Coming Soon, Spring 2008: Journeys Within: The Princess Arisen

Journeys Within: The Princess Arisen
Red Malong (2008)

I fell in love with the Princess Josephine the first time I heard Tuhan tell her story during a demo at CSU (what was then Hayward) for the Sikilohiyang Pilipino conference in 1994. I had gone there on a whim. Ross, a senior at UC Berkeley and head of PAA, invited me to go. I was a freshman who lived at home, but he thought I was a junior transfer.

A friend who practiced Cabales style escrima also was doing a demonstration there. I was looking for a new martial arts school at the time, having swiftly realized that I was not fit for judo and it's slamming into the ground ways.

Tuhan and Guro Ira did the demo. I remember listening intently as he told the tale of the Princess Josephine and of Grandmaster Villabrille's search for a master. I had seen several martial arts schools, but nothing resonated in me like this. I didn't sign up right away. The classes were in San Francisco. San Francisco was still a far away place that my nascent driving skills had not traversed. It would be later when some guy friends agreed to check out the class with me in one of the old factory garment buildings just off the bridge that are now high end condos. I never looked back.

The tale of the Princess Josephine comes alive again in this journey of sisterhood as the Princess Josephine and her cousin Jin, like their mothers before them take the journey to the land of the Little People. They are the Frog women, guardians and leaders of their tribe, who watch and study the signs of nature. With the omen of the earth's demise rumbling under their feet, can they return to complete their compact with the Little People to bring balance to the world once more? It is a journey that tests their will, their spirit, their bodies as they face the demons of the past in order to make the hard choices of today to save the world's future.

I cannot tell you how giddy I am about this book coming out! Once you start, you cannot wait to see how it ends!