New U.K. time travel novel featuring Filipino characters and locations

Author C Ramos-Stovin contacted us to introduce his debut novel, 'Glow: The Infinite Realms and Uncertain Certainties of Time', which will be released on hardback on 11 October 2010. Glow is an exciting, intelligent and action packed time travel/ghost story and using his two daughters as inspiration.

Mr Ramos-Stovin is an Englishman married to a Filipina who came to the U.K. to perform in Miss Saigon and The King and I. He now has two daughters and since being married has become very close to a lot of Filipinos. He tells us that his love of the Philippines and its people inspired him to give something back to a country.

You can visit the official book website to download the first few chapters for free.

C Ramos-Stovin: "ABS-CBN asked me a few questions relating to the Philippines and these are the answers I gave:

1) Why did you choose a British Pinay protagonist?

I chose to use a British Pinoy character for the female lead after deciding that there were far too many male action leads and that for what was needed in this story, there was no reason that the character shouldn’t be a female. I then very quickly came to the decision that if the protagonist was to be a girl, then who better to base her on but my two half Filipino daughters. I used traits from both and amalgamated them into one character. Giving Filipinos something to be proud of as well as something my daughters could read and really identify with as well as get lost in. I then needed various locations and with no budget restraints, it meant for the first time in my writing career, I could write whatever the story needed, not what a limited budget would allow. So Manila was the ideal choice for a number of chapters but I believe that any Filipino reading will have never pictured the Philippines in this way. It’s a unique story with a unique angle on who we are, where we come from and what our futures could hold if we don’t take care of our planet. But it sets the Philippines apart as a unique and wonderful setting for any story.

2) What do you hope to achieve? What kind of impact do you hope it will make?

Ultimately I want everyone all over the world to read Glow because it’s an entertaining, fun and action packed story that asks you to question many things about what you know to be real. But I chose the Philippines as the country of the protagonist Courtney, not just because of my daughters, but because I have been to the Philippines many times and seen the poverty and lack of resources that exist for the poor, in particular the children. I hope that Glow can be read by as many Filipino’s as possible because more than anything, it’s a story about a young girl who has suffered massively in her life, but with determination dares to say ‘I can achieve anything’. I want it to be enjoyed first, but leave lingering thoughts long after you finish it and hopefully one day, even if just one Filipino child takes something positive from the story and implements it as an adult, then the story of Glow was really worth documenting."