Naysan Albaytar's second book All the Light Around Us has finally arrived at Scribblory Book Shop! Contrary to her first book Remembering Pandan: A Farmers Life and Other Stories, which is a memoir, All the Light Around Us holds a collection of fictional stories that attempt to capture miracles in the mundane and answer different what-ifs of the reality.
What if luck is something we have control over?
What if dying is just like taking another trip?
What if we can read people’s emotions?
What if our favorite pet can save us from death?
What if Death is just another person we can talk to like a friend?
Aside from the make-believe worlds and characters, the stories showcase Filipino's rich tradition, superstition, and faith. These reveal not only Naysan's creativity and imagination but also the interesting way she looks at the world.
During the book launch of All the Light Around Us which Naysan did along with her co-authors, Vergie Manligas and Grace Dizon, she admitted that her second book was inspired by Sarah Addison Allen, author of Garden Spells and other novels grounded in magical realism.
"Magical realism is about the everyday magic that happens in our life, around us," Naysan said, "And I believe that without us noticing, we are surrounded by different kinds of energy that influence the way things happen, and those are the small magic that I want to share with the readers through my stories."
At this point, Scribblory encourages its mentees to answer the what-ifs of their true stories and add more to this category. Schedule of the second batch of Scribblory's The Art of Fiction Writing with Naysan Albaytar and Aiko Hara will be announced through Scribblory's Facebook and Instagram pages before 2022 ends.
About the Author
Naysan Albaytar is a Bicolana who grew up with her grandparents in a small farming community, and it was here where she first discovered the magic that surrounded her. During her childhood, one of her first playgrounds was the garden, soon followed by the backwoods in their home, where she ran up and down sloping hills and crossed small streams to find new plants and insects to play with and new territories to explore. It was a world she loved, and one that she wanted to share with her readers—through writing. Today, she is a communications professional and a freelance writer. She published first book, a memoir, in late 2020 and continues to write in her free time.