Gwy Saludes Author of University Series "The Rain in España"

A couple years ago, I was scrolling on fandom Twitter posts when I suddenly found one that seemed to be a story. I went on opened the consecutive Tweets and saw how people have been reading it, getting obsessed, but no one knew back then that it was a 12 year old girl who wrote these things. Now, we finally got to meet the person who started it all. She's Gwy Saludes, a very talented writer and artist under OC Records.

Clad in a preppy shirt, this young lady is now 22 and taking up Legal Management at Ateneo de Manila University. Gwy says "It's about campus life, starting from a Twitter series which I likened to big 4 universities. When "Along Espana" became popular, I wanted to do a longer version of it hence the University series. Even then, there were a lot of people who took interest in it and wanted to know about the culture being in these schools. "The Rain in España" was made when I was already in college. It was all about my experiences, my friends and people around me during that time. It was in Wattpad when I started these all, but really blew up when I wrote book 3. I have 6 books in this series which includes "The Rain in España", "Safe Skies, Archer", then "Chasing in the Wild!", "Avenues of the Diamond", "Golden Scenery of Tomorrow", and "Our Yesterday's Escape". 

When asked about having her work become a series on television, she says "I'm very happy but at the same time, there is pressure because I know, there's a lot of people who are waiting for it especially the ones who read the books. I know they have a lot of expectations, I need to surpass this one when it gets shown when it gets adapted for TV. I act as a consultant for the show, I'm also very involved with the casting. I need to read and check the script, they listen to me if I wanted things to be changed since this is very collaborative." 

"The adaptation though does not include everybody else's thought bubble. We are a team and we need to meet in the middle for any decision. From auditions, to script reading, we really saw Marco and Heaven fit the role. The plot is very close to the book, you need to look at the value of friendship, love, academics, balancing it. Even if you don't read the book, you'll get to understand the story. It's up to you if you get hooked in the books, I've went twice while they were making the film."

Here's the rest of our chat with her over lunch a few days ago:

You may now stream "The Rain in España" on Viva One or watch it every Sundays on TV5 at 4PM. She also said that the next book might be coming real soon so if you haven't subscribed yet, you better do! Download the app on Google Play today!

THE RAIN IN ESPANA to be Shown on TV5

I've seen much talk about this on Twitter and an online novel platform a few months ago. When they were already rolling and announcement of the cast was already done, I am glad how they chose Marco Gallo for the role of Kalix and Heaven Peraleho for the role of Luna. This is first and foremost, a love story. Telling that story from the book to the screen is going to be a hard one and it needs to come across the same way if they want to succeed.

The show will premiere on May 14 at 4PM (and Sundays thereafter) on TV5 and their other platforms, and will have 10 episodes to make sure it translates to the audience how hard it is to balance school, family, love and wished career these days. Things will certainly be complicated once the part of infidelity will be shown, so make sure you watch out what caused it and how it would turn out in the show.

Rain in España has shown a lot of promise in Viva One so having this be on free to air and digital TV will have an entirely new audience to please. Writer Gwy Saludes (who looks so young btw!) is also involved as a creative consultant, so it'll be good to see how it would strictly follow the story line, and perhaps, the success that comes with that. This is also directed by Theodore Boborol who's got several successful movies on his belt, so we do expect this to be told excellently like his other projects.  

Aside from the two stars, the show also includes Gab Lagman, Bea Binene, Krissha Viaje, Nicole Omillo, Aubrey Caraan, Gabby Padilla, Andre Yllana, Frost Sandoval and Francis Magundayao. For more about this project, head on to TV5's social channels and see why people are raving the Rain in Espana.

Typhoon Juan

In about an hour from now, Typhoon Juan is going to leave the land of the Philippines off the coast of La Union. At around midnight it will leave the Philippine Area of Responsibility and head off either East China or if it goes north it will go to Taiwan. It is so great that the predictions proved to be accurate because it is causing great damage. If I didn't have blinds on my window a few of my appliances might have ended up wet. It has been a lifesaver since I was a kid. It shields me from the sun too when I wake up late. I don't want to crisp up you know!

Weather has been pretty rough on us today. They even say life is unfair. We need the torrential rains so we can have some water to drink and fill up our reservoirs. I heard we are in normal levels even if the rainfall has been pretty rough. That's around 60-120 mm in a single day. The wind's pretty fast too that it ripped roofs and house walls off cities in the north. I'm glad to be safe in the refuge of my home and got my stuff still dry after that. We're all hoping for the best and I hope in some way we could find a way to prepare better so we didn't have casualties. As for me I'm getting my other windows fixed and fitted with blinds so I stay safe. Who's up for a natural shower?! Typhoon Juan might get us really wet as it goes out to the South China Sea. I wish we are always as ready as we are now. So we can have tea in the refuge of our own homes not worrying about anything when this happens!

What happened in your neck of the woods?!