Yeyet Soriano is a multigenre author who specializes in speculative fiction, contemporary romance, poetry, and crime fiction.
Based in Manila, Philippines, her day job is that of a cross-regional IT leader for Asia-Pacific, EMEA, and Latin America for a multinational corporation. She is a people leader, a coach, and a mentor.
She has a very supportive husband who has never read any of her works (he only reads to fall asleep). They have three wonderfully unique kids, each with their own idiosyncrasies.
Published works:
Turning Points | In My Dreams | The Retreat | Kate, Finally | The Crime Circle | In Tune | One by One | Hearts and Melodies | Kalanta | Stealing Amaya | Lyrics & Rhymes | The Audacity: Boomerang | The Serenas Family: Steal, Stalk & Sink | Shadows & Lines | Blossoms & Vines
Anthologies:
Flesh (He loves Me…Not) | Summer Feels (Buddy System) | 12 Months of Romance 24 Reasons to Love (Life’s Tricks and Treats) | Start Here (Another First) | The Secrets We Keep (Kate’s Retreat) | BRU Love: A Fair (In the Key of Z / More Than Meets the Eye) | Magkasintahan Volume XXV (The Seventh Time) | Dystopia Manila (The One) | Deck The Halls Volume 1 (The MaRiTeS Brigade: The Case of the Christmas Pan-Tree) | In Full Color: No White Flags (Tri Hard / Three Things I Hate)
Contact Details:
Email: yeyetms@gmail.com
Author Website: www.yeyetsoriano.com
Facebook: @Yeyetsorianowrites
Instagram: @Yeyetsoriano
Where did the story idea for “Bonsai” come from?
My stories usually are the result of some everyday normal occurrence seen through the lens of my overactive imagination. The story originated when my husband started buying bonsai trunks, and he bought one which looked like it could house its own little monster inside. My brain started generating all these scenarios and the only way to quiet it down was to start writing a story. And so, Bonsai was born. The fact that it starts out as ordinary as a normal day in my life does and ends so much like the fantastical scenarios that run through my brain makes it all the more priceless to me.
Your story straddles a line between psychological horror, the ghost story, crime and mystery. Which genre do you think this story draws from the most–and why go there?
It was always going to be a horror story. I knew it would be about ghosts and monsters hidden in something so ordinary, like the bonsai trunk. But as the story progressed, it evolved more into psychological horror and then of course, my favorites, a bit of crime and mystery. I’ve always been drawn to the darkness in people. I’ve always been fascinated by flawed characters, and those that cannot be pigeon-holed into one classification. Is he/she protagonist? Antagonist? Victim? A bystander? I always say that not everything or anyone is truly just black or white. Everyone, I believe, is an endless gradient of gray.
I like challenging myself, and in the process, challenge the conventions of story-telling. I like mixing genres because I have this innate abhorrence to being boxed in by rules. I go where the story goes. In the end, people may classify the story as a specific genre, but I never write for a genre. The story writes itself the way it needs to be written. I am just a medium.
Why go there, you ask? I answer, why not? I experiment, and sometimes write what would be uncomfortable truths. In this story, there is a lot of that.
Ultimately, Celia is faced with the truth about what Enrico has done and how she is implicated in his crimes, yet she ultimately chooses to “forget.” When a character chooses comfort over a horrific reality, how do you want the reader to view that choice?
As the writer of this story, I also had to struggle with where the story went. How far could I go with these characters that it would still be believable that they choose the ending that the story had. I would like the readers to be able to put themselves in the shoes of the characters and ask themselves, would they choose the same? What would they have done differently? And in the process, hopefully the reader will know themselves better. Sometimes, when you’re confronted with a seemingly difficult choice, you will surprise yourself with how you respond. It’s like a moral dilemma. Whichever you choose, you lose something. Sometimes, you choose the lesser evil. And sometimes, the lesser evil is to delude yourself of the truth and just stay in your comfort zone.
What I really want is for the reader to scream in the end and say, “No!”
But I think, there will be those who would agree with the choice Celia makes.
And isn’t that the real horror?
What was the most challenging part of writing this story? How did you ultimately pull it off?
A lot of the situations in the story come from my normal life. When the writing takes off into the fantastical, horrific and almost inconceivable, I sometimes had to stop myself and consider…am I still writing fiction? Or is there a part of me calling out because some of the themes resonate? Not maybe with me personally, but with people I know. Maybe I was writing this as a metaphor to some parts of my life that had gone unhinged in the last few months.
If there is method-acting, I might be doing method-writing. In order to write horror and crime, I have to think horror and crime. And all these sometimes seep into my reality. There were times during this writing when I would look at my husband strangely. I know he is not Enrico, but I had written Enrico based off on something my husband did, buy a bonsai trunk.
But the most difficult part? It was that I was rooting for Celia. The ending was difficult to write. The only way for me to be okay with it, was to imagine I could write a part 2 where maybe, the tables can be turned. It’s funny though, because the whole story was based on an ending I already envisioned. But when I got there, it was so difficult to write.
What’s the one thing not mentioned in your profile that you would like people to know about you?
I wanted to pursue Psychology as a major when I was applying for college. But at the time, my mother told me I would never make money being a psychologist, and the most logical course for me to take up was Accounting. I was Gen X, and I was obedient, so I took Accounting. I believe my writing is a way for my inner psychologist to shine through. Which is why a lot of my stories dwell on characters and their motivations. And also why some of my works tend to go dark, as I am really fascinated with the extent and possibilities, both bright and dark, of the human psyche.
Oh, and I love cats. The cats in the story? They are based on some of my cats in real life.