New York Times bestselling author Samantha Sotto-Yambao is back with another exhilarating fantasy novel, The Elsewhere Express.
A Train of Thoughts
The Elsewhere Express is a magical train that appears only to those who are adrift, offering lost souls a chance to leave behind their emotional baggage and embrace a whimsical new world. Grieving songwriter Raya and soon-to-be-blind artist Q find a chance for purpose and peace as they journey through fantastical train cars filled with evergreen meadows, floating sea creatures, and more strange sights.
However, their voyage is soon endangered by a mysterious stowaway who brings a dark magic that threatens to destroy the entire train. Amidst this danger, Raya must confront her own secrets to discover her life's true destination and whether the Express can help her get there.
Recently, Samantha had a book talk and signing for her latest novel at National Book Store SM North EDSA. During the event, she peeled back the curtain on the "inside of her brain," sharing how a train ride in Tokyo and a season of personal "lost years" inspired a story about navigating grief, guilt, and the "what-ifs" of life. Questions were asked by Carlo Martinez from National Book Store and from the audience, which Samantha happily answered. Read more about Samantha’s creative process and world-building for The Elsewhere Express!
How did a magical ship evolve into The Elsewhere Express?
Originally from her notebook, Samantha wrote an idea for a "magical Chinese junk sailing down the river of thoughts and dreams." But as she continued brainstorming on the idea, The Elsewhere Express was born.
Medyo pilit. Because I was really... at first I was hesitant to literally make it a train because I came up with the idea while I was on a train. And I thought of making it a literal train of thought. But if you let an idea sit in your head for a while, you start to second-guess yourself and so I was thinking, “Is that too tongue-in-cheek for it to be a literal train, and then to call it a train of thought?” But then I thought about it later and I said, No, sige. I mean, the idea came to me as a train, so I wanted to honor that idea. So, buti na lang, scratch paper lang 'yun.
Samantha Sotto Yambao
What were the inspirations for the book's vivid scenes and fantastical settings?
Following her previous fantasy work, Water Moon, Samantha returns with an equally distinctive and vibrant world. In The Elsewhere Express, she takes an expansive approach by turning the abstract "train of thought" into a physical, magical reality. The inspiration for these fantastical settings struck while she was observing commuters on a Tokyo train, wondering where their minds wandered when they were "elsewhere." To make the internal landscape of the mind tangible for her readers, she translated emotions into physical environments—visualizing stubborn worries and grudges, for example, as a literal bridge of sticky cobwebs.
I was in Tokyo and I noticed how people's minds were elsewhere... 'di ba? Parang 'pag nagko-commute tayo, parang... we're anywhere but the LRT, right? So that made me think, "Oh, okay, if we're not on the train, then where are we? Where do our thoughts go?"
Samantha Sotto Yambao
How did you build the relationship between Raya and Q?
To explore the train through different lenses, Samantha crafted Raya and Quentin as a study in contrasts. While they are bound by shared emotional baggage, their motivations are opposites: Q finds a rare sense of peace on the train because it restores the sight he is losing in the real world, whereas Raya is consumed by a guilt that makes her feel she doesn't deserve to be there at all. By pairing these two "lost souls," the author allows their dialogue to reveal how differently two people can experience the same magical landscape.
So they're almost opposites in a way, while they do share a lot of emotional baggage. Q, because he's losing his sight, wants to be on the train, because his sight is restored there. While Raya is the opposite. Because her emotional baggage makes her feel so guilty that she wants to get off the train because she feels that she doesn't deserve, to be on the train. So that's why I really set about creating characters that... they have this shared trauma, so they can have that dialogue, but at the same time they're opposites so that you can see how a person with a different perspective would interact with the different train cars.
Samantha Sotto Yambao
How did crafting Raya and Q differ from your process for Hana and Keishin, the protagonists in Water Moon?
In Water Moon, Hana, the protagonist is a native of the magical world. This time, Raya and Q are both strangers on the train, which was intentional since it was Samantha’s way to ground their shared journey in a mutual sense of wonder and uncertainty.
For those who've read Water Moon, Hana is from that world, right? So... and Kei was experiencing it as a stranger. Whereas in The Elsewhere Express, both Raya and Q are, you know... like the experience of the train is completely new to both of them. So it was a very different experience getting in their heads versus in Watermoon.
Samantha Sotto Yambao
How did you balance the story's heavy themes of grief and find a balance with such a whimsical setting?
Samantha views fantasy as a tool to help readers confront darker topics they might otherwise avoid. She believes that the more depressing a subject is, the 'prettier' and more magical the setting should be, creating a comfortable space for her audience to sit with difficult emotions.
I think of fantasy or the whimsical part of what I write as a way to make people look at things they'd rather not look at. You know? So I like to... I do like to talk about deeper and darker topics. And the deeper and the darker, I feel the more magical the world should be. Because kung pati 'yung world is dark and depressing, then those may not be, you know, experiences or thoughts that you want to sit with. So that's how I try to balance it. The mas nakaka-depress 'yung topic, the prettier the setting.
Samantha Sotto Yambao
That was quite an ending. Was it planned?
Samantha says that she will not start a book unless she has an idea of all possible endings. For The Elsewhere Express, a different ending was written, but she changed it due to feedback from a sensitivity reader who shared the same visual impairment as the character Q.
I'm not a huge outliner, but I will not start a book unless I have an idea of all the possible endings. So that was among the possible endings. And yet... and yet, even after I wrote that, because we have a character who is losing his sight, my publisher got a sensitivity reader who had the same condition as Q, so that we would get the perspective of someone who's visually impaired to make sure that the topic was treated with a lot of authenticity and respect. So when I got the feedback from the authenticity reader, there was actually a scene at the very end of the book that I changed. And I'm so glad that I got that feedback because I feel that made the ending so much better.
Samantha Sotto Yambao
Is The Elsewhere Express a literal representation of your own mind?
While The Elsewhere Express is made up of people’s daydreams, dreams, and thoughts, Samantha admits that the book is an accurate, if slightly 'scary,' representation of her own mind. She feels that every cabin and scene depicted in the story is essentially a literal map of what the inside of her brain looks like.
I was always, I was always telling my husband in the process of writing The Elsewhere Express, I said... "Among all my books, I feel like The Elsewhere Express is an accurate representation of what my brain looks like." Which is kind of scary to admit. Yeah, so I said, like, this is literally what the inside of my brain looks like. So I think every cabin, every, you know, every scene that you see in The Elsewhere Express, that's... that's pretty much what's inside here.
Samantha Sotto Yambao
What can your readers look forward to next?
Readers can look forward to the mid-2026 re-release of Samantha’s four backlist titles with brand-new covers, followed by her upcoming book, The Night Movers Disappearing Service. Inspired by real-world Japanese relocation services, this new story follows a specialized agency that helps forgotten gods, ghosts, and supernatural beings disappear and start over with new identities.
My backlist is being published, so the four books that came before Watermoon, they're coming out mid next year, um, with new covers and things like that. And then, next year, summer of US, my new book will come out. The Night Movers Disappearing Service, uh, which is about... I don't know if you've seen those... I saw it kasi, I was inspired by one of those Reels or YouTube Shorts that I saw about night moving services in Japan. Do you know what those are? So apparently in Japan, if you're so stressed out with your life, or may pinagtataguan kang inutangan, or maybe you are in an abusive relationship or things like that, you can hire a night moving service to, collect you and create a new identity for you. So they'll rent an apartment for you, so, you know, somewhere that you can just disappear. So I thought, oh, that's such an interesting idea, you know, the night moving disappearing service.
Samantha Sotto Yambao
How did personal ‘what ifs’ and regrets motivate the themes of the stories?
Samantha candidly shares that she carries her own ‘what ifs,’ particularly regarding the long gaps between her book releases and the fear of being forgotten by her audience. Her personal regrets about career and writing pace fuel the emotional depth of her characters, proving that even a whimsical world is rooted in very real human experiences.
I think you don't get to be my age... you don't get to be my age without, you know, carrying that [what ifs] with you and having that experience. I think I mentioned it in the Watermoon launch last year, I definitely don't take this renewed interest in my books for granted. Because that was a huge regret for me, that there were so many huge gaps, um, between my books. That I felt like, "Oh, people are slowly forgetting na about, you know, about me." So yeah, I definitely have my own share of regrets. Like, I wish I could have written faster, I wish my career went a different way…
Samantha Sotto Yambao
What is the inspiration for the book covers of Water Moon and The Elsewhere Express?
Samantha reveals that the hidden artwork on the inside of The Elsewhere Express jacket was the original cover design, which was moved to the interior to create a symbolic transition from the train's outside to its whimsical inside. For Water Moon, the cover was designed to capture the duality of the story, using origami-inspired elements to represent the bridge between the protagonist's world and our own.
I wish I could claim to have created that cover, but it's really a team effort. You have a book designer who will come up with the concept, and they will brief an artist, and the artist will execute that concept.
Samantha Sotto Yambao
How can a writer balance heavy dialogue with immersive world-building?
Related to the previous question about balancing whimsical story setting with heavy themes, Samantha encourages writers to use the unique power of the novel to go beyond dialogue by ‘painting a picture’ of the setting and exploring a character's internal thoughts—something she notes a movie cannot easily do. She suggests that while dialogue is fun to write, it is a writer's obligation to ground those conversations against a vivid backdrop to help the reader see the ‘movie’ inside the author's head.
I do love writing dialogue as well, kasi as you can see medyo madaldal din ako, so kind of translates. So sometimes I wind up writing and writing and writing and I realize, "Uy, puro dialogue lang pala 'to," you know what I mean? But sometimes that's where your thoughts take you, right? So I will come back later on and fill in the blanks, because the reader can't see what I can see, right? So what I try to do is that as much as possible, I want to be able to paint a picture in the mind of the reader so that they can see the movie in my head. So as much as... you know, it's really fun to write dialogue. It's our obligation to the reader also to be able to set it against a backdrop. And also, to showcase the inner thoughts of your characters. Because that's one thing a book can do that a movie cannot do, right? When you write a screenplay, it really is mostly dialogue. You'll have the setting... you know, "You are there on a train," ta-ta-ta-ta, and dialogue, dialogue, dialogue. But never in the entire movie, well, very, very few movies, will you hear what the inner dialogue of the character is. So that's the beautiful thing, and that's the most unique thing about a novel, that you get to be so close that you can see the inner thoughts of your characters. So those are the things you need to balance, right? The setting, the dialogue, and the inner thoughts of your characters. Yeah. I hope that helps.
Samantha Sotto Yambao
Ready to board the train? Find copies of The Elsewhere Express at National Book Store, available in select branches nationwide. You can also find copies on our stores: Lazada, Shopee, and TikTok Shop.
Special thanks to Penguin Random House and UNI Philippines for being part of this event.
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