"The San Pedro Piggery" by Francis Ang

The latest from Philippine Genre Stories: "The San Pedro Piggery" by Francis Ang.

"Lost For Words" On Pseudopod

My thanks to Shawn Garrett, editor of Pseudopod, for accepting my flash fiction piece, "Lost For Words", as a podcast on his site! This is the same flash fiction piece that somehow won Fantasy Magazine's 2009 Halloween Flash Fiction contest. My thanks, too, to Marguerite Croft for doing an excellent reading of the story. Click here to listen to the podcast, which is presented alongside two other great flash fiction stories.

School Librarian In Action

On behalf of Dean Alfar and myself, we would like to thank Zarah Gagatiga, School Librarian In Action, for sharing this brief interview about our planned anthology of horror fiction for young adults. Thank you, Zarah! An excerpt of her blog entry:

ZG: What will readers discover when they read the antho?

Kyu: We're hoping that readers will find this anthology to be a good selection of tales that explore YA issues via the horror genre. We specifically stated some of these in our call for submissions: coming of age, identity, belonging, a sense of wonder, a love for adventure, angst, concerns over school, challenges of youth, family issues, relationships to authority figures, sexuality, experimentation, peer pressure, bullying, among many others. We were conscious of the issues being addressed in the tales, conscious of the characterization of the YA characters especially. If we're lucky, our readers will either identify with the characters in the stories, or at the least, come to an understanding of them, and perhaps see that human element in their fellow young adults in real life, and develop empathy for them. One could even consider that through these tales, they could take a step outward from themselves and learn more about and respect the "other". From my perspective, developing a new young reader for life would make me happy; from Dean's perspective, expanding a reader's horizons via genre would make him happy.

ZG: What makes this antho different from the ones you released in the past?

Kyu: It's the first anthology that we've ever released that is purely YA, so this is new territory for us. Though we read anything and everything, including YA, we knew that we were treading fresh ground. The PSF anthologies have published their fair share of horror; and PGS as well, which even released a special horror issue. But to go YA exclusively was, for us, unexplored turf. We hope we did well. Another difference, of course, is that this is the first time we are working together as editors, and the partnership worked out quite well. Our previous experience as editors had a huge impact, as roles such as those that fall under managing editor or line editor, fell into place organically.

Innsmouth Magazine: Collected Issues 5-7

Just want to plug Innsmouth Magazine: Collected Issues 5-7, where my story, "The Concierto Of Señor Lorenzo", is published. Buy the set and get some terrific weird fiction! And while you're at it, check out the other Innsmouth Magazines that are available as well!

"The Turning" By Chai Fonacier

The latest from Philippine Genre Stories: "The Turning" by Chai Fonacier.