wanggo gallaga

Check out the creative nest of writer/editor and HIV advocate Wanggo Gallaga. :)


Wanggo Gallaga
(Quezon City, Philippines)

Occupation: Writer / Editor / HIV Advocate

Favorite toy as a child: a stuffed teddy bear with a re-sewn nose so I thought it was a mole and not a bear. It's name was June.

Favorite toy now: My cell phone (hehehe)

Turn-ons: Anything that can mix the heavy serious stuff with a whole lot of good humour. I like things being intense.

Turn-offs: People who are closed-minded, people who aren't aware of other people, people who are always so negative and people who lie (like, a lot)

Top 5 movies: Magnolia, Pan's Labyrinth, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Mean Girls, The Squid and the Whale, Japanese Story, The Dark Knight

Top 3 books: Watership Down by Richard Adams, Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, and The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Music you listen to: Everything but my favorite are Kate Bush, David Bowie, Bjork, Tanita Tikaram, Aimee Mann, and Fiona Apple. Right now I'm listening to Florence and the Machine, Temper Trap, Passion Pit, Snow Patrol, and the Cold War Kids

When you're not busy with work, what do you do in your free time? I watch movies, read books, and live in my head. I like to daydream a lot.

If you were to choose a different job, what would it be? I'd love to be a teacher again.

If you can have any super power, what would it be? It's a toss up between teleportation or telepathy. I have difficulty deciding which I'd like more.

Where do you find inspiration for your creations? I find inspiration in conversations with other people. And traveling. I think my mind (and imagination) is most alive when I'm in a different city.

Most inspiring statement/moment (heard/said/read)? There are plenty. I remember the sunsets of Boracay to be very inspiring. I remember being in Sydney and it was the first time I've ever gone out of the country because of work and I got there on my own merits and I was walking towards the Sydney Opera House with my iPod at full blast playing a choral song from The Prayer Cycles and just crying because I was able to travel. The people were leaving the Opera House and wondering why I was crying in the cold. It was the dead of winter. That was pretty inspiring. Going through the oldest mangroves in the country in Palawan and it began to rain and then it stopped and there was this beautiful mist that hung round the trees and I thought I was in a fairy tale.

The most inspiring story I ever read was discovering that Anthony Burgess who wrote A Clockwork Orange didn't start writing until he was over 60 years old. At that age, he managed to still write over 33 books before he died. That is what he is remembered for and not the job that he had previous. It's never too late -- that's what I got from that story. It's never too late to make your mark in this world.