Rocket Kapre – Fantastic Filipino Speculative Fiction

This coming Saturday is June 12, Independence Day here in the Philippines, an occasion well worth commemorating–and, for writers, perhaps commemorating in our own inimitable way. Last year, on my old blog “Bahay Talinhaga”, I invited people to celebrate independence day on Twitter by tweeting six word stories and tagging them with #RP612fic. Even on such short notice–I only had the bright idea a day before independence day–quite a few people chose to participate and we ended up with a hundred original micro stories, (some NSFW so ‘ware the link) give or take, which I personally found to be an excellent way to celebrate our independence.

So, as should be apparent by now, I’d like to do this again this year–and with more advance notice as well. For RP612Fic 2010, I’m doing away with the six word limit–any story which would fit a tweet with the #RP612fic tag will do, so 130 characters, regardless of how many words are included therein. Let’s start posting the stories on Friday, June 11, and I’ll wait until the afternoon of June 14 before putting all the tweets/stories together in a post. Aside from that time limit, there are no real rules, though obviously I’d love good spec fic micro stories about Filipinos/the Philippines–and I have a special love for alternative history stories at this time of year. (For instance, what if there had been perfect attendance at the House of Representatives when the Freedom of Information Bill was on the table last Friday?)

If you’re on Twitter, tag your stories with #RP612fic so I can compile them in a post. If you’re not on Twitter but would still like to participate, just shoot me an email before June 13 at rocketkapre[at] gmail.com and place “RP612fic” in the subject line and I’ll include these stories in the aggregation post.

So that’s it. I hope that all of you can participate and help spread the word. Looking forward to reading all your stories ^_^

(Image of old school Philippine soldiers from Filipiniana.net)