Have you ever heard of Cynthia Luster? Maybe in one of those Hong Kong action movies with Cindy Rothrock? Still not familiar? Well, in any case, that's okay. She has not been around for quite some time now. But I wish I could have that chance of meeting her again. She's an interesting subject to interview and I had the chance of interviewing her in 1998 when she was here in the Philippines.
Yes, that was a rare chance. I just saw her in one of the Sports Unlimited episodes which was hosted by Vince Hizon and Dyan Castillejo back then. I called up the station and looked for the person who had Ms. Luster's contact number and asked for it. I was lucky enough to get it because I was writing for a publication then, Men's Zone, which is published by BusinessWorld.
Actually, I just suggested the business of Ms. Luster to the associate editor of Men's Zone at that time. It was just supposed to be a one-paragraph explanation of her business and its location, and what they were offering.
But then, I got a call from Men's Zone to turn it into a full-blown article with photo, I was elated. That meant writing the article and taking the photos myself. Wow! What a break! It was such an honor to do a full-feature article about her.
So, I contacted the person and set the appointment.
I was so excited and I felt so lucky that I was given the privilege to interview her in her shop which was Sports Quest on Dr. Lozcano Street in the Morato area.
Finally, that day came. I was expecting her to be quite aloof since she's already a star in her own right. But I was wrong. She was the opposite. She was very courteous and even answered most of my questions without hesitation. She also said some Tagalog words and she even mentioned her favorite Filipino dishes - pinakbet, garlic rice, bangus and lapu-lapu. It was a perfect interview, I must say. I mean she told me how she got into the movies and other things. I will have the article scanned and probably post it here one of these days.
After the interview, I was taking photos of her dive shop, Sports Quest. She was into the scuba diving business.
Writing the article wasn't that hard to do. I just wrote from the heart, how I would interpret or let the article flow. I sent it along with the photos that were on slides at that time, not yet digital.
I was excited when it was published. It was published on the magazine's anniversary and their theme was about successful women on the cover. I got a big professional fee from that. I wish I could still get that much fee from a publication again.
One thing was certain. The article I sent to them wasn't edited that much. If ever there were mistakes, it was minimal. That is why I am proud of "Enter the Diveshop," the title of my article, which the editor in Men's Zone entitled it.
To me, it's one of my achievements in my writing history. It's a success story of a writer, someone like me, who isn't that famous and yet, I had that chance of interviewing her.
That's one writing experience I will never forget. It only happened once and it will forever be treasured in my memory.
I'd like to give credit to the photo source - http://homepage3.nifty.com/hkaction/photo10.jpg.
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