The Author

Author Bio

Anna Jailene Aguilar is a Filipino-South African writer and blogger. Having discovered a love for literature during her teen years in Zambia, she started writing short stories. She wrote her first romance, albeit only a first draft, in 1987. She discovered and began writing poetry in 1996. In 2003, a few years after her divorce, she wrote a non-fiction, which she is currently revisiting and editing.

Working with a fellow author, Reimaginings Books was born. Cinderella Reimagined: An Anthology of Cinderella Retellings, initially published on Amazon in December 2017, is their first collaboration.

A dreamer and a visionary, she is the creator and author of Crossroads and Conquests: Odyssey of a Woman, a new book series.

She is also a financial controller in an internet company, mother, partner, and friend. She presently resides in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg, South Africa—with her family, and her collection of shoes—where she inspires many. For more of her works, visit annajaileneaguilar.com and odysseyofawoman.com.

She is a Philippine ‘island girl’ in Africa who has been fortunate enough to see a little bit of the world as she navigates her way through life.

She considers her life – family (child out of wedlock included), friends, successes, challenges, love, heartaches, marriages, divorces, career, businesses that didn’t take off… absolutely everything in and about it – a blessing and a gift. She learns and grows every day, even after some massive lessons and learning from failings (not necessarily failures). All that she has gone through and is still going through make up her thoughts and her writing.

She referred to her years ago as the ‘mad banana woman’. She is more crazy than sane but she loves her “vida loca”. The banana part isn’t only because of her name, Anna (Banana), but because an old boyfriend had observed that although Asian (yellow on the outside) she’s very much Caucasian in her way of thinking (white in the inside) and her actions, too. It’s a rather accurate observation. She is that liberal-thinking and modern-acting Filipino woman some love to hate.

All she wanted when she was younger was to be the same as everyone, to be accepted, to be liked, to belong, and to be good enough. In the process of growing up, she realized that she was different. It was initially a challenge to accept it but she learned to embrace it. She’s actually quite happy about it now and she does take pride in what she has accomplished and is still accomplishing. She likes where she is and she loves the woman that she has become. But, she still grows every day. She is grateful for that, too.

Fear not though for she does not only write drama. Humor has helped her and is helping her through her journey. She remains her tragic-comedic self with a day job in slightly more serious field of Finance/Accounting.