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!