Frequently Asked Questions

The name came from the phrase rabble-rouser – or someone who stirs up the crowd’s emotions, like a troublemaker. 

My natural personality is the opposite, so it became a fun & interesting contradiction — a secret identity. Let me tell you, I try my best to bring the rabble-rouser personality whenever I meet people, but it’s a lot of work. 

In life, you can either be ordinary and forgotten or a rabble-rouser and be remembered.

I really enjoy bring ideas to life. I enjoy the process of creating even though it might not be perfect every time. Sometimes the result might not be what I expected.

I also love meeting and talking to readers and hearing about how my stories and art inspire them.

I enjoyed reading short stories, comics and playing adventure games when I was young. These things fueled my imagination. Soon, I wanted to make up my own stories rather than just read about them.

I found leftover paper scraps and started drawing my characters. I stapled the pages together, and that’s how I made my first book.

When I was older, I found an old dusty typewriter in our storage room and started to use that to write stories. It made a satisfying sound every time I pressed a key! My first novel was for a school project… a story about a couple of kids who rescued Santa.

Finding inspiration is a tricky thing. Some people are good at it, while others must work extra hard to catch and keep it. And sometimes, it leaves just as quickly as it arrives.

Some days I’m inspired by what I observe around me – from a conversation, vacation, a sign, or an artwork. But I also have to make sure that there is a story behind the idea.

Most inspiration comes from my childhood memories, moments, and experiences. I write them down and noodle on them until something interesting comes out. Sometimes an inspiration doesn’t fully develop until months or years later.

Start now! Don’t stop!

If you want to write, carry a notebook. Write snippets from conversations. Write funny jokes you share with friends or moments that resonate with you. These moments of truth will become important in the stories you write.

If you want to draw, keep practicing. Carry a sketchbook and draw as often as possible. Watch youtube videos from other artists and learn from them.

Don’t forget to share your stories and art. This is very important. You’ll see how powerful your art is once others see it. Good luck!

That’s easy. If you want to keep improving at something, do it repeatedly while adding a new technique each time. Challenge yourself to get better and do something you could not do before.

Drawing is one of those skills that EVERYONE can learn. Yes, everyone!

I drew quite a bit when I was younger but lost that skill as I got older. So when I decided to write and illustrate my stories, I had to learn it again. It meant lots of practice and lots of mistakes.

The cool thing is that many artists and creative people share their techniques and show you how to do it (via libraries, books, websites, classes, youtube, etc.). All you have to do now is take the first steps and do it yourself.

Nope! I’m self-taught. Art school is costly, and I was already too old and too busy with life to return to school.

So I used my superpowers of observation, copying, and learning from mistakes.

If you’re inspired and motivated enough, there’s very little you cannot accomplish.

December 15th – I am originally from Quezon City, Philippines.

I stayed there until I was 17 years old, and that’s when my entire family jumped on a plane and moved to the U.S.A.

I currently live in Las Vegas, Nevada.

I’m a Sagittarius, so I like doing many things!

During the day, I go to a regular office and work as a Chief Technology Officer (I help people and computers work in harmony).

Writing and illustrating are things I enjoy doing for fun. I also enjoy travelling, camping, racing and working on cars, walking my dogs at the park and building arcade machines.

Currently, it’s orange. Sometimes it’s purple.

One time, I went through a brown phase.

Yes. Back in the Philippines, my dad thought it would be a good business idea for us to raise bees. So we purchased one practice bee hive at first, half the size of a normal one. You could see the bees working through the clear plastic. Afterward, we got four regular-sized hives, and I was in charge of caring for them. I didn’t have a full suit but a homemade beekeeper screen hat, gloves, and a smoker.

Since we lived in the province, we had chickens, turkeys, and ducks. We had so many animals that some neighbors started stealing them!

The type of racing I did is called drifting. It’s when you slide your cars sideways around the track. My friends and I would go to various racetracks in Nevada and California and use up a lot of tires in the process. Before that, I did autocross, road racing, and drag racing. It was a fun and expensive hobby!

I also started the organization Vegasdrift, which focused on bringing drifting away from the streets and into the track.

The first console game I played was Super Mario Brothers on the Family Computer (The Japanese version of NES). I also played Game & Watch handheld games that my neighborhood friends would bring over.

I also enjoyed playing Point-And-Click adventure games on the desktop computer. They’re not as popular anymore but I always loved the idea of a story-based game where you can choose how the characters solve the problems. Sierra and LucasArts made the popular games at the time.

When time permits, I still enjoy playing on the Nintendo Switch, PC Games, and even arcade games.

I’ve probably written or illustrated over 40+ different books and comics.

I was a good student because I was scared of my parents and teachers!

Growing up in the Philippines, the adults were strict and would not think twice about punishing you if you did not live up to their expectations.

But academically, I was pretty average, and I sucked in math! Once, I pretended I was smart, but I couldn’t fake it. Physics is fun; it was math with a story, so that made sense to me.

It’s hard to pick because there are so many! It depends on the time of day and how I’m feeling. Sometimes I’m inspired by scary things; sometimes, I enjoy weird or funny things. I tend not to think of just writers and illustrators because there are so many types of storytellers: movie directors, photographers, sculptors etc… they are all storytellers and inspire me.

Some creative types that come to mind are:

Lewis Carroll, Edgar Allan Poem A.A. Milne, Edward Packard, Arthur Conan Doyle, Edward Gorey, Neil Gaiman, Hayao Miyazaki, Jim Davis, Henri-Cartier Bresson, Vincent Van Gogh, Maurice Bernard Sendak, Q. Tarantino, Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, Tim Burton, Guillermo Del Toro, JJ Abrams, Park Chan-Wook, Wong Kar-Wai…

YES! Don’t ask me again.