hodge podge catching up

I've really been remiss in terms of blogging. Sometimes, real life just a way on taking away blogging time, what can I say? But this is still something important to me, and I still basically feel the way I did when I started: to be have a place to just write my thoughts and story exercises. It has evolved a bit since 2002 (has it really been four years? Why didn't I celebrate last September?), becoming a vehicle for writing-related agenda, as a venue to share what I know to those who care to listen, and to remind me of how I was back then (because every writer knows that history, especially personal history, is wonderful to mine).

The internet has also evolved since the days when I used Napster to stock up on obscure 80's music while Nikki and I lived in HongKong. Now there are ways to imbed video, store photos, music, you name it (nowadays, I used Ares to find music and videos and stories). to be perfectly honest, I am quite intimidated by all this technology. At its core, my blog is a very simple one, all about words. I'm scared by YouTube and all the podcasts and flashiness but can't help but be struck by a sense of wonder when I see them on other blogs. Gah. I suddenly feel like an old person, unable to keep up with technology, haha.

Anyway, speaking of Youtube, here's one of Nikki being interviewed by the PCIJ last month, about being a blogger. The background is a part of Sage's bedroom.



And here's one of me, taken by Manuel Viloria, during the iBlog event around six months ago. Sigh. Magalaw talaga ako when I'm a speaker - I just can't stand still.



Here's one that my friend, the Komikero Gerry Alanguilan made, before and during the 2006 National Book Awards. There were two books nominated for Best Comic Book and he worked on both - Lastikman (Mango Comics) and the anthology that Vin Simbulan and I edited and put together - Siglo: Passion (Nautilus). Best part for me is at the very end, when Ruel de Vera runs down the list of every writer and artist who contributed to the anthology, while Vin and I stand there nodding our heads, haha.



When I figure out what I need to make a video, I plan to take one of Sage.

What else, what else.

Over at The Sword Review, there's an interview of me by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz:

Inside the Writing Mind
An Interview with Dean Alfar
by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz

The Carlos Palanca Literary Competition is perhaps the biggest and most widely recognized literary award in the Philippines today. In a country where literary work focuses mainly on realism and where language is equated with nationalism, it is a wonder that the winning novel in an English language was a speculative fiction novel entitled Salamanca. The writer of this novel, Dean Alfar, is probably the first Filipino writer to be published professionally in the international speculative market (read more)

I'm not sure I've mentioned it here, but I have a story coming out in the maiden issue of Digest of Philippine Genre Fiction. The editor, Kenneth Yu, selected it as the featured story for the issue - yay! A certain kitty is also in the issue - yay! I'll let you know the TOC as soon as Kenneth announces it formally. And, incidentally, a reader reminded me that one of my stories, "Gumamela", appears at the Panitikan site.

And here's the first non-fiction collaboration between the Alfars (well, apart from Sage), an article for the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ)'s iReport:

Shod Through the Heart by Nikki Alfar and Dean Francis Alfar

And thank you to the kind friend who faxed me a copy of the Asian Journal that selected my novel Salamanca as their Book of the Month.