For the Win

A heart-wrenchingly honest chronicle of an introverted gamer geek who tries to win his best friend’ s heart but is forced to rethink his game plan when a new challenger steps into the ring Eighteen-year-old Nathaniel Carpio has been having chicken inasal with his best friend Elena Dizon at their favourite sidewalk grillery for four years now, but when Lena whips out a silly ‘ six-peso coin’ to comfort him on a bad day, Nat realizes that he’ s fallen in love with her. Eager to spend the rest of his life with Lena, lovesick Nat believes they should both apply to the college program held by the developers of their favourite real-time strategy game, Mitolohiya. But just when his game plan is coming along nicely, in pops a new challenger - Rafael Antonio, the world-renowned Filipino voice actor for the hero Apolaki in the game. Now, star-struck Lena spends all her time bonding with her online idol and Nat starts to feel more and more like a boring NPC. With his future hanging in the balance, Nat embarks on an epic quest to compete with the celebrity in a real-world PvP match he’ s not ready for.

Catherine Dellosa plays video games for a living, reads comics for inspiration, and writes fiction because she’ s in love with words. She lives in Manila, Philippines with her husband, whose ideas fuel the fire in her writing. Her Young Adult fantasy novel, Of Myths And Men, has been published by Penguin Random House SEA and is her love letter to gamer geeks, mythological creatures, aliens, and epic quests to save the world. The second book in the trilogy, Of Life And Lies, is out now.