Vida Cruz-Borja
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laviecestmoi.bsky.social
Vida Cruz-Borja
@laviecestmoi.bsky.social
2.9K followers 1.1K following 520 posts
Ignyte Award- and National Book Award-winning Filipina writer and editor of SFF.

Book: Song of the Mango and Other New Myths (2022). Rep'd by Stevie Finegan.

Website: https://vidacruz.org

Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/vidacruzborja
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laviecestmoi.bsky.social
Your girl finally got her author copies!!!
Long-haired Southeast Asian woman holding purple-toned book up to her face so that only her eyes are visible Twelve copies of purple-toned Mirror Marked laid out in two rows, fan-like, against a gray sofa seat
November 26, 2025 at 12:08 PM
laviecestmoi.bsky.social
Looking for the following in your next read?

✅ Shadow mommy villain
✅ WLW
✅ Queer rep
✅ Wedding drama
✅ Generational trauma
✅ Pop culture references from the last 30+ years
✅ Philippine mythology

Pre-order my debut fantasy/horror novella MIRROR MARKED here:

pspublishing.co.uk/mirror-marke...
Book cover. "Mirror Marked" and Vida Cruz-Borja is on the spine and lower center front cover. Background is a moody purple, denoting a dense crop of trees. Middle ground features a sinisterly grinning woman with black hair and blue-green skin. She is backlit by the mirror she holds up in the foreground, which contains a scared woman in a white dress running amid a riot of color. Other elements include a gold coin, a jar with a face, and a sigbin—a creature with long pointy ears and fangs.
August 1, 2025 at 5:55 PM
laviecestmoi.bsky.social
Now with title and byline!

As a reminder:

✅ Shadow mommy villain
✅ WLW
✅ Queer rep
✅ Wedding drama
✅ Generational trauma
✅ Pop culture references from the last 30+ years
✅ Philippine mythology

Pre-order my debut fantasy/horror novella MIRROR MARKED here:

pspublishing.co.uk/mirror-marke...
Book cover. "Mirror Marked" and Vida Cruz-Borja is on the spine and lower center front cover. Background is a moody purple, denoting a dense crop of trees. Middle ground features a sinisterly grinning woman with black hair and blue-green skin. She is backlit by the mirror she holds up in the foreground, which contains a scared woman in a white dress running amid a riot of color. Other elements include a gold coin, a jar with a face, and a sigbin—a creature with long pointy ears and fangs.
July 18, 2025 at 7:47 PM
laviecestmoi.bsky.social
ICYMI:

My debut fantasy/horror novella is now up for pre-order! Link below and cover illustration by Allaine B. Leoncio attached 💜

pspublishing.co.uk/mirror-marke...
The foreground: A completely black hole is framed by a golden coin amulet and a brown jar with a face on the right; and a sigbin—a brown feral-looking creature with claws and long pointy ears 5 times bigger than its head on the left. There are also vines on either side. The mid-ground: A woman with a bluish tint to her skin and unruly black hair smiles sinisterly while holding up a small mirror. Inside the mirror is a girl with long black hair and a white dress running away scared amid a kaleidoscope of colors. The background: Gnarled trees frame the woman amid a moody purple background.
July 12, 2025 at 12:17 AM
laviecestmoi.bsky.social
✅ Generational trauma
✅ Wedding drama
✅ Body issues
✅ Philippine mythological creatures
✅ Shadow mommy villain
✅ Queer rep (bi, lesbian, pan, NB)
✅ Might make someone create a WorldCon panel about strong female characters w/ an anti-lesbian bent

MIRROR MARKED is now available for pre-order!
A story about the weight of generational trauma . . . . . . and the cycle of harm it creates inside a family, every word of Vida Cruz-Borja’s novella MIRROR MARKED is saturated with mystery, magic, and drama. It’s the wedding of the decade. The Petronios—a family as wealthy and influential as they are mysterious—gather at their ancestral villa for a grand wedding. But beneath the glittering surface is a venue steeped in centuries of tragic romance, strange secrets, and dangerous enchantments shaped by the family’s long heritage. Enter Kelly, a wedding planner. Able to see magic and no stranger to public façades and the dark truths they conceal, she’s the perfect choice for the job—or so it seems. As the wedding day approaches, Kelly finds herself entangled in more than seating charts and floral arrangements. The villa awakens haunting memories of her past, forcing her to confront long-buried truths about herself and the Petronio family as she finds herself falling hopelessly in love with their eldest daughter, the beautiful and powerful Marga.
July 11, 2025 at 2:50 PM
laviecestmoi.bsky.social
Reading material for tonight (for research purposes 😂), "The Secret Romantic's Book of Magic" edited by @marieoregan.bsky.social and Paul Kane! Thanks to @charlesatan.bsky.social for getting me my copy!
Pink book with gold foil accents reading "The Secret Romantic's Book of Magic: 12 Spellbinding Romantasy Stories" Olivie Blake A.G. Slatter Tasha Suri Katherine Arden Kelley Armstrong Hannah N. Maehrer and many more Edited by Marie O'Regan & Paul Kane
July 10, 2025 at 12:40 PM
laviecestmoi.bsky.social
Hubby helped me style my cane for his cousin's wedding tomorrow 💜
Purple can wrapped in beige jute cloth with an artificial vine of flowers and leaves in different shades of purple wrapped around the cloth
July 4, 2025 at 4:13 PM
laviecestmoi.bsky.social
Like his father before him, Oblong sleeps like this
A brown and white dog with a black face sleeping on his back, back paws in the air and front paws curled on his chest. His floppy ears have flopped to the side A brown and white dog with a black face sleeping on his side, back paws up on the concrete platform/wall and front paws stretched out. His floppy ears have flopped to the side
June 18, 2025 at 4:11 AM
laviecestmoi.bsky.social
Lol a decade late to _that_ millennial trend I was once too broke to indulge in
On the left, four pieces of avocado toast, two with a slice of cheese each, all with cherry tomatoes and basil, on a square plate. There are two soft-boiled eggs in a gray-green ramekin on the right, and a mug of cold iced tea above the ramekin. On the left, four pieces of avocado toast, two with a slice of cheese each, all with cherry tomatoes and basil, topped off with runny eggs on all pieces of toast, on a square plate. There is an empty gray-green ramekin on the right, and a mug of cold iced tea above the ramekin.
June 16, 2025 at 3:29 AM
laviecestmoi.bsky.social
My class on the inactive protagonist c/o the @carlbrandon.bsky.social is happening this weekend! See you there 😄
This is the Inactive Protagonist Day 1: Characterization & Worldbuilding June 14, 2025 Vida Cruz-Borja with the Carl Brandon Society This is the Inactive Protagonist Day 2: Tension & Structure June 15, 2025 Vida Cruz-Borja with the Carl Brandon Society
June 13, 2025 at 1:16 AM
laviecestmoi.bsky.social
Congrats to all! Very deserving. This would have been hard for me if I'd been a judge. Hope they've got a great theme next year too!
May 4, 2025 at 5:30 AM
laviecestmoi.bsky.social
The winners of the Moss Universe Philippines National Costume portion are:

1. Caloocan
2. Ifugao
3. Iloilo Province
4. Sultan Kudarat
5. Baguio (threaded)

At least one of my faves is here (Ifugao) 💜
May 4, 2025 at 5:30 AM
laviecestmoi.bsky.social
My sched for #PhilippineBookFestival 2025 tomorrow:

- 11am to 12pm: Book signing for "Song of the Mango and Other New Myths" at Ateneo Press's booth
- 5pm to 6pm: Book launch for "New Philippine Speculative Fiction 1" at Vibal Publishing's booth

See you there!
Poster for my book signing at Ateneo Press
March 15, 2025 at 10:38 AM
laviecestmoi.bsky.social
Got my contributor copy yesterday!
Me in a red dress and denim jacket, glasses on and no makeup, with green earrings of the leaves of Lothlorien, holding up a copy of "Mapping New Stars: A Sourcebook on Philippine Speculative Fiction."
February 18, 2025 at 12:57 AM
laviecestmoi.bsky.social
At last, after many mishaps and months, my box from the UK is finally here 😭
A brown balikbayan box duct taped around the corners sitting atop a yellow cart
January 29, 2025 at 3:05 AM
laviecestmoi.bsky.social
Setting up my planner for next year. Hopefully illness will not derail me from continuing this one, as it does every year 😅
A blank planner lies open, revealing one page divided into four, and stuck with red stickers for the days of January. On the right is the pad where the stickers came from.
December 22, 2024 at 3:26 AM
laviecestmoi.bsky.social
Attended the Sinagtala Tarot launch event last night and received my contributor copy—and boy, is it gorgeous. It's such a dream come true to be able to write words for this awesome marriage of tarot and Philippine mythology! Pre-orders ship out January 2025. ✨
Me, with my long wavy black hair and white shirt with a blushing ghost with a bowtie on it, smiling next to a big brown box. The box has a wrapper printed with a moody but ecstatic surrealist painting of a woman draped in only a white cloth, perched on a ring of red vines. To one side is a heart haloed by the rays of the sun. Beneath the woman and the vines is a carabao looking on. The inside of the box. The interior has closeups of hibiscus flowers of pale and dark pink on the design. The box contains three cards: an about card, a bigger thank you card, and a certificate of authenticity with gold foil. The box also has a small brown wooden box carved with a flower motif radiating outward with a stylized "S" at the center. Actual dried flower petals are scattered around the box within the box. On a woven gray placemat lie several items in two rows. On the top row is the small brown wooden box with the carved flower motif and the stylized "S," the blue guidebook with the same motif on the cover in yellow and red, and some of the tarot cards lying facedown. The cardback has the S, another flower motif, and what looks like the sun's rays cutting through it. The bottom row has the other half of the deck spread out in arc, face up. The art features, from L to R: a giant with many heads in expressions of agony, a naked and humanoid fairy perched on a tropical flower, half of an old bearded man in a mushroom salakot squatting on a bigger mushroom, a woman in a yellow veil and purple dress looking to the right, a ghostly figure with long black hair descending on a tower, s demon with a horse's head, and a woman with a melancholy expression looking up at a small open umbrella above her while her hair trails behind.
December 8, 2024 at 3:12 AM
laviecestmoi.bsky.social
Without downloading any new pictures, where are you mentally?
Two columns. L: a chihuahua in crocheted pink top with a big red heart dangling from the collar that says "Lily Lu." The chihuahua is baring its teeth in hostility. Above the photo are the words "My mental illness when I'm alone" R: the same chihuahua being held up by presumably its owner's hands. It seems to be smiling and docile. The words above the photo read "My mental illness at my psychiatrist appointment"
December 5, 2024 at 1:09 AM
laviecestmoi.bsky.social
Proof of life 🌻
A skewed selfie taken in the car. I am in the passenger seat, hair pulled back, wearing glasses with a black frame, grinning. Behind me is a brown dog in mid-yawn. It looks like he's smiling/baring fangs for the camera.
November 24, 2024 at 6:39 AM
laviecestmoi.bsky.social
Pinoy Reads Pinoy Books will be tackling my book for their next talakayan meeting on Nov. 30 at Harong Café 💜 should be a fun afternoon!
Poster text: Book Talakayan: Song of the Mango and Other New Myths Featuring: Vida Cruz-Borja November 30, 2024 3:00 - 5:00 PM Harong Cafe 56 Mother Ignacia Ave. Q.C.
November 22, 2024 at 10:29 AM
laviecestmoi.bsky.social
I have zero regrets hiring Miguel Co to do the cover art of my book. I believe it's the reason people are still buying it two years from publication. Miguel got nominated for a BSFA for Best Artwork because of it, too 💜 so, invest in your own work and respect that of other creatives!
The cover art of my book features a diwata with green skin and green hair with a single pink gumamela flower and a golden circlet. The hair trails off into leaves. She has a flowy white dress on. Her eyes are glowing snd have no irises. She's holding up a glowing mango in one hand. The book cover has a gold border and it has my byline and the title in the lower right corner in the same gold color.
November 18, 2024 at 5:06 PM
laviecestmoi.bsky.social
Omg 👀

My book will have been published two years ago this month. Somehow it's still one of the top selling books of AUP during the 2024 Manila International Book Fair!

I'm really humbled by the support. Thank you for making my published author dreams come true ✨

www.rappler.com/life-and-sty...
Text, with my book's title circled in red: "Filipinos are writing everywhere—the question is how to get those works published," Bolipata-Santos said. Here are the top 10 best selling books from the Ateneo University Press during this year's MIBF, in no particular order: - The Philippines is Not a Small Country by Gideon Lasco - Unrequited Love: Duterte's China Embrace by Marites Vitug and Camille Elemia - My Lola's Love Letters: A Novel by Ines Bautista-Yao - False Nostalgia: The Marcos "Golden Age" Myths and How to Debunk Them by JC Punongbayan - Isabela: A Novel by Kaisa Aquino - Stray Cats: A Novel by Irene Sarmiento - The Collected Stories of Jessica Zafra - Song of the Mango and Other New Myths by Vida Cruz-Borja - The Age of Umbrage by Jessica Zafra - Introduction to Philippine History by John S. Arcilla, S.J. Three copies of my book, "Song of the Mango and Other New Myths." The cover features a diwata with green skin and green hair with a single pink gumamela flower and a golden circlet. The hair trails off into leaves. She has a flowy white dress on. Her eyes are glowing snd have no irises. She's holding up a glowing mango in one hand. The book cover has a gold foil border and it has my byline and the title in the lower right corner.
November 17, 2024 at 5:04 PM
laviecestmoi.bsky.social
Your last saved meme is your moral philosophy

My moral philosophy is #LOTR, nice
A 4x4 grid. First row of labels: has no idea what's going on, knows about half the plan, knows more than they're sharing. First column of labels: is having a great time, is just along for the ride, is having a terrible time. L-R, top to bottom: Pippin, Gimli, Gandalf, Sam, Merry, Legolas, Boromir, Aragorn, Frodo.
November 14, 2024 at 9:22 PM
laviecestmoi.bsky.social
We know each other and we follow each other but I will show you Bear anyway
A medium-sized brown dog with brown eyes smiling at the camera, wearing a yellow paper crown and purple fairy wings
November 13, 2024 at 3:14 AM
laviecestmoi.bsky.social
It's giving this comic I just saw
November 12, 2024 at 5:39 AM