Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Infographic: Is Print Dead?

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Deadline Extension: Alternative Alamat

Alternative Alamat's deadline has been extended to September 15, 2010. Take note, that's an extra two weeks to get a submission in. Click here for more details.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

10 Reading Revolutions Before E-Books

From The Atlantic, 10 Reading Revolutions Before E-Books. Of course, the printing press is there, but other crucial developments are also mentioned both pre and post Gutenberg. Click here to read the article.

The CANVAS Storywriting For Young Readers Competition -- 1st Prize Is PhP25,000!

Here's a call for submissions for The CANVAS Storywriting For Young Readers Competition. It's open to all Filipinos. The deadline is October 15, 2010.

Friday, August 27, 2010

Spectra Magazine Flash Fiction Contest -- Win A Kindle!

Spectra Magazine is holding a flash fiction contest and the prize is a new Kindle. Click here for the contest guidelines.

Are Dedicated E-Reading Devices For You?

Hang on before purchasing a dedicated e-reader. See first if such a gadget fits your needs. Here's an article, Are E-Books Worth The Money? An excerpt:

E-book readers are booming. Amazon (AMZN - News) says in the past few months sales of e-books have zoomed past sales of the paper ones. While e-books are still in an early stage—the Association of American Publishers says that so far this year they account for 8% of consumer books, compared to just 3% in 2009—the growth rate is dramatic. (This is one of the problems besetting Barnes & Noble, which has just announced a quarterly loss following a decline in sales of traditional books.)

Beyond all the hype, are e-book readers a good deal? Are they worth the money? If so, how can you get the maximum return on your investment?

Here are six money tips for pennywise book lovers:

1. Casual readers probably shouldn't bother.

2. The books aren't as cheap as they should be.

3. Savvy readers read the classics anyway.

4. Be aware of the potential costs of buying a Kindle.

5. Be aware of the costs of the rivals.

6. And if you're thinking of buying a book-reader--wait!

Thursday, August 26, 2010

The E-Reader Price Wars Heat Up

Gadget e-zine PC World weighs in on our e-reader choices in this article, The E-Reader Price Wars Heat Up. An excerpt:

The battle for tech-savvy bookworms is on, with Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Sony competing to sell e-book reader hardware. And as the major players struggle for better position in the electronic-publishing industry, recent months have seen price drops, new devices, and defeats.

Competition stepped up in June when a price war broke out. First Barnes & Noble slashed the price of its Nook by $60, down to $199; the company also started selling a Wi-Fi-only Nook for $149. Within hours Amazon dropped the price of its Kindle by $70, to $189. And ten days later, Sony cut the price of each of its three Reader products by $30, bringing its most expensive 3G version down to $229.

What's sparking e-reader price drops? Thank Apple's iPad, the dominant multipurpose tablet available today--and the juggernaut that has the major single-purpose e-reader makers quaking. In the face of this competition, other e-reader manufacturers have thrown in the towel. Plastic Logic has dumped plans to launch its QUE e-reader, and says that it will instead focus on creating a next-generation ProReader. Samsung delayed its e-readers indefinitely.

The e-reader is at a crossroads. Amazon and other companies must make the case that their dedicated products have a place in a world filled with multipurpose devices that can display e-books, such as smartphones, tablets, and netbooks. Each e-reader maker also wants to ensure that its product becomes the de facto standard for reading e-books. After all, repeat sales of e-books look to be where the real money is. Selling e-reader hardware with hooks to e-bookstores is more critical now than ever.

Market research firm The Yankee Group forecasts that 6 million e-readers will ship in 2010; that number is expected to grow to 19.2 million by 2013. And experts say e-book sales will follow the same growth curve.

E-books represent a fraction of overall publishing sales, but it's a growing share: The Association of American Publishers says that though e-book sales for the month of May totaled just $29.3 million, sales grew by 163 percent that month and have already increased by 207 percent in 2010 compared with 2009.

Amazon has said that 80 percent of its Kindle-book buyers own a physical Kindle; the other 20 percent are using one of Amazon's apps for Android, BlackBerry, iPad, iPhone, Mac, or PC.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

New Devices Are Changing Habits. People Are Reading More.

An article from The Wall Street Journal, The ABC's of E-Reading. The piece says that the new e-readers are changing reading habits, and are making people read more in different places. An excerpt:

People who buy e-readers tend to spend more time than ever with their nose in a book, preliminary research shows.

A study of 1,200 e-reader owners by Marketing and Research Resources Inc. found that 40% said they now read more than they did with print books. Of those surveyed, 58% said they read about the same as before while 2% said they read less than before. And 55% of the respondents in the May study, paid for by e-reader maker Sony Corp., thought they'd use the device to read even more books in the future. The study looked at owners of three devices: Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle, Apple Inc.'s iPad and the Sony Reader.

While e-readers are still a niche product just beginning to spread beyond early adopters, these new reading experiences are a big departure from the direction U.S. reading habits have been heading. A 2007 study by the National Endowment for the Arts caused a furor when it reported Americans are spending less time reading books. About half of all Americans ages 18 to 24 read no books for pleasure, it found.

Some 11 million Americans are expected to own at least one digital reading gadget by the end of September, estimates Forrester Research. U.S. e-book sales grew 183% in the first half of this year compared with the year-earlier period, according to the Association of American Publishers.

Among early adopters, e-books aren't replacing their old book habits, but adding to them. Amazon, the biggest seller of e-books, says its customers buy 3.3 times as many books after buying a Kindle, a figure that has accelerated in the past year as prices for the device fell.

It's too early to tell the reading lift will sustain after the novelty of the gadgets wears off, and the devices go mass market. But because e-book gadgets are portable, people report they're reading more and at times when a book isn't normally an option: on a smartphone in the doctor's waiting room; through a Ziploc-bag-clad Kindle in a hot tub, or on a treadmill with a Sony Reader's fonts set to jumbo. Among commuters, e-readers are starting to catch up with BlackBerrys as the preferred companions on trains and buses.

The Only 12-and-a-half Writing Rules You'll Ever Need

Monday, August 23, 2010

Forbes Ranks The Highest-Paid Authors

Forbes ranks the highest-paid authors for the past year, with the top spot going to James Patterson with estimated earnings of US$70 million. Click on the link to see the full list.

Pakinggan Pilipinas Episode 3 Teaser

PGS contributor Elyss Punsalan has uploaded a teaser for Episode 3 of her Pinoy fiction podcast site, Pakinggan Pilipinas. The full upload of Episode 3 will go live on September 1, 2010. Stay tuned!

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Seth Godin Will No Longer Publish Books The Traditional Way

When a well-known author of bestselling marketing books says that he will no longer publish books the traditional way, readers and publishers everywhere take notice. Seth Godin, after twelve traditional books, has declared, "I've decided not to publish any more books in the traditional way...I can reach 10 or 50 times as many people electronically. No, it's not 'better', but it's different. So while I'm not sure what format my writing will take, I'm not planning on it being the 1907 version of hardcover publishing any longer."

Celebrating Filipino Books And Authors

October 2011 will mark the first Filipino-American International Book Festival in San Francisco. Here's an excerpt from the article "Celebrating Filipino Books And Authors":

...Filipino authors have forged ahead, with or without champions in the so-called mainstream publishing world.

And plans are afoot to celebrate their work.

The first Filipino American International Book Festival will be held next year in October at the San Francisco Public Library. The event sponsors include the Philippine Consulate in San Francisco, the San Francisco Public Library, and the Literacy Initiatives International Foundation’s Books for Life Project.

“We intend the book fest to not just be a sales event for books, like most other attempts at promoting Filipino books here,” writer and author Gemma Nemenzo, one of the festival organizers, told me.

“It will be an Experience. We'll have culinary talks and demos, food for sale, workshops on writing and getting published, storytelling for kids, traditional alternative therapies like hilot.”

The festival hopes to draw more attention to Filipino books, and to get Filipinos in the United States and elsewhere interested in these works.

“Did you know that for 2009 alone, the Philippine publishing industry came out with 6,000 new titles?” Gemma added. “And how many even reached US soil. Not even a hundred.”

Friday, August 20, 2010

Barnes & Noble And The Nature Of Change

Remember black rotary-dial telephones? Heck, maybe that's too far back. How about 8-tracks? Wait, that's even further back. Okay, music cassette tapes? Vinyl records (oh, they're still around, but more as a niche product now)?

Okay, how about pagers? Analog cellphones that couldn't text? Er, um, even those typewriters I still like very much?

The earliest business example I can think of is the pony express.

The manufacturers of all these products, and the ones behind the pony express service, were all superseded by newer technologies. The newer technologies were better in different ways. Some were faster. Or perhaps cheaper. Others had more convenient or exciting features. Yet even others were easier for consumers to use or acquire. There was nothing wrong with the older technologies; they still did what they were designed to do. For example, I still can type my documents on my typewriter; that's what it was meant for anyway. But unlike on a computer, I can't change the font, or even its size. If I make an error in typing, I'll need correction fluid, which is more inconvenient than a backspace button. A computer can print out more special characters than a typewriter can, which is limited to whatever keys the machine comes with. The only advantage a manual typewriter may have over a computer is that it can still be used even during a power outage.

So this article, Barnes & Noble Didn't Evolve Enough, is really a case of history repeating itself. An excerpt:

How did Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS - News) fall so far so fast?

The giant bookstore chain, whose superstores once struck fear into the hearts of independent booksellers everywhere, put itself up for sale this month, rendering it the corporate equivalent of the remaindered books it sells at a discount.

The company said it made the move because its shares are undervalued, but to me there was an air of desperation about it.

The simple explanation for Barnes & Noble's decline is the Internet, which spawned Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN - News), e-readers and digital books. But that didn't have to be the end for B&N, which had a dominant market position and should have out-Amazoned Amazon, leveraging its brand and innovating when it began marketing and selling books online.

I know exactly when B&N lost me as a customer. Some years ago, to compete with Amazon, B&N began offering free same-day delivery in Manhattan if you placed your order over the Internet by 11 a.m. I did so several times -- and not once did the books arrive when promised. Everything I have ordered from Amazon has arrived on time or earlier. Then came Amazon's game-changing Kindle, and instant delivery. Nothing I've read about B&N's belated rival Nook has tempted me to try it.

My hunch is that B&N never really embraced the Internet or e-books, tied as it was to the old-fashioned world of physical books and stores. As B&N focused on managing decline, a much more nimble Amazon could concentrate exclusively on the new world it was forming. B&N needed to destroy its business model to prevail. Now it is probably too late. There is a lesson for all businesses here.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

The Tussle Over Barnes And Noble

After Barnes And Noble put itself up for sale, we now have a boardroom fight for control over the company. An excerpt:

A fight for control over Barnes & Noble is underway -- a business-level fight, that is, all wrapped up in stock trades and boardroom politics. No fisticuffs -- at least, not yet.

Today Leonard Riggio, Barnes & Noble's founder and chairman, exercised an option to buy almost a million more shares of the company. He'll be spending $16.8 million on 990,740 shares, which brings his total to... well, a lot. Before the purchase, Riggio held about 29.9% of the company's shares.

Like just about everything else in this economy, Barnes & Noble's shares have taken a beating. Five years ago, they peaked at around $45 a share; nowadays they've dropped almost two-thirds, to about $16.

That might mean the company is in trouble, but it has made it attractive to someone -- namely, investor Ron Burkle. He's already a large stockholder, possessing 19.2% of shares. The company doesn't want another investor to take over -- in 2009, it implemented a poison pill that'll be triggered if someone else's shares reach 20%. Yes, Burkle is close. He tried to remove the poison pill by legal action this year, but a judge ruled against him Aug. 11.

Some Announcements From The National Arts Council Of Singapore

Some announcements from The National Arts Council Of Singapore, care of writer Nadine Sarreal, who sent me the email:

Greetings from the National Arts Council (NAC)!

Check out the latest literary happenings as follows:

Literary Prizes

1) Six Word Story Competition by Arvon Foundation - Deadline: 1 September 2010

Ernest Hemingway said that his best piece of writing was a six word story - 'For sale: baby shoes. Never worn.' Arvon Foundation's theme for 2010 is the six word story. Throughout the year, Arvon will be collecting six word stories on its website. Send your six word story to competition@arvonfoundation.org. Or if you are on Twitter you can tweet your story to @arvonfoundation. Winning stories will be chosen by poet Karen McCarthy. The winners will receive a prize of an Arvon week.

Details on: http://www.arvonfoundation.org/p225.html

2) Hedwig Anuar Children's Book Award 2011 (Supported by National Arts Council Singapore) – Deadline: 31 December 2010

This inaugural Award is presented biennially for an outstanding book for children so as to recognise and inspire excellence in children’s literature published in Singapore.

Details on: http://www.bookcouncil.sg/_writers/pdf/Hedwig%20Anuar%20Children's%20Book%20Award%202011.pdf?file=/2010/4/24/central/6050589&sec=central

3) Scholastic Asian Book Award 2011 – Deadline: 31 December 2010

This Award will recognise Asians and children’s writers of Asian origin. The objectives of this Award are to recognise excellence in Asian stories for children, to showcase diversity of literary talent within Asia as well as to encourage and inspire more Asian-themed books and stories.

Details on: http://www.scholasticbookaward.asia/

Literary Submissions/Contributions

1) Call for Short Story submissions (between 2000-6000 words) - Deadline: 31 October 2010.

Asian Science Fiction and Fantasy (an imprint of Two Trees) and The Happy Smiley Writers Group are calling for submissions for the second in their sci-fi short story anthology series. Theme: science fiction steampunk with a happy ending. Open to any age, any nationality but must be resident in Singapore. (Singaporeans studying overseas are eligible.) Mail submissions to steampunk@twotrees.com.sg.

Details on: http://twotrees.com.sg/steampunk.html

Literary Workshops in Singapore

1) WRITING THE CITY with the British Council (in partnership with the National Arts Council) – a step by step creative writing programme

Through six short films, available for free to view through a dedicated website (www.civiclife.sg), Suchen Christine Lim and UK novelist Jeremy Sheldon, will take you through ideas of character, a sense of place, memory, history and belonging and how they relate to your writing. Each film features Suchen and Jeremy in conversation around the chosen theme and ends with a creative challenge to the viewer. The aim is to create an online community of writers, supporting each other to develop their craft. On the website, there will also be lesson plans for literature and creative writing teachers to download. The programme launches in early October, but there will be previews available in September for teachers who are interested in working with British Council and their students. To join the mailing list for updates, go to: http://www.civiclife.sg/write.html For more direct information contact ker.layhong@britishcouncil.org.sg

Details on: http://www.civiclife.sg/blog/?cat=14

The next WRITING THE CITY workshop takes place on Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th September. and will be led by UK novelist Tiffany Murray . Register your interest with Ker Lay Hong (Email: ker.layhong@britishcouncil.org.sg)

NOTE: Interested parties may apply for the NAC Arts Professional Development Grant Scheme for funding support to attend training courses/seminars. NAC will award up to 50% of the course fees for a select number of participants on a competitive basis, subject to the objectives and assessment criteria of the grant scheme. More details available for the NAC website: http://www.nac.gov.sg/lit/lit02.asp#apdg

The events listed are for your information. Note that NAC has no organisational role in the events listed and this listing does not indicate that NAC endorses the events (unless otherwise indicated). We hope you find the above information useful. However, if you wish to remove your email address from this mailing list, please drop an email to francisca@nac.gov.sg and your email address will promptly be removed from this list.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Writing Workshops At The Filipinas Heritage Library

Here's the coming schedule of writing workshops at The Filipinas Heritage Library:

ADVANCED CREATIVE WRITING
September 22, 29, October 6, 13, and 20, 2010
6:00pm to 9:00pm

Speaker : Ms. Conchitina R. Cruz

What inspires you to write? Explore the depths of your imagination through the Advanced Creative Writing workshop offered by the Filipinas Heritage Library. Understand the nuances of fiction and non-fiction, and create your own story!

The workshop facilitator Ms. Conchitina Cruz is currently a professor for creative writing at the Department of English and Comparative Literature of the University of the Philippines in Diliman. She is a Palanca Awardee and won the National Book Award for Poetry.

Participants will be required to submit a written piece upon registration to be used in the workshop.

The workshop fee is P 5,500.00 inclusive of handouts, materials, snacks, and a certificate. Deadline of reservation is September 15, 2010. A 5 percent discount will be given to those who will pay in full or before September 10, 2010. Payment is non-refundable.

Payments can be given in cash, check, or through credit card. Payment is non-refundable.

For inquiries, please call Joy de Asis at 892-1801 loc. 27, send an SMS to 0917-561-2413, or email deasis.ms(at)ayalafoundation(dot)org, or visit www.filipinaslibrary.org.ph.


BASIC MEMOIR WRITING
September 20, 27, and 28, 2010
6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Speaker : Dr. Rosario C. Lucero

Everyone has a story to tell. After all, life is filled with rich and vivid experiences. Find out how to record your memories with "Life Sketches", an introductory memoir-writing course that will help you transform your life's stories into effective and beautiful narratives.

The workshop speaker Dr. Rosario Cruz- Lucero teaches Philippine literature and creative writing at the Departmento ng Filipinio at Panitikang Pilipino and at the Department of English Studies and Comparative Literature of the University of the Philippines, Diliman, where she obtained her AB, MA, and Ph.D. degrees.

She took postgraduate studies at Oxford University, England on a British Council grant, and at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, on a Ford Foundation grant. She has conducted an observation tour of ASEAN universities on an Asian Foundation grant; and received a writing fellowship for Lavigny, Switzerland.

Participants will be required to submit a written piece upon registration to be used in the workshop. Participants of previous Memoir Writing Workshops can participate during the workshop portion.

The workshop fee is P 3,500.00 inclusive of handouts, materials, snacks, and a certificate. Deadline of reservation is September 15, 2010. A 5 percent discount will be given to those who will pay in full or before September 10, 2010. Payment is non-refundable.

Payments can be given in cash, check, or through credit card. Payment is non-refundable.

For inquiries, please call Joy de Asis at 892-1801 loc. 27, send an SMS to 0917-561-2413, or email deasis.ms(at)ayalafoundation(dot)org, or visit www.filipinaslibrary.org.ph.

Saturday, August 07, 2010

The 15 Most Overrated Contemporary American Writers

Here's a list of The 15 Most Overrated Contemporary American Writers according to The Huffington Post's Anis Shivani. The list includes Junot Diaz, Michiko Kakutani, and Amy Tan, among others. It's a very hard-hitting piece that really savages the writers in the list. An excerpt from Shivani's introduction:

The ascent of creative writing programs means that few with critical ability have any incentive to rock the boat--awards and jobs may be held back in retaliation. The writing programs embody a philosophy of neutered multiculturalism/political correctness; as long as writers play by the rules (no threatening history or politics), there's no incentive to call them out. (A politically fecund multiculturalism--very desirable in this time of xenophobia--is the farthest thing from the minds of the official arbiters: such writing would be deemed "dangerous," and never have a chance against the mediocrities.)

The MFA writing system, with its mechanisms of circulating popularity and fashionableness, leans heavily on the easily imitable. Cloying writers like Denis Johnson, Amy Hempel, Lydia Davis, Aimee Bender, and Charles D'Ambrosio are held up as models of good writing, because they're easy enough to copy. And copied they are, in tens of thousands of stories manufactured in workshops. Others hide behind a smokescreen of unreadable inimitability--Marilynne Robinson, for example--to maintain a necessary barrier between the masses and the overlords. Since grants, awards, and residencies are controlled by the same inbreeding group, it's difficult to see how the designated heavies can be displaced.

As for conglomerate publishing, the decision-makers wouldn't know great literature if it hit them in the face. Their new alliance with the MFA writing system is bringing at least a minimum of readership for mediocre books, and they're happy with that. And the mainstream reviewing establishment (which is crumbling by the minute) validates their choices with fatuous accolades, recruiting mediocre writers to blurb (review) them.

If we don't understand bad writing, we can't understand good writing. Bad writing is characterized by obfuscation, showboating, narcissism, lack of a moral core, and style over substance. Good writing is exactly the opposite. Bad writing draws attention to the writer himself. These writers have betrayed the legacy of modernism, not to mention postmodernism. They are uneasy with mortality. On the great issues of the day they are silent (especially when they seem to address them, like William T. Vollmann). They desire to be politically irrelevant, and they have succeeded. They are the unreadable Booth Tarkingtons, Joseph Hergesheimers, and John Herseys of our time, earnestly bringing up the rear.

"The Future Of The Book": The Philippines' First Digital Publishing Conference

"The Future Of The Book" is the Philippines' first-ever digital publishing conference, which will be held on September 13 and 14, 2010, at the UP-Ayala Technohub. An excerpt from the announcement on the Vibal Foundation site:

The National Book Development Board (NBDB), Book Development Association of the Philippines (BDAP), Filipinas Heritage Library and Vibal Foundation, Inc. will hold the country’s first-ever digital publishing conference aptly titled, ‘The Future of the Book’, with the theme: “Book Publishing in the Global Digital Arena” on 13 and 14 of September 2010 at the UP-Ayala Technohub in Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon City.

As emerging technologies continue to change the landscape of book publishing, the conference aims to introduce the various aspects involved in digital publishing – from authoring, editing and lay-outing, to distribution and consumption. The two-day conference will feature talks by distinguished names from the international and local publishing industry, including Ms. Lynette Owen, copyright director of Pearson Education, one of the world’s leading textbook publishers.

Thursday, August 05, 2010

Barnes & Noble Puts Itself Up For Sale

In another sign of the digital times, Barnes & Noble Puts Itself Up For Sale. The digital medium continues its onslaught on the market of paper. An excerpt from the article:

Barnes & Noble Inc., put itself up for sale Tuesday, succumbing to pressure from shareholder activists as digital books erode the traditional business of the nation's largest bookstore chain.

he company said Leonard Riggio, its founder and chairman, is contemplating forming an investor group to buy Barnes & Noble, whose 720 namesake stores are a fixture in American cities both large and small. It sells approximately 300 million books annually.

A few years ago, such figures represented a fearsome retailing force, attracting ire of rivals and publishers who fretted that one company controlled the country's book-reading tastes. Since then, it has been hobbled by larger technological forces, with books becoming mere digital files, peddled by anyone with an Internet connection.

"Anybody with their eyes open knows that the retail book market is increasingly challenged," said Mike Shatzkin, chief executive of Idea Logical Co., a New York consulting firm. Each new report that shows e-book sales are growing more rapidly than expected only intensifies the problems facing the bookstore chains, he said.

Monday, August 02, 2010

Ray Bradbury Interview

Here's a Ray Bradbury interview on CNN. An excerpt:

Bradbury started writing for pulp magazines like "Weird Tales" and "Thrilling Wonder Stories" at the beginning of his career. But even then, faith was an important theme.

In his 1949 story "The Man," Bradbury tells the story of a rocket crew landing on Mars, only to see their thunder taken by a Christ-like figure who had arrived only hours earlier.

In subsequent stories such as "Bless Me, Father, For I Have Sinned," priests and other ordinary people search and find redemption.

Allusions to Christianity are common in his stories, but Bradbury doesn't define himself as a Christian. He considers Jesus a wise prophet, like Buddha and Confucius.

"Jesus is a remarkable person," Bradbury says. "He was on his way to becoming Christ, and he made it."

Weller, also author of "The Bradbury Chronicles: The Life of Ray Bradbury," says Bradbury's religious antenna is most attuned to Christianity.

"The guy keeps writing about Jesus, but he doesn't consider himself a Christian," Weller says.

"He says faith is necessary but that we should accept the fact that when it comes to God, none of us know anything."

Some Ongoing Book Sales

A bit late to announce it, but not too late yet!

Powerbooks has a sale till August 15, 2010, and National Bookstore has a sale till August 22, 2010. Just came from both stores. Lots of books on sale, of all genres and in all categories!

Sunday, August 01, 2010

"Spider Hunt" at Aurora Wolf

One time, while hanging out with a friend, Vin Simbulan, our talk turned to the traditional fantasy genre. Vin enjoys and loves this genre; it shows in the way he talks about it, and he's written his fair share of these types of stories. In that conversation we had, he asked me if I had written any and if he could read them, and he was surprised when I told him that I had not, at least, not since a bit after graduating from college. "Dared" or "challenged" may be words that are too strong to use, so instead I'll say that Vin encouraged me to try and write a tradfan tale. Not being up-to-date with the genre, I was hesitant, but nonetheless, I tried.

The result of that attempt is a heroic tradfan tale entitled "Spider Hunt", which I'm happy to say was accepted by editor Linda Manning and publisher Michael Pennington of the ezine Aurora Wolf. My grateful, grateful thanks to them for taking the story in.

I know that there are a lot of readers out there who love tradfan as much as Vin does, so I hope the story works the way a tradfan tale should, and doesn't disappoint. Thank you!

Pakinggan Pilipinas Episode 2