sisters

I have rarely written about my sisters.

It seems that their stories, like my own, are overshadowed by the more colorful members of my family - my mother and my stepfather.

But one day I will.

I'm just thankful to have them - Reb, Jo and Mau. They're all grown-up now, in their late 20s, but a part of me still thinks they're the little grade school girls I used to take out for merienda or a movie or to a museum.

I guess whatever happens, I will always be their big brother, set in the truth that they can always run to me.

But the flipside of the coin is something also true: I can always run to them.

Times are no longer as simple as they were before, and I'm glad to know there is something between my sisters and myself that can only grow stronger as the years pile on and we become the persons we imagined (or not even half-guessed) we would be.

It has the texture of love, the tang of memory and the flavor of devotion.

litcritters

This week:

Two Dreams on Trains by Elizabeth Bear
The Apprenticeship of Isabetta di Pietro Cavazzi by L. Timmel Duchamp
The House Beyond Your Sky by Benjamin Rosenbaum
The Black Monkey by Edith Tiempo


Last week:

The Four-thousand-year-old Boy by Lawrence Dyer
Colossus of Roads by Shane Jiraiya Cummings
Planet of the Amazon Women by David Moles
Simeon the Monkey by Lyn Battersby


Next week:

The Last Ten Years in the Life of the Hero Kai by Geoff Ryman
The Ugly Chickens by Howard Waldrop
Haunting Olivia by Karen Russel
Stitch by Terry Dowling


Great thanks to Kelly Link, Gavin Grant and our friends here and there for their recommendations!

Oh, and if anyone can send me a digital copy of Ursula Le Guin's "The Rule of Names" I'll be grateful (I can't find my copy of the book so I can't ready it for future discussion).

one hundred stories

It's wonderful to have people who share the same love for reading that I have. When I first agreed to form what would become the Litcritters reading/discussion/writing group, it was in response to a couple of friends asking for help in articulating what made a story work. Naturally, teaching that entails reading, so I started selecting stories for us to read, a combination of my personal preferences; speculative fiction of various stripes; modern literature by Filipino authors; "canonical" literature; stories that - while published and acclaimed - leave much to be desired; plus recommendations from various writers of speculative fiction from all over the world who introduced us to new texts, all eye-openers. And no repeat authors, because there are so many to sample.

In series of lectures, I tackled the basics of writing and literary criticism, and what could possibly be the seeds of theoretics on Philippine Speculative Fiction (a tall order, and I make no claim to defining exactly what that is - however, we do discuss it and write stories), before moving on to advanced writing techniques. After all, one of our goals to write stories with an eye towards future publication. Several of the Litcritter texts have been accepted by Story Philippines, Philippines Free Press, Digest of Philippine Genre Stories, as well as some anthos.

We read our 100th story last week, with a batch of work that include Charles Stross' Nightfall, Anais Nin's Little Birds, Jonathan Lethem and Angus McDonald's The Edge of the Bed of Forever, and John Aegard's The Golden Age of Fire Escapes. The session also marked the first time the Litcritters welcomed new friends to the fold - expanding our circle a little wider. In addition, a few weeks ago, I started sending out our readings to those who requested them by email. Thus, friends new and old are now able to read whatever it is we're reading for the week (with the exception of certain texts that I only have hard copies of, from my collection of books and magazines).

Here's what we've read, in the last few months (including works by the Litcritters themselves - as part of our writing clinic):

A Passion for Lord Pierrot by Colin Greenland
A Stone Woman by A.S. Byatt
A Tropical Winter's Tale by Charleson Ong
Bearing Fruit by Nikki Alfar
Bernardo's House by James Patrick Kelly
Chasing Ouroboros by Vin Simbulan
Cigarettes and Roses by Ben Peek
Colossus of Roads by Shane Jiraiya Cummings
Comrade Grandmother by Naomi Kritzer
Dark Angel, Benigno by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz
Draco Campestris by Sarah Monette
Editing for Content by Gavin Grant
Exo Skeleton Town by Jeffrey Ford
Final Farewell by Nikki Alfar
Flute by Kate Aton-osias
Fourteen Experiments in Postal Delivery by John Schoffstall
Fox Magic by Kij Johnson
Girl Reporter by Stephanie Harrell
Gunsaddled by Alex Osias
Guts by Chuck Palanhuik
Happening by Andrew Drilon
Home for Christmas by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
How Saint Miko and I Ruined the Apocalypse
In a Grove by Ryunosuke Akutagawa
In the Late December by Greg van Eekhout
In the Reign of Harad IV by Steven Millhauser
Inhuman by Alex Osias
Iron Ankles by David Schwartz
joanierules.bloggermax.com by Nick Mamatas
Just Another Perfect Day by John Varley
La Malcontenta by Liz Williams
Life on the Moon by Tony Daniel
Limbo Years by Pearlsha Abubakar
Lines by Lakimbini Sitoy
Little Birds by Anais Nin
Little Dead Girl Singing by Stephen Galleger
Little Gods by Tim Pratt
Lola Ging and the Crispa Redmanizers by Nikki Alfar
Mahogany Water by Socorro Villanueva
Manuscript Found Written in the Paw Prints of a Stoat by Samantha Henderson
New Light on the Drake Equation by Ian McLeod
Nightfall by Charles Stross
Oceania by Andrew Drilon
On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning by Haruki Murakami
Patriotism by Yukio Mishima
Pip and the Faeries by Theodora Goss
Planet of the Amazon Women by David Moles
Princes of the Kingdom by Dean Francis Alfar
(push) by Dean Francis Alfar
Quiet Please by Aimee Bender
Raft by Stephen Baxter
Red Star Winter Orbit by Bruce Sterling and William Gibson
Secret Life by Jeff Vandermeer
Singing My Sister Down by Margo Laganan
Sins of the Father by S.E. Ward
Six from Downtown by Dean Francis Alfar
Snippets by Kate Aton-Osias
Spillage by Nancy Kress
Still Life with Boobs by Anne Harris
Sunday by Althea Kontis
Sunfast, Shadowplay, and Saintswalk by Rudi Dornemann
Swansdown by Deborah Roggie
Tactics at Twilight by Michael Cobley
Tales of the Chinese Zodiac by Jenn Reese
The 101st Michael by Kate Aton-Osias
The Apprenticeship of Isabetta di Pietro Cavazzi by L. Timmel Duchamp
The Art of Dying by KJ Bishop
The Artificial Cloud by Justin Tussing
The Baum Plan for Financial Independence by John Kessel
The Black Monkey by Edith Tiempo
The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier
The Clients of Caralios by CS Barlow
The Death of Fray Salvador Montano by Rosario Cruz-Lucero
The Dragons of Summer Gulch by Robert Reed
The Drowned Mermaid by Christopher Barzak
The Edge of the Bed of Forever by Jonathan Lethem & Angus Macdonald
The Emperor's Backscratcher by Anna Tambour
The Fluted Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
The Four-thousand-year-old Boy by Lawrence Dyer
The Girl with the Heart of Stone by Leah Bobet
The Golden Age of Fire Escapes by John Aegard
The Golem by Avram Davidson
The Grammarian's Five Daughters By Eleanor Arnason
The Griffin and the Minor Canon by Frank Stockton
The Guerillero by Albalucia Angel
The Hero of the Snore Tango by Ian Rosales Casocot
The House Beyond Your Sky by Benjamin Rosenbaum
The Index of Forbidden Books by Paul de Guzman
The Jenna Set by Daniel Kaysen
The King of the Elves by Philip K. Dick
The Lost Archipelago by Alex Osias
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
The Middle Prince by Dean Francis Alfar
The Narcissus Plague by Lisa Goldstein
The Recrudescence of Imray by Rudyard Kipling
The Reluctant Book by Paul di Filippo
The Sculptor by Garry Kilworth
The Shakespeare Guy by Exie Abola
The Soul Bottles by Jay Lake
The Thriller by Andrew Drilon
Tk'tk'tk by David D. Levine
Travels With The Snow Queen by Kelly Link
Two Dreams on Trains by Elizabeth Bear
Under the Moons of Jizma by Michael Andre-Driussi
Undercurrents by Janet Villa
Wail of the Sun by Vin Simbulan
We Have Always Spoken Panglish by Suzette Haden Elgin
What I Didn't See by Karen Joy Fowler
What You See Is Not What You Get by Vincent Michael Simbulan
Winged Victory by Sarah Prineas


Naturally, certain stories made their mark, and quickly became favorites of the group. In effect, these stories became benchmarks for our writing, examples of stories that work. I asked the Litcritters to select three stories for an imaginary virtual anthology, a little fun exercise. After discussion, here's the list of stories that we'd include:

Litcritter A
Undercurrents by Janet Villa
Sunfast, Shadowplay, and Saintswalk by Rudi Dornemann
The Fluted Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi

Litcritter B
Little Gods by Tim Pratt
The Guerillero by Albalucia Angel
Fox Magic by Kij Johnson

Litcritter C
The Golden Age of Fire Escapes by John Aegard
Quiet Please by Aimee Bender
Iron Ankles by David Schwartz

Litcritter D
Mahogany Water by Socorro Villanueva
Travels With The Snow Queen by Kelly Link
Life on the Moon by Tony Daniel

Litcritter E
Pip and the Faeries by Theodora Goss
Singing My Sister Down by Margo Laganan
Tk'tk'tk by David D. Levine

Litcritter F
Secret Life by Jeff Vandermeer
Home for Christmas by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning by Haruki Murakami

With more stories coming, this list will change, of course. But it's wonderful discussing why certain people chose certain stories (we can't "save" them all) in this little exercise of editorial fiat.

I'm particularly floored by the two Filipino selections (Undercurrents and Mahogany Water), both beautifully written and well-observed.

Recommendations from blog readers of short fiction of all sorts are most welcome.

y?ld?z uçurtmas?

I found a translated version of one of my stories. It's in Turkish, I think.

L'Aquilone du Estrellas (Y?ld?z Uçurtmas?)

litcritters

This week:

The Four-thousand-year-old Boy by Lawrence Dyer
Colossus of Roads by Shane Jiraiya Cummings
Planet of the Amazon Women by David Moles
Simeon the Monkey by Lyn Battersby


Last week:

Little Birds by Anais Nin
Nightfall by Charles Stross
The Golden Age of Fire Escapes by John Aegard
The Edge of the Bed of Forever by Jonathan Lethem & Angus Macdonald


Next week:

Two Dreams on Trains by Elizabeth Bear
The Apprenticeship of Isabetta di Pietro Cavazzi by L. Timmel Duchamp
The House Beyond Your Sky by Benjamin Rosenbaum
The Black Monkey by Edith Tiempo


The Litcritters would like to thank Chris Barzak, Jeff Ford and Anna Tambour for their reading recommendations.

we global men

Work is piling up at the office and I'm just glad that I have an excellent crew to help complete things. Recently, my agency was awarded all the creative work of two companies, both providing products and services that I like. The load is challenging but also gratifying as my designers see their work come to life in a variety of media and outputs. The challenge has been upped since last Friday - when our internet conked out (damn you, Globe!), necessitating guerilla-style connections (such as now) in various places.

My brother works for a call center (and we've had a couple as clients) so I'm well aware that it's not the fault of whoever answers our calls, but please please please give us some relief, more than just offering to write a report on the incident. We are so reliant on email for zipping files, instructions, comments, copy, images and such back and forth (not to mention we now can't access our own FTP site) that we feel we're back in the neolithic. I feel like storming over there and strangling whoever needs to be strangled. Gah.

PEN conference

PHILIPPINE PEN NATIONAL CONFERENCE
25 November 2006, Saturday
UST St. Thomas Aquinas Research Center
Espana avenue, Manila

“THE ETHICS OF WRITING”

Opening Remarks: Alejandro Roces
Introduction of Keynote Speaker: Teresita Erestain
Keynote Address: Azucena Grajo Uranza

“Literature and the New Media”
Chair: Lito Zulueta
Panelists: Dean Francis Alfar, Ian Casocot, Khavn de la Cruz, Marjorie Evasco,
Vim Nadera, Ambeth Ocampo, Charlson Ong

The Jose Rizal Lecture .
Lecturer: Eugenia Duran Apostol

“Literature and Human Freedom”
Chair: Domingo Landicho
Panelists: Boni Ilagan, Malou Jacob, Susan Lara, Danton Remoto, Paz Verdadero Santos

“Literature in a Time of Repression”
Chair: Bienvenido Lumbera
Panelists: Sheila Coronel, Rosario Cruz Lucero, Axel Pinpin, Jun Cruz Reyes, Luis Teodoro, Jose Victor Torres

Conference Coordinator: Elmer A. Ordonez

litcritters

This week:

Little Birds by Anais Nin
Nightfall by Charles Stross
The Golden Age of Fire Escapes by John Aegard
The Edge of the Bed of Forever by Jonathan Lethem & Angus Macdonald


Last week:

A Tropical Winter's Tale by Charleson Ong
Limbo Years by Pearlsha Abubakar
Mahogany Water by Socorro Villanueva
The Index of Forbidden Books by Paul de Guzman


Next week:

The Four-thousand-year-old Boy by Lawrence Dyer
Colossus of Roads by Shane Jiraiya Cummings
Planet of the Amazon Women by David Moles
Simeon the Monkey by Lyn Battersby



*The Litcritters, for the curious, is a Manila-based group that meets weekly to discuss the readings with multiple goals: to discover new stories and authors, for reading pleasure, to expland reading horizons, to hone our critical faculties, and to learn writerly craft and techniques. My belief is that appreciation (and writing/development) of speculative fiction can only be improved by exposure to other kinds of fiction (domestic/social realism, classics, etc.), which is why the required readings are not purely spec fic (if you are a writer, it is a good idea to expose yourself to different flavors of writing and modes of thinking). This naturally includes works by Filipino authors.

The Litcritters write stories every two months or so, which are then workshopped and subjected to critique, with an eye towards developing quality manuscripts for publishing locally and abroad. Each Litcritter session is preceded by a lecture on some aspect of writing and/or literary criticism.

Currently, all slots are filled but there exists the possibility that we will hold an extended open workshop for interested writers in the future. That said, while I cannot entertain face-to-face discussions or extended email exchanges, I can share the readings (I send them out once a week). If you are interested in receiving digital copies of the materials (these are for personal use and discussion purposes only - the authors hold all the rights), email me.

...and other stories

I just got confirmation from Karina Bolasco of Anvil that my collection of short speculative fiction is slated for publication next year, by Anvil, in either the first or second quarter. I'm very happy because this is yet another fantasy slowly threatening to come true, just like April this year when Ateneo Press published my novel Salamanca and I couldn't pinch myself hard enough.

A collection of short stories feels different from a novel. With Salamanca I felt completely exposed, since it was an extended narrative and I had to somehow engage the reader until the end. The novelistic space was intimidating, like having to fill up an impossible cavern with small items. With short fiction, I feel exposed in pieces. The span of a short story is small, with only a few thousand words to tell a tale. Each one - impossibly, again - must be sharp and be able to perform alone, which is a wickedly delightful challenge. I'm not successful with everything I write but I do try - some read better than others.

The new tension for me is creating a new inventory of stories. It's pretty slow going right now with all the things I'm doing which means, as usual, it's a matter of scheduling disciplined writing time (sigh).

So, coming in 2007, "The Kite of Stars and other stories".

(Yes, I think I will "w00t" now) w00t!

keeping me occupied

Apart from family and work:

1. Time Spiral - the new Magic: The Gathering set is amazing. The nostalgia factor is absurdly strong and so much fun. Nikki and I have been burning the midnight oil playing.

2. The Apprentice Seasons 1-5 and Entourage Seasons 1-2 - Apprentice is my reality show fix and I love Entourage, the testosterone overdrive is a balm after seasons of Sex & the City and Ally McBeal.

3. Red Box - this videoke place in Greenbelt is excellent. My friends and I, former staunch supporters of Music 21, have made the switch. Our favorite room is the Joey Room, complete with balcony. During the time we go, it's P300 per head from (we're there from 12mn-4am) and it comes with 2 free drinks per person from Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf.

4. Philippine Idol - I'm mesmerized by the voting patterns. How Gian and Pao got in the bottom 4 is beyond my understanding. Perhaps I should vote more.

5. Editing - the spec fic antho is coming along smoothly. As a self-published endeavor, I need to raise around P90k to handle the printing, marketing and associated costs of the book's initial print run this year. Hopefully, I can get additional funding but as of this moment, it's all out of my pocket. I don't mind though. I save money for most of the year just for this because I believe strongly in it. :)

6. Acquire - I'm so addicted to this game, it's crazy. But it seems that my wife has been bitten harder, as she spends more time at Get Hostile.

7. Reading and the Litcritters - I haven't gone through all the books I've purchased in the past few months from here and abroad, mostly short fiction anthos and single author collections, plus a sprinkling of novels and non-fiction.

8. Writing - I'm developing a couple of stories for my inventory. Miles to go before I sleep though.

ala carte

Ala Carte: Food and Fiction, an anthology I contributed to, will be available soon from Anvil (thanks for heads up, Ian!). The collection's conceit revolves around combining fiction with Filipino recipes. Here's the list of authors found in editors Cecilia Manguerra Brainard and Marily Ysip Orosa's antho:

Edna Weisser
Ma. Romina Gonzalez
Corinna Arcellana Nuqui
Margarita Marfori
Alfred Yuson
Susan Evangelista
Carlos Cortes
Linda Ty Casper
Dean Francis Alfar
Jose Dalisay Jr.
Janet Villa
Ian Rosales Casocot
Joel Barraquiel Tan
Marie Aubrey Villaceran
Shirlie Mae Mamaril Choe
Reine Arcache Melvin
Erma M. Cuizon
Veronica Montes
Brian Ascalon Roley
Nadine Sarreal
Erwin Cabucos
Edgar Poma
Oscar Penaranda
Cecilia Manguerra Brainard
Marily Ysip Orosa

From the Introduction to the collection:

...Marily and I share a love for fiction primarily because stories reflect the soul or culture of people. So does food and we thought combining stories and recipes in one book would reveal Filipino culture in a unique manner and would invite lovers of both stories and food to take a look at our delectable collection...

...When the stories started coming in, we were surprised to see that the topic of food had triggered some serious stories. We quickly realized that food and eating bring back memories of families and friends, and relationships are always complex. The stories we finally selected were by writers from America, the Philippines, Singapore, Australia, France, and Germany. The majority of the contributors are published writers who are well-known in the literary and academic communities...

...The stories of Dean Francis Alfar and Ian Rosales Casocot, combine magic-realism and slapstick. Alfar's Sabados Con Fray Villalobos relates the Spanish friar's attempts to win the hearts of Filipino Indios although some Indios have other ideas. Casocot's Pedro and the Chickens is about the blossoming of a romance in the town of Dumaguete and the accompanying strange events that happen to the town's chickens...

Sabados Con Fray Villalobos is speculative fiction from my Hinirang cycle that combines horror, fantasy and magic realism, along with recipes for pancit luglug, dinuguan, adobo, and pinakbet.

litcritters

This week:

A Tropical Winter's Tale by Charleson Ong
Limbo Years by Pearlsha Abubakar
Mahogany Water by Socorro Villanueva
The Index of Forbidden Books by Paul de Guzman


Last week:

Sunday by Althea Kontis
Patriotism by Yukio Mishima
Tk'tk'tk by David D. Levine
Cigarettes and Roses by Ben Peek


Next week:

Little Birds by Anais Nin
Nightfall by Charles Stross
The Golden Age of Fire Escapes by John Aegard
The Edge of the Bed of Forever by Jonathan Lethem & Angus Macdonald


*The Litcritters, for the curious, is a Manila-based group that meets weekly to discuss the readings with mutliple goals: to discover new stories and authors, for reading pleasure, to expland reading horizons, to hone our critical faculties, and to learn writerly craft and techniques. My belief is that appreciation (and writing/development) of speculative fiction can only be improved by exposure to other kinds of fiction (domestic/social realism, classics, etc.), which is why the required readings are not purely spec fic (if you are a writer, it is a good idea to expose yourself to different flavors of writing and modes of thinking). This naturally includes works by Filipino authors.

The Litcritters write stories every two months or so, which are then workshopped and subjected to critique, with an eye towards developing quality manuscripts for publishing locally and abroad. Each Litcritter session is preceded by a lecture on some aspect of writing and/or literary criticism.

Currently, all slots are filled but there exists the possibility that we will hold an extended open workshop for interested writers in the future. That said, while I cannot entertain face-to-face discussions or extended email exchanges, I can share the readings (I send them out once a week). If you are interested in receiving digital copies of the materials (these are for personal use and discussion purposes only - the authors hold all the rights), email me.

book notes

I'm not 100% sure, but it seems Anvil is picking up my collection of short fiction for publication next year. We'll see how this goes. I'm resisting the urge to ask for all my stories back so I once again edit and perhaps rewrite them.

This got me thinking about my plays. Maybe next year or the year after.

In the meantime, I'm working on PSFv2. I've booked a launch venue (to be announced when everything is finalized), I've opened up an avenue for increased funding (hopefully enough to add a story or two to the book), and I'll be working on the distribution scheme next week - while coordinating with the authors and editing.

In the wee hours of this morning, a new core idea for the next novel crystallized in my groggy head, rendering most of my preliminary work on the book moot. Susan Lara once told me "No plot, no novel", and at that time I wasn't sure if I agreed 100% with her. There are odd days when I'm snooty and look down at plot in favor of a character-driven narrative, but even if i condense all my knowledge and postmodernist claptrap together, I cannot envision myself writing a plotless novel. At the very least I need even a smidgen of a plot. Haha, I just realized how I digressed in the span of one paragraph but what the hell. More on this derailed train of thought soon (it's something about how an idea is not a plot or somesuch).

My mind is tired. Rest muna ako.

vignette: west of the moon

Your parents, of course, were the very definition of poverty – except for children, which they claimed was their only wealth. At the tail end of ten siblings, whatever clothing you had was worn by several others before you. But at least you were beautiful, which your mother told you was your only wealth.

She’d say things like that, especially when there was little to eat. “Oh, my youngest,” your mother would say, her eyes filling with tears. “There are no bounds to your beauty, even if the world is a difficult place.” It was by eating those loving words that you quieted your empty stomach.

You remember that Miercoles night, sitting with your sisters and brothers for warmth while a wild storm raged outside. You all kept your hands busy because your father believed that hands must always be doing something, even when there was truly little to do , and so the same old pieces of cloth were mended, the tiny shrine to the Tres Hermanas tended.

Three raps on the door startled you, coinciding with thunder. Your father stood up and opened the door while the rest of you peered from behind him, wondering who could be out in such inclement weather.

It was kapre, standing like a man, his thick dark fur drenched in rainwater. Before a scream escaped your lips, the towering creature spoke.

"Vueno noche," said the kapre to your father, lowering his massive head in a bow.

"Vueno noche," whispered your father, and for a moment you thought those would be the last words he’d ever say.

"Will you give me your youngest daughter?" said the kapre, the growl in his voice the sound of colliding stones. "If you will, you shall be as rich as you are now poor.”

As the import of the request filtered through the initial shock to your brain, you realized that a deathly silence pervaded the house, as if the rain too was stunned into quietude. You felt the hands of the siblings nearest you tighten around your arms, your shoulders, your legs, and caught the gaze of your mother. Unable to read it, you ran away from the common room and huddled in the room where all the girls slept, where your tears began.

It was only moments before your father found you. Behind him, your mother said nothing but only looked at you with a face painted with a mixture of love and something else.

“Youngest,” your father said. “There is a kapre, a great horse-headed kapre outside, in the rain. He says he’ll make our family rich, if -”

“If what, father?” you interrupted, already knowing the condition but wanting him to say it aloud, to state it in front of you and your mother, to hear the absurd words himself, to be shaken by his voice and be forced to find some other way, to somehow to get rid of the sudden creature with his inconceivable request and outrageous promise, to save you.

“If he can have you.”

Words rumbled in your heart and cascaded upwards your throated, stumbled on your tongue but only one escaped your mouth, elegant in its vehemence.

“No.”

You looked at your father look at your mother before he looked at you. In all those looks, someone must have understood something because your father left you where you sat without another word. He left without another word and you thought it was over.

Later, your father returned.

“Listen, my youngest,” he said, his eyes burning into yours. “I told the bear to come back next Miercoles, next week, for your answer.”

“What?”

“If you go with him, he’ll make us all rich. If you don’t, he’ll get angry and kill us all. Do you want to be responsible for all our deaths?”

You realized that sometimes love wasn’t enough. “I’m so glad you value life above all things, father.” You thought perhaps your clever retort would make him see how unjust he was being.

Your father smiled. “I knew you’d see it that way.” He kissed your disbelieving face. “Now go and mend your rags, wash yourself, and make sure that you’re presentable.”

In the whirlwind of days that followed, you realized that you were as good as dead to your family. Your siblings talked animatedly about the wealth that the future would bring, of carabaos and dresses and good things to eat, of a new house and farmland and of too many things set loose from imagination by hope. It was only your mother who talked as if you were still with them, her shoulders heavier by what you thought was the thought of losing you.

The next Miercoles, a dry evening, the horse-headed creature returned. One by one your siblings bade you goodbye, to write them, telling you how much they appreciated your action, your sacrifice, the immense depth of familial love and devotion that they would remember for the rest of their lives.

“Be brave,” your mother whispered in your ear, as she handed you a small bundle that represented every material thing you owned in the world. “My heart goes with you.”

“Here she is, sir,” your father said, his hand on the small of your back, nudging you outside the cottage where the kapre waited, smoking a thick roll of tobacco.

“Climb my back,” the kapre growled. And so you did, clutching your scant possessions in your arms, looking back at your home one last time before what you thought was end of everything.

It wasn’t comfortable on the kapre’s back and his fur smelled of sweat and smoke.

"Are you afraid?" the kapre asked.

"No, that I am not," you replied seeing no point in stating the obvious – how terrified you were, how you wondered when he would stop to eat you or fuck you or fuck you then eat you.

futuristic fiction

Before I completely forget, during the last Palancas I asked if the news which reached me concerning the termination of the Futuristic Fiction category was confirmed. I was told that if it was, then it would be announced that night. No mention was made in any of the speeches, which means it is still an open category for next year's competition.

Naturally, I would have preferred it if the category were recast as Speculative Fiction, so works of fantasy, horror, etc. could be included. But that's just me.

our friend, electricity

Dear Mr. E,

Thank you, thank you for coming back to us.

We love you.

Best,

Dean & family

salamanca review

(From Current Magazine, Sept/Oct 2006)

Love in the time of solitude
By Miguel Escaño

In his first novel, Dean Francis Alfar makes an impressive debut as one of the leading Philippine writers of magic realism. Eponymously titled, Salamanca weaves a rapturous tale of love found, lost and rediscovered involving killer typhoons, amorous townsfolk, and an American missionary who curses in several languages.

Love is a mercurial element. It vacillates between levity and passion, attraction and obsession, hope and despair. In Salamanca, Gaudencio Rivera finds love in the unlikeliest of places. To escape his past in Manila, he travels to Tagbaoran, a secluded town in Palawan. Expecting to find peace and quiet, he instead steps onto a bed of glowing embers. He gazes upon the face of Jacinta Cordova, whose beauty has transformed the walls of her cottage into glass, and loses himself. Possessed by the Muse herself, Gaudencio launches into a writing frenzy that consumes all the paper in his room and every bit of space on the walls. Only the arrival of a typhoon brings him out of his delirium. His room buffeted by strong winds, Gaudencio realizes Jacinta’s life is in danger. He rushes outside to save her before the storm uproots her house and carries her away. As fate would have it, the two find each other in the pouring rain. As fate would have it, the wind wrenches Gaudencio from Jacinta and carries him far away.

Like the hurricane that whisks away Dorothy to the magical land of Oz, the typhoon sets Gaudencio on a journey of self-discovery. This journey will not only take him back to Jacinta but also away from her once again. His wanderings take him to Manilaville in Louisiana, U.S.A. and back to Palawan.

In a way, the storm that separated Gaudencio from Jacinta never really dissipates. Wracked by internal tempest, Gaudencio must calm his creative winds before he returns to Jacinta, his goddess of storms.

At its heart, Salamanca is a love story between two persons. But unlike the typical love story, the novel subtly traces the many permutations of love from romantic to authentic. In true magic realist fashion, love not only transforms the persons involved but warps the very landscape around them. When her husband leaves her, Jacinta’s unearthly beauty begins to diminish. The townspeople stop fearing the prospect of begetting monstrous children and begin the task of repopulating the town.

Magical realism is synonymous with Latin American fiction. Nobel prizewinner Gabriel Garcia Marquez became the leading practitioner of magical realism. Literary critics regard the novels A Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera as his seminal works.

Discussions on the works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez often overlook the theme of emotion as a powerful drug. Love in particular is the most potent and the most addictive. When taken in large doses, love transforms people in the creatures of passion, addicts and slaves all. Only when they realize their dependency on this drug does real and meaningful change occur.

Similar themes can be found in Dean Francis Alfar’s Salamanca and the works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. In tone and language, Alfar mirrors the lyrical writing style of Latin American practitioners of magic realism. But more than just style, Alfar captures the essence of magical realism by distilling its richest themes. With Salamanca, he applies its power to a Philippine setting.

Salamanca, the 2005 Grand Prize Winner for the Novel, was released earlier this year to a lack of publicity and fanfare. This is unfortunate as this novel is fresh, innovative, and very addictive.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez established himself as the foremost writer of magic realism with his first novel, A Hundred Years of Solitude. In a similar manner, Dean Francis Alfar establishes himself with his first novel Salamanca as arguably the leading Philippine writer of magic realism.

Salamanca by Dean Francis Alfar
Published by the Ateneo de Manila University Press