Rocket Kapre – Fantastic Filipino Speculative Fiction

At the World SF News Blog’s new home, they’ve got the first of a two part round table discussion up with guests Kaaron Warren, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Vandana Singh and Aliette de Bodard being asked: How, and to what extent, does your environment and background inform your writing?

Here’s a snippet from Aliette de Bodard’s answer:

About the background… I don’t set out to consciously use it (since my experience as a half-French, half-Vietnamese writing in English as a second language is probably not shared by many people on Earth), but for me, the background is still an integral part of my writing. It’s shaped the values I hold, the type of characters I’m drawn to, and the type of stories that appeal to me. Some of it comes from the background, some of it from my own experience, but all of that is stuff that ends up unconsciously going into the stories.

The Ideas Alive seminar and workshop on how to be a “media creator” by Jomike Tejido (Foldabots), and Budjette Tan (Trese) had the ill fortune of being scheduled on the day Ondoy hit. The original seminar was cancelled, and Visprint has recently announced that the seminar will now take place this Saturday, October 10, at 3-5 p.m in in Powerbooks Megamall.

Since Rocket Kapre launched a month ago, we’ve been whetting your appetite for a certain anthology by giving you weekly interviews with contributors. For the month of September, we’ve picked the brains of Kate Aton-Osias, Crystal Koo and Dominique Cimafranca regarding their stories in The Farthest Shore, an anthology of secondary world fantasy from Filipino authors, and now you can read those stories for yourselves: The Farthest Shore has been released, just in time for weekend reading. Please do check it out, and let us know what you think!

We also have a few more Farthest Shore author interviews in the pipeline (and now you’ll actually know what they’re talking about).  This Wednesday we’ll speak to Eliza Victoria about her story, “The Just World of Helena Jimenez”.

Over at twitter, I discovered a new project being proposed for artists who are looking for some way to use their talents to aid in the relief effort: START HERE.  Please spread the word.

[Note: The group seems to be soliciting visual art--for those wordsmiths and prose masters out there, stay tuned. I'm working on something.]

From the site: START HERE is a collection of artwork inspired by Typhoon Ondoy relief efforts that aims, in turn, to inspire others to help in rebuilding the Philippines. The hope is that we can eventually set up an exhibit where we can sell the artworks with the proceeds donated to Ondoy relief efforts, rebuilding programs and calamity risk management programs.

What follows is the group’s call to action:

Dear artists,

TO:
starthere.rebuild[at]gmail.com

Yesterday, tropical storm Ondoy hit areas of Luzon, including Metro Manila, and dumped a month’s worth of rainfall within the span of six hours.  For those who would like to help, I’m posting links to Manuel L. Quezon III’s mirrored blog entry with relevant information and links: here, here and here.

Still in the throes of file/laptop deprivation (and illness), so that throws a wrench in regularly scheduled programming, but Sumintheblue has a post over at Bookmarked! announcing several events that might be of interest to Rocket Kapre readers, two of which happen tomorrow!

First is the Flips Flipping Pages September book discussion on Patrick Suskind’s Perfume. I confess that I hadn’t heard about the book, but the plot of the book is intriguing (with speculative elements, although I’m unsure if those are all in the protagonist’s head). Alas, since the sense of smell to me is like the sense of sight to a mole, I doubt I’ll sympathize much with the main character. For those of you who want to join the discussion (you don’t need to be a member of Flips Flipping Pages), it’ll be this Saturday (tomorrow) at the New Bombay Restaurant, Gil Puyat Ave. corner Ayala Extension, Makati.

Next is Ideas Alive, a seminar and workshop on how to be a “media creator” (which I read to mean tips on how to expand your story/concept beyond its original medium) by Jomike Tejido (Foldabots), and Budjette Tan (Trese). The event will be held on September 26 October 10 at 3-5 p.m in in Powerbooks Megamall. It’s organized by Powerbooks and the Philippine Star’s Supreme section.

Finally, the New Worlds Alliance is holding a multimedia review contest for the Hunger Games. Contestants must submit a creative book review of The Hunger Games either in text, text with artwork, video, audio or any other multi-media format. The winner gets: 1 copy of The Hunger Games signed by Suzanne Collins; The Underland Chronicles (books 1 to 5–this is Collins’ previous work); 1 The Hunger Games shirt. The deadline is October 30 and more details can be found here.

Budjette sent out a tweet yesterday that lead me to an interesting post over at (deep breath) When I Read These Novels, I’ll Be Able to Conquer the World which dealt with, amongst other things, why Darna was not inspired by Wonder Woman, but was instead probably our answer to the Marvel Family. The post goes on to talk about other heroes similar to Captain Marvel and co., including Captain Barbel.

Me, I always thought Darna was a rip-off of this sadly forgotten heroine… but what do I know?

I think it bears mentioning that, a few days ago, a portion of an article by the Bibliophile Stalker, Charles Tan, was linked to by Charlie Jane Anders over at io9, a major SF news site, as its “Quote of the Day” for 16 September 2009. Charles’ full article, entitled “Speculative Fiction – The Genre without Limitations” can be found at his new column at the BSC Review.

Just a heads-up: my Manila International Book Fair Primer for the Philippine Online Chronicles has just gone live. While I did a special Speculative Fiction focused post on the Book Fair for Rocket Kapre yesterday, the primer I made for the POC takes you down aisle-by-aisle and is more general in scope, so check it out if you’d like more ground-level info to plan your weekend book binges. ^_^

Got an email from the Brainfood gang announcing (at last!) the dates for their Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing Workshop:

BRAINFOOD WORKSHOPS present:

“YOU HAVE WORLDS IN YOU!”

Join the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writing Workshop and explore both genres not only as a reader but as a creator!

The workshop will help budding sci-fi & fantasy writers be proud creators through discussions, exercises and projects. Stories will be compiled into a short story anthology to bring home.

Four sessions. Php 2,000 per person.
October 3, 10, 17, & 24 @ Fully Booked.
Saturdays 4-6pm.

Sign up at the customer service area of Fully Booked High Street or email brainfoodph[at]gmail.com