"How I Spent My US Vacation" By Jenny Ortuoste

The latest story on Philippine Genre Stories: "How I Spent My US Vacation" by Jenny Ortuoste. Guest-edited by F.H. Batacan.

It Has Come To This

I was bringing The Eldest Child to guitar lessons at nine this morning, but about half-an-hour before we left the house:

Eldest Child: I think it's time to leave, but you're not going out that way, are you Dad?

Me: That way? What way?

Eldest Child: Change your clothes!

Me: Change what? What's wrong? What's wrong with my t-shirt and shorts?

Eldest Child (to The Wife): Mooommm! I can't make him change his clothes! Make him change his clothes!

Me: What?! What?! Barely two months after turning thirteen and you're already embarrassed to be seen with me?!

The Wife: Change your clothes.

Me: What?!?!?!?!

The Wife: Change your clothes.

Eldest Child: You look like you just rolled out of bed!

Me: It's the middle of summer! I want to wear this (and I pointed to my extra large t-shirt, loose shorts, and sandals).

The Wife: Your shorts and shirt look old already.

Me: They're comfortable! I don't have any newer pair of shorts! I don't want to wear slacks!

The Wife: Change your clothes.

Eldest Child: Yeah!

The Wife: Change your clothes.

Me: I don't want to! It's hot!

(Youngest Child walks in, rubbing eyes, freshly risen from bed)

Youngest Child: Where are you going, Dad?

Me: I'm bringing your sister to guitar lessons.

Youngest Child: You're not going out that way, are you?

Me: (sighs) All right! I give in! I'll wear slacks.

Eldest Child: Good. You should hide your hairy legs from the world, Dad.

Me: (gets fresh slacks and a collared shirt from the closet, grumbling and mumbling)

It has come to this. 

"Scourge And Minister" (Part 2) by Crystal Koo

The latest story on Philippine Genre Stories: "Scourge And Minister" (Part 2) by Crystal Koo. Guest-edited by F.H. Batacan.

An Unusual Treatment and Other Short Stories by Dominique Cimafranca

PGS contributor Dominique Cimafranca, who has stories in all three special PGS issues (under three different editors), has a collection of his stories out, "An Unusual Treatment and Other Stories". The collection contains all three stories from the PGS Holiday issue, the Crime issue, and the Horror issue, as well as his other tales that came out in other publications. The book was published on a grant from the National Commission on Culture and the Arts. He says that the NCCA is distributing the book, but if you have any questions as to how else to get it, leave a comment for him on his blog. Congratulations, Dom!

D.O.A.: Extreme Horror Collection Review On Horrornews.net

Here's a review of D.O.A.: Extreme Horror Collection by Blood Bound Books over at Horrornews.net by Anton Cancre. My story, "Cherry Clubbing", is in this anthology. An excerpt:

"...it does have some pretty damn entertaining yarns held within.

I expected Edward R. Rosick’s “Cold Air” to be a cheap rip off of Lovecraft’s “Cool Air” but instead found an interesting take on the vampire mythos wherein it isn’t so much that the blood is the life as the sexual organs. Kinda makes you wonder if eternal life would be worth the necrophilia. Opener “Cherry Clubbing,” by Kenneth Yu managed to get past the rather forced feeling second person perspective to deal with the underground markets that would inevitably arise if the creatures of fable and religion were found to be real in a way that caught me a bit off guard. Also, Tonia Brown did some neat things with the Sin Eater mythos in the course of “Sickened”.

However, special notice needs to go to Chad Mckee’s “Cena” and JW Schnaar’s “Frogger.” The former deals very personally with the problems of tourists inserting themselves and their values into cultures they do not understand. It’s fraught with honest fear confusion that bleeds from the page. The latter, a short and sweet tale of Atari inspired revenge, delivers a marvelous sharp punch. Adrian Ludens also deserves a high five for the nod to a favorite scene from American Psycho that left me giggling like a schoolgirl."

Here's a link to a post of an earlier review of the anthology by Shaun Hamilton.

Ellen Datlow's Best Horror of the Year Vol. 4 (2011) Honorable Mention List

Congratulations to all the writers who made it to esteemed editor Ellen Datlow's list, The Best Horror of the Year Vol. 4 (2011) Honorable Mentions, especially the Pinoy writers!

Tina del Rosario and Kristine Ong Muslim for their story and poems, respectively.

Special mention, of course, for the tales from Philippine Genre Stories:

Marianne Villanueva's "The Departure" on PGS Online, guest-edited by Charles Tan.

"Less Talk, Less Mistake" by Xin Mei and "God is the Space Between" by Maryanne Moll, from the PGS Crime Issue, guest-edited by F.H. Batacan. This issue and all other PGS print issues are available at Avalon.ph.

My deep thanks to Ellen for choosing my story, "The Kiddie Pool", to be on her list as well! It is in Philippine Speculative Fiction 6, edited by Nikki Alfar and Kate Osias.

Special, special thanks to Charles Tan for all his effort and support of not just Philippine spec fic, but all spec fic. He's the one sending locally printed publications to North America for editors and other readers to go through.

Ellen's complete list is here.

"Scourge And Minister" (Part 1) by Crystal Koo

The latest story on Philippine Genre Stories: "Scourge And Minister" (Part 1) by Crystal Koo. Guest-edited by F.H. Batacan.

The Ebooks of Philippine Speculative Fiction 1 and 2

The ebooks of Philippine Speculative Fiction 1 and 2 are now available as ebooks through Flipside Publishing. They are available on Amazon and for the Kobo,and on Flipside's website itself. Here are the links care of the press release on The Bibliophile Stalker's blog:

Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol.‭ ‬1‭ ‬is now available on Amazon for‭ ‬$0.99‭ ‬and‭‬Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol.‭ ‬2‭ ‬for‭ ‬$3.99.‭ ‬The next two volumes will eventually be released in May.‭ ‬The eBooks are also available at‭‬http://www.flipreads.com for P80 and P195 respectively.

Other speculative fiction titles that Flipside Publishing has published include‭ ‬Lower Myths by Eliza Victoria,‭ ‬Alternative Alamat edited by Paolo Chikiamco,‭ ‬Geek Tragedies by Carljoe Javier,‭ ‬News of the Shaman by Karl De Mesa,‭ ‬and‭ ‬Ghosts of Infinity edited by Lara Saguisag‭ & ‬April Yap.‭

Lauriat: A Filipino-Chinese Speculative Fiction Anthology

The Bibliophile Stalker, Charles Tan, is the editor of Lauriat: A Filipino-Chinese Speculative Fiction Anthology, coming soon! It's now available for pre-order on Amazon. A number of the authors in this anthology are PGS contributors, such as Paolo Chikiamco, Yvette Tan, Andrew Drilon, Christine Lao, Crystal Koo, and Erin Chupeco. Charles himself is also a PGS contributor. Congratulations, all!

Reminder: April 30, 2012 Deadline

Just a gentle reminder of the call for submissions blogged about here. :)

"Vinci's Real-Life Pulp Fiction" (Part 2) by Joseph Nacino

The latest story on Philippine Genre Stories: "Vinci's Real-Life Pulp Fiction" (Part 2) by Joseph F. Nacino.

"Vinci's Real-Life Pulp Fiction" (Part 1) by Joseph Nacino

The latest story on Philippine Genre Stories: "Vinci's Real-Life Pulp Fiction" (Part 1) by Joseph F. Nacino.