
Quinn213 aka @TheLostConyo