Keeps Getting Better

After Anvil Publishing's first book in their fantasy line, The Kite Of Stars, was launched, and after Kestrel Publishing's Philippine Speculative Fiction III was released last December, we now have available to us in National Bookstore and Powerbooks, Milflores' Publishing's Tales Of Enchantment And Fantasy, edited by the bemedalled Cristina Pantoja-Hidalgo. It's nice to see contributors and friends of PGS among the anthology's writers: Nikki and Dean Alfar; F.H. Batacan, Ian Rosales Casocot, and Emil M. Flores.

To see the line-up of titles and their authors, click here, here, or here.

If I may quote Ian: "Does this mean the Philippine literary establishment has finally embraced genre writings? Let's hope so."

I'm pleased to see these kinds of books and stories growing in number. They really should stand alongside realist works. In fact, the existence of this anthology pleases me just as much as the fact that local publications that carry fiction have been more open to genre stories and not just realist ones. I'm hoping for the day when the dividing line between the two will not matter and that people will read story for story. That people will read, period.

I think local publishers are now getting in on genre, recognizing that there is an existing market for these kinds of stories, and that this market can be expanded. Now that the big boys are here, could it be time for PGS to slowly move aside? I feel happy, and even vindicated, that I helped grow the forest for a while; kept the ball rolling so to speak. But these big boys can do a much better job than a small press. It's fun to run PGS, I don't deny it; but I admit that's it's also been taxing. Nevertheless, at least 3-4 more issues of PGS are coming your way. Let's move forward as far as we can go, shall we?