Bitten by the pre-apocalypse muse? Adam David is looking for essays, fictions, poetry, songs, komix, doodles, photographs, videos, for THURSDAY NEVER LOOKING BACK, an electronic anthology that seeks to gather, process, and perform various end-of-the-world scenarios. You can see more details here.

Flipside Komix (an imprint of Flipside Digital Content, a leading independent publisher of e-books) has an ongoing promotion where you can get free Kindle editions of three of their titles: Kubori Kikiam, Tabi Po and The Long Weekend.

You’ll recall “Tabi Po” from my recent interview with creator Mervin Malonzo; Kubori Kimiam is an adult humor strip which is a perennial Komikon Awards nominee; “The Long Weekend” is a a hundred-page road movie romantic erotic komix novella by outspoken writer and critic, Adam David. Here’s what you need to do to get your free komiks, copy-pasted from the Flipside Komix Facebook page:

Get Kindle editions of three Pinoy digitals Kubori Kikiam, Tabi Po and The Long Weekend for FREE!

1. Like Flipside Komix.

2. Share a link to this note on your wall.

3.Tell us what device you have on our wall.

4. Download the Kindle app for your device and create an Amazon account.

5. PM us your email address for your Amazon.com account. Email your amazon account email address to jessa.vicente<at>flipsideconte?nt.com, but please state your device on the wall of the Flipside Komix Facebook page

6. We’ll send your FREE gift Kindle copies of these three awesome Pinoy eKomix for your device.

Good until end of July only.

Tell us a little bit about yourself. Did you always want to create comics?

Yes, I’ve always wanted to create my own comic ever since I took hold of my first issue of Funny Komiks, ever since the days I watched cartoons on TV as a child. And I did! I remember creating my first comic on my used notebooks, a story about mutant ants! “Mutant” because they have powers not entirely different from the ones the X-Men have, and ants because at the time I was obsessed with watching the line of ants in the roadside canal near our house (I still do that, by the way). Watching ants always made me wonder how it would feel to be as small as them. Of course, thinking about it right now, I guess we really are as small as them when you really think about it.

Anyway, my love for drawing comics led me to take up Fine Arts – Painting in UP Diliman instead of Chemistry in UP Los Baños (I passed there as well), to the great dismay of some of my relatives. “Walang pera sa fine arts”, they would say. I resigned from work two years ago to form my own design team with my friends (Pepe&thePolygons) so that I could work whenever I needed to and do comics whenever I wanted to.

How would you pitch “Tabi Po” to new readers? What’s it about, and why should people read it?

Hmm.. for most of my readers, it turned out that saying it had “UNCENSORED NUDITY, BLOOD, VIOLENCE AND SEX” did the trick. Haha!

But to publishers and other people I’d like to impress, I would say, “It’s my own interpretation or deconstruction of the Philippine mythology and folklore. I made the aswangs, engkantos, diwatas and anitos as real as I could, putting them in our history, creating a feasible origin story for them and how they were affected by and will in turn affect the human race. Are aswang really different from humans? I am also fusing some Christian beliefs with the old nature worship. Ultimately, it is my explanation of how our world would work if these beings really existed. The purpose of this whole epic is to make the reader think about human nature, the environment, religion and the meaning of life, the universe and everything–all while still being entertained.”  Of course, you do not see this yet in our story so far but that’s the grand plan. It’s not really all violence and nudity, you’ll see.

Why did you pick an Aswang for the hero of your book?

Because I believed that it would be interesting and fresh! In most stories, aswangs are often depicted as the enemy, the evil ones, the devils! And they are commonly drawn as monsters, deformed and really really wretched.

I wanted to attack these norms. So I made them the center of the story and made them beautiful and almost human. They do not need to transform into monsters to look terrifying. Wouldn’t it be scarier if they looked human while they fed on humans?

Are they evil? Maybe so, because they kill! But humans also kill, right? Having an aswang as my “bida” allows me to have that moral ambiguity. There is no pure good and pure evil in this world, my friends!

Tabi-Po began — and continues to update as — a webcomic. Most independent komiks creators elect to self-publish physical copies for sale at conventions, rather than release the comic on the web for free. Personally I see web comics as an untapped realm for local creators, but what made you decide to go the webcomic route? What have been the advantages or disadvantages so far?

I just wanted to create a comic. And since I’m a web designer, it is easier for me to create a comic online than in print. It is for free because honestly, at first I did not know whether I was any good at all and I didn’t expect a lot of people to read it because of the subject matter. So in the beginning it was just a comic by me for myself, created using the skills and resources that I have.

As for the advantages and disadvantages of being a webcomic:

Advantages:

1. Speed – I could do the pages and then upload/publish them immediately.
2. Fun – I don’t have to think about marketing and the business side of things before I am able to share my work. That allows me to just enjoy the actual creation of the comic.
3. Distribution – the Internet has a wide reach! People from around the world can read my comic and in turn, I’ve been able to accumulate fans around the world.
4. Color – I could use any color I want as opposed to creating it in black and white, the usual indie-style, because printing in color would be pricy.
5. As I mentioned above, I am a web designer. I am used to maintaining a website. J

Disadvantages:

1. I don’t get paid
2. Sometimes, I feel that the industry does not accept it as a real comic because it is digital and has not actually been published/printed.
3. There’s a temptation to become lazy, because I am my own boss and the site is so easy to update.

You recently launched an international ebook edition through Flipside. How is this different from the webcomic?

Aside from the language, the webcomic is a work in progress, as opposed to the ebook. In the webcomic, I just create and upload. It does not go through any editorial process. The truth is I really liked it that way – raw. But when writing a real book for a real audience who would actually pay for it, I really needed to show it to other writers first and make it as perfect as possible before I released it to the market. Totoo na to e. :p So I’m lucky to have Adam David as the translator and you can say, editor as well. I did receive feedback from Josel Nicolas and DJ Legaspi before, so they also deserve to be credited.

What made you decide to release this international edition?

Honestly? I could use the extra money! Haha! It’s true. I do this for the love of it but getting paid for it wouldn’t hurt. So please buy!

Another reason is that I like to promote the Philippine culture as well as other Filipino comic book creators. “Tabi Po” will showcase a lot of characters from our mythology, our history, our way of life, our beliefs, etc. And as I have said, I wanted to put all of this in an entertaining package that people will enjoy. I mean, look at how the western countries devour Japanese culture today, I want the Philippine culture to also have that recognition.

Let me take this opportunity to thank Flipside Digital for helping me introduce “Tabi Po” to the international market.

Is it strange seeing your work in English? Do you think that there’s a difference in the reading experience between the Filipino and English versions?

Very strange indeed! It felt like I was reading and enjoying an entirely different comic. I don’t know how Adam did it but he added new textures to the characters with the way they talk. You should see the translations for book 2! But yeah, I guess you have to wait.

But if you are Filipino, I suggest reading TABI PO in Filipino. Because the setting is here. And also, I’m really really keen on using Filipino as the language for my comics because not a lot of creators do that anymore. English is a second language for me. I only translate for the benefit of the international audience.

“Pericos Tao” is a comic from writer/artist Andrew Drilon which was released online recently by Top Shelf. It’s not a new work, but it hasn’t seen wide release until now–you may recall Adam David talking about it during our Rocket Round Table on favorite Philippine spec fic stories (slight spoilers here, so go read the comic first if you like–it’s only ten pages):

Barring my own set of scintillating sensurround scifi scintillations, the best Pinoy SpecFic story would be the unfortunately still largely unread “Pericos Tao” by Andrew Drilon. It was supposed to be part of Drilon’s Kare-Kare Komiks print remix a bunch of people – me included – tried their best to make manifest around the middle of 2008. I was the layout artist so I was privy to the actual finished pages – “actual finished pages” being actually “virtual” as Drilon assembled everything on computer – and I was one of maybe ten or so people who have seen the whole book (maybe I still am). The publisher ran out of money, so the project didn’t push through. The book was 96 pages of Drilon’s full-colour ChemSet strips, and a handful of new ones to round off the collection, some of which already saw publication in places, but not “Pericos Tao” for some reason.

“Pericos Tao” is one of those too few gay stories that’s ABOUT being gay and at the same time ISN’T in the sense that it isn’t pushing an agenda. It’s about a young man trying to escape the past, and, unsuccessful, finally decides to come to terms with it in his own terms. It makes use of a few characters/creatures from Visayan tradition and somehow making them not clunky as how most of these things are on the page more often than not. It also employs some formal play by way of recreating the young man’s Visayan childhood via impeccably mimicking Larry Alcala’s unmistakable cubist brushstrokes, while the present rendered as how Drilon renders his usual, only slightly better, all of these things running in synch all focused on telling the story, and telling it well. Of everything I’ve read by Drilon, or any one else’s in SpecFic for that matter (and I’ve probably read about 90% of what’s been published so far as of 05:04AM of 7 September 2009), “Pericos Tao” remains to be the most honest and most complete and most heartfelt and really just one of the best stories I’ve ever read, printed (or not) on paper. It’s really all just downhill from here for Drilon. I hope more people will get the chance to read “Pericos Tao,” before he decides to sell out and go manga on everyone. Make it so, Andrew!

High praise from someone very hard to impress. Intrigued? Then go check out “Pericos Tao”

The thing about using a broad term like “speculative fiction” is that it can be a bit tricky figuring out what does or does not fall under that umbrella (especially with something more poetry than prose)… but I’m pretty sure that a book of blurbs about itself (the book of blurbs) qualifies, especially with contributions from familiar spec fic names such as Dean Alfar, Mia Tijam, Adam David, Andrew Drilon, Josel Nicolas,  Khavn, and Budjette Tan. Curator Angelo Suarez has thrown up a PDF sampler which you can find here, and I’ll let him explain the project in his own words:

This book was assembled in 2009 as something that was titled “The Blurb Project”— admittedly an unimaginatively unimaginative tentative name—intended for release w/in the same year. The procedure: Ask writers to blurb for a book whose content would solely be the blurbs to be collected from them, a critico-creative exercise in closed-circuit self-reference that could function as a collaborative epic poem of modular components. The material gathered was hence largely speculative: the book would talk about itself even before the book was complete, the collaborators either working blindly or else w/ what few blurbs were already available for their use.

Adam David, winner of the Madrigal-Gonzalez Best First Book Award, has always been an outspoken advocate for independent publishing and self-publishing. This December 3, 2010, at 7pm, Adam is putting together a fair/exhibition/forum/networking-type celebration of the literary equivalent of the do-it-yourself ethic. He’s calling it BETTER LIVING THROUGH XEROXOGRAPHY (Facebook link), and it will be held at Ilyong’s, Kalantiaw street, Project Four,  Cubao. The products will range from poetry zines and self-published creative non-fiction to indie komiks and t-shirts. Content of interest to spec fic fans could include the Quarterly Bathroom Companion Comics Compendium, several of Macoy Tang’s komiks, and Carljoe Javier’s The Kobayashi Maru of Love. Other participants according to Adam:

Thomasian Writers Guild! Aklat Kurimaw! Ink Elephant! Tilde Acuna! Gelo Suarez! Macoy! Papermonster! Cavite Young Writers Association! Mark Angeles! Quarterly Bathroom Companion Comics Compendium! the Youth & Beauty Brigade! Mike David! UP UGAT! UP Writers Club! Heights! High Chair! And maybe some other peeps who might decide to drop in unannounced!

Oh, and the first one hundred bottles of beer (in total, not for each person obviously) are free. What else do you need to know? Directions? Click here for a larger map of the route from Cubao, and here for the route from Katipunan. Poster image was created by Macoy Tang.

One year ago, 9/9/09, Rocket Kapre officially launched. In celebration of our first year anniversary, here’s a new installment of one of our most popular features: the Rocket Round Table. For this batch, the question – to coincide with the anniversary – is: “What is your favorite first line in speculative fiction?” Prose and graphic novels/comics were fair game (movies and television were not), as were local and foreign works – I only asked that the respondents include any first lines from Filipino-made spec fic that stood out for them. Feel free to add your own in the comments!

Thanks to all those who took time to participate in the round table, and for all those who have supported Rocket Kapre in its first year. Here’s to many more to come!

[Warning: Some language may not be safe for work, or children, or adults who like to pretend they're as innocent as children.]

ELBERT OR – Comic book creator, university lecturer, graphic designer, freelance writer, entrepreneur (he’s part of Brain Food, which gives speech and writing workshops) Elbert is a jack of all trades and master of… well, lots. He currently runs Global Art and the Komiksabado Comics Workshop.

Happy first year, RK! How time flies!
I owe much of my interest in current Philippine SF to Dean Alfar’s “Kite of Stars,” and its first line/ paragraph which grabbed firm hold of me and has still not let me go:

The night when she thought she would finally be a star, Maria Isabella du’l Cielo struggled to calm the trembling of her hands, reached over to cut the tether that tied her to the ground, and thought of that morning many years before when she’d first caught a glimpse of Lorenzo du Vicenzio ei Salvadore: tall, thick-browed and handsome, his eyes closed, oblivious to the cacophony of the accident waiting to occur around him.

I wish I could say though that memory allowed me to remember each word, but I admit only to committing the first eleven words. But the blame lies solely on me and my poor memory.

Here’s to the next ten years for Rocket Kapre!

* * *

CATHERINE BATAC WALDER – Catherine is based in England and works as a research group administrator at the Department of Earth Sciences, Royal Holloway University of London. From 2005 to 2007, she moved across Norway, Finland and Portugal for a European MPhil. scholarship. Her fiction appears in Big Pulp, Demons of the New Year, Philippines Graphic, Ruin and Resolve Anthology, Expanded Horizons, and Philippines Free Press. She blogs at http://deckshoes.wordpress.com/

“Just when the idea occurred to her that she was being murdered she could not tell.” – The Small Assassin, comics adaptation of a tale by Ray Bradbury

“At some time near dawn, on March 25, 1913, there came a loud knocking at the front door of the Uyterhoevens’ home in the Dayton View section of Dayton, Ohio.” – The Chess Garden by Brooks Hansen

“At first glance, the picture looked like any other in a family album of that time, the sepia shade and tone, the formal poses, the men in solemn Sunday suits and the women, severely coiffed, in long skirts and billowing blouses.” – Fade by Robert Cormier

““I can do this,” I told my squirrel.” - Speed Dating and Spirit Guides by Rod M. Santos

“In the tiny lifeboat, she and the alien fuck endlessly, relentlessly.” – Spar by Kij Johnson

“My name is Kathy H. I’m thirty-one years old, and I’ve been a carer now for over eleven years.” – Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

* * *

G.M. CORONEL – A Marketing Management graduate of De La Salle University in 1985, he is a first-time author with no literary background to speak of other than a genuine love of reading and a passion for writing. Coming across back issues of Writer’s Digest a few years ago started his writing career. Some previous personal encounters with the paranormal convinced him to pursue the horror genre. He believes that stories to tell and experiences to share are best put in written words. He is the author of Tragic Theater.

“The night wind howls like a wounded dying animal.” (Trese Murder on Balete Drive) — This is a very compelling first line and it engages the reader’s interest in the story.

* * *

DON JAUCIAN - Don regularly reviews books for several publications, both print and on-line. He is the resident bitch of the film blog Pelikula Tumblr. His book dump is http://chinoisdead.livejournal.com

The Ascension of Our Lady Boy – Mia Tijam (PDF of Expanded Horizons #14, which includes the story.)

“Let us begin with my earliest memory as a lady: Daddy had complained to Iyay who was my yaya(and his yaya before and his mama’s yaya before that) that I was lacking something strong in my bones and in my hips.”

Tijam’s Lady Boy is hands down one of my favorite spec fic stories. It effectively combined Philippine culture, gay-isms and the whole ‘triumph of the heart’ thing. I like how the first line promises a wonderful story, equal parts whimsical and endearing, like Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros and it really delivers.

Visitors – Luis Katigbak

“When they first arrived, they transformed themselves into everything we ever secretly wanted to be.”

Stories of ‘encounters’ are never amusing. They mostly run as dubious paranoiac rants but in a few words, Katigbak manages to brush off the fluff usually associated with this tripe. ‘Visitors’ is beautiful, a different approach into the Wonderful World of Alien Mysteries; humanized and hopeful.

Brigada – Joey Nacino

“When the news came, Captain Fernando Tabora of the Philippine Navy was meeting with the two-man salvage team at the top of Manila Hotel.”

I’m a sucker for post-apocalyptic stories and Manila Hotel underwater is just too awesome to ignore. Just like the head of Statue of Liberty chopped off in Cloverfield!

Flicker – Ian Rosales Casocot

“Something had apparently come to live, or stir, in the house down the road, that old mansion on the corner before one turned left down Mango Street, which led toward the coconut groves that bordered the farthest end of the village.”

Suburban horror stories always fascinate me and Casocot’s ‘Flicker’ definitely sustains the tension from the first sentence to the last. It is eerie, ominous and it’s refreshing to see a horror story devoid of hysterics and cheap scare tactics.

[More after the cut]

* * *

MEANN ORTIZ -  The co-Editor in Chief of NewWorlds.ph, a website that caters to Filipino enthusiasts of science fiction, fantasy, and pop culture.  She believes books are like the sirens of Greek mythology, for she often cannot resist their enchanting call, and she finds herself virtually shipwrecked upon the shores of a bookstore.

My favorite first line from a foreign work is:  “There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.” from Neil Gaiman’s award-winning The Graveyard Book.  I love it because it’s short but unforgettable, and it brilliantly sets up the rest of the story.  It’s the kind of opening that makes you stop to think about what may happen next, and then compels you to turn the page.

My favorite first line from an Filipino SF work is not so much a line as the work’s entire opening paragraph:  “The night when she thought she would finally be a star, Maria Isabella du’l Cielo struggled to calm the trembling of her hands, reached over to cut the tether that tied her to the ground, and thought of that morning many years before when she’d first caught a glimpse of Lorenzo du Vicenzio ei Salvadore: tall, thick-browed and handsome, his eyes closed, oblivious to the cacophony of the accident waiting to occur around him.”  This one’s from The Kite of Stars by Dean Francis Alfar.  I love this opening because it puts the reader right into the action.  It’s not as wonderfully vague as the one by Gaiman, but after that kind of glimpse into the heart of the story, how can you possibly stop reading?

* * *

TINA MATANGUIHAN – Tina is a web content developer by day (or night, depending on her shift) who would rather debug than write code and while dabbling on other projects with her spare time. She’s an avid reader who’s recently started to love reading spec fic. Every November since 2004, she turns into a manic novelist and cheerleader for the Filipino National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) community. She’s planning to write her first fantasy novel this year and she hopes to get hit by inspiration soon.

Our story opens where countless stories have ended in the last twenty-six years: with an idiot — in this case, my brother, Shaun — deciding it would be a good idea to go out and poke a zombie with a stick to see what happens. - Feed by Mira Grant

Rush Hour. So many armpits, so little deodorant. -  Tall Story by Candy Gourlay

* * *

ELIZA VICTORIA - Eliza has won a Palanca Award for her poetry, has been named as a finalist at the Philippines Free Press Literary Awards, and has had her works accepted in many publications, including Expanded Horizons,  the Farthest Shore, and Demons of the New Year. She also writes for the Philippine Online Chronicles.

It was a bright cold day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen. - 1984, George Orwell

No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. – The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson

* * *

ELAINE CUYEGKENG -  Librarian and writer. Alas, at present, she has no familiars, but lives with her partner in a little brick flat in Melbourne. “The Widow and the Princess of the Dwende” is her first short story under Usok (in the upcoming second issue).

“The night when she thought she would finally be a star, Maria Isabella du’l Cielo struggled to calm the trembling of her hands, reached over to cut the tether that tied her to the ground, and thought of that morning many years before when she’d first caught a glimpse of Lorenzo du Vicenzio ei Salvadore: tall, thick-browed and handsome, his eyes closed, oblivious to the cacophony of the accident waiting to occur around him.”- “The Kite of Stars,” Dean Francis Alfar.  Ok. So I cheated (or Dean cheated). It’s an opening line that’s also an opening paragraph. But it’s absolutely perfect, the way Dean uses it to frame and set up the story. He establishes both Maria and Lorenzo as characters, parallels their desires: Maria for Lorenzo, Lorenzo for the stars. It’s unapologetically romantic. And it neatly leads to the complicated chain of events that sets Maria on her journey. It’s a beautifully constructed opening line, and I would kill to one day have Dean’s skill.

“Lyra and her daemon moved through the darkening hall, taking care to keep to one side, out of sight in the kitchen.”-The Northern Lights, Philip Pullman.  Not only does Philip Pullman establish the key difference between our world and Lyra’s — the presence of daemons — but it draws you into the story, the narrative, and what Lyra and her daemon are doing. What are they up to? Who are they hiding from? It’s a succinct and clear first line — the way a YA story should be. But there’s so much going on and it just pulls you in.

* * *

PHIL CORPUZ – A full-time dataminer and part time game master, he wishes he could reverse that situation. When not chugging away at the data mines, he writes for the Philippine Online Chronicles, plays various tabletop games, and indulges in various bits of geekery.

For the longest time, my favorite was William Gibson’s opening to Neuromancer, “The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.” It just sets the scene of his technological crapsack world so effectively and efficiently. Two lines did roll in recently that stuck in my mind for sheer, jarring cheekiness, Dan Simmons’ Olympos (“Helen of Troy awakens at dawn to the sound of air raid sirens.“) and Neal Stephenson’s Anathem (“‘Do your neighbors burn one another alive?’ was how Fraa Orolo began his conversation with Artisan Flec.“).

* * *

SHARMAINE GALVE - Reads a lot.  Writes a lot.  Gets published sometimes.  A serious hypochondriac who spouts medical terms.  Slaughterhouse Five is one of the novels I have read a lot ever since I bought it in a bargain bin and wanted to see what the big deal was about Vonnegut.  It espouses my major views: the silliness of war and time.

* * *

KATYA OLIVA-LLEGO – A geek neophyte, her poetry and fiction pieces have been published on Expanded Horizons, Scifaikuest, Moon Drenched Fables, and Static Movement.

(1)”The night when she thought she would finally be a star, Maria Isabella du’l Cielo struggled to calm the trembling of her hands, reached over to cut the tether that tied her to the ground, and thought of that morning many years before when she’d first caught a glimpse of Lorenzo du Vicenzio ei Salvadore: tall, thick-browed and handsome, his eyes closed, oblivious to the cacophony of the accident waiting to occur around him.” – The Kite of Stars by Dean Francis Alfar.

It’s actually the entire first paragraph of the story, but I couldn’t really cut it anywhere before the period and call it a first line. I loved this because it promised a story of adventure and love, and it delivered.

(2)”Life is a stick with a death on each end.” – Messenger by Julia M. Sidorova (Clarkesworld Magazine)

When I read this line, I asked: What, how, and why. I’m thankful for the engaging first line because it made me read the story to the end. The story was beautiful and thought-provoking, and the emotions induced by it will probably stay with me for a long time.

* * *

KM REYNALDO – Tine is an English major in bardo. Prose pruner by day, brain soup cook and wannabe-yogini by night, she is often found spaced out in her imaginary apartment on the top floor: http://mirageode.wordpress.com/

• “My father lost me to the Beast at cards.” – “Tiger’s Bride” by Angela Carter
• “I do not know what manner of thing she is. None of us do. She killed her mother in the birthing, but that’s never enough to account for it.” – “Snow, Glass, Apples”by Neil Gaiman
• “MYTHICAL! Ha! I’m as real as the waves, as this sea you cannot even begin to know or imagine. What dumb silence echoes in those empty heads of yours that you are so quickly enticed? One song and you are asleep. Another and you are mine. And the sea’s. who, then, is the myth? Whose lives are so quick to end?” – “A Song in the Wind”by Maria Elena Paterno
• “If you wish to find the woman who sells dreams, go to the most run-down part of the city.” – “The Forgotten City” by Vincent C. Sales

These are just the stuff I found online as I currently have no access to my library

* * *

FIDELIS TAN – Fidelis’ work has been published in Heights, Philippine Speculative Fiction vol. 5, Love and Heartbreak, After the Storm: Stories on Ondoy, and various indie komiks. She is a regular contributor to the Philippine Online Chronicles (www.thepoc.net).

“The door to Dr. Hannibal Lecter’s memory palace is in the darkness at the center of his mind and it has a latch that can be found by touch alone.”
-From Hannibal Rising, Thomas Harris (a book which I didn’t really like compared to the other Hannibal books, but it has a nice first line )

[inverted] “Carl Conrad Coreander, Old Books” [Fidelis sent this to me properly inverted, but sadly WordPress won't register it.]

- From Neverending Story, Michael Ende.

“True! –nervous –very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?”

- Tell-Tale Heart, Edgar Allan Poe

* * *

TIN LAO – Tin is a lawyer who used to write for a newspaper, dabbles in poetry and prose (that wants to be poetry). Her fiction has been published in Philippine Speculative Fiction Volume V.

Here’s an opening line that hooked me immediately, from Kij Johnson’s Spar:

“In the tiny lifeboat, she and the alien fuck endlessly, relentlessly.”

* * *

MACOY TANG – Creator of excellent indie komiks such as Ang Maskot and School Run, and a writer for the Philippine Online Chronicles. Blogs at mababang langit.

You just can’t get any better than “Once upon a time.” sorry if everybody else says that too

* * *

CHILES SAMANIEGO - wrote things that were published in Story Philippines, the Digest of Philippine Genre Stories, Philippine Free Press, Parole (the UP Portia Society’s literary folio), Usok, Ruin and Resolve, and Weird Tales Magazine.

progris riport 1-martch 5, 1965

            Dr. Strauss says I shud rite down what I think and evrey thing
         that happins to me from now on, I dont know why but he says its
         importint so they will see if they will use me. I hope they use me.
         Miss Kinnian says maybe they can make me smart. I want to be
         smart. My name is Charlie Gordon. I am 37 years old. I have
         nuthing more to rite now so I will close for today.

Over at his Oblique Strategies website (if you go surfing the rest of the site, note that some posts are NSFW), Adam David is conducting a survey to learn more about the local female comic book reader and her relation to komiks culture. Head on over and comment if you’re a graphic novel geek of the girl kind. Here are the questions, but comment over at Adam’s post:

In the spirit of Hope Larson’s own survey on (American) girls’ comic book reading habits, I’m planning on embarking on a new komix writing thing – criticism and creative – and I wanted to ask a few questions specifically for the girls in the audience (if there are any), but if any of you girly guys want to answer the questions, I’d see it as a great kindness. Feel free to pass these questions around, as long as we get the feedback from it.

1) What comic books do you read, both local and foreign?

2) Do you enjoy reading these comic books? Why exactly do you enjoy reading them?

3) Do you read any comic books that you think are specifically targeted to girls? Which books are they? Why do/don’t you like them?

3) Who are your favourite comic book creators, both local and foreign, both male and female?

4) Why do you like them? Which of their books are your favourites, and why?

5) As a girl, would/could you say that the current system of local komix production – the books, the creators, the stores, the conventions – is friendly towards females? Why/Why not?

6) As a girl, do you want to make your own komix? Would/Could you make it specifically for girls? How would/could you go about doing that?

7) Would you like to see more local komix focussed primarily for girls?

What else would you like to see more of in local komix?

9) What would you like to see less of in local komix?

10) Where do you think the current local komix production is heading re: komix for girls?

I’d like to thank everyone who participated, especially Dominique Cimafranca who was impressively prolific during the RP612fic period. We generated over one hundred and fifteen stories over the Independence Day weekend–here are a few of my favorite stories:

I’d also be remiss if I didn’t point to Adam David’s essay on freedom, over at the Philippine Online Chronicles.

The rest of the stories run the gamut from science fiction, to horror, to fantasy (from the fantasy that means “magic” to the fantasy that means “how I wish this were true). Some are meant to be read alone, others in sequence (although there was a limit to how I could arrange them in anything but the reverse chronological order of a Twitter search.) Some aren’t stories in so much as hopes, dreams, or ideas and that’s fine too.The usual disclaimer applies: these stories are meant as fiction, and are not to be taken as allegations of actual facts, nor as statements of actual intent.

And now, beneath the cut, are the rest of the stories. (2009′s stories are here.) Enjoy, and see you all next year!

The website is still a work in progress, but Charles Tan, of the Bibliophile Stalker blog and a few hundred (minor exaggeration) others,  has announced that the ebook version of his new reprint anthology, “The Best of Philippine Speculative Fiction 2009″ is now available for free download. You can choose from either the PDF edition or the EPUB edition. (If you have the Stanza desktop ebook reader you can export the EPUB file to different file formats–say, if you want a .mobi file for your Kindle/Kindle reader, although such conversions usually junk the formatting). The anthology has cover art Elbert Or, a cover design by Adam David, (who also did the PDF layout and design) qith the Web and EPUB layout handled by Dominique Gerald Cimafranca.

Sixteen stories from fifteen authors, selected by one of the most well-read and difficult-to-please critics in the country–all for free? What are you waiting for?

Charles is the co-editor (alongside Mia Tijam) of the Philippine Speculative Fiction Sampler, which was released in 2008.  I hope that this is the start of an annual compilation (and I hope that this isn’t the only yer a story of mine qualifies ^_^)

Here’s the full table of contents. Congratulations to Charles and all those involved:

• Summation 2009 by Charles Tan
• The Fires of the Sun in a Crystalline Sky by Francezca C. Kwe
• The Day the World Lost Its Gravity by Camsy Ocumen
• Strange Weather by Dean Francis Alfar
• The Sewing Project by Apol Lejano-Massebieau
• Lex Talionis by Paolo Chikiamco
• Isa by Marianne Villanueva
• Spelling Normal by Mia Tijam
• Daddy by Yvette Tan
• From Abecediarya by Adam David
• The Annotated Account of Tholomew Mestich by Elyss G. Punsalan
• Beats by Kenneth Yu
• Wildwater by Crystal Koo
• Moondown and Fugue by Alexander Drilon
• The Maiden’s Song by Kate Aton-Osias
• Capture by Gabriela Lee
• The Secret Origin of Spin-man by Andrew Drilon