An Interview with Gabriella Buba

Gabriella Buba is a mixed Filipina-Czech author and chemical engineer based in Texas who likes to keep explosive pyrophoric materials safely contained in pressure vessels or between the covers of her books. She writes adult romantic fantasy for bold, bi, brown women who deserve to see their stories centered. Her debut Saints of Storm and Sorrow is a Filipino-inspired epic fantasy out with Titan Books. Daughters of Flood and Fury is to be released July 2025.

Gabriella has Filipino fantasy short stories in the anthologies Strange Religion: Speculative Fiction of Spirituality, Belief & Practice and Of Stardust: A Queer Fantastical Anthology, short stories placed with the Sci Phi Journal and PodCastle Fiction and essays on Filipino identity in Prairie Fire Press and With Love: What We Wish We Knew About Being Queer and Filipino in America.

Who/what made you want to write? Was there a particular person, or particular writers/works/art forms that influenced you?

I was always an avid reader growing up, so much so my mother would take away my books as punishment when I was a kid. I was obsessed with Tamora Pierce and Robin Mckinley, I loved how they wrote fantasy heroines, how they played with retelling and our expectations of genre and I can see a lot of their influence on my writing. But I also need to shout out my oldest and dearest friend Meighan who was also my dealer for all Lord of the Rings and fantasy books who introduced me to the world of fanfiction and writing stories. I’m not sure if I would’ve made the transition into creative writing if I hadn’t dove into fanfiction with her.

What other professions have you worked in? What’s something about you that your readers wouldn’t know?

As it mentions in my bio I’m a chemical engineer, which I’ve been told you can tell from Saints, apparently I crammed a lot of science and chemistry in under the fantasy! But during University I worked as a lifeguard and swim instructor. So in theme with the pearl diving in Saints and Alon my tide-touched healer, did you know that most drownings are silent? The entire body is so busy instinctually fighting for air drowning, swimmers lose the ability to call out for help or wave. I think it’s really applicable knowledge outside of drowning too, that sometimes it’s the folks that are the quietest, struggling so hard they literally cannot cry out for help, are in the most need of a rescue.

Tell us the story of your book’s title. Was it easy to find, or did it take forever?

Saints has had so many titles. I have been trying to tell the story since 2012 and so every few years, when I became embarrassed by the number of revisions it had been through, I’d rename it! So Saints of Storm and Sorrow was actually a result of group brainstorming in the discord chat with my writing group the G-Squad. We loved the cadence of it, how well it fit fantasy title expectations and dovetailed into the cursed Catholicism vibes of the book.

How did it feel when you first saw your book cover? Or when you first held your book in your hands?

Seeing my cover, which features a brown Filipina woman front and center, was such an amazing and overwhelming experience for me. I really have to thank my cover designer, Nat Mack, whose amazing concept just blew me away from the beginning. I had never grown up getting to see myself or my culture reflected in the popular media I consumed so seeing my book, and seeing my character writ large and so clearly and visibly Filipina it was more than I’d ever hoped for. I couldn’t stop thinking how beautiful she looked, and as a kid who grew up told I would be so beautiful if I weren’t so dark, or my hair weren’t so unruly, it was really moving to see those parts of me reflected in Lunurin and highlighted with so much intention.

If your book had a soundtrack, what are some songs that would be on it?

“Francesca” by Hozier

“Eight” by Sleeping at Last

“It Knows Me” by Avi Kaplan

“Hero” by David Kushner

What new writing projects are you currently working on? Or, other projects that are not writing?

I am currently working with my editor, Katie, on revisions for Saints book 2: Daughters of Flood and Fury, which will publish in July of 2025. The Stormbringer Saga is a duology, and I am having so much fun returning to the world of Saints and these characters whom I love. In Daughters we will get to go beyond Aynila and explore the greater archipelago, in all its magic and peoples, it’s been such an amazing challenge to broaden my focus into a more epic scale. When I’m not writing I also create custom makeup book looks for my favorite book covers, design and sew Filipino traditional clothing called filipinianas, they have gorgeous butterfly sleeves, and have been learning edge painting to customize my bookshelf.

Are you a writer, too? Submit your manuscript to Atmosphere Press.