Pakinggan Pilipinas has begun its second season with a story from the anthology “A Time for Dragons”, namely “A Fishy Tale” by Apol Lejano-Massebieau. The story is read by none other than fellow spec fic writer and Usok contributor Yvette Tan. Enjoy!
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.
Ian Rosales Casocot, author of the recently released “Heartbreak & Magic” short story collection, has a very positive review of Yvette Tan’s “Waking the Dead” up on his blog. You can read it here. Always good to see reviews of local spec fic–there haven’t been that many this year. If you review/find a review of a work of Philippine spec fic, let me know and I’ll link up to it here.
It’s been a year or so since I last had a new story available online, so I’m pleased to announce that my story “Malvar” has been published at PGS Online. It’s an alternative history story that deals with the consequences of a curse fueled by the Bataan Death March, and delves into the muddy border between vengeance and heroism. It was a tough story to write – I don’t think any story of mine has gone through so many revisions – but I hope the end product manages to entertain, or at least divert. This is the third in a set of four being co-edited by publisher Kenneth Yu and Yvette Tan, and I’d like to thank them for their feedback and support. Let me know what you think about the story, either here or at PGS. Thanks for reading!
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.
Tomorrow, we’ll finally be launching the updated version of Usok #1, with a gorgeous new illustration for each story. We’ll also have an announcement regarding the future of Usok as well. As a celebration of the launch of the illustrated version, I’ll be posting short interviews with Yvette, Crystal and Celestine (I already posted interviews with chiles, and Kenneth, as well as artists Kevin and Tey (who did the illustration for Yvette’s story, “The Child Abandoned“). Here’s the third Usok #1 author interview, with Yvette Tan, author of “The Child Abandoned“
Tell us a bit about how you came up with the idea for your story
I was passing by Sta. Ana one day when I noticed the name of the church near St. Peter School called The Church of Our Lady of the Abandoned, or something like that. I thought it was a sad and beautiful name and that I must use it in a story.
What aspect of the story gave you the most difficulty?
I have a horrible sense of direction, so it’s the geographical parts of the story that gave me the most difficulty. I’ve been to Quiapo several times and until now, I still can’t name streets or remember how to get to places. Of course, that just gives me a reason to visit the place again.
Do you remember the first short story you ever wrote? What was it about?
The first stories I wrote weren’t so much original works as adaptations, and more graphic novels than fiction. In grade school, a friend and I used to draw scenes from Maricel Soriano comedies (the more Marias in the movie, the better). I also wrote a personal security handbook which I bound in wrapping paper and refused to show anyone. In high school, I wrote specially commissioned stories that starred my friends and the New Kid on the Block of their choice, as well as some horribly derivative fantasy, one of which was novel-length. This is probably why I flunked a lot of subjects.
Does your cultural background influence how you write, or what you write?
I actually don’t use my cultural background in my writing. I know I should take advantage of my Chinese roots, but I am so much more fascinated by the Filipino side.
What was the best piece of writing advice you ever read or received?
At a talk, John Maxwell shared his secret for getting stuff done. He said that every day, he had five goals that he should do, and he did them. It’s simple, and it gets the job done.
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:
Back from Tokyo (more on that later) and there’s a lot to catch up on, so let’s get to it.
Now, here are a few new-ish SF fiction markets (via the specficmarkets lj community) and a contest (via email from chiles samaniego):
Finally, some events to mark on your calendars (Let me know if I’m missing anything):
Here’s the second of the talks given last January 30, 2010, during the character creation workshop at the official launch of Project 20:10 at the Ateneo High School Fair. This time it’s Yvette Tan imparting words of wisdom:
Second part after the cut:
As I’ve mentioned before, tomorrow (Saturday), 30 January 2010, I’ll be one of the speakers at the Project 20:10 launch at at 1:00pm, Instructional Technology Center (ITC) viewing room 2, Ateneo de Manila, High School. Organizer Ria Lu (who I recently interviewed on Metakritiko here and here) has generously given me the complete list of speakers for the Character Building workshop that will launch the Project, and I’m honored to be in such prestigious company:
…and of course, me.
So if you’re looking for some writing tips this Saturday, looking to support local creators, or simply in search of something to do to kill time on a Saturday afternoon, come on down. If you get bored, you can always head to the fair and try to get yourself caught by the Marriage Booth or something. (They still have those at fairs right? It’s been so long @_@)
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Rocket Kapre is an imprint of Eight Ray Sun Publishing Inc. (a new Philippine-based publisher), dedicated to bringing the very best of Philippine Speculative Fiction in English to a worldwide audience by means of digital distribution. More info can be found at our About section at the top of the page.
