Acknowledgments

When I first started working on King Eyes, I called it my compassion project; it's like a passion project, except instead of taking it by the reins and galloping off into the sunset with it, I was going to let it gently swing me into coziness. I decided whatever writing process I'd use, it would be the kindest, least stressful one I could design for myself.

Unbeknownst to me at that time, I made the right decision, because the twenty months that it took me to produce this novel were very challenging for many reasons. Yet every time I managed to open up my text editor and read or write a little bit of this story, a light cheeriness came over me no matter what mood I had at the outset. So it's with a heart full of gratitude that I thank every one who joined me, even for a short period of time, on this journey of developing King Eyes.

Thank you as always to my parents for being so indulgent towards my hobbies. It takes a certain lifestyle to establish a writing routine on top of a full-time job, and I'm very lucky that the life I live with my parents is conducive to that.

Thank you to Megan Ella, my critique partner, for her thorough comments and helpful advice. This is the first time I got the opportunity to work with a critique partner, and I couldn't have asked for a better, more thoughtful, more encouraging one! Thank you to my development editor, Vida Cruz, and my beta reader, Kate Heceta. Their critical eye to the presentation of Filipino culture and history helped me avoid silly, diasporic mistakes.

Any mishaps or shortfalls in the novel are solely my own.

Abundant thanks to the Authors Anonymous and Lamplighters' Guild discord servers. Authors Anonymous was the first writing community I ever joined, and it's such a welcoming and supportive place where aspiring writers could talk about our struggles and victories. Lamplighters' Guild is hosted by a group of fabulous self-published and hybrid authors who share the server with their Patreon community. Every visit is a dose of creativity and inspiration!

Thank you, dear reader, for taking a chance on King Eyes. I hope this story has brought you the same comfort it has brought me.

And finally, but most importantly, thank you, Lord, for the words and the small joys.

Like my previous stories, the world of King Eyes is largely inspired by precolonial Tagalog society. Most of what I learned about that culture comes from William Henry Scott's Baranggay. However, my story's setting remains a secondary world, and although I've opted to use Tagalog for concepts better defined in that language (ie. datu, katalonan), Lurit and the larger archipelago don't match the Philippines exactly.

When researching about storytelling in precolonial Philippines, I consulted two works: the aforementioned Baranggay, and Grace Nono's Babaylan Sing Back. In these two books, there's a dearth of information about the storytelling and oral traditions of the Tagalogs as an ethnic group in particular. Baranggay contained lots of information about the Visayans, while Babaylan Sing Back focused on several other indigenous tribes. In the former, lay Visayans were known to engage in storytelling and poetry contests, as well as the recital of hours-long epics. In the latter, the role of storyteller falls under the purview of the babaylan (oral ritualists who are also healers and mediums) since stories reinforce social norms and religious beliefs, and the voice functions as a conduit to the spiritual realm.

I wanted King Eyes to focus on storytelling so I made the decision to separate that function from the katalonan's more medical and religious role. In this sense, the ability for anyone to engage in storytelling better reflects the precolonial Visayan tradition. However, Dalon's storytelling slightly differs from the more common practices of Visayan storytelling, like the way they would often sing their poetries, which prompted early chroniclers to conflate poetry and songs. So I came up with a designated "official" storyteller position in Lurit that I can use to hearken to those traditions, while allowing Dalon to have his own style.

Another big difference is the concept of amulets. According to Baranggay, in precolonial Tagalog society, people considered amulets as objects that lent supernatural abilities to its wearer. The katalonan oversaw much of the production of these amulets, because spirits helped provide those supernatural abilities. However, normal people who were knowledgeable in some kind of 'magic' could also create their own amulets without the intercession of spirits.

The concept of magic in the world of King Eyes is separate from the religious beliefs of the people, even if some readers might consider those beliefs quite fantastical. I don't know yet what power spirituality has over amulets, and perhaps if I continue to write stories in this world, that's something that I might eventually discover. However, the idea that amulets are precious objects from a nebulous past was highly inspired by an essay I read from Ambeth Ocampo's Prehistoric Philippines. He wrote that many artifacts from precolonial times wash ashore on beaches, yet most Filipinos are unaware of just how precious these are. Those who do have an inkling might end up selling them to black markets, instead of handing them over to archeological organizations who could really use them to better study our distant past.

One other resource that was essential to me as I wrote King Eyes was Damiana L. Eugenio's compilation, The Folktales. Both stories that Dalon narrated in this novel were inspired by Tagalog folktales from this anthology, one similarly called The House in the Woods and the other called The King, The Princess, and the Poor Boy. There are also several versions of The Monkey and the Turtle folktales. Sometimes they're accompanied by a crocodile. Sometimes it's the monkey with the crocodile and no turtle.

The majority of Tagalog tales not about animals bore influences of colonization, from the names of the characters (often Juan and Maria) to references to Christianity. I'm not sure if the folktales were developed during the colonial era, or if there were earlier versions but only the colonized versions were documented. Since King Eyes is inspired by precolonial Tagalog culture, I modified the folktales I referenced to have a more precolonial setting.