Turns of Place: a 4-year correspondence between two writers

Four years worth of correspondence, four years of stories.

That pretty much sums up what this writing project is about.

I’ve not mentioned it since launching Diwa Daily, so I thought today’s a great time to introduce this collaboration between myself and my good friend and fellow writer, Johna Baylon: Turns of Place

What’s Turns of Place?

It’s an exchange of letters across borders between myself ?? and Johnalene Baylon ??/??

The project highlights the key events of our travels, lessons those journeys have taught us, and the experience of returning and finding our way back home.

The main section of the project consists of twenty letters, each of us writing ten that track the course of our individual trips abroad. My half focuses on my trip to the USA back in 2016.

The writing itself is quite experimental. I’ve never tried publishing creative non-fiction, and frankly the work I’ve put out for this project is in dire need of more polishing—fellow writers, you know that feeling. ?

But hey, better done than perfect, right? That’s why I’m sharing this here to concretize Turns of Place’s existence in my body of work.

Who we are

Johna and I were college classmates back in 2007.

We both went to De La Salle University – Manila, and took classes in Communication Arts before parting ways in 2009 and reuniting around 2010/11.

Johna has been a sister and friend to me, and a fellow writer whose passion for life and her faith continues to touch and inspire the many people that crosses her path.

An even better description of Turns of Place and our selves are in the About page.

What’s next for Turns of Place?

All twenty of our letters are now available at https://www.turnsofplace.com/

There will be a second section where Johna and I exchange an additional set of letters written at the time of writing.

Things like:

• Glances at our days in Hong Kong/Cagayan de Oro city
• How we’re wading through the ups and downs of the lives we lead
• Thoughts and dreams for both the present and the future.

And once everything is published, I’m devoting time this year to read through and edit each letter deeply so it reaches a level of literariness that makes my section a work of literature.

I’m over the moon over Turns of Place being out in the wild after all these years, and even more excited to publish newer work.

Check back in next time. This will be the first place you’ll hear about it.