Author Grace Dacanay-Chong talks about her new book and the writing life
Interview by Perry Gil S. Mallari, Reporter

Multi-awarded writer Grace Dacanay-Chong is out with her latest inspirational book, Flying on Broken Wings. Published by New Day, the book features 13 individuals who have surpassed great obstacles to live fuller, more meaningful lives. Flying on Broken Wings aims to inspire people and organizations that are working with persons with disabilities as well as those who have experienced loss and frailty at some point in their lives. Chong has won four Palanca awards, three of them first prizes and was finalist in the National Book Award and Catholic Mass Media Awards for her short stories. The following is The Manila Times interview with Grace Dacanay-Chong:

The Manila Times: You were known for writing great inspirational books. Would you agree that writing in this genre demands more than excellent writing skill but also the depth of the writer’s experience in the issues he is talking about?

Grace Dacanay-Chong: Writing inspirational books demands heart and soul. It is introspective. A writer must be willing to dig deep into her core and share the unique things she mines there.

An inspirational book author can only write incisively about the things she believes in and has experienced.
It is easy for anyone to write about a topic, but only a creative writer can write about life, what one has gone through—because that is exclusive, enriched by people and circumstances that will never pass her way again.

There is nothing I like doing better than writing. That’s why sometimes I wish I should have started writing much earlier. But then, again, I wouldn’t have much to write about when I was younger, than I have now that I am battle-scarred, so to speak.

TMT: What is the best hour of the day to work? Do you have any personal rituals before you begin writing?

GDC: I am a day person. I wake up as early as 5 a.m. for my morning walk; then after breakfast, I start writing. I knock off around 7 p.m. when my husband and kids arrive from work for dinner. I retire early to wake up early again the next day.

No rituals—just a quiet, personal talk with God, thanking Him for a new day, praising Him for His grace, and seeking His guidance for the words that I write.

TMT: Your books obviously are very spiritual in nature. Can you share insights on personal spirituality and its connection to daily life?

GDC: I personally believe in living by grace. That apart from God, I can do nothing. So every thought that I write is a product of my relationship with Him.

For this, I have a Bible verse to guide me (I call it my life verse): Matthew 5:16 “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

I chose this verse in a youth camp when I was 12, not because I understood it (or particularly liked it) but because we were asked by the camp director to choose a life verse. It was only when I started writing in the year 2000, when I found time to reflect on its essence, that I fully understood what it meant.

I guess it wasn’t an accident that I chose it after all—it led me to what I am doing now.

TMT: You were in the lucrative field of advertising before you decided to pursue creative writing, can you tell us more of that important turning point in your career?

GDC: This was what I wrote in my writer’s folio:

One day I woke up and my children were wonderfully grown. After 20 years in advertising, I found the landscape quickly changing. And so was my attitude towards career and the corporate world. In the year 2000, a merger between our company and another giant was in the offing. So was a juicy early retirement offer for the upper tier of management.

After prayers after prayers, I took it.

Finally, from a long and winding detour, I am writing. Not for mass media but for God’s glory.

TMT: Can you name a particular person or event that made the greatest influence in your life as a writer and as a person?

GDC: My dad was a bookworm. I remember watching him read—it was as though he was in another world. I wanted so much to be in that world, too. Reading and writing are Siamese twins.

As a kid, I always loved to write. I wrote speeches and letters for aunts, uncles, and my mom’s friends. I was always assigned to do scripts for skits, plays and to edit newsletters. In the closet, I was writing poems, plays, essays, letters to whomever. I was also contributing to publications.

But there was no creative writing degree at that time. So I was waylaid and took up other courses.

There are many (as in countless) people who have influenced my life as a person. In my Gifts of Grace book series, I speak of how grace was sent to me through a total of 45 people in three books. I could go on and write till book 10 and beyond, and yet I’d still have many people left out.

TMT: What motivated you to write Flying on Broken Wings?

GDC: May I just quote Bezalie Uc-Kung? She is the Executive Director of New Day Publishers. She wrote this in the book’s “Publisher’s Note.” I couldn’t write it any better:

I waited many years for this dream book to come to fruition, but I am thankful that I waited patiently for the right person to write it. Things have a way of taking shape at the right moment and this is one of them. For who would ever imagine I would cross paths with Grace D. Chong, the writer I just admired from a distance? Or that she would be willing to write for New Day Publishers on such a remote topic as a book on disability, certainly not her cup of tea?

Reading this book, one feels the sensitive and gentle touch the author used in writing up each life story.

Frankly, I never thought this kind of book could be so lovingly and wonderfully written. After all, disability belongs to the stark and ugly realities of life. But the author never tried to sugarcoat or gloss over the unpleasant truth to the point of patronizing. Grace allowed a respectful distance that allowed her subjects to be alone in their thoughts and recollections; at the same time, she had empathy and rapport with them that encouraged openness and vulnerability. Each essay reads differently, but all are treated evenly.

One cannot say that this story is more touching or engaging than the others. I guess this is where Grace’s many years of practice as a mother come in. Thank you, Grace, for this beautiful book. Your passion for your craft and the compassion that goes with it, have given this book heart and soul.

If this book has made the readers more aware of people who walk on this earth impaired and challenged because of physical disability; or beyond awareness, the readers have been inspired to help push our government to give more teeth to the laws we have for the People with Disability (PWD) in the Philippines, then this book has accomplished its purpose. And if, in addition, this has sparked hope and courage in our hearts, then truly this book is meant to be such a time as this.

TMT: What future works await Grace D. Chong’s followers?

GDC: I blog, every three to four days. I hope that counts. I work on every blog post like I was writing for
a publication. http://leavesofgrace.blogspot.com.

I am also working on a daily devotional for young, busy women, due in March. What qualifies me to write this book? Well, I have always been busy myself and I wish I had read a book like this to affirm my busyness in the early days of my career. Again, this falls under the inspirational genre. I am not a theologian or a Bible scholar, so this book is not going to be preachy.

Through my journey, particularly my life’s dips and swells, I think I can share perspectives that others see differently. By combining mine with those of the readers’, I know they will go through their busyness with lighter, spryer steps. And as they reflect on these nuggets of life, they will find theirs more meaningful.
In between, I write children’s books on family values.

I am what you call a cut-to-cut person (an influence of the fast-paced advertising world). I can’t work on something non-stop. I usually take a breather and write something else; I guess it’s to give myself some space, the better to know where I am going.