Rocket Kapre – Fantastic Filipino Speculative Fiction

Filipina author (and Alternative Alamat contributor) Rochita Loenen-Ruiz has just been short-listed for the 2012 British Science Fiction Association Awards for her story “Song of the Body Cartographer”” (published in country’s very own Philippine Genre Stories). Congratulations, Rochita!

And the nomination couldn’t come at a better time, as I hope it introduces more people to Rochita’s fiction, and in turn, I hope those new readers will consider contributing to this year’s World SF Travel Fund. The fund was set up to enable one or two international persons involved in science fiction, fantasy or horror to travel to a major genre event — you’ll recall it was successful in bringing Charles Tan to the World Fantasy Convention in 2011. Rochita is one of the beneficiaries this year (alongside Csilla Kleinheincz, a Hungarian-Vietnamese writer) and it would be wonderful if she got the chance to attend a major United States genre convention, so do check out the Peerbackers page.

Congratulations to Kenneth Yu and Kristine Ong Muslim, whose works have been singled-out by editor Ellen Datlow for Honorable Mention in the upcoming volume 4 of “The Best Horror of the Year“. Kenneth’s inclusion was due to “The Kiddie Pool,” from Philippine Speculative Fiction 6, and Kristine was cited for her two poems, “The Invisible,” in Unspoken Water #1 and “The Seventh Stranger,” Paper Crow, fall. Huzzah!

EDIT: Seems Kyu and Kristine aren’t the only ones! Here are the others:

• Tina del Rosario “Scars,” Heights Senior Folio
• “Less Talk, Less Mistake” by Xin Mei, Philippine Genre Stories (Crime Issue)
• “God is the Space Between” by Maryanne Moll, Philippine Genre Stories (Crime Issue)
• “The Departure” by Marianne Villannueva, Philippine Genre Stories Online

Congrats again!

Philippine Genre Stories (PGS) Online has opened today to fiction submissions by Filipino writers, and will remain open until April 30, 2012. You can find the full details here.  Note that while PGS Online does publish stories in Filipino, I’ve confirmed with editor Kenneth Yu that the present call is only for stories in English. I think that I’ve mentioned before how PGS, in its original print, always-open-to-submissions incarnation, was instrumental in jump starting the writing careers of many Filipino authors, like myself, and I’m certain it will continue to do so in its shiny online edition. So, writers, submit and spread the word!

Over at PGS Online, editor and publisher Kenneth Yu reflects on the year that was, PGS’ first year as an online publication, and has some announcements moving forward. Check it out here.

Let me also take this opportunity to point you to the newest PGS Online story, “Selected Transmissions from Synthesized Human Emulation Mk.8.014b, Otherwise Known as Katey” by Nikki Alfar, the co-editor of the latest batch of stories.

I’ve been remiss in posting links to new short spec fic by Filipino authors–hospitalization tends to play havoc with one’s schedule–so here’s a roundup:

• “When We Were Witches” by Nikki Alfar (Philippine Free Press)

• “A Girl’s Guide To Love In The Big City” by Christine V. Lao (Philippine Genre Stories Online)

• “Makisig’s Heart” by Kate Osias (Philippine Genre Stories Online)

All of the pieces for the third set of stories at PGS Online, co-edited by Kenneth Yu and Dean Alfar, have been uploaded to the site. If you haven’t read them yet, here they are (click on the image to go to the story):

The third set of stories for PGS Online, this batch co-edited by Dean Alfar, has begun to roll out, kicking off with “Fragrant Blood” by Elyss Punsalan of Pakinggan Pilipinas. Expect stories from Alexander Osias, Vincent Simbulan, and Dean himself in the coming weeks.

Over at the online magazine Black Gate, C.S.E. Cooney has reviewed The Digest of Philippine Genre Stories #4, and has a lot of good things to say about the issue, particularly “Psychic Family,” by Apol Lejano-Massebieau, and the two Forlorn stories, “The Last Stand of Aurundar” by Vincent Simbulan and “In the Dim Plane” by Dean Alfar. (PGS has since gone online, if you’ll recall.) Another reason to find complete your collection of PGS print issues, if you haven’t already, and hey, while you’re at Black Gate, why not see if any of their issues appeal to you?

As an added note, reading about how Ms. Cooney received her copy of PGS (and Philippine Speculative Fiction VI) through the efforts of Charles Tan serves to remind us all why the success of the World SF Travel Fund (which will send Charles to the World Fantasy Convention) isn’t just good news for the Bibliophile Stalker, but for Philippine speculative fiction (prose and komiks) as well. Charles will be The World SF Travel Fund’s first beneficiary (the Fund was set up to enable one international person involved in science fiction, fantasy or horror to travel to a major genre event), but if you want to help ensure that World SF is better represented in future major conventions, feel free to keep the donations coming.

Looking for some weekend reading? The newest story on Philippine Genre Stories Online is “Stars” by the co-editor of the latest batch of stories, the inimitable Yvette Tan (site), author of “Waking the Dead”. The other stories in this set are “The Confessional” by Cyan Abad-Jugo ,“Sweet” by Marguerite Alcazaren de Leon and “Malvar” by yours truly.

All parts of “The Confessional” by Cyan Abad-Jugo and “Sweet” by Marguerite Alcazaren de Leon have been uploaded to Philippine Genre Stories Online. These are the first two stories in a set of four being co-edited by publisher Kenneth Yu and Yvette Tan. Kenneth has an interesting post up where he discusses that one of the benefits of going online is the ability to publish longer stories, but that he still decided to split both stories into two parts each.

The last story of the set will be from Yvette herself and the next one will be from me. As is becoming common for me, it’ll be an alternative history story with a good helping of the fantastic. I’ll post here when it goes live.