Philippine Genre Stories

Rebound Magazine -- The Championship Issue

2012-01-28T08:06:00.002+08:00

The championship magazine for last year's college basketball tournaments will be out soon! Get your copies once they're out!

The Lam-Ang Experiment By PGS Contributor Michael Co

2012-01-26T22:49:00.002+08:00

PGS contributor Michael Co has a new graphic novel out: "The Lam-Ang Experiment". You can watch the book trailer here. He says he "took a science fiction approach, setting the story hundreds of years in the future instead of the past". Buy the graphic novel once it's out!

The Tower And The Kite (Part 2)

2012-01-23T10:11:00.003+08:00

The latest story on Philippine Genre Stories: "The Tower And The Kite" (Part 2) by Matthew Jacob F. Ramos. Guest-edited by Exie Abola.

The Tower And The Kite (Part 1)

2012-01-15T22:21:00.002+08:00

The latest story on Philippine Genre Stories: "The Tower And The Kite" (Part 1) by Matthew Jacob F. Ramos. Guest-edited by Exie Abola.

"Under A Mound Of Earth" (Part 2)

2012-01-08T16:27:00.000+08:00

The latest story on Philippine Genre Stories: "Under A Mound Of Earth" by Celestine Trinidad. Guest-edited by Exie Abola.

D.O.A.--Extreme Horror Collection Reviewed by Shaun Hamilton

2012-01-05T18:32:00.002+08:00

D.O.A.--Extreme Horror Collection, an anthology in which my short story, "Cherry Clubbing", is included, is reviewed by Shaun Hamilton on The Horrifically Horrifying Horror Blog. He rates the anthology quite highly, and I'm grateful and flattered that he likes my story. An excerpt:

Firstly, BLOOD BOUND BOOKS appear to be a professional outfit who should be proud of their work. The stories are all well written, decently edited and presented in a professional manner. Respect has been shown to the stories, no matter what their content might be and for this they should be congratulated. Not only are they giving authors whose work is designed to shock and disturb even the strongest of wills the opportunity to actually see their work in print, they are treating the stories with the respect they deserve. These authors are people who might be fearful of the reaction their work would create, but BBB appears to be a publisher willing to defend what some might call the indefensible. And for that they must be congratulated.

As per usual with a lot of stories, the best one was the first one, CHERRY CLUBBING by Kenneth Yu. It managed to disgust with subtlety; not going overboard with the descriptions, letting the imagination run riot and asking questions of the reader. Other notables were CATERPILLAR by Craig Saunders, MY DARK LOVER by Stacy Bolli and SAVING RALPH by Alec Cizak.

Thank you for the kind review, Shaun! Click here to read his full review, and here for a copy of the anthology!

All Imported Books Are Tax-Free

2012-01-03T17:46:00.002+08:00

The Philippines' Department of Finance has announced that all imported books are tax-free. An excerpt from the article:

All books imported into the Philippines, whether for personal or commercial use, are tax-free, according to the Department of Finance (DOF).

Last December 12, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima signed Department Order No. 57-2011 emphasizing the duty- and VAT-free status of imported books, and detailing guidelines covering clearance procedures from customs.

"All imported books, whether for commercial or personal use with the exception of those published by or for a private commercial enterprise essentially for advertising purposes as stated in Annex A of the Florence Agreement, are exempt from customs duties. Importation of books is likewise exempt from value-added tax (VAT) pursuant to Section 109 (R) of the National Internal Revenue Code," the order stated.

3 Good Things

2012-01-03T17:05:00.002+08:00

3 good things to cheer about and support as we enter 2012:

First, the anthology Alternative Alamat was launched last December 14, 2011 by Rocket Kapre. Edited by Paolo Chikiamco, it "gathers stories, by contemporary authors of Philippine fantasy, which make innovative use of elements of Philippine mythology."

Second, Diaspora Ad Astra, the science fiction anthology from Estranghero Press, is now live, featuring 14 science fiction stories by Pinoy writers. The man behind Estranghero Press is Joseph Nacino.

Third, the lineup of stories and authors for Philippine Speculative Fiction 7 has been posted by editors Kate and Alex Osias. 24 stories will soon be made available to readers, most likely by mid-2012.

Pao, Joseph, Kate, and Alex have done great work, and they bring great reads for us to enjoy in 2012. All four of them are PGS contributors, and in each anthology's lineup I see current (and future!) PGS contributors as well. Fiction-wise, locally, 2012 is off to a great start!

"Under A Mound Of Earth" (Part 1)

2012-01-01T13:58:00.001+08:00

The latest story on Philippine Genre Stories: "Under A Mound Of Earth" by Celestine Trinidad. Guest-edited by Exie Abola.

"Sibling Symmetry" In Philippines Graphic

2011-12-31T13:32:00.004+08:00

My essay, "Sibling Symmetry", is in the January 9, 2012 issue of Philippines Graphic, which features the Overseas Filipino Worker as its Person of the Year. I got my copies just now from National Bookstore. My thanks to editor Joel Pablo Salud for publishing my essay. Happy New Year everyone!

PGS Online Call For Submissions And Reading Period

2011-12-30T22:11:00.005+08:00

PGS Online will be open to fiction submissions by Pinoy writers for reading and consideration from January 1, 2012 to April 30, 2012.

1. Word count: 1,500 up to 8,000 words.

2. Preferred genres: Science fiction, fantasy, crime, mystery, horror, and all subgenres falling under these.

3. Keep in mind that PGS caters not only to adult readers, but also to minors. This is not to say that profanity, gore, violence, and sex will not be accepted in a story, but make sure that such is integral to the story and not just for its own sake. Otherwise, PGS is open to any type of story treatment.

4. Payment is P500.00 for an accepted piece.

5. Please follow standard manuscript format for short story submissions.

6. Email submissions as rtf or doc attachments to pdofsf(at)yahoo(dot)com.

Feel free to either write the above email address or leave a comment here if you have any questions. Thank you.

Tablets, e-readers closing book on ink-and-paper era

2011-12-29T20:49:00.002+08:00

Reader behavior is moving fast. Tablets and e-readers are making their mark, according to this article. An excerpt:

"Tablet computers and electronic readers promise to eventually close the book on the ink-and-paper era as they transform the way people browse magazines, check news or lose themselves in novels.

"It is only a matter of time before we stop killing trees and all publications become digital," Creative Strategies president and principal analyst Tim Bajarin told AFP.

Online retail giant Amazon made electronic readers mainstream with Kindle devices and Apple ignited insatiable demand for tablets ideal for devouring online content ranging from films to magazines and books.

The combined momentum of e-readers and tablets will push annual revenue from digital books to $9.7 billion by the year 2016, more than tripling the $3.2 billion tally expected this year, according to a Juniper Research report.

Readers are showing increased loyalty to digital books, according to the US Book Industry Study Group (BISG).

Nearly half of print book buyers who also got digital works said they would skip getting an ink-and-paper release by a favorite author if an electronic version could be had within three months, a BISG survey showed.

"The e-book market is developing very fast, with consumer attitudes and behaviors changing over the course of months, rather than years," said BISG deputy executive director Angela Bole.

Concerns about e-book reading are diminishing, with people mainly wishing for lower device prices, according to the survey.

Owning e-readers tended to ramp up the amount of money people spent on titles in what BISG described as a promising sign for publishers."

"Ang Mahiwagang Kahong Pamasko"

2011-12-25T09:27:00.001+08:00

Ang pinakabagong kuwento mula sa Philippine Genre Stories: "Ang Mahiwagang Kahong Pamasko" ni M.R.R. Arcega. Maligayang Pasko sa inyong lahat!

Please Help The Victims Of Typhoon Sendong (International name: Washi)

2011-12-19T11:49:00.003+08:00

Whatever Typhoon Ondoy did to Luzon in 2009, Typhoon Sendong has just repeated in Visayas and Mindanao last week, particularly hitting Northern Mindanao hard (Cagayan de Oro and Iligan City). I was just in CDO a few months ago, and I can't help but feel badly for the people there who are suffering from the worst flooding in their history.

Here's a link on how you can help by texting your donations.

Here's another link on how you can help by donating in kind.

Off the top of my head, I remember reading this year about terrible floods in Australia, Thailand, North America, and even certain parts of Europe. If this is an indication of a trend, we should all be prepared to take this as a general part of our weather patterns from now on.

"Falling Into Reading, My Way, And Early"

2011-12-18T17:40:00.002+08:00

My essay, "Falling Into Reading, My Way, And Early", is in the current issue of Philippines Free Press. My thanks to literary editor Joel Toledo for accepting and publishing it.

The essay's a simple reflection on how I became a reader, and a "thank you" for old friendships remembered.

"The Librarian"

2011-12-15T21:09:00.001+08:00

The latest story on Philippine Genre Stories: "The Librarian" by Michelle T. Tan. Guest-edited by Exie Abola.

"Ending The First Year Of PGS Online"

2011-12-10T22:10:00.000+08:00

Ending The First Year Of PGS Online.

Ebook Inforgraphic 2011

2011-12-07T22:08:00.001+08:00

Ebook Inforgraphic 2011

Taken from here.

"Selected Transmissions from Synthesized Human Emulation Mk.8.014b, Otherwise Known as Katey"

2011-12-01T22:03:00.000+08:00

The latest story on Philippine Genre Stories: "Selected Transmissions from Synthesized Human Emulation Mk.8.014b, Otherwise Known as Katey" by Nikki Alfar.

Open Call For Submissions--Horror: Fantastic Filipino Fiction For Young Adults

2011-11-23T11:23:00.001+08:00

Editors Dean Francis Alfar (publisher of the Philippine Speculative Fiction anthologies) and Kenneth Yu (publisher of Philippine Genre Stories) announce an open call for short fiction submissions for HORROR: Fantastic Filipino Fiction for Young Adults.

The Fantastic Filipino Fiction for Young Adults is a new annual anthology series, with the first volume focusing on horror, and launching in mid-2012.

Submissions must be:

1. in the horror genre or contain strong horror elements

2. written with the Young Adult reader in mind (from 10 – 18 years old) and feature a young adult character (or characters)

3. cognizant of the themes and concerns of Young Adult fiction (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) – without being didactic and/or boring.

4. written in English

5. authored by Filipinos or those of Philippine ancestry

Submissions are preferred to be:

1. original and unpublished

2. no shorter than 1,000 words and no longer than 7,500

In the case of previously-published work—if accepted, the author will be expected to secure permission to reprint, if necessary, from the original publishing entity, and to provide relevant publication information.

Submission details:

1. No multiple or simultaneous submissions—i.e., submit only one story, and do not submit that story to any other market until you have received a letter of regret from us.

2. All submissions should be in Rich Text Format (saved under the file extension ‘.rtf’), and emailed to dean(at)kestrelddm(dot)com with the subject line ‘FFFH: title (word count)’, where ‘title’ is the title of your submission and '(word count)' is the number of words the submission comes up to, rounded up to the nearest hundred (use the “tools” function of your word processor to find out.

3. Do not use fancy formatting.

4. Include a brief bio and publishing history (if applicable).

5. The deadline for submissions is midnight, Manila time, March 15, 2012. Letters of acceptance or regret will be sent out no later than one month after the deadline.

6. First-time authors are more than welcome to submit; good stories trump literary credentials any time.

Compensation will be Php500 for selected stories. We are still deciding whether to go digital or print (or even both). In the event that we publish a print version, each author will be provided with a contributor’s copy of the book. If the anthology is published in digital form, each author will be given a formatted e-copy of the anthology.

Thanks,

Dean Francis Alfar & Kenneth Yu

Editors

HORROR: Fantastic Filipino Fiction for Young Adults

Makisig's Heart

2011-11-15T21:42:00.001+08:00

The latest story on Philippine Genre Stories: "Makisig's Heart" by Kate Osias. Guest-edited by Nikki Alfar.

A Girl's Guide To Love In The Big City

2011-11-03T18:52:00.002+08:00

The latest story on Philippine Genre Stories: "A Girl's Guide To Love In The Big City" by Christine V. Lao. Guest-edited by Nikki Alfar.

Charles Tan Interviews Paolo Chikiamco

2011-10-19T20:49:00.003+08:00

PGS contributor Paolo C hikiamco is interviewed by PGS contributor and Bibliophile Stalker Charle s Tan at The Filipino Bibliophile Podcast. Click here to listen to the interview!

"Freeborn In The City Of Fallacies" By Andrew Drilon

2011-10-15T13:24:00.004+08:00

The latest story on Philippine Genre Stories: "Freeborn In The City Of Fallacies" by PGS contributor Andrew Drilon. Guest-edited by Nikki Alfar.

Alternative Alamat: Table Of Contents

2011-10-13T22:13:00.002+08:00

The latest from Rocket Kapre will soon be "Alternative Alamat: Stories Inspired By Philippine Mythology", edited by PGS contributor Paolo C hikiamco. The table of contents also include PGS contributors Raymond Falgui, Celestine Trinidad (with a reprint of her PGS story, "Beneath The Acacia"), and Dea n Al far. Congratulations to all of you!

High Society By Paolo Chikiamco and Hannah Buena

2011-10-13T22:08:00.001+08:00

Check out the graphic novel written by PGS contributor Paolo C hikiamco and illustrated by Hannah Buena: High Society, available for Kindle on Amazon. Congratulations to Paolo and Hannah!

"Escape" By Dean Francis Alfar

2011-10-01T00:19:00.001+08:00

The latest story on Philippine Genre Stories: "Escape" by PGS contributor Dean Francis Alfar.

25 Depressing Portraits Of Closed Bookstores

2011-09-17T22:07:00.001+08:00

This got me down: 25 Depressing Portraits Of Closed Bookstores.

We Are Being Greeted From Canada By Innsmouth Free Press!

2011-09-17T21:26:00.003+08:00

Innsmouth Free Press sends us their greetings from Canada, "Found On The Net: Kumusta Ka Lovecraft"! Thank you, at kumusta ka din, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Innsmouth publisher!

The inspiration for this week’s Found on the Net comes courtesy of Kenneth Yu, who tipped us off about a story at Philippine Genre Stories titled “Stars” by Yvette Tan, which is set in Balicasag Island. Kenneth told us it was kinda Lovecraftian and we’ve concluded it likely is.

The appearance of a Filipino Lovecraft tale did not surprise as much as you may think, partially because we published a special themed issue with a stories set around the world, and the Philippines was one of the settings. The “The Hunger Houses” was the first story to arrive from the Philippines but not the last, because the next issue brought us “The Concierto Of Señor Lorenzo”. Finally, Arlene J. Yandug sold us a poem which will appear in Future Lovecraft this December. Other stories from that region have also circulated in the slush, so we’ve had the Philippines connection for a while now.

I’m not sure how the Filipino speculative writing community found us. It’s one of those things that just started happening, though I’d wager it was Charles Tan’s mentions in one of his blog posts that eventually delivered the Filipino writers to our shores. Or maybe it was just a cosmic coincidence.

Either way, it’s a good time to salute our Filipino readers and writers. Kumusta ka?

Hey, everyone, Innsmouth is selling two books (for now), Historical Lovecraft and Candle In The Attic. Please buy their books! Good stuff! They'll probably have more in the future, so do keep on reading and supporting Innsmouth!

PGS Mentioned By Frida Fantastic

2011-09-17T21:17:00.002+08:00

I only saw it today, but I'm grateful to Frida Fantastic for mentioning Philippine Genre Stories on her blog as a site where one can find and read speculative fiction. Thanks very much Frida! I appreciate the mention.

I really do hope that more and more people will read PGS online, enjoy and appreciate the work of Pinoy writers.

Thank you again, Frida!

A Tweetathon To Save The Short Story

2011-09-17T09:01:00.001+08:00

Neil Gaiman starts a tweetathon to save the short story:

I love short stories. I grew up on them, and the stories that had an effect on me are now encoded into my DNA. Shirley Jackson's "One Ordinary Day With Peanuts" and "The Lottery". Saki's "Sredni Vashtar". WW Jacobs's "The Monkey's Paw". Kipling's "The Gardener". There are heaps of them, and it's love all the way.

For a working writer, this is a silly sort of love. You should write novels. Short stories sell for the price of a good dinner, if you're lucky (and the magazines and anthologies that used to buy them are themselves fading away or gone completely). When they get reprinted they won't cover the taxi fare to get to the dinner. I'm lucky, and have collected my short stories into books that sell well for short-story collections, but still only a fraction of the number that my novels sell.

But short stories are the best place for young writers to learn their craft: to try out different voices and techniques, to experiment, to learn. And they're a wonderful place for old writers, when you have an idea that wouldn't make it to novel length, one simple, elegant thing that needs to be said. People like reading short stories. And they like listening to short stories.

For years, Radio 4 has supported the short story. Ten-minute stories, professionally read, give writers young and old a chance to make a professional sale. Full disclosure: I wrote a short story, "Jerusalem", for them a few years ago, and grew up listening to short stories on Radio 4 and dreaming that one day I'd have a story on there.

Now the station's support for the short story is waning. The Tweetathon we're doing to bring attention to this (each Wednesday for the next five weeks, in association with the Society of Authors, a writer will tweet the first line of a story and tweeters will add the next four sentences to create a short story in 670 characters) may or may not produce great stories: hive minds are excellent news-gatherers and commentators but tend not to produce great art.

All I'm hoping is that it reminds people how much pleasure readers, and listeners, get from short stories, and how much we learn from writing them. If we produce another "The Monkey's Paw" that'll be a bonus.

The Hardest Class In Literature

2011-09-17T08:54:00.002+08:00

Someone hacked into the Trinity College, Dublin website and added a new faculty member. This new member presumably is very muscular and knows how to use a heavy sword. An excerpt:

The "Long Room Hub Associate Professor in Hyborian Studies and Tyrant Slaying" has a compelling resume: as well as having "spent several years tethered to the fearsome 'Wheel of Pain', time which he now feels helped provide him with the mental discipline and sado-masochistic proclivities necessary to successfully tackle contemporary critical theory" he has also, apparently, completed a PhD, entitled "To Hear The Lamentation of Their Women: Constructions of Masculinity in Contemporary Zamoran Literature". Anyone considering attending his classes will be interested to note that his courses for 2011/2012 include "The Relevance of Crom in the Modern World", "Theories of Literature", "Vengeance for Beginners", "Deciphering the Riddle of Steel" and "D.H. Lawrence".

"A Night On Antioch Lane" By Vincent Michael Simbulan

2011-09-15T21:28:00.003+08:00

The latest story on Philippine Genre Stories: "A Night On Antioch Lane" by PGS contributor Vincent Mic hael Simbulan . Guest-edited by Dean Alfar.

Marty McFly's Shoes Are Real!

2011-09-10T11:46:00.000+08:00

The self-lacing shoes of Marty McFly from Back To The Future II are real! Sort of...well...good enough!

Next...hoverboards!

All proceeds will go to Michael J. Fox's foundation to find a cure for Parkinson's disease.

The 32nd Manila International Book Fair

2011-09-09T13:50:00.002+08:00

Just want to plug The 32nd Manila International Book Fair which will be held from September 14-18, 2011, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., at the SMX Convention Center, Mall of Asia Complex, Pasay City.

Readercon will be held on September 14, 2011, 1-6 p.m., Meeting Room 2.

Readercon Filipino Friday Week 5: Hopes And Expectations For The Readercon

2011-09-09T13:36:00.003+08:00

(Continuing the Filipino Friday activities as a buildup to Readercon!)

It's the last Friday before Readercon, and the question today is "What do you hope will happen in the Filipino Readercon? What are you expecting from the event?"

Sadly, I won't be able to go, as I'll be out of town for work the entire week. But, I do hope that Readercon will snare new readers among Pinoys, especially younger ones. I hope it will turn them into lifelong readers, bitten by the book bug. I hope that it will make them as enthusiastic as The Filipino Book Bloggers in promoting reading, new people to help spread the fun and importance of literacy. I hope that it will show how important reading is for anyone. I hope that people will appreciate reading in general; fiction or non-fiction; in English, Filipino, or any other language, whether local or international; to read authors and books not just from the usual western sources, or from the Philippines, but also from all other countries; that all this reading will open hearts and minds, to develop more empathy for and understanding of people, and to comprehend how we--no matter where or how we live or what our backgrounds are--can all be so different, can have varied physical appearances, can own interestingly diverse, even divergent, priorities, but to still know that we are all part of a common universal human experience that ties us together.

A Testimonial To Alienation By Sir Butch Dalisay

2011-09-06T07:30:00.002+08:00

Sir Butch Dalisay deals with that essay written by a certain James Soriano with his own, A Testimonial To Alienation. An excerpt:

The real tragedy of the James Soriano episode for me is that despite both the academic and anecdotal evidence, many Filipinos keep clinging to the illusion that only English will save us, and that any proposal to promote Filipino and other Philippine languages in the classroom alongside English is a step back into the jungle.

I’m a professor of English and a former chairman of our English department, but like many Filipino educators, I believe in a bilingual — indeed, a multilingual — policy, not only because it’s nationalistic, but because it works, and is kinder to the child in the long term. I’ve seen how raising children solely in English in the hope of turning them into “globalized” Filipinos can result in producing alienated, socially maimed individuals who can’t relate to their own people and who don’t feel a stake in their own country’s future. When I teach English or such subjects as American Literature, I remind my students that we’re taking up the subject not to try and become Americans, but to become better Filipinos.

I have no problem valuing and promoting English as the language of global business, as something we need to master if we want to make it out there (in this century, we might even be better off studying Chinese); indeed we should master English so it doesn’t master us.

As a creative writer in English, I love the language as a craftsman values his materials. In my own twist on the aesthetic value of writing in another language, I find working with English both challenging and interesting precisely because it can’t possibly fully capture the realities I’m representing — and in that breach lie possibilities for artmaking. When I write in Filipino, I relax, feeling no need to pretend to be anything but myself. (Yes, after half a century of using it, I’m still aware that I’m creating a persona, a social mask, every time I write and speak English.)

James was right when he called himself a “split-level Filipino.” Many of us are, and the sooner we acknowledge it the sooner we can deal with it and even turn it to our advantage. Unfortunately, some of us don’t know it, don’t know what to do about it, or just plain don’t care. That’s far sorrier than an essay gone astray.

Pakinggan Pilipinas Season 2 Episode 1: "A Fishy Tale"

2011-09-05T06:39:00.002+08:00

PGS contributor Elyss Punsalan has uploaded her latest podcast on Pakinggan Pilipinas: "A Fishy Tale" by PGS contributor Apol-Lejano-Massebieau. Head on over to listen to her podcast! Congratulations to Apol and Elyss!

Pakinggan Pilipinas Episode 13: "New Toy"

2011-09-05T06:29:00.001+08:00

I forgot to blog about Joseph Montecillo's episode on Pakinggan Pilipinas, "New Toy". Better late than never! Here it is! Belated congratulations, Joseph!

Readercon Filipino Friday Week 4: Reading Philippine Literature

2011-09-02T23:05:00.005+08:00

(Continuing the Filipino Friday activities as a buildup to Readercon!)

The question for this week is "Do you read Filipino literature, and if so, which books would you recommend?" I admit to a bias with the books/anthologies/collections by Pinoys that I'm going to recommend because the majority of the Pinoys who wrote or edited them are PGS contributors, and most of them are genre. Consider that a disclaimer :D.

Waking The Dead And Other Stories by Yvette Tan
Smaller And Smaller Circles by F.H. Batacan
Philippine Speculative Fiction Volumes 1-6, edited by several PGS contributors over the years (Dean Alfar, Nikki Alfar, Vincent Simbulan, Kate Osias). PSF 7, by the way, will be edited by Kate Osias and Alex Osias.
The Kite Of Stars And Other Stories by Dean Alfar
Heartbreak And Magic by Ian Casocot
A Time For Dragons edited by Vincent Simbulan
Best Of Philippine Speculative Fiction 2009 edited by Charles Tan
Philippine Speculative Fiction Sampler edited by Mia Tijam and Charles Tan
The Farthest Shore edited by Dean Alfar and Joseph Nacino
Demons Of The New Year edited by Karl de Mesa and Joseph Nacino
Diaspora Ad Astra edited by Emil Flores and Joseph Nacino (to go live soon)

There are a number of other genre anthologies, collections, and books published locally, containing stories by both PGS contributors and other writers as well (an example would be Tales Of Fantasy And Enchantment, edited by Cristina Pantoja-Hidalgo). I've also read the books of Butch Dalisay (Soledad's Sister, Wash: Only A Bookkeeper, and Killing Time In A Warm Place, etc.) and Charlson Ong (Banyaga and Blue Angel, White Shadow), most of which are realist and not genre, but like I've mentioned in other posts, when I read, I'm not conscious of labels (but I mention it anyway for those who are). I've also read the collection of essays by Carl Javier, The Kobayashi Maru Of Love. The Philippines Graphic and The Philippines Free Press publish short fiction weekly, so one could consider checking out the pieces there. I'm still hoping, too, that Story Philippines will resume publication, whether on paper or online.

"Triskaidekaturions" by Alexander M. Osias

2011-09-01T11:41:00.002+08:00

The latest story on Philippine Genre Stories: "Triskaidekaturions" by PGS con tributor Alexand er M. Osias. Guest-edited by Dean Alfar.

Philippine Speculative Fiction 7 Reminder

2011-08-31T21:52:00.002+08:00

Reminding everyone of the deadline for submissions to Philippine Speculative Fiction 7, which is on September 30, 2011. Guidelines here.

The Death Of Books Has Been Greatly Exaggerated

2011-08-30T21:07:00.002+08:00

From The Guardian, "The Death Of Books Has Been Greatly Exaggerated". An excerpt:

What does all this data add up to? Hardly an industry in its death throes, so one must ask why there are so many long faces about the place. Let's not be naive. These are times of massive change, and change is never, ever comfortable. The retail sector worries publishers and authors alike; in the past year, publishers have lost Woolworth, Borders and British Bookshops as sales channels and, as Kate Pool from the Society of Authors says: "The increasing dominance of Amazon (as retailer, increasingly as publisher, as owner of the Kindle, etc) is potentially very worrying."

This, combined with the emergence of digital technology, creates enormous uncertainty. It's a fact that the transition to digital devices will mean greater efficiencies and more focus on cost and, overall, a rather less generous publishing industry than before; a rather colder-hearted, fiercer one. The old world is fading, the new world isn't yet in focus. When newspapers and music faced this moment, there was a significant tendency to become hugely angry that the old world in which we were all so comfortable was being "swept away". It's almost impossible for someone who has spent decades working in a calm, creative environment not to be enraged by the sight of American technology companies tipping everything on its head.

But let's not overdo things. Let's not lose sight of the data we have, and let's not invent data when we only have anecdotes. And finally, let's not forget the wonders this new world opens up. Being able to download a book to read instantaneously wherever you are is a thing of wonder, after all (and there is some anecdotal suggestion that people are coming back to books via new digital platforms).

For authors, the chance to reach out to readers, instantly and effectively, is changing the way titles are marketed and delivers a glorious independence that comes with having your own digital presence to curate and to shape. There are new creative opportunities offered by interactive technologies. There is the chance to play in a world where books and stories can be either the private, cherished experience of old or a public, shared conversation with other readers from across the world.

So yes, the party's still on. It's not quite the same party, the drink's a good deal cheaper and we've got crisps, not caviar. But there are more people invited, and some of them look pretty groovy. I'll not get my coat just yet.

Caught By Some Quotes

2011-08-30T21:00:00.002+08:00

Just wanted to share a blog entry--specifically, some quotes from a blog entry--by Karen Miller:

As humans, we’re flawed. We’re scarred. We’re haunted, by things done we regret, by things undone we ache to do, but can’t because the moment has passed us by. And fiction is a mirror. It holds up the world to us, and asks us to find the familiar and understand it. Who among us can truly understand the man or woman who is never tempted? Who has never strayed, never fallen, never done the unthinkable then been forced to live with the consequences? I don’t think we can. We might often wish we could be better, more like them, but the unrelenting heroes don’t offer us camaraderie or familiarity or a sense that the struggle is worth it.

Pain is humanity’s common denominator. The pain of living transcends race, gender and creed. If we have nothing else in common, we can share the scars life has left us with. And so, in turning to fiction, in the books and the tv shows and the films that hold up that demanding mirror, we seek out the characters who remind us of our imperfect humanity. Who sometimes allow us to vicariously indulge the very worst of our impulses. And who offer us the hope that at the end of the day, there is an answer. There is redemption. That even the most scarred among us can find healing and peace.

The Bibliophile Stalker Deals With An Essay On Language

2011-08-26T21:22:00.002+08:00

There's an essay written by a certain James Soriano going viral right now (just search for "James Soriano" on Twitter). It has incensed quite a number of people because of its approach to its topic as well as its tone. The Bibliophile Stalker tackles the issue the essay talks about in a much better way than James Soriano did, in my opinion.

An excerpt from Soriano's piece:

It was the reading and writing that was tedious and difficult. I spoke Filipino, but only when I was in a different world like the streets or the province; it did not come naturally to me. English was more natural; I read, wrote and thought in English. And so, in much of the same way that I learned German later on, I learned Filipino in terms of English. In this way I survived Filipino in high school, albeit with too many sentences that had the preposition ‘ay.’

It was really only in university that I began to grasp Filipino in terms of language and not just dialect. Filipino was not merely a peculiar variety of language, derived and continuously borrowing from the English and Spanish alphabets; it was its own system, with its own grammar, semantics, sounds, even symbols.

But more significantly, it was its own way of reading, writing, and thinking. There are ideas and concepts unique to Filipino that can never be translated into another. Try translating bayanihan, tagay, kilig or diskarte.

Only recently have I begun to grasp Filipino as the language of identity: the language of emotion, experience, and even of learning. And with this comes the realization that I do, in fact, smell worse than a malansang isda. My own language is foreign to me: I speak, think, read and write primarily in English. To borrow the terminology of Fr. Bulatao, I am a split-level Filipino.

But perhaps this is not so bad in a society of rotten beef and stinking fish. For while Filipino may be the language of identity, it is the language of the streets. It might have the capacity to be the language of learning, but it is not the language of the learned.

It is neither the language of the classroom and the laboratory, nor the language of the boardroom, the court room, or the operating room. It is not the language of privilege. I may be disconnected from my being Filipino, but with a tongue of privilege I will always have my connections.

So I have my education to thank for making English my mother language.

An excerpt from The Bibliophile Stalker's essay:

One of the essays circulating recently is "Language, learning, identity, privilege" by James Soriano (Edit 2: it's inaccessible now but you can check the Google Cache). It's not an original or even fresh opinion: it's a never-ending debate that's plagued by the Philippines for the past few decades (and I'm sure it's an issue in other, multilingual countries as well).

Whenever someone raises the English vs. Filipino argument, they often miss two significant points.

The first point is context and this is very important. A lot of people assume that Filipino is the de facto language of the country when it's not: it's transitioned from Spanish to English to Filipino (and sometimes, switching back to one or simultaneously having two national languages). Just look at the country's iconic (if not contentiously important) novels: Noli Me Tangere by Jose Rizal was written in Spanish, The Woman Who Had Two Navels by Nick Joaquin was written in English, and Bata, Bata... Pa'no Ka Ginawa? by Luwalhati Bautista was written in Filipino.

There is the belief that one language is "more Filipino" than the other but we have to understand that history is dynamic and constantly changing.

The other point, and is perhaps the bigger problem, is our subscription to the ideology of dichotomies: something is either black or white, good or evil, positive or negative. It's a tempting paradigm, just as the concept of Schrödinger's cat at the very least gives pause to many people.

For example, as a personal experience, there's this belief that funerals and wakes should be depressing. The relatives of the deceased should be crying and mournful. While there is an atmosphere of sadness, for some family members, this is also a time of camaraderie, of seeing, talking, and empathizing with friends and relatives whom you don't often see. That's not to say you don't feel a sense of loss during a wake, but it's not the only emotion you're capable of experiencing. Both positive and negative emotions can take place simultaneously and the existence of one does not invalidate the other.

My difficulty with essays that frame the Filipino vs. English debate is that it becomes a zero-sum game where there is no room for co-existence.

Readercon Filipino Friday Week 3: Being A Reader In The Philippines

2011-08-26T07:13:00.002+08:00

(Continuing the Filipino Friday activities as a buildup to Readercon!)

Growing up in the Philippines during the 1980's, I know that I was one of the lucky ones. Back then, readers were at the mercy of whatever the bookstores of the time (National Bookstore, Alemar's, Bookmark) would carry. With no internet, this was a situation where readers were dependent on whatever the purchasers would like to have on their bookstores' shelves. This was similar to letting someone else decide what you could read, because the purchasers were deciding what you could buy (going further, one could argue that publishers, in choosing what to accept and print, are also deciding what you could read, but that's a whole other discussion). In the event that you got your hands on some article or review about an interesting book, it was completely hit or miss whether the store would have it. This applied to books from abroad and those sourced locally. But I had relatives who lived in other countries who, on their occasional visits, would actually bring me the latest titles. They didn't bring me boxes of books—just a couple or three—but it was enough to keep me ahead, and I remember and am grateful for their generosity. I actually received my first copy of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine this way. Add to that my mother being very supportive of my reading habit and who willingly bought me books from these stores, even with their limited choices, and I know I had it good. And even further, my school also had a pretty well-stocked and organized library for its time and size, particularly with the classics, and even with some pretty obscure titles and authors. Sadly, public libraries then, as now, are nothing like those found in the western world, which is a clear handicap for readers in my country.

This situation with the bookstores changed with the advent of steeper competition through the 1990's and the early aughts. Alemar's and Bookmark got killed by National Bookstore, but second-hand stores turned up, and they brought in truckloads of books from all over the world at reduced prices. Booksale, Books For Less, Chapters and Pages, and a myriad number of smaller stores bloomed like mushrooms after a rain. Then Fully Booked came along, bringing with it the customer service and presentation of a U.S. bookstore. At about the same time (I can't remember if this was before or after Fully Booked launched), National Bookstore started Powerbooks, their sister company, which also tried to sell books following the U.S. model. Powerbooks was the truer bookstore in contrast to the ironically named National Bookstore which thrives more on selling school and office supplies (this is not a hit on their business model; I am aware that they wouldn't be able to sell books if they didn't sell pencils, to paraphrase Socorro Ramos, the store's founder).

But with the internet, with a good enough line to the web, the playing field for readers is now pretty even. Simply visiting book review or book list blogs, or googling authors or titles, is sure to lead one to lists and FAQ's about the latest, or even old, books. Now, with ebooks, it's easy enough to just download your titles to your ereader or computer. Remember what I said about my school's library being pretty well-stocked for its time and size? When it comes to the classics, it's nothing compared to Gutenberg.org. Now, you can search the web for books in the genres you want, by the authors you want, and even receive recommendations of books about all topics from other readers all over the world.

This situation may not be so good for the brick-and-mortar bookstores, but for readers in the Philippines, yes, it's so much easier now, but it still depends a lot on who you are.

The majority of Pinoys live below the poverty line, have limited or no access to the web, and if they do have access, spend their time doing other things with their surfing time, like playing video games, engaging in social-networking, or doing what the majority of the world does, which is surf for porn. :D

The country's low wages also limits the physical books a regular Pinoy can buy, as books, especially new ones, can be relatively expensive as a percentage to one's take home pay. Food, shelter, clothing come first, and after that, who knows how much is left for a book, even a second hand one? Ereaders are growing in popularity, but still not at the same level as mp3 players did at the turn of the century; after all, they cost money too, as do computers. Cellphones can solve this, and Pinoys love their cellphones, but unlike in, say, Japan or Korea, the cellphone as ereader has not yet taken off here.

Most Pinoys too have barely passed high school, and the quality of education in this country remains a problem, a longstanding one. It cannot be disregarded that education contributes to an interest in reading. And going further, language too, is an issue. Though proficient with English for the most part, there is a segment of Pinoys who are, I believe, more comfortable with Filipino, or any of the dialects they grew up with in the provinces they're from; and that segment is substantial. I'm all for Filipino and other dialects' texts not just being printed, but also being made available on the web, if this would mean more people would take up reading (I'm on the record for saying that it doesn't matter what language you read in as long as you do). This would of course mean writers producing texts in those languages, whether original pieces or translations. These writers should be encouraged and given the incentives to do so.

Being a reader in the Philippines is easy if you read in a language whose material is plentiful and accessible on the web, and if you have easy access to it (you have a computer or other device that can connect to the internet, and you can pay for that access or can go to a place that provides it for free, like a mall). Take away any of these elements—the device, perhaps due to cost; the cost of surfing; the text of the language you prefer—and suddenly, it's not so easy anymore. This doesn't even take into consideration a person's personal interest to read.

Having said that, for someone like me--and there are many like me, as I'm part of a substantial segment also, though sadly, not as large as the other segments I have mentioned in this post—this is a good time to be a reader in the Philippines.

Readercon Filipino Friday Week 2: Your Reader's Story

2011-08-19T12:40:00.001+08:00

(Continuing the Filipino Friday activities as a buildup to Readercon!)

I can clearly trace my love for stories and reading back to grade school, to D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths, and the three friends with whom I shared this initial fascination with reading. I'm grateful for that moment when one of those friends found this book in our school library and shared it with the rest of us. That was the moment our enjoyment of tales and reading began. We dared to even retell the Greek Myths in our own words. From there, from that love of the Greek myths, we moved on to Alexander, Lewis, Tolkien. Then we began reading anything and everything else. We did this together, as a group, and frankly, it felt good to have friends with whom one could share our thoughts and opinions on the stories we read. Despite reading being a solitary pursuit, I can see the value of having fellow reading-enthusiasts spur each other on to good reads.

As I grew older, saw more of the world, and got more of life under my belt, I naturally began to demand more from what I was reading. That was when I expanded my material from what I was usually reading. In other words, I went out of my younger comfort zones, and opened myself up to different tones, styles, cultures, authors. I began to read writers from other countries, not just the US or England. I discovered writers from Japan, Spain, Latin America, and China (translated, of course); from Africa, Canada, Australia, India, and from my own country, the Philippines. I heard, or rather, read, different voices, how different terms and forms of speech were used, how situations can be as different as the new settings I was reading about. This taught me that people love stories, will tell their stories, no matter how different or where they are in this world.

I found myself not just going forward by reading the latest, but to meet my demand for expansion as a reader, I also went backwards, to stories written earlier, the classics, so yes, even if these stories may yet still be set in the US or England (or not), the very change in the times the stories were set in drew me to new worlds as well. Let me put it this way: after having read the fantasies of Tolkien and Lewis, reading the original Aeneid and Odyssey (not the simpler versions, but the ones that go into full detail), or reading the verse form of Beowulf, can be quite a challenge, one with great rewards if one puts the effort in.

How else can I put this? Well, I haven't read Twilight yet, which I heard is a romance tale with vampires, I wonder if the readers of that series, after growing older, may find themselves trying out the romances of Austen, or perhaps going even further and reading Stoker's Dracula, which would give them one of the original perspectives of the vampire. I wonder how Potter fans, after Hogwarts, would consider the different world where the wizardry school of Le Guin's Earthsea book can be found, how different Ged is from Harry, not just as wizards, but as people, yet how they have motivations that overlap and move them in their own ways.

Then, I moved on to non-fiction: histories of different times and countries, biographies of different people, reading about how things work, about ideologies and politics, about languages or even travel books, about wars, real wars, like World War I and II, and how this all fed my curiosity of this very interesting world.

And through it all, through reading all these books, I found out through all these stories, that people are moved by the same emotions no matter their background: joy, sadness, anger, revenge, bitterness, elation, love, hate, greed, generosity, empathy, desire, etc. So many different stories, so many settings, so many varied characters and types of conflict, some set in the real world, some completely imagined, but what moves the intention of these characters is the same, the human experience.

And here's something that gives me comfort: that despite my having moved quite a distance from where I originated in my reading experience, I know that I can always go back to those same books, or even those same types of books, that I read before, and still enjoy them with the eye and pleasure that I started out with as a younger person. In a way, it's nice to know that that kid who started reading a long time ago is still alive and well deep down inside.

Readercon Filipino Friday Week 1: Introduce Yourself

2011-08-19T12:14:00.000+08:00

Time to enter the time warp. Wasn't able to join week 1 last week, so I'm joining now, starting from the beginning, and then posting for week 2 after I'm done with this entry. I'm glad for this online activity meant to buildup to Readercon!

My name is Kenneth Yu. I'm the publisher of The Digest of Philippine Genre Stories (PGS), a magazine (now ezine) that prints short genre fiction by Pinoys. The influence for PGS was the genre mags in the west, such as Asimov's, Hitchcock's, Ellery Queen's, F&SF, etc. I thought to myself, “Wouldn't it be nice to have a Philippine version of these?” Since I was in the printing business at the time, when I felt myself finally ready (which took a number of years), I put out the print version of PGS. The digest has transitioned from print to digital just this year. The goal, whether PGS is on paper or in digital form, is to get more people, especially younger ones, into reading the same way I did, which was through genre tales.

And that was how it started out when I was young. I fell into reading because of what is labeled now as “genre” fiction. Some of what comes to mind when recalling what I read when I was growing up are the aforementioned western genre digests, the crime and detective tales of A.C. Doyle and Agatha Christie, the fantasy stories of Lloyd Alexander, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien, science fiction by Frank Herbert, Ursula K. Le Guin and Madeleine L'Engle, horror by Stephen King and Clive Barker, and quite a number of YA books of all types (including realist) published by Dell Yearling.

Oh, and I read a lot of Peanuts, Tintin, and Asterix comics. ;-P

Today, I read pretty much anything, all kinds of fiction and non-fiction. I can't say I have a favorite genre anymore. Ironically, though I publish a small digest with the word “genre”, I really don't look at genre when I read fiction, and instead focus on the story, taking it for what it is. It's only when I have to “type” a tale for PGS that I have to be aware of whether it's a genre piece or not.

This year, I've read a number of YA dystopian stories (The Hunger Games trilogy, the Maze Runner series, Divergent). I'm trying to catch up with G.R.R. Martin's Song of Fire and Ice series. But what I'm currently reading is a book that came out some years ago, 1421, a non-fiction piece about the age of exploration during the time of the dynasties of the Chinese emperors.

"Fragrant Blood" by Elyss Punsalan

2011-08-16T14:25:00.002+08:00

The latest story on Philippine Genre Stories: "Fragrant Blood" by Elyss Punsalan. Guest-edited by Dean Alfar.

C.S.E. Cooney Of Black Gate Reviews PGS 4!

2011-08-14T22:00:00.005+08:00

My thanks to The Bibliophile Stalker for informing me of this review of PGS4 by C.S.E. Cooney of Black Gate! I'm very grateful for her positive review, her favorites from the issue being "Psychic Family" by Apol Lejano-Massebieau and "In The Dim Plane" by Dean Alfar. Thank you very much! An excerpt:

I liked “Psychic Family,” by Apol Lejano-Massebieau better, though. I’m a sucker for a good ghost story, and this one does some pretty neat things with time jumps and section breaks, devoting equal time between world immersion, character study and plot. The first person POV is compelling, a preteen girl whose mother and sister can see ghosts (she can’t; she feels left out), whose father is bankrupt, and whose only friend in the new bungalow they’re living in is Lily. Lily will walk into a room without a knocking, appear behind you when you least expect her, and wears old fashioned clothes. The tone of the narrator is light, but there’s a lurking creepiness, an underlying rot that makes the reader (this reader, anyway) VERY uneasy — which is just what’s supposed to happen in a ghost story.

“In the Dim Plane,” along with “Psychic Family,” was my favorite story in PGS. First of all, every single character in it is a villain. They all exist, after the fall of Forlorn, in a sort of half-life, “with almost no power left and no way to recover any more.” The narrator is the greatest Necromancer of Forlorn: Teros, AKA “Doom of Dirmoth.” His companions are Lord Jussin the Betrayer, “a fallen paladin who had denounced his queen for the promise of power”; Braxas, Harrower of Flame; Lizel Gorgist, The Widow’s Bane; and “the maxim-laden polymath Resa Undermasque, who had bartered parts of her body for knowledge.”

Even their names hint at back stories I’m eager to gobble (some more than others, I’ll admit, and I’ll admit I’m most curious about Resa Undermasque). There was a story-within-a-story that made the bulk of the plot, constantly interrupted by the obstreperous audience members, and a beautifully tidy wrap-up. It had all the good stuff — violence, romance, sparky dialogue, oppressive atmosphere… Pretty impressive, the worlds and characters a person can build in 12 pages!

I’d definitely recommend fantasy lovers to go to the Philippine Genre Stories website and check out their free online content. I had a lot of fun reading this little ‘zine and will be keeping my eye on some of these authors. Don’t miss out!

PGS Contributor Nikki Alfar Wins Another Palanca!

2011-08-11T22:06:00.002+08:00

PGS contributor Nikki Alfar has won 1st place in this year's Palanca Awards, short story for children in English. Congratulations, Nikki!

The Bibliophile Stalker: Is He Going To The World Fantasy Convention?

2011-08-11T21:53:00.002+08:00

When I checked early this morning, The World SF Travel Fund had already hit its target of US$6k, which would've sent Charle s Tan, The Bibliophile Stalker, to this year's World Fantasy Convention. Then, when I checked again this evening, the limit had been raised to US$9k! So, is Charles going or not? Can anyone provide an explanation?

Help Send The Bibliophile Stalker To The World Fantasy Convention

2011-08-02T20:09:00.002+08:00

PGS contributor and tireless speculative fiction advocate Charle s Tan, The Bibliophile Stalker, is nominated for an award at The World Fantasy Convention this year. The World SF Travel Fund is holding a fund-raising activity to help get him to the U.S. for this event. Please help get him there! You get books if you do! From the link:

A combination of genre professionals and fans from the international scene and the United States have gathered together to create the World SF Travel Fund. The fund has been set up to enable one international person involved in science fiction, fantasy or horror to travel to a major genre event.

The first recipient of the fund is genre blogger and activist Charles Tan, from the Philippines. Charles is a tireless promoter of speculative fiction. Besides his own Bibliophile Stalker blog, he contributes to the Nebula Awards blog, the Shirley Jackson Award blog, SF Signal and The World SF Blog. He also edited two online anthologies of speculative fiction from the Philippines. Charles is highly regarded in the SF scene both in the USA and internationally. The Fund’s intention is to facilitate Charles’ travel to World Fantasy Con 2011 in San Diego, California.

Multiple award winning editor Ellen Datlow said: “Charles Tan has in a very short time, become a major force in science fiction and fantasy. Bringing Charles over to the United States for the World Fantasy Convention would be a boon the convention by adding a truly international voice to the mix and selfishly, it would allow many of Charles’s fans in the field to meet him personally.”

Living in the Philippines, where wages are far lower than in the West, Charles would be otherwise unable to ever attend a major convention. The Fund’s purpose is to make such a trip possible, for the benefit not only of the recipient but for creating and extending dialogue in the wider world of speculative fiction.

Author and editor Jeff VanderMeer said: “Charles Tan is tireless, talented, indefatigable, a great guy, and someone who has become indispensible to our sense of the genre community. He’s a wonderful choice for this initial effort.”

The Fund has set up a Peerbackers Project with the hope of raising $6000, enabling two years of running. The Board, tasked with selecting future candidates, is composed of Lauren Beukes, Aliette de Bodard, Ekaterina Sedia, Cheryl Morgan and Lavie Tidhar and reflects the truly international nature of the SF world today. For inquiries and further information please contact worldsftravelfund(at)gmail(dot)com.

"Stars" by Yvette Tan

2011-08-02T06:40:00.000+08:00

The latest story on Philippine Genre Stories: "Stars" by Yvette Tan.

"Malvar" by Paolo Chikiamco

2011-07-16T23:22:00.001+08:00

The latest story on Philippine Genre Stories: "Malvar" by Paolo Chikiamco. Guest-edited by Yvette Tan.

Fantasy Writer Says, "I Need To Return To Reality"

2011-07-10T20:47:00.001+08:00

Fantasy writer Steph Swainston asks out of her contract with her publisher, to become a teacher. It's usually the teacher who's trying to become a full-time writer, right? An excerpt from the article:

"There's just too much stress on authors," says the 37-year-old Swainston. She lives near Reading now, but grew up in West Yorkshire and she hasn't lost her gentle accent. "The business model seems to be that publishers want a book a year. I wanted to spend time on my novels, but that isn't economically viable."

Swainston says: "Writers have to have something as well as writing, something which feeds back into their work and makes it meaningful." She references the 19th-century Scottish writer and reformer Samuel Smiles. "He said that if you are going to be an artist, you should have a job as well, so that you're not relying on your art to pay your bills. If we don't have external influences ..." she pauses, "well, look at Stephen King. All his characters seem to be writers."

Then there's the lack of human interaction: "I suffer terribly from isolation while writing. I really need a job where I can be around people and learn to speak again. It's much, much healthier to be around people. Human beings are social animals."

"I don't have a problem with fandom," she says. "But I don't think fans realise the pressure they put on authors. The very vocal ones can change an author's next book, even an author's career, by what they say on the internet. And writers are expected to engage and respond." She pauses. "The internet is poison to authors."

"Sweet" (Part 2) by Marguerite Alcazaren de Leon

2011-07-09T12:14:00.001+08:00

The latest story on Philippine Genre Stories: "Sweet" (Part 2) by Marguerite Alcazaren de Leon. Guest-edited by Yvette Tan.

"The Fortune-teller's Beautiful Daughter" by Dean Francis Alfar

2011-07-09T12:10:00.002+08:00

PGS contributor Dean Fran cis Alfar has a new story out, "The Fortune-teller's Beautiful Daughter", in the July 11, 2011 issue of Philipppines Graphic. Congrats, Dean!

"Sweet" (Part 1) by Marguerite Alcazaren de Leon

2011-07-03T09:25:00.003+08:00

The latest story on Philippine Genre Stories: "Sweet" (Part 1) by Marguerite Alcazaren de Leon. Guest-edited by Yvette Tan.

Pottermore: J.K. Rowling Goes Digital

2011-06-25T12:49:00.002+08:00

Earlier this week, J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series of books, announced Pottermore, to the delight of many Potter fans wishing for a digital experience of Rowling's world of magic, wizards, and monsters. The author had long been against having her books turned into ebooks, but it seems that with this announcement, she has changed her mind. It is worth noting that she is releasing this herself via the site, as she owns all the digital rights to her work. I'm assuming this is so because she signed her contract for the Potter tales before digital books became mainstream.

Needless to say, the effect on bookstores and the publishing industry will be significant. J.K. Rowling is, in effect, self-publishing her already paper-published stories, and releasing them DRM-free via Pottermore. This bypasses her publisher and the bookstores that have sold millions and millions of Harry Potter copies. Given that ebooks are now at 20% of total sales (up from 1% four years ago), the numbers that Pottermore can generate most likely will not be insignificant. Remember how people lined up at stores before the day of a book's release, in the same way Apple fans lined up for the latest iPhone? This may or may not be a thing of the past after Pottermore, but the effect of her going digital has bookstores unhappy, and will certainly have an effect on publishing.

On the other hand, in a bit of a reversal from Rowling's position, we have Amanda Hocking, an author who was selling millions of copies of her books through self-publishing, signing up with a traditional publisher.

What I see here is that the stigma of being a self-publisher is lessening for an author, while traditional publishers are now more accommodating of authors who have released their books themselves and have proven their stories' saleability.

"Packing For The Moon" By Dean Francis Alfar

2011-06-25T12:46:00.003+08:00

PGS contributor Dean Fran cis Alfar has a new story out, "Packing For The Moon", in the June 25, 2011 issue of the Philipppines Free Press. Congrats, Dean!

"The Confessional" (Part 2) by Cyan Abad-Jugo

2011-06-23T13:44:00.002+08:00

The latest story on Philippine Genre Stories: "The Confessional" (Part 2) by Cyan Abad-Jugo. Guest-edited by Yvette Tan.

Spam Hits E-books!

2011-06-18T15:58:00.002+08:00

It was inevitable: Spam epidemic has reached ebooks. An excerpt:

There are a lot of truly excellent books available on e-readers. From current best sellers to the classics, you can broaden your intellectual horizons, learn new things, enjoy brilliant literature… and slog through that bane of our online existence: spam. Yes, spam has come to ebooks, in particular Amazon's Kindle e-reader. It was inevitable, really, especially given that the companies behind e-readers have gone out of their way to make the platforms accessible to independent authors and self-publishers.

Using what's known as Private Label Rights or PLR, the literary infiltrators take cheap information and reformat it into something vaguely resembling a book. There are even kits you can buy that let you create "books" without actually writing a single word, which perpetuate the ebook spam. Other even less-scrupulous ebook creators are simply copying and pasting text from someone else's book and selling it as their own.

"The Confessional" (Part 1) by Cyan Abad-Jugo

2011-06-15T22:18:00.003+08:00

The latest story on Philippine Genre Stories: "The Confessional" by Cyan Abad-Jugo. Guest-edited by Yvette Tan.

"Downfall" By PGS Contributor Crystal Koo

2011-06-11T21:31:00.003+08:00

PGS contributor Crysta l Koo's story, "Downfall", is in the June 13, 2011 issue of Philippines Graphic. Go out and buy a copy to read her story!

PGS Crime Issue Reviews And F.H. Batacan's Message

2011-06-07T21:22:00.002+08:00

My deep gratitude to Jason Lim of Taking A Break and Kristel Autencio of The Philippine Online Chronicles for sharing their thoughts on the PGS Crime Issue. I appreciate the time and thought you guys spent writing your reviews for it. Thank you!

First, Jason Lim's review.

Second, Kristel Autencio's, Tropical Noir.

And here's the message F.H. Batacan, the guest-editor for the issue, sent for the event last May 28, 2011:

Tonight rightly belongs to the writers--of PSF6 and of the PGS Crime Issue.

I want to thank all these writers--Xin Mei, Maryanne Moll, Crystal Koo, Alex Osias, and Dominique Cimafranca in particular, for their submissions to the PGS Crime Issue. Thank you for not writing about private eyes in trenchcoats, or gangsters in pinstriped suits. Thank you for writing stories that we can believe and understand, about things that do happen in the Philippines, or to Filipinos. Thank you for showing that crime fiction isn't always about whodunit, but why.

I would also like to give a big, big thank you to Kestrel for allowing us to piggyback on the launch of Philippine Speculative Fiction 6.

This is the Philippines, where 57 people can be massacred in broad daylight, where the perpetrators are clearly identified, where video footage of the crime exists, where witnesses have come forward, yet the case drags on for months and possibly years. Where convicted murderers serving their sentences can walk out of prison at their leisure to go where they please. Where resources, facilities and expertise are in short supply, and justice is perpetually elusive and always a negotiable target.

So these stories reflect exactly those realities. They will neither astound you with feats of deduction nor amaze you with scientific technique. Instead, they show a real understanding of motive--of the basic impulses that drive the human animal: greed, fear, hatred, love, survival, guilt. Their characters seem to know instinctively that there is little recourse to be found in our police stations, our courts, our halls of power.

As a final word: A publisher in the UK that specializes in worldwide crime fiction says that "to understand a culture, you need only to examine its crimes". This volume may be slim, but I hope it provides some encouragement for Filipino writers to explore the genre and its vastly untapped potential for portraying and examining our society. Thank you again and good night.

Pakinggan Pilipinas Episode 12: "Kara's Place"

2011-06-06T07:07:00.002+08:00

PGS contributor Elyss Punsalan has uploaded her latest podcast on Pakinggan Pilipinas: "Kara's Place" by Luis Katigbak. Head on over to listen to her podcast! Congratulations to Luis and Elyss! (Hey, that has a nice ring to it, just like "Elyss and Eliza"!)

Light In Darkness

2011-06-05T20:25:00.005+08:00

After reading this Wall Street Journal article, Darkness Too Visible, which I found through author Maureen Johnson's Twitter page, I felt something in it didn't seem right. And no, it wasn't because of Maureen Johnson's own tweet against it. Whether the author of the piece, Meghan Cox Gurdon, intended it or not, it felt like the she was saying that young adult literature should not deal with themes that are too dark, grim, or grisly, and she uses examples of parents' futile attempts at searching for books that deal with lighter themes for their kids. It also seems that she goes on to say that people who speak against what she has said as being quick to play the "censorship card". Well, read the article, and judge for yourselves, but that's the way it came to me.

Frankly, I think it's better for kids to see that people, that the world, can be both a beautiful and an ugly place, and that it's often a mix of both. Literature that truthfully deals with this can help young readers understand this aspect of life. Dealing with dark issues is an important step in growing up, and it is better to acknowledge it than deny its existence and replace it with happiness and joy that is forced and artificial. The best way to fight darkness is not to hide it, but to bring it out into the light. The happiness one finds after knowing darkness becomes deeper, perhaps more mature. It gives one, hopefully, a dash of wisdom and appreciation for any joy that is experienced.

In any case, search "YAsaves" on Twitter to read for yourselves some of the reactions to the article. People are sharing why they like YA, even if they deal with dark issues.

And here's a tweet from author Greg van Eekhout that I like very much:

"Fiction encourages empathy by sharing human experience, including painful experience. It's not supposed to be moral instruction."

I don't know. Maybe the Wall Street Journal is changing their approach to what they publish in an attempt to get more readership. Maybe they're trying to stir controversy by publishing articles that will get a rise out of people. After all, they published that article about "Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior" a short while back. Now this. I wonder what's next?

"The Jar Collector" By Charles Tan

2011-06-01T20:12:00.002+08:00

The latest story on Philippine Genre Stories: "The Jar Collector" by Charles Tan.

On The Philippine Speculative Fiction 6 Launch (With The PGS Crime Issue Tagging Along)

2011-05-31T21:39:00.002+08:00

The event last Saturday, May 28, 2011, was a raucous event, and in a good way, the way loud, noisy parties can be fun in a good way.

My thanks to all the PGS Crime Issue writers, and the issue's guest-editor, F.H. Batacan.

My thanks to the publisher of PSF 6, Dean Alfar, and the editors of the anthology, Nikki Alfar and Kate Osias.

My thanks to all the writers of PSF 6, and all those who attended the event.

And for write-ups, photos, and videos of the event, we can all thank Paolo C hiki amco, Charles Tan, Eliza Victoria, and Vida Cruz.

Don't forget the call for submissions for PSF 7!

Call For Submissions - Philippine Speculative Fiction 7

2011-05-30T21:58:00.001+08:00

PGS contributors Kate and Alex Osias are the new editors for Philippine Speculative Fiction 7. Their call for submissions is here. Deadline is September 30, 2011. Mark the date on your calendars!

Writer Urges Internet Junkies To "Switch Off" And Think

2011-05-30T21:52:00.001+08:00

It takes concentration to read or write. The internet, according to a writer, could be robbing us of it. He wrote an article which I linked to in 2008, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?", and he's warning us again. An excerpt:

Like tens of millions of others, US technology writer Nicholas Carr found the lure of the worldwide web hard to resist -- until he noticed it was getting harder and harder to concentrate.

He set out his concerns in a celebrated essay headlined "Is Google making us stupid?"

And his latest book "The Shallows" explores in depth what he fears the Internet is doing to our brains.

"The seductions of technology are hard to resist," Carr acknowledges in that book, which has sold an estimated 50,000 hardback copies in the United States alone. But he thinks it's time to start trying.

In a speech at last week's Seoul Digital Forum and an interview with AFP, Carr restated his concerns that IT is affecting the way people think and feel and even the physical make-up of their brains.

Every new technology in history -- like the map and the clock -- changed the way people think but Carr sees special dangers in the Internet.

He got his first PC back in the 1980s and was an avid net user until "a few years ago, I noticed some disturbing changes in the way my mind worked. I was losing the ability to concentrate."

While the Internet has enormous benefits in delivering incredible amounts of information at incredible speed, it's also a distracting and interruption-rich environment.

Carr said it encourages quick shifts in focus -- and discourages sustained attention and the ability to think deeply and creatively about one topic and to challenge conventional wisdom.

"The Many Flavors Of Paz del Rosario" by Kate Osias

2011-05-29T13:48:00.002+08:00

PGS contributor Kate Osias has a new story out, "The Many Flavors of Paz del Rosario", in the May 30, 2011 issue of Philippines Graphic, available at bookstores and magazine stands. Congrats, Kate!

Philippine Speculative Fiction 6 Launch (With The PGS Crime Issue Tagging Along) -- Updated

2011-05-22T20:52:00.006+08:00

Philippine Speculative Fiction 6 is going to be launched on Saturday, 2011 May 28, 5 p.m. at Fully Booked Bonifacio Global City. The anthology was edited by PGS contributors Nikki Alfar and Kate Osias. Kate has provided us with the lineup of stories, of which I consider myself fortunate to be a part of with my tale, "The Kiddie Pool"; and in which we can also find other PGS contributors such as Charle s Tan, Ian Rosales Casocot, Andrew Drilon, Vincent Mic hael Simbulan, Elyss Punsalan, Crysta l Koo, Paolo Chikiamco, Dean Alfar, and Alex Osias.

Tagging along and playing the supporting role to PSF6's lead, is the PGS Crime Issue. It's ironic that this will be the first time PGS will be formally announced/launched, given that this issue will be the last foreseeable PGS issue to come out in print. But hey, better late than never, and my thanks to Kestrel, the publisher of PSF6, for allowing PGS to be present on Saturday. It's worth noting that both Crystal Koo and Alex Osias have tales in both PSF6 and the PGS Crime Issue. The other writers in the PGS Crime Issue are Maryanne Moll, Xin Mei, and Dominique Cimafranca, and was guest-edited by F.H. Batacan.

Come and join us on Saturday, 2011 May 28!

Update: Here's an interview with the editors, courtesy of Rocket Kapre. :)

Taking A Break Blogs About The PGS Crime Issue

2011-05-19T21:03:00.002+08:00

My thanks to Taking A Break for sharing his thoughts about the PGS Crime Issue.

I enjoyed reading PGS: Crime. Immensely. It was not at all hard to read, as the five stories included in the collection were (almost) all written in a conversational manner, even though they are works of fiction and are not in first-person.

The only story I’ve had a problem with was the last one, Alexander Osias’s Blogcaster, which wasn’t so much a problem with content as it was, I think, about layout. The content was great, especially after I figured out where one part ends and the next one begins.

My favorite has to be Crystal Koo’s The Last Time I Saw Uncle Freddie though. It’s a powerful enough story on its own, but the way the author weaves the tale, from end to start, makes it even grander in scale.

Click here to read all that he wrote.

"Kapre: A Love Story" by Erin Chupeco

2011-05-18T07:19:00.000+08:00

Live now is "Kapre: A Love Story" by Erin Chupeco. :

"Controller 13" In The May 2011 Issue of Rogue

2011-05-14T07:40:00.001+08:00

Please check out my story, "Controller 13", in the May 2011 issue of Rogue.

With all due respect to the other publications my work has had the good fortune of being included in, this magazine with my story probably has the most gorgeous cover of them all. :P. (That's model Teresa Herrera on the front).

My thanks to Jade Bernas for referring me to features editor Vani de Sequera.

The very kind blurb for "Controller 13":

Big Brother is watching. Kenneth Yu's "Controller 13" envisions a future of superconnectivity where microchip implants in the brain allow people to communicate ideas directly to one another instead of using computers. Told from the point of view of Li, a young man programmed from birth against his will as his country's panopticon, it's a heart-wrenching tale about freedom and the measures individuals take to regain it.

An Interview With Charles A. Tan (Part One)

2011-05-07T12:31:00.000+08:00

Here's an interview with PGS contributor Charles Tan, The Bibliophile Stalker, by Paul Clemmons. An excerpt:

In March of this year, I was lucky enough to sit down to dinner with speculative fiction writer, blogger, and scholar Charles A. Tan (known to those of us at RSF as “Charle Satan”). Family business necessitated a trip to the Philippines, and meeting up with Charles was a highlight of my trip.

Charles and I met up at Shangri-La Plaza (link: http://www.shangrila-plaza.com/ ), which is the sort of mall where you can drink a Starbucks coffee and shop for Louis Vuitton luggage while a pair of half-starved teenagers repair your laptop and hack your blackmarket GPS in the carpark. While this isn’t representative of the Philippines as a whole, this yuppy-cyberpunk fusion is very much representative of what could be the future of the Philippines.

Charles’ excellent blog is at http://charles-tan.blogspot.com/, where you can read more about the upcoming Philippine Speculative Fiction Sampler #6.

So tell us, how did you become Asia’s best-known spec-fic fan and blogger?
Well, I am the ‘whole geek package’, so it is only natural. I love the novels, movies, comics, and gaming. I started blogging in 2001, but it wasn’t until 2007 that I started focusing on genre work. It was, probably 2008 that I started doing interviews—that was when Wizards of the Coast started its “Discovery Series”, and I was very interested. J.M. McDermott was the first person that I interviewed, and from that point I started approaching new artists and writers if I could interview them, and help promote them.

What was your first interview like?
It was mostly email. Even a few months before then, he was already talking to me about his work. He was not yet an established writer, this was just after “The Last Dragon” (link http://www.amazon.com/Last-Dragon-Discoveries-J-M-McDermott/dp/0786948574 ), his debut work, so it wasn’t really intimidating. He was telling me that Jeff VandeMeer was planning to feature him for his Omnivoracious blog at Amazon (link http://www.omnivoracious.com/2008/02/a-brilliant-new.html). It was fun. I do all my interviews by email, because it would take too long to write all this down [mocking laughter, no doubt at my dictaphone].

How out of place have you felt in the Philippines, being the “whole geek package”, with science fiction still a developing art form here?
Well, it depends. In high school, for me, I was out-of-place because not a lot of people were into “geek stuff”. I only found out later on that there were a lot of people into “my kind of books” [laughs]. With the rise of the internet, it has been much easier to find people with common bond, and that’s why I started my blog to find people who share the same interests as me.

Click here for more.

Charles is also the current guest-editor for the first four stories of Philippine Genre Stories (two of which are already up).

Call For Manuscript Submissions – Vee Press

2011-05-05T18:06:00.001+08:00

Here's a call for local manuscripts between 60k and 75k. An excerpt:

Vee Press is accepting submissions for our upcoming e-book line. We are actively seeking talented writers who have completed a novel-length manuscript or have written more than 10 chapters of an ongoing work. Writers who are willing to work with us through our fast-paced publishing cycle are especially welcome.

We are considering both popular non-fiction and fiction titles on any topic, with a great preference for plots or subjects that concern the Philippines and its culture. Both non-professional and established authors are welcome, but any work submitted to us must not have been previously published, including self-publishing, in print or online. Self-published works are considered published.

We are looking for:

Manuscripts with a projected length of between 60,000 and 75,000 words. We are currently not considering works that go above the maximum word count, but we will consider pitches for potential series.
A fresh premise that can be conveyed as a paragraph-length (5 sentences maximum) pitch.
Non-fiction that takes a popular (mainstream, non-academic) approach on their subject matter.
For fiction, works in any genre that mix engaging storytelling with exciting plot and compelling characters.

Further guidelines:

Please make sure the copyright and publishing rights are not owned by other parties. Unpublished manuscripts optioned by companies or organizations are not up for consideration.
Works that are based on material (television, literature, etc.) that have not entered public domain are not accepted.
If excerpts of the work have been previously published, we ask the authors to include this information upon submission.

Click here for more information.

PGS Online: "The Departure" by Marianne Villanueva

2011-05-01T18:33:00.003+08:00

After the first PGS Online story some two weeks ago ("What You See" by Ian Casocot), we now bring you "The Departure" by Marianne Villanueva.

Pakinggan Pilipinas Episode 11: "Reunion"

2011-05-01T18:27:00.003+08:00

PGS contributor Elyss Punsalan has uploaded her latest podcast on Pakinggan Pilipinas: "Reunion" by Eliza Victoria. Head on over to listen to her podcast! Congratulations to Elyss and Eliza! (Hey, that has a nice ring to it!)

Oh! And I missed linking up to Episode 10, an unabridged version of PGS guest-editor Yvette Tan's "The Bridge"! (An "unabridged Bridge", nyuk nyuk).

PGS--The Special Crime Issue

2011-04-24T20:40:00.003+08:00

The PGS Special Crime Issue is now available!

You can get your copies at Comic Quest Megamall and at Comic Quest SM North Edsa.

The issue is also available at Avalon.ph. You can now order online and it'll be delivered right to your doorstep!

In fact, it's not only the Crime Issue that's available, but all past PGS issues can also be found on Avalon.ph! My thanks to Jasper Ong of Avalon.ph for accepting PGS into his inventory!

Presenting...The R.H. Bill (Updated)

2011-04-23T20:53:00.011+08:00

The Reproductive Health Bill, a bill filed in the Philippine Congress that, if passed, will become a law, is a big issue in the country. The bill talks about contraceptives and, through government, will promote and expand their use in the country. Many clerics and other religious in the Roman Catholic Church are passionately against it because it goes against their morals and dogma. Many others are for the bill because they see it as a way to prevent the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases and to slow down overpopulation. Pro's and anti's have taken to the streets, to the web, and to traditional media, to loudly voice their stands, often bringing both groups to a head. Voices have been raised in anger; accusations of slander, libel, and misinformation have been exchanged; threats have been made.

The Anti's have threatened the Pro's with the fires of hell, the everlasting torment and suffering of their souls, calling them evil, depraved, the children of the devil, and ironically wishing that their mothers had just aborted them and prevented them from ever living. The Pro's have called the Anti's narrow-minded zealots who have lost all critical thought as a brain-function and who have become illogical idiots blinded to reality because of their fanaticism, essentially calling them out as the equivalent of medieval inquisitors from a less-informed time in history.

And these have been the nicer exchanges, the ones I can write without having to use an "*" to block out more offensive terms. I'm surprised nobody's ended up hurt or dead from some form of violence yet (or maybe someone has, and I just haven't heard about it; if this is indeed true, don't tell me about it).

With so many people saying so many things in such loud voices about the RH bill, I wondered to myself, "How many of these people have actually read the bill and are not parroting what those around them are saying? How many of these people have actually read the bill, parsed through its intentions, its meanings, its implementation, in a reasoned and controlled manner without having their emotions whipped up in hysteria? How many of these people then, after reading it, can debate on the bill based on what is actually written in it, without having to call each other all these names and make all these threats?"

And then I realized, "Wait a minute. I don't have an opinion on this matter because I haven't read the bill myself!"

So I did some searching on the web, and I found a copy of the bill online. If someone like me with only a modicum of interest in this bill found it fairly easily, I'm sure all these others who find it more important have found it, too.

You know what? Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe all these people have, indeed, read the bill already.

After all, all these people fighting and arguing and threatening and shouting and raising their fists about this, are fairly intelligent people, right? Who know how to make informed opinions, eh?

These are the kinds of folk who wouldn't, you know, open their mouths and criticize a book without reading it first, right?

Or say something about a movie, or a song, without first watching or listening to it?

Or write a review about a new car model without first giving it a test drive?

Or discuss a new gadget--a computer, a camera, a tablet, a cellphone--without first trying it out?

And these are the kind of people who will not make their stands anonymously, right? I mean, even in this day and age of the internet, when anonymous comments are all the rage, these are the kind of people who would bravely identify themselves by their real names when they make statements, and not hide behind pseudonyms while writing their opinions, correct?

So, there's the bill, online. I'm going to read it. And then, I will follow all these other people and come up with my own informed opinion. And then, to avoid any complications, I'll keep that opinion to myself, because I neither want to be threatened with the fires of hell, nor called a fanatical zealot with no brain.

But I will remember how my Congressman voted. More importantly, I will remember that, after having all the arguments presented to me by all sides, after having all the options open to me presented clearly, then with my free will I will be ready to make my own decisions; because I, like everyone else, have the power to live my life following my morals, my conscience, and my own informed opinions, without having anyone else--Pro or Anti--do my thinking and reflection for me, thank you very much.

Update: PGS contributor Paolo Chikiamco, a lawyer by training, has said that the RH Bill will be amended. He said to just ignore the "factually inaccurate yet sound-byte worthy headline" to this link he provided which talks about the amendment.

Another Local Plagiarism Incident

2011-04-19T20:55:00.002+08:00

One would think that after a number of local plagiarism issues that have received a lot of attention, there would be more care given before going public with a piece of work. This issue hits me on a certain level, as I've blogged about before.

Now it seems that noted Pinoy writer Krip Yuson was called out for doing the same for a sports article. He replied apologetically about the matter, and the blogger who first noticed this, Jaemark Tordecilla of Fire Quinito, was ready to let things go (after linking up to some others who wrote about the matter). But then, the blogger changed his mind about it after reading that writer's latest column, in which Krip Yuson brought up the plagiarism issue once more. The blogger, to use his words, said that the column "unmasked the apology as disingenuous".

Others have weighed in, and if you click on those links, they're going to lead to more links.

Plagiarism sure has reared its ugly head several times in recent Philippine history. I hope this will be the last incident for some time. I'm afraid it might not be the last, though. If you're a writer, please take care not to plagiarize by always properly attributing what you lift. If you're a reader, well, it's easy to say "be aware of what you're reading", but really, there's only so much a reader can do since the cards are all with the writer and the editor. A sharp eye and a well-read mind might be the best tool against it.

Welcome To PGS Online! (Updated)

2011-04-17T14:17:00.002+08:00

Transition made. Welcome to PGS Online! Click here for the introductory editorial, and here for the first story.

Update: My thanks to Rocket Kapre and Destroy Thee for blogging about PGS online on their respective sites. My thanks too to all friends who retweeted and reposted on their Facebook sites. Thanks, and please do spread the word about the site, and read it whenever there's a new story! Thanks!

"Spider Hunt" As A Podcast On Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine!

2011-04-14T23:06:00.002+08:00

"Spider Hunt" is now live as a podcast on Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine! I originally announced it here. My thanks to Rish Outfield and Bigg Anklevich for turning this story into audio form (sound-effects issues and all ;-P). The story was originally published on Aurora Wolf. Thrilling stuff (for me at least)! Click here to give the story a listen!

And Even More On Typewriters

2011-04-12T23:00:00.002+08:00

Yes, I still love typewriters. A simple search of "typewriters" on this blog will show that. :)

My relatives sent me the following links, which had me smiling as I was reading them.

First, check out this gadget that mechanically turns the iPad into a typewriter (though it could all be a prank).

Second, here's an article from The New York Times which shows members of the digital generation, young ones who might never have needed to even set hands on a typewriter, actually discover these writing machines for themselves. An excerpt:

“Can I touch it?” a young woman asked. Permission granted, she poked two buttons at once. The machine jammed. She recoiled as if it had bitten her.

“I’m in love with all of them,” said Louis Smith, 28, a lanky drummer from Williamsburg. Five minutes later, he had bought a dark blue 1968 Smith Corona Galaxie II for $150. “It’s about permanence, not being able to hit delete,” he explained. “You have to have some conviction in your thoughts. And that’s my whole philosophy of typewriters.”

Whether he knew it or not, Mr. Smith had joined a growing movement. Manual typewriters aren’t going gently into the good night of the digital era. The machines have been attracting fresh converts, many too young to be nostalgic for spooled ribbons, ink-smudged fingers and corrective fluid. And unlike the typists of yore, these folks aren’t clacking away in solitude.

They’re fetishizing old Underwoods, Smith Coronas and Remingtons, recognizing them as well designed, functional and beautiful machines, swapping them and showing them off to friends. At a series of events called “type-ins,” they’ve been gathering in bars and bookstores to flaunt a sort of post-digital style and gravitas, tapping out letters to send via snail mail and competing to see who can bang away the fastest.

And now, here's a third link, a funny reaction (funny at least to me) that that New York Times article. An excerpt:

When was in high school (and for a time at college), I had to write the majority of my papers on a Smith-Corona electric typewriter. It was this big, heavy, blue piece of shit. It had a delete key that didn’t really work. If I typed on it and fucked up, I had to go use Wite Out and manually redact what I wrote. And I never revised or rewrote anything, because that would just mean typing the shit out all over again. It had disks so I could digitally store text documents, but they didn’t always work. And when I printed a digital file, the thing printed at the rate of a secretary who types 3 words a minute and takes breaks every quarter hour to have a smoke or get plowed by the boss.

I fucking hated this thing. When I had transferred colleges and finally had access to a computer lab at school (I didn’t have a computer of my own), I gleefully took that piece of shit and threw it away. Which is why I am both puzzled and filled with acidic ragefoam when I read about this bunch of pretentious, uppity, cuntfaced, dipshit hipster cockpullers who insist on using a manual typewriter for all their precious Writing with a capital W. If you figured a ludicrous “it’s a trend because I know a guy who does it” article like this was the byproduct of the New York Times, you would be correct:

“It’s about permanence, not being able to hit delete,” he explained. “You have to have some conviction in your thoughts. And that’s my whole philosophy of typewriters.”

There is so much there that pisses me off, I just want to drive to Williamsburg and spray random people with lighter fluid. As if not being able to delete the outlandish drivel you write somehow makes you Ernest fucking Hemingway. These people with computers. They don’t really stop to THINK before they write now, do they? That’s why I prefer the dulcet clattering of my vintage 1908 Weezleburg, which does NOT have a carriage return.

At a series of events called “type-ins,” they’ve been gathering in bars and bookstores to flaunt a sort of post-digital style and gravitas, tapping out letters to send via snail mail and competing to see who can bang away the fastest.

Are you throwing up yet? Do you want to find one of these type-ins and close the door on it and Hoover out all the oxygen until every last person inside lay dying in a puddle of the own vanilla-scented human waste? Because I do!

“You type so much quicker than you can think on a computer,” Ms. Kowalski said. “On a typewriter, you have to think.”

Don’t you just love that quote? As if everything ever written on a computer were somehow invalid because a computer is EASIER to use and, in fact, invites you to constantly revise and fine-tune what you’ve written so that it’s better than when you first typed it out.

Yvette Tan's Poetics

2011-04-12T22:54:00.002+08:00

"Poetics refers generally to the theory of literary discourse and specifically to the theory of poetry, although some speakers use the term so broadly as to denote the concept of 'theory' itself." (from Wikipedia).

Without further ado, here are PGS horror issue guest-editor Yvette Tan's poetics, which she shared during the 50th UP National Writers Workshop (happening right now). An excerpt:

I was not always a writer. Growing up, I thought I would become an artist, or perhaps a fashion designer. I loved reading but wasn’t fond of fiction, preferring to peruse the Disney Encyclopedias that my parents bought for me. Of course, I was drawn to the volume on myths and legends, that told of Greek, Roman and Norse mythology. But that’s history, not fiction, right? I also liked reading non-fiction books about espionage and detective work, as well about dogs and, for some reason, mushrooms.

My first books were what today would be called graphic novels. Me and my best friend would, after watching the latest Maricel Soriano comedy, draw scenes from the movie and imagine ourselves as Maria. My first “written” book would be a manual on self defense, written when I was in grade four and bound with wrapping paper. I was terribly shy, and still am, and so didn’t show it to anybody. Unfortunately, one of my classmates found it and leafed through it and instead of making fun of it like I feared she would, looked rather impressed as she handed it back to me.

I remember the first time I decided I wanted to be a freelance writer. It was in grade five, after realizing that “freelance” meant “no boss.” That being a freelance writer meant actually writing did not enter my mind at all.

The reason I started writing fiction was, in one word, boys. In high school, my friends and I were big fans of the New Kids on the Block, something that we will swear up and down never happened and if it did, it was during a moment of insanity. My friends would make me write stories that had them and their favorite New Kid as protagonists. Later, a friend introduced me to fantasy books and I would write high fantasy stories, the Western kind that had wizards and whatnot.

None of this has anything to do with what I write now.

The Forbes Fictional 15

2011-04-08T21:20:00.002+08:00

Here is the yearly list Forbes makes of the net worth of the richest fictional characters around. Most are from video and comics, but two from books have made it: Artemis Fowl and Smaug the dragon. The introduction:

The members of our 2011 list of wealthiest fictional characters have an average net worth of $9.7 billion, up 20% from last year. In aggregate, the Fictional 15 are worth $131.6 billion --more than the gross domestic product of New Zealand. To qualify for the Fictional 15, characters must be known, both within their fictional universe and by their audience, for being rich. Net worth estimates are based on an analysis of the fictional character's source material, and where possible, valued against known real-world commodity and share price movements. All figures are as of market close, April 1, 2011.

I look forward to this list for the novelty of it, and I really enjoy the way Forbes comes up with their calculations. Here's a bit of how they computed Smaug's wealth:

We know from the novel that Smaug’s wealth comes down to three primary components, the mound of silver and gold that he sleeps on, the diamonds and other precious gemstones encrusted in his underbelly, and the “Arkenstone of Thrain,” which is depicted as something like the Hope Diamond on steroids. (There are certainly other valuable items in Smaug’s hoard – rare suits of armor and so on – but the point of the exercise is to establish a minimum, conservative, net worth and the total value of a pile of ancient weaponry is probably no more than a rounding error in a fortune measured in the billions of dollars.)

Let’s start with the metals.

The book describes Smaug as “vast,” “centuries-old” and of a “red-golden color.” According to the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons’ site The Hypertext d20 SRD a true-dragon of that age and color measures around 64 feet from snout to tail. However, a great deal of that length is likely tail. By way of reference, Komodo Dragons are 70% tail by length, so we can estimate Smaug’s body to be approximately 19.2 feet long.

Dragons are long and narrow, so we can safely assume that Smaug can curl comfortably up on a treasure mound with same diameter as his body length – 19.2 feet.

How high is the mound? Well, at one point in The Hobbit, Bilbo climbs up and over the mound, and we know that Hobbits are approximately three feet tall. Assuming the mound is twice the height of Bilbo, we can say that the mound has a height of approximately 6 feet – like a six foot tall man climbing over a 12 foot mound of coins; substantial but not insurmountable.

To keep the math relatively simple and to avoid complications like integrating the partial volume of a sphere, we can approximate Smaug’s bed of gold and silver to be a cone, with a radius of 9.6 feet (1/2 the diameter) and a height of 7 feet (assuming the weight of the dragon will smush down the point of the cone by about a foot).

Now we can calculate the volume of Smaug’s treasure mound:

V= 1/3 π r² h = 1/3 * π * 9.6² * 7 = 675.6 cubic feet

But, obviously, the mound isn’t solid gold and silver. We know it has a “great two-handled cups” in it – one of which Bilbo steals – and probably human remains, not to mention the air space between the coins. Let’s assume that the mound is 30% air and bones. That makes the volume of the hoard that is pure gold and silver coins 472.9 cubic feet.

We know that Bilbo eventually takes his cut of the treasure in two small-chests, one filled with gold and the other filled with silver, so it seems safe to assume that the hoard is approximately ½ gold and ½ silver, or 236.4 cubic feet of each metal.

A Kuggerrand, the South African Coin containing 1 troy ounce of pure gold, measures 32.6 mm in diameter and is 2.84 mm thick. Solving for the volume of a cylinder( V= π r² h), then converting cubic millimeters to cubic inches, then cubic inches to cubic feet gives a volume of 8.371354e-05 (or 0.00008371354) square feet for a single coin, containing one ounce of gold.

Using similar logic, an American Silver Eagle coin (40.6 mm in diameter, 2.98 mm thick), which contains one troy ounce of silver, has a volume of 0.000136 square feet.

It’s then a trivial matter to determine the number of 1-ounce gold coins (2.8 million) and silver coins (1.7 million) in the heap. At the moment gold is trading at $1423.8/ounce and silver at $37.5/ounce making the gold coins worth a little more than $4 billion and the silver ones worth $65 million, or $4.1 billion for them combined.

Now for the diamonds:

After all those decades of sleeping on the top of his hoard, Smaug’s soft underbelly has become encrusted with diamonds (“what magnificence to possess a waistcoat of such fine diamonds!”), making him largely invulnerable to arrows and lances, except of course for the “large patch in the hollow of his left breast” which is “as bare as a snail out of its shell.”

How much are all these diamonds worth?

Well, we know that Smaug’s body (with tail) is 64 feet long, and we know that dragons are long and narrow, so it seems safe to assume that the ratio of length to width for a full-grown true dragon is about 6 to 1, leaving us with 10.7 feet for the beast’s body width. Six-inches by six-inches seems a reasonable guess for the size of individual dragon scale, meaning that there are 822 individual scales on Smaug’s underbelly. Subtracting 5% for the bare patch, leaves us with 781 diamond-encrusted dragon scales.

According to Diamond Helpers, diamonds above 5.99 carats are priced individually, so let’s simplify and assume that all of Smaug’s diamonds are 5.99 carats, priced at approximately $16,700 per carat or just over $100,000 each. Fifty diamonds per six-inch square dragon scale seems adequate to ward off most arrows, so Smaug is encrusted with 38,900 diamonds, with a total value of $3.9 billion.

Adding the diamonds to the $4.1 billion in precious metals gives us a value of $8.0 billion.

Finally the Arkenstone of Thrain:

In the narrative the Arkenstone is explicitly valued at exactly 1/14^th of the entire treasure, since Bilbo takes it as his full-share then altruistically trades it away to prevent all-out war between the dwarves and a coalition of men and elves. If 13/14ths of the treasure is worth $8.0 billion, then the whole treasure must be worth approximately $8.6 billion, comfortably placing Smaug in 7^th place on the 2011 Forbes Fictional 15.

Spindle

2011-04-02T15:16:00.001+08:00

Check out this site, Spindle, an online literary journal. From their "About Us":

SPINDLE is an ever-expanding online journal with one new, featured work every Monday. It is maintained by a group of individuals based in the Philippines — readers, writers, and students of literature — who simply want more homegrown venues for the literary and visual arts.

From their "Contribute" page:

SPINDLE is interested in publishing poetry, fiction, essays, and artwork of different forms, genres, and media.

We accept collaborations, essays on craft, interviews, hypertext, sequential art, works from a series, and whatever you think counts as literature, art, an intersection thereof, or simply a piece that deserves an audience.

Local writers and artists may be our focus, but we welcome submissions from everyone.

Writers, Never Do This

2011-04-02T13:06:00.007+08:00

This went viral earlier in the week. It's a review of a book, where the author engaged the reviewer heatedly when she disagreed with his assessment of her work. It's spilled over now onto Amazon. There have been instances of this in the past, and time and time again, it's always been proven that doing so is never a good thing for the writer. Do not engage the reviewer in anger. Do not ask for the review to be taken down. Do not fight the reviewer. Do not insult the reviewer's taste/aesthetics/choice of books/parents/spouse/best friend/place of residence/body type/fashion sense. If a piece gets a negative review, the best thing to do is suffer in silence, take what positives you can from the criticism, then do your best to come up with something better. This is a more constructive way to channel the angry energy than fighting someone.

Tales From The 7,000 Isles

2011-04-02T12:59:00.003+08:00

Here's the new book co-written by Zarah Gagatiga, School Librarian In Action. Her message:

Here's the book cover of Tales From the 7,000 Isles (Libraries Unlimited), the book I co-wrote with Fil-Am storyteller and writer, Dianne De Las Casas. The book will be out by Fall 2011. Cover art done by Bernadette Wolf. Friends and family in the US, please patronize your kababayans! LOL

Congrats, Zarah! Let us know when it's available for purchase!

The Kritika Kultura Anthology of New Philippine Writing in English

2011-03-25T22:06:00.000+08:00

The Kritika Kultura Anthology Of New Philippine Writing In English is now up and available. An excerpt from the intro:

The Philippine literary community has a relatively longstanding tradition of releasing anthologies focusing on young writers. However, it can be gleaned that the notion of the “new” remains unarticulated, as recent anthologies simply focus on the “young,” and what becomes apparent is the persistent maintenance of an aesthetics solidified in various creative writing institutions and workshops, a notion that is rapidly rendered inaccurate by a healthy production of writing that these anthologies do not include.

What this issue of Kritika Kultura intends to accomplish is to represent the kind of writing that is rarely published, the kind that is not often legitimized by mainstream publications. The kind of writing that we, as editors, can confidently call “new.”

The FFP 24 Hour Read-a-thon

2011-03-25T09:11:00.002+08:00

The reading group Flips Flipping Pages is going to hold a 24 Hour Read-a-thon at Libreria in Cubao on April 8-9, 2011. Click here for more details and sign up if you want to join!

"Cherry Clubbing" In D.O.A. -- Extreme Horror Collection (Updated)

2011-03-23T19:05:00.003+08:00

Hooray! More good news for me. :)

D.O.A.--Extreme Horror Collection from Blood Bound Books, is now available! The blurb:

This anthology contains 28 horror stories taken to an extreme you've never read before. Author Kenneth Yu will introduce you to a disturbing interest that two men in the Philippines share, while Edward R. Rosick reveals the true location of the soul. Readers will journey from plague-ridden ships off England's coast to the viscous barrios of Mexico. You'll even meet a vampire who hungers for something more than just blood. But remember, this book is not for the easily sickened or offended. You've been warned.

I blogged about this last year, and now it's finally out! My story in this anthology is "Cherry Clubbing", the same one that won co-3rd place at the Fully Booked and Neil Gaiman-sponsored 3rd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards. My thanks to publisher Marc Ciccarone for accepting "Cherry Clubbing" into the anthology.

If you want to order, you can click here. :) It will also soon be available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Updated: It's now available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

"Spider Hunt" In Aurora Wolf #3

2011-03-23T09:56:00.003+08:00

Pretty excited to see my byline in the above anthology, Aurora Wolf #3, Aurora Of The Sun. The publisher, Michael Pennington, sent the physical copy of the anthology to my relative abroad, and that relative photographed and emailed me the above byline for my story, "Spider Hunt". I'm also excited about its upcoming release as a podcast at The Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine.

If you want to buy the anthology, click here. There's a discount code, too (9RWWE4QP), and it's good for any Aurora Wolf press book.

My thanks to editor Linda Manning and publisher Michael Pennington for printing "Spider Hunt" in their anthology! :D

NYC Judge Rejects Google Books Settlement

2011-03-23T09:12:00.001+08:00

Interesting news on the digital library Google has been trying to set up: NYC Judge Rejects Google Books Settlement. An excerpt:

A federal judge in New York City has rejected a deal between Google and lawyers for authors and publishers to let the gigantic search engine make money presiding over the world's largest digital library.

U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin said the creation of a universal library would benefit many but would "simply go too far."

He said the settlement of the class-action lawsuit challenging the right of Google ( GOOG - news - people ) to scan books and display snippets for online searching would "grant Google significant rights to exploit entire books, without permission of the copyright owners."

PGS -- The Special Crime Issue

2011-03-19T22:43:00.009+08:00

COMING SOON!

Guest-edited by F.H. Batacan

Cover art by Josel Nicolas

"Less Talk, Less Mistake" by Xin Mei
He opened a bag of watermelon seeds and one by one popped the seeds into his mouth. He cracked them open with his front teeth and then spat the shells onto the floor. She held onto the ends of her skirt and tried to avoid being spattered with the shells.

Then, his hands, so much stronger than hers, removed hers from her skirt. He moved his hands up and down her legs. She tried so hard to keep her eyes on the screen, to read the English subtitles of the Chinese movie. The words came and went faster than her mind could comprehend them.

He whispered, “Beautiful, she is so beautiful. Ya sui.”

Something excited her, something she could not understand. She looked at the actress and wondered what made her beautiful. She portrayed a Chinese princess, dressed in a Chinese empress costume, and she could not see her face because his heavy arms blocked her view.

“Look at her jewelry, her tsiu siak. You want jewelry, too? How beautiful!” He whispered again.

She looked at the princess and thought she was decorated like a Christmas tree. She heard his voice but refused to look up. He repeated the words, “beautiful, beautiful,” until she looked up and saw the face of her grandfather. She cried out loud.

"God Is The Space Between" by Maryanne Moll
I remembered myself covering the full-length mirror with the sheet years and years ago, crying through the pain in my head, which had just been rammed into a wall, and remembered, all of a sudden, all the tiny details of the past eleven years--torn lips, hard slaps on the face, cuts on my thighs, punches in the stomach, kicks on the legs and hips, being locked in the bedroom until my visible bruises had healed.

"Grenadier" by Dominique Cimafranca
It happened so quickly. He really only had time to slam the brakes.

The brown Nissan Sentra had been following them since that intersection at Lobregat Street. On Ruste, just before the school, the Sentra zoomed forward, cut him off, and forced him onto the curb. Two men came out from the passenger side.

One carried an M-16, the other a .45-caliber.

He fumbled with the gear stick, tried to put the car in reverse. But when he looked behind him, a beige Mitsubishi L-300 was blocking the way. Its side panel door was open. He saw two men in the van. One man stood near the front of the van, pointing an M-16 at the onlookers. Another man with a .45-caliber walking towards them.

"Lock the doors!" was all he could think to say.

"The Last Time I Saw Uncle Freddie" by Crystal Koo
The insignia of the Hong Kong Police consists of the Admiralty waterfront framed by a garland of thirty-six leaves and topped with a bauhinia flower. Below is a blue scroll with HONG KONG POLICE printed in English and Chinese.

I have been sitting in the waiting room staring at the banner behind the empty desk for nearly an hour. They have been passing me around ever since I stepped into the Tin Shui Wai Division Station and asked if my elderly uncle had been murdered in the Wang Chau reservoir three months go.

I wrote Uncle Freddie's name in Chinese but no one had ever reported a Wong Shing Hang to have drowned there and no one recognized the name. The sergeant told me that it wasn't very uncommon for bodies to be fished out from there, given that it was part of a popular nature trail. Their records were off-limits to me and that was the end of the matter. The best I could do was to file a missing person report and to wait.

I had refused to leave and he led me into the waiting room and left me for an hour. When you're left by yourself with no one to contradict you, you become more doubtful of your position. It was possible Uncle Freddie had never drowned. It was possible he had never been murdered. In fact, it was possible that he never met up with the person waiting for him there. Maybe he had gotten lost along the way. He was pushing seventy and he had been traveling alone.

"Blogcaster" by Alexander Osias
Some friends of mine went missing the other week. They were real journalists, protégés of my lolo from his days with the Times. That's the reason I chose the term "blogcaster" over the more popular and more difficult to pronounce term blogjournalist. Not only does blogcaster sound better--it's more accurate. There's no art in my writing, no effort in my research, no real danger in my anonymous (though factual) posts.

They told me that an informant had suddenly called for an emergency meeting scant days after their last tête-à-tête and didn't even haggle over price. I warned them that it sounded suspicious, but Erlinda scoffed at my paranoia. "Death will come for us in the night," she said with a fatalistic glint in her eye, "not from some coffee meeting with an aging bureaucrat." Louis laughed and slugged back the remainder of his beer.

Now, two days later with no responses to texts or calls, all I can do is hope for the best.

Ghost Stories Shared At Asian Supernatural Lecture

2011-03-18T21:15:00.002+08:00

PGS contributor Alex Paman shared his love for ghost stories at Sacramento State, his alma mater.

Paman's fascination with the unknown began in the Philippines, where he grew up in two haunted houses. Paman later wrote about his supernatural experiences in two books, "The Asian Supernatural: Including Hawaii and the Pacific" and "Filipino Ghost Stories."

Pat Chirapravati, Sac State professor and director of Asian studies, said the recent popularity in ghost research has led to renewed interest in the paranormal. While most people in Western culture are familiar with stories about vampires, zombies, ghosts and werewolves, few are aware of the vast supernatural realm that exists in Asian and Pacific cultures.

"Supernatural figures and stories have always been in my culture," said Chirapravati. "Coming to America, I've noticed it's not part of the Western culture as much as it is in Asian cultures. I can definitely see the difference. However, I am trying to expose the many aspects of Asian life to the Western audience so they gain a better understanding of different cultures' beliefs."

Being a Sac State alumnus, Paman was eager to present a lecture at his alma mater. He was even more excited to discuss his passion for the Asian supernatural and its different entities.

Paman said he designed the lecture to be intriguing and informative for students and faculty who are from Western culture. He said because the Asian supernatural culture is so diverse, it should be shared with people of Western cultures to inspire all cultures to embrace their traditions.

Read the article here.

Young Adults Write!

2011-03-15T20:35:00.001+08:00