10 years of Bianca Mori

On February 15, 2024, I sent the completed manuscript of One Night At The Palace Hotel (ONATPH, because it’s a pain to type out all the time) to two beta readers. ONATPH was a product on the 2014 Buqo Steamy Reads workshop. The indomitable Mina V. Esguerra facilitated it. I did a deep dive into the farthest reaches of my inbox and found our author introductions, prompts, even encouraging messages from well-known steamy authors. I picked The One That Got Away trope and set my head down to create a steamy novella.

And then I sat back and read what I wrote and realized: hmm. I’m going to need a pen name.

In the mid-2000s I had a series of chick lit novels published by a local publisher, followed by a couple of sports-themed new adult titles I self-published as e-books. All these were under my real name… The same real name I’d used to write for non-government organizations, corporate clients, foundations and the like. Because my real name was out there, established and Google-able, I worried that my steamy romances would create SEO problems. Say you were looking for Real Name Me to write your annual report and found my sexy, modern ode to transatlantic marriages? Or you were interested in a steamy book and found my scintillating work on “effective poverty alleviation interventions in the province of XX”? And to be honest — my heat level zero chick lit and New Adult work was more acceptable to my NGO and corporate clients as a creative outlet. Sexy books? Bit of a hard sell. (I recognize how retrograde this all seems — why can’t the heat level 3 author be recognized as the same dependable technical writer and editor? — but I’ve made peace with it and my decision 10 years ago.)

And so the Bianca Mori persona was born.

I’ve had a lot of fun since joining that fateful workshop a decade (*high-pitched* A DECADE?) ago. I wrote a romantic suspense trilogy which is honestly bonkers but I just enjoyed throwing all my favorite heist and crime (very much on the side of criminals) tropes onto the page. I followed up ONATPH with the short story One Night in the Streets of Makati (now included in ONATPH’s updated edition) and then with what is possibly the most mature (headspace-wise, steam is always a given) Bianca novel, One Night at the Penthouse Suite. I collaborated with my favorite persons and authors Carla de Guzman and Suzette de Borja for the two Alta books, which honestly are my favorites — I can reread them again and again and just enjoy the world we created of the Aritzes. (All the links here are to Amazon, but if you go over to my Books page you’ll find buy links to other retailers).

So it’s been a blast. Whether you just started reading my books or have stayed with me for a while, I am so grateful for your time and reading space. Happy 10th to us!