The King of Talk Boy Abunda lent his flair for words and wisdom in a new book of short stories titled “Rhythm & Bruise,” written by music columnist Yugel Losorata.
The collection of thrillers and unsettling mysteries contains 18 stories the author wrote over a span of one year under the cloud of coronavirus pandemic.
The TV icon delivered the Foreword in his trademark tone, describing the author as he knows him and giving gutsy glimpses of some of the stories included in the set of shorts.
“Yugel Losorata is many,” he said in his opening paragraph, “He is a husband, a father, a brother, a son, a writer, a musician and a wanderlust whose sense of wonder makes him a fervid storyteller, unafraid to tap into his imagined imaginings about life, death and everything in between and beyond.”
The author who writes a weekly music column for the Manila Standard noted that the period when he crafted the entries was poignantly punctuated by the passing of his father Eulogio and his older brother Eulogio, Jr.
A number of the stories involved a virus outbreak (“Fierce Frank,” “Forty Days,” and the title entry “Rhythm & Bruise”), reflecting his mental struggle coping up with the sudden lost of his sibling who worked as a physician in a Pampanga hospital prior to his death August last year.
He wrote the final entry, “Two Letters,” just days before his father expired from a non-COVID 19-related ailment at Loma Linda University Medical Center in California.
Boy Abunda acknowledged the author’s personal tribute to victims of the Ozone Disco tragedy that happened 25 years ago. He shared, “‘Rhythm & Bruise’ opens with ‘Open 25 Years,’ a gripping story based on a fire that burned a nightclub where over a hundred people perished — because the door was closed. This tragedy gutted the young Yugel whose friends were not spared by the inferno.”
Another story, “Saving Batchmate Brian,” likewise touches on fictional characters dramatically changed by the same disaster.
When Abunda pointed out that Losorata, a family friend and colleague, wrote the collection “while finishing a novel, taking care of a family amidst an egregious pandemic and perhaps missing performing with his band,” he was nodding at the inclusions of tales embracing bands and making music.
There are at least four of them heavy on such matters: “The Band That Never Was,” “My James Band,” “Real Rocker,” and “Rolet’s 12.”
The author, by the way, is a professional songwriter and recording artist. He has played bass guitar in his bands and writes songs recorded by them. Released last May, The Pub Forties’ digital single “Nung Tayo Pa,” which he also wrote, features him on lead vocals.
His fondness for word puns is also evident in the book, with titles like “Beauty and Madz,” and “Wilma Doesn’t Dance With Her Father.”
“Rhythm & Bruise” is Losorata’s fourth book in two years. He came up with two ebooks (“How To Survive The New Normal” and “30 Midnights Of Flash Fiction”) last year, and a novel, “The Lust Regime,” published last February.
Both “The Lust Regime” and “Rhythm & Bruise” are published by Ukiyoto, an international publishing house based in Canada and with satellite offices in India and Singapore.
Abunda, in his effort to inform readers about the nature of his author-friend, stated that the stories in “Rhythm & Bruise” are “Fictional but always personal.”
He further expressed, “Everyone has a peculiar rhythm, some go through ‘bruises’ to find it. Find your rhythm and get bruised. Maybe and just maybe, you will stop for a while and live — and begin to thrive.”