Meeting Writers

Standing: Charles Tan, Paolo Chikiamco, Blue Soon, Miggy Escaño, John Philip Corpuz; Seated: Sharmaine Galve, Erica Gonzales, Elyss Punsalan

I met up with some writers yesterday morning, some I met earlier this year, others I just met then. What they all have in common is they are all writers and PGS readers.

I've posted about Elyss, Charles, and Miggy here, where their stories were critiqued by the Manila Litcritters. The others I met today were Sharmaine Galve, author of "Y"; Paolo Chikiamco, author of "Homer's Child"; John Philip Corpuz, author of "Muse", which is the winning Image Inspiration entry printed in PGS3; and Erica Gonzales and Blue Soon, whose entries to the same contest came in 2nd and 3rd and were published online here.

We got together at Starbucks, Shangrila Mall in Pasig, and talked writing, books, fiction, TV shows, movies, cartoons, anime, fanfic, what we did for a living, and in general we had a good time getting to know each other. I asked them for suggestions and comments on how to improve PGS, how to spread the word, and they gave some interesting ideas. I'm unsure yet as to which of their suggestions to act on (I'd like to give it some more thought, but they were all good ideas), but of the ones they shared with this old-fogey-who's-never-been-in-a-chatroom-and-can't-understand-flame-wars, I can publicly announce that their suggestion of a PGS forum seems to be the easiest to do. And it's free too! The magic word is free! I mentioned that I don't have the time to moderate it, and I also expressed my concern that two bad things could happen: no one might join or participate, or a lot of people would and it would degenerate into one of those 24-hour fights/free-for-alls where said incomprehensible flame wars erupt left and right. Neither scenario appeals to me. But two of the writers volunteered to moderate and handle everything, so I'm seriously considering giving it a try. I'll be in touch with those two volunteers, and we'll see if we can launch this forum sometime soon. What do you guys think? I'd like to know what you think of such a PGS forum.

In fact, I'm always open to any suggestions and comments from anyone as to how to improve PGS, in distribution, look, packaging, any aspect of it. I can't promise that I'll be able to implement them all, as there are serious limitations to being a small press, but I do promise to give each of the suggestions full consideration.

I enjoyed getting together yesterday with the eight people pictured above. It's a real blessing to meet young readers and writers like these. Fun, too! And yes, I may have been the oldest among them, and by more than just a handful of years, but it was Blue who voiced his worry that the camera's flash might reflect too much shine and glare around his face! Just kidding, Blue! Till the next time we can get-together, guys!