philippine speculative fiction vol.2 TOC

Okay, I'll tell you about my harrowing experience with the superstorm "Milenyo" some other time (it's funny and sad, and includes my personal Mary Poppins moment, like Gaudencio in Salamanca).

Before the storm hit, I had finished deciding on which stories to include in the antho. Over 90 stories were considered - and the sheer number makes me happy because it shows that spec fic is being written here - and my first task was to read through everything.

As I read, I sorted the stories into three piles: accepted, for consideration, and rejected. Accepted stories were stories that put idea and discourse together in an engaging manner and are close to publishable as they were (with some editing of course). Stories for consideration were texts that had incredible potential but had some kind of workable flaw (workable by coordinating with the author if I accepted the story). Stories in the reject pile were stories that failed to engage me.

After my second pass on everything, my biggest pile was the pile of stories for consideration. At that point, I'd accepted only 5 stories, the other slots in the antho were up for grabs. So I took the big pile and read through the stories twice and finally began the final selection.

At the end of the exercise, I had 19 stories. Then I slept on it, woke up in the wee hours of the morning, tweaked the list, slept, woke up, made the final list, and on the morning of the superstorm, went to my office and began writing acceptance letters to the authors whose stories I selected, as well as brief notes to the stories that didn't make it this year.

Before I list the TOC, here are 7 stories that - if I had a greater budget and page count - I would have included. It's like an Honorable Mention list that may just get included when the book comes out (because who knows? Maybe I will get a greater budget and page count - fingers crossed and all):

Marguerite Alcazaren de Leon's The Head
JB Lazarte's White Light
M. Arguelles Angue's Mad Tea Party
Eric Melendez's The Small Miracle of the Liberation of La Escuridad
Dino Galindez's Down Time
Sean Uy's The Scent of Rust

Thank you to everyone who submitted a story for consideration and for your support. Other markets that are friendly to spec fic include the Digest of Philippine Genre Stories, Story Philippines and Philippines Free Press - the editors, in order, are: My Yu, Mr. Bernas and Mr. Lacuesta.

Now for this year's TOC. I am still waiting to hear from one or two authors regarding editorial matters, but it's basically complete.

Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol.2(December 2006)
Table of Contents

Alexander Osias - GUNSADDLED

Allan Lopez - HUNDREDS UPON HUNDREDS OF FORGOTTEN MEMORIES WILL SUDDENLY APPEAR WHEN SHE FINALLY DECIDES TO LEAVE WHAT COULD ONLY BE CALLED MISTAKES IN HER LIFE, AND AT THIS PRECISE MOMENT SHE WILL REALIZE THAT ALL THE TIME SHE CAN SPARE IS LONG LOST AND WILL NEVER BE RETURNED

Andrew Drilon - HOW SAINT MIKO AND I RUINED THE APOCALYPSE

Apol Lejano-Massebieau - JUST ANOTHER GHOST STORY

Jonathan Siason - RE-GENESIS

Joseph Nacino - FIRST CONTACT

Joshua Limso - FEASTING

Kate Aton-Osias - SNIPPETS

Madeline Rae Ong - CLUTTER

Masked - WAITING FOR AGUA DE MAYOS

Michael Co - WAITING FOR VICTORY

Nikki Alfar - BEARING FRUIT

Oscar Alvarez - V.A., OR THE ONE TRUE AGENCY FOR THE SEARCH OF DISAPPEARED GODS AND MYTHICAL HEROES

Rochita Loenen-Ruiz - BOREALIS

Russel Stanley Geronimo - THE SIGN OF THE CROSS

Vin Simbulan - WHAT YOU SEE IS NOT WHAT YOU GET

Yvette Tan - THE CHILD ABANDONED

Dean Francis Alfar - SIX FROM DOWNTOWN

Jessi Albano - WITCH

vignette: the many loves of ramil alonzo

One

Kim, the cat girl, was the first. I met her at the supermarket, attracted by the peculiar things in her shopping cart, as well by the way her brown mane was held in place by an unruly ponytail. I liked the way her sunglasses never quite slipped down her forehead, leaving her green eyes unobstructed.

“I’m throwing a sort-of Halloweenslashbirthdayslashdespididaslashbook launch,” she explained, in the aftermath of a fast friendship at the checkout counter. “Listen,” she said, flashing a smile that made me hard. “Why not come over to my place tonight?”

After meeting her friends, eating the food, listening to the sampled music and helping her clean up her tiny apartment, we fucked vigorously on the Japanese-style mattress on the floor, her tail entangling our legs and arms.

Bliss lasted for all of two weeks, before the questions began.

I arrived at her apartment, a little late for a visit, and she asked where I was.

After watching one of her chick flicks on DVD, she asked if I think of family as important.

After a good fuck, she asked if I love her.

I looked into her eyes and realized that the only correct answers were the answers she’d already determined in her head, and that there was no painless way to tell her the truth. So I said some things, and afterwards watched her brave, brave face crumple and crumble.

Later, inspired, I wrote:

never question the reason
I question where you
were last night

sand does not carry
the truth of footprints;
the wind rearranges
every grain as if
you never left
my side
(that's the riddle, really)

listen

I need to know if
you loved me
as a girl
as a woman
or when my breasts hang dry

if anything
ever mattered
as much to
you as it mattered
to me

repeated words become
hollow (it isn’t what
you say but how
you say it) all that is left
between us is how you
answer the question


Two

I fell in love next with Karen, when I heard her sing at a videoke club. I was at the bar with no one important when her voice, amplified and echoed by the sound system, permeated everything. I tried to follow the melody, entranced by the promise of the husky tone, and opened the doors of every room until I found her. She was in the Grotto, splashing her mermaid tail in the shallow pond as she sang into a wireless microphone.

I smiled and she smiled back without missing a note, and I thought at last, this is it. I pushed my way into her circle of male admirers and sat on rock. So what if I got a little wet, I though.

Karen was slippery as a fish and she favored me for all of an hour before another man smiled and she smiled back at him.

In retrospect, I must have been out of my mind.

You can’t fuck a fish.

I wrote a poem for Karen too. I began to think maybe I had something there. Perhaps a collection?

excuse me, but you
have to move over
to another rock

I'm sorry if I led
you on but you see
another ship is nearing

no, don't give me that
look, as if I promised
something more than a song

what we had was lovely
for a time but as you
well know, all songs end

(every singer has to take
a breath once in a while,
long notes notwithstanding)

now, please, give me some
room, I don't mind if you
listen but understand

this next number's
not for you


Three

Every man has a twin fantasy and Erika and Aida were twins, so I was half-in-love when I met them at a coffee shop. I have to admit though, that they were very intimidating at first – beautiful women are like that – and it took all of my resolve to approach their glistening body.

I took it as a good sign when, in the midst of the usual getting-to-know you segment of things, Erika’s serpentine head twisted close to mine and said “Do you think you can handle us at the same time?”

When my only response was an idiotic grin, Aida’s head laughed and extended to close the gap between us and said “Better men have tried.”

“I think I’m love,” I said happily, thinking I had hit the jackpot.

They took me to their room, a cavernous condo. I don’t know how to explain it, but it was the most frightening fuck of my life; it was a wonder I was hard at all. I wasn’t into biting and bloodletting and asphyxiation and domination and all I wanted was to get out of their embrace. When they sat on me, when I felt the weight of their single body crushing my bones while their heads coiled and uncoiled with their eyes open, I had to admit it was exciting but I knew it wasn’t my scene.

At least I got a poem for the collection (if you can call three poems a collection).

I am the faces that you flee
the many to your single one:
it boils down to sex as mystery

I hunger but do not beckon
wholly of many holes
too many for you to reckon

with - yet you try, all of you,
to fill me thrill me kill me
weeping when I chew your muscles

into strips of red and bone
as you pass by in your mighty ships
in an odyssey to chart the unknown.

a bit of advice: when you plan
a voyage of discovery be aware
of the monsters within the span

of your desire's latitude:
for I will find and devour you
and bask in your terrified gratitude

or you can choose to flee
the deep roiling emotions
engendered by the fathomless sea

claiming that sex always has victims;
how it was a simple matter
of you or me

litcritters

This week:

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


Last week:

Still Life With Boobs by Anne Harris
Fox Magic by Kij Johnson
Singing My Sister Down by Margo Laganan
The Recrudescence of Imray by Rudyard Kipling


Next 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



*The Litcritters, for the curious, is a reading/writing 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 (and as writers, it is a good idea to expose yourself to different flavors of writing and modes of thinking). This includes works by Filipino authors - because we would be truly impoverished if we didn't read stories written by our own countrymen.

The writing part involves creating stories (every two months or so), which are then workshopped and subjected to critiques, 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.

correspondence

I like reading letters, correspondences between two people over the years. I enjoy the balance of truth and invention, the rhythm of the mundane punctuated by the rare spark of excitement or wonder or grief. I like the patter, the engagement between two faithful letter-writers, how ideas are first expressed early on perhaps ineffectively, and how, like structured music, the idea is returned to and expanded on until it becomes a theme, a life theme. I enjoy letter by people who love to write letters, who have none of the impatience of today's texts and emails, who are brief when they choose to be and not because they have nothing to say. When this epistolary yearning comes over me, I seek out a collection of missives and hunker down. Most recently, I was with Einstein through his difficult years (an alienated wife and two sons growing without him, as he struggles to complete his thoughts on Relativity).

Today, unexpectedly, I was with James Tiptree, Jr. and Ursula Le Guin, Tree and Starbear, enveloped in the exchanges between two of SF's most wonderful writers. Tiptree kept a secret: that he was really a woman named Alice B. Sheldon. The tension and friendship between Le Guin and Tiptree is wonderfully captured by their correspondence. Being writers, they talked about writing, but went far and beyond what one would expect, deep into the expanse where questions exist questions like:

"Why is that when you read a story by a new writer you didn't know before you think this is pretty good but I HATE this person and loathe him and am jealous and feel morally superior & all the rest of Pandora's box... and you read a new story by another writer you didn't know before and you think this is pretty good and by gum isn't it lovely to find a new writer you didn't know before and you like?? Why is it?" - Ursula Le Guin

I was moved and my mind provoked - and all this from the latest issue of F&SF (September).

Oh, and another reason I enjoyed the magazine (in addition to the well-written fiction) is a bit from Harlan Ellison that had me smiling:

"What every professional writer (whether s/he has ever written and sold a story or not), is the core secret that makes every pro or wannabe a capable storyteller of professional ability: an idea is not a story."

litcritters

This week:

Still Life With Boobs by Anne Harris
Fox Magic by Kij Johnson
Singing My Sister Down by Margo Laganan
The Recrudescence of Imray by Rudyard Kipling


Last week:

The Baum Plan for Financial Independence by John Kessel
The Dragons of Summer Gulch by Robert Reed
Winged Victory by Sarah Prineas
Iron Ankles by David Schwartz


Next week:

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


*The Litcritters, for the curious, is a reading/writing 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 realist, classics, etc.), which is why the required readings are not purely spec fic (and as writers, it is a good idea to expose yourself to different flavors of writing and modes of thinking). This includes works by Filipino authors - because we would be truly impoverished if we didn't read stories written by our own countrymen.

The writing part involves creating stories (every two months or so), which are then workshopped and subjected to critiques, 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, 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.

spec fic

With close to 90 submissions, my task of selecting the stories that will go into the second volume of Philippine Speculative Fiction is delightfully difficult. Filipino authors from all over the country as well as different parts of the world responded to my request, providing an even wider range of texts to read, as compared to last year's set. The quality of writing is higher, with strong contenders in fantasy, science fiction, horror and mixed genres, coming from first time authors as well as established writers: filmmakers, students, teachers, readers, magazine editors, comic book writers, children's authors, engineers, lawyers, government employees, call center folk, NGO volunteers, musicians, stage performers, doctors, bank managers, out-of-school youth, business owners, photographers, and more.

For fantasy, I received the expected retold Filipino folk tales along with powerful fantasies set in wholly imagined new worlds, as well as modern day fantasies set in Manila, Zamboanga, Cebu, the Ilocos Region, and various parts of the archipelago. Dragons (imported and native), dreams and quests; meditations on longing and love; tales about magical trapdoors to other places, the power of the choice, the place of miracles and the consequences of war and freedom - these themes and more are explored in lush words and images, through brutally viscious fairy tales, quiet legerdemain and rousing action and adventure.

For science fiction, I received stories about attempts to alter history, tales set on distant planets imperilled by humanity's basest instincts, and explorations and fabulations into the cause-and-effect of technology. Aliens walk among us, artificial intelligence develops at an alarming rate, Filipinos colonize the nearby celestial bodies, mankind makes terrifying war among each other, while some yearn to answer the siren call of distant galactic clusters.

For horror, I received stories about internal and external nightmares, supernatural thrillers and ghost stories, nightflyers, twilight-walkers and psychological tales that begin or end with murder. Settings include various populated and secret places in the Philippines, as well as more exotic countries and locales. A subset of stories deal with the Apocalypse or the End of the World; another, with the dark passions of the human heart.

For mixed genres, a number of stories jump into the slipstream or stake their claims in the interstices, difficult to categorize and made even more delicious to read. Stories about a devouring corporate entity, slice-of-life tropes that venture into the surreal, and a few that I'm certain I didn't understand at first reading.

The initial short list I created after reading the first batch of stories continues to morph and alter as great stories give way to excellent stories that are undeniable in terms of quality of ideas and craft. A number are preciously literary, balanced by those that throw pretensions to the winds and engage the reader in their own way. A great majority are well-written, which makes me very happy. My big problem is the "For Consideration and Re-reading" pile, which is densely populated by a bewildering array of stories. At this point, I am only absolutely certain of a small number, tempted by other stories which make fine arguments for a slot in the anthology. I wish I had enough money for a super-thick book, but sadly, economic realities are still hold sway.

I'm done with the initial reading and am about to embark on second and subsequent forays into the words. I reformatted each submission and printed it out, carrying texts with me during my daylight hours so I have something to read in between client meetings, presentations and photo shoots. When I get home, I read until fatigue warns me that my critical faculties are imperiled - that's when I stop, because I want to give each story a fair chance.

So that's my life right now - reading, reading, reading (as for my own fiction, The Middle Prince is over at Bewildering Stories).

And now, back to work. There is a story about time-traveling government assassins - and another about a ghost that isn't quite a ghost - that I find particularly enticing.

working with words

Happily, I'm up to my ears in stories.

On Sunday, I'll be critiquing stories over at the University of Santo Tomas (UST) for the 2nd USTETIKA Literary Workshop, along with co-panelists Charleson Ong and Eric Melendez. I have a folio of the stories for consideration that I need to digest and mull over so that I can give something constructive to these new writers.

Meanwhile, with the deadline for submissions for Philippine Speculative Fiction V2 at midnight tomorrow, stories are coming in at a startling pace. As of this morning, I've received over 70 stories for consideration, with strong texts in the various genres. I'm glad I started a personal program to handle the projected flow - as a result, I'm actually not that stressed (unless tomorrow brings 20 or so stories LOL). I'm delighted by the number of new and previously unpublished authors who sent in stories; part of the agenda here is to encourage new voices while helping the slightly more established ones grow. Ah, the editor's life! I'll write more about the process of selection after I make my final choices.

Tonight, the Litcritters will tackle four texts by John Kessel, David Schwartz, Sarah Prineas and Robert Reed. In addition, I usually give a small lecture on some aspect of writing, before we talk about our own works and how to improve them with an eye toward future publication. Scheduled for the coming weeks: Socorro Villanueve, Pearlsha Abubakar, Timothy Montes, Tara FT Sering, Myrza Sison, Butch Dalisay - and that's just from our side of the pond. Waiting in the wings are stories from Kristien Hemmerechts, Joyce Carol Oates, G.K. Chesterson, Jonathan Lethem, Ben Peek, Jonathan Caroll and others.

Plus there are the odd stories sent my way, unsolicited, asking me to review and critique them. I do try guys, but often the load is unforgiving. I'm happy though that in the past few months I've managed to respond to a small number of authors in Davao, Cebu and Manila.

year's best

Today, I received via post some of the books I ordered from Amazon a couple of weeks ago, which includes The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror Nineteenth Annual Collection, edited by Ellen Datlow and Kelly Link & Gavin Grant (which is like a bible to me, in terms of showing where speculative fiction is currently and where it is going).

In the "Summation 2005: Fantasy" section:

"A couple of years ago we reprinted Dean Francis Alfar's story "L'Aquilone du Estrellas (The Kite of Stars)" from Strange Horizons in this anthology series. Alfar inaugurates a new anthology series himself with the first volume of Philippine Speculative Fiction (Kestrel). This is a rich and varied assortment of stories. It includes strong work by Nikki Alfar, Francezka C. Kwe and Vincent Michael Simbulan."

To have the book I edited cited among such anthos such as Noisy Outlaws(McSweeney's), Polyphony (Wheatland Press), and the Year's Best Australian Science Fiction & Fantasy Vol.1 (MirrorDanse; Prime) is an immense honor.

Believe me, it was my dream long ago just to get an Honorable Mention. So I checked the Honorable Mentions: 2005 section and found:

Alfar, Nikki, "Emberwilde," Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol.1
Kwe, Francezka C., "Lovelore," Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol.1
Simbulan, Vincent Michael, "In the Arms of Beishu," Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol.1

I'm so proud of these three writers!

And I'm also ecstatic because our antho is 100% Filipino. And I honestly believe that we have what it takes to create speculative fiction that can stand with the best of the world.

And to double my joy:

"Rabid Transit: Menagerie (Velocity Press), edited by Chrisopher Barzak, Alan De Niro and Kristin Livdahl, is an annual anthology of quality writing that tends towards the peculiar. Dean Francis Alfar and Rudi Dornemann's stories were of particular note."

Many, many thanks to the Kelly and Gavin.

We're all supercharged again!

And now, back to work on Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol.2. The deadline for submissions is just three days away, and with the quantity and quality of the subs, I have much to read and review.

litcritters

This week:

The Baum Plan for Financial Independence by John Kessel
The Dragons of Summer Gulch by Robert Reed
Winged Victory by Sarah Prineas
Iron Ankles by David Schwartz


Last week:

La Malcontenta by Liz Williams
The Narcissus Plague by Lisa Goldstein
The Sculptor by Garry Kilworth
The Girl with the Heart of Stone by Leah Bobet


Next week:

Still Life With Boobs by Anne Harris
Fox Magic by Kij Johnson
Singing My Sister Down by Margo Laganan
The Recrudescence of Imray by Rudyard Kipling

well-written stories

It is one of my goals - actually a personal agenda point - to encourage the creation of well-written stories in the speculative fiction mode. There are some who opine that genre stories should not be constrained by a need to be "literary", which I completely disagree with.

It is one thing to have an idea and another thing to be able to communicate that idea; it is the basic difference between "story" and "discourse". "Story" - the "what" of the text- consists of the events and existents. "Discourse" - "how" a text is told - consists of multiple elements such as structure (change of fortune, the problem of the story, rising action, crisis, climax, falling action, the threat), narrative modes, narrative voices, representation of consciousness (direct and indirect discourse/dialogue, psychonarration, interior monologue, narrated monologue), focalization, time (real time, quick time, slow time, prolepsis, analepsis), space (fictional space, symbolic space, real space), style, characterization (explicit and implicit, characterization by narrator or character, reliability, inner life, contrasts and correspondences), etc.

A well-written text is composed of both "story" and "discourse". I respect every person's right to choose what they want to read, but I personally prefer to read a well-written text. Having an idea is not enough - which is why I'm hard on fiction that primarily trumpets ideas, without paying much attention to things like characterization and emotional verisimilitude. For me, a text that is not well-written, that does not engage me as a reader on several levels, fails.

Speculative fiction is literature, and should not be excused from the demands of literature. It is not a matter of elitism but rather about communicating a whole story - not just the idea. If the idea is all that needs to communicated, then perhaps the story form is not ideal. There are other means such as essays, articles or various kinds of papers (such as source books for world-building). However, one of the intrinsic aspects of speculative fiction is the "what if?", and building a "what if" requires a scenario, and if that scenario includes characters with motivations interacting with others or moving around in a setting in time, then it needs to be communicated as a story, complete with the elements of discourse. From there, it is a short hop towards considering theme, meaning, and agenda.

I do not differentiate between "high" and "low" fiction (literature for the "elite" vs. pop). I read both Kelly Link and the stuff I find in the bargain bin, I've enjoyed Maus and Little Lulu. What I look for is a well-written story. It can entertain or it can provoke; it can be humorous and light or it can be so mind-boggling and dense that it requires several readings; it can be about anything and written in practically any style (traditional, pulpy or experimental); it can be about the human condition (emotionally resonant) or it can be about ideas (intellectually stimulating) - for as long as it is well-written.

As a reader and editor, those are the texts I look for, the stories that engage me. As a writer, those are the kinds of stories I aspire to write.

beacon school

Nikki and I just gave a talk about writing to the 3rd grade classes over at Beacon School in Taguig. This school, which we have heard so much about (all good in terms of progressive education), is where my sister teaches and is also part-owned by Mailen Paterno-Locsin. Given the smart kids we spoke to, the school lives up to its reputation.

After a lecturish talk on the basics of writing and imagination, we fielded all sorts of questions and read two of our stories - Menggay's Magical Chicken by Nikki and my Rosang Taba, which the kids enjoyed. It was a pleasure reading these stories to the precise audience we wrote them for - when the kids realized Rosang Taba's cleverness, they cheered!

Now if only we could afford to send Sage to this school... Alas, the tuition fee, which runs into the hundreds of thousands, is simply an impossible dream.

litcritters

This week:

La Malcontenta by Liz Williams
The Narcissus Plague by Lisa Goldstein
The Sculptor by Garry Kilworth
The Girl with the Heart of Stone by Leah Bobet


Last week:

Lines by Lakambini Sitoy
A Passion for Lord Pierrot by Colin Greenland
Sunfast, Shadowplay, and Saintswalk by Rudi Dornemann
The Jenna Set by Daniel Kaysen


Next week:

The Baum Plan for Financial Independence by John Kessel
The Dragons of Summer Gulch by Robert Reed
Winged Victory by Sarah Prineas
Iron Ankles by David Schwartz

words, words, words

endings

My story "Terminos" is featured over at The Virtuous Medlar Circle. Thanks so much to my new comrade-in-letters Anna Tambour.

Go and read the other stories too! Lots of delightful finds.


middles

Ateneo Press, the publisher of my novel, talked to me about the second printing of Salamanca. I'm still reeling over the fact that there's even going to be a second printing - and that some of them will be hardbound. The US Library of Congress also asked me to inscribe the copies they bought to add to their collection.


beginnings

Philippine Genre Stories is a new paying publication slated for release sometime towards the end of the year. Right now, the editors are looking for well-written short stories in the following genres: fantasy, science-fiction, speculative, crime, mystery, detective, horror, suspense - can you tell how happy this makes me?

To submit your spec fic stories, check this out first for the complete guidelines. But here they are in a nutshell:

Stories must be in English
2,500 to 6,000 words
Rich Text Format (RTF) files only
Cover letter (brief description of your story and yourself)
Your contact details (email address, landline, cellphone number, address)
Use only common fonts (Courier, Arial, Helvetica, Times Roman)
Double-spaced

palanca 2006 + national book awards 2006

The past few days have been amazing. The literary awards season is always short but welcome, giving us a chance to eat and drink for free, chat up old and new friends, and get a brief pat on the back before returning to the task of writing.

Nikki and I won Palancas this year, her 2nd and my 9th. Her "Life After Beth" placed in the One-Act Play and my "How Rosang Taba Won A Race" placed in the Short Story for Children category. Here's the complete roster of winners for the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature 2006.

The Litcritters arrived in force, found a strategic table (close to the buffet) and had a great time. I roamed around and took some pictures:


Glenn Mas, 1st Prize Full Length Play, "The Death of Memory". I'm always happy to see Glenn at the Palancas. He surprised me by brandishing a copy of Salamanca - glad to hear he's teaching at the Ateneo now.


Dr. Cirilo Bautista is always interesting to talk to. He's writing a novel that may well be his masterwork.


National Artist Edith Tiempo is one of my favorite people on the planet. Her words are always encouraging (for as long as I behave myself - haha). I can't believe I've been in her company thrice this year.


I nagged Susan Lara about her submission to the upcoming spec fic antho, jokingly telling her that her smile won't work on the nasty editor in me. I could kick myself in the head for forgetting to take pictures of Marge Evasco and DM Reyes, both of whom I had a lovely talk with. But don't worry, I tend to include these three friends in my fiction somehow. :)


I teased Dr. Vim Nadera about his subdued look this year - because he's usually a riot in terms of attire. "Kakain lang kasi," he smiled.


I was seated next to Palanca Hall of Famer Reynaldo Duque who had no choice but to mug for my camera.


I bumped into both Nick Pichay and Khavn a day earlier at the National Book Awards. And again at the Palancas where they were both judges.


Model-Writer-Editor Myrza Sison, 2nd Prize Short Story, "Sink or Swim".


When the emcee was late, Krip Yuson almost became the replacement emcee. We pined for our old digs at the Manila Peninsula with its smoking room, flat screen TV and dancing girls. Krip assured me that he'll turn in his spec fic story before the deadline.


Fellow smokers Migs Villanueva and Nikki Alfar. Migs won 1st Prize for Short Story, "Mahogany Water". Turns out we have the same camera.


Litcritters: Nikki, Vin Simbulan, Andrew Drilon, Kate Aton-Osias and Alex Osias. Like a cloud of locusts, we swept through the food and Bailey's.


Larry Ypil, 1st Prize Poetry, "The Highest Hiding-Place". Earlier on, he texted me "What do people wear to these things?". "A nice shirt," I replied.


Nikki receiving her award. I was honestly happier for my wife than for myself! I am so proud of her.


Me getting mine. My old college crush, Ma. Elena Paterno-Locsin (sadly, not in the picture) made me swoon. Nikki and I are giving a talk about writing at her school at Fort Bonifacio this week.


Me with a little too much red wine.


A very happy married writing couple - 11 years of marriage and 11 Palancas. A lot of people offered us dual kudos.

Earlier in the week, the Manila Critics' Circle awarded "Siglo: Passion" the National Book Award for Best Comic. Vin Simbulan and I are thankful to all the wonderful writers and artists who worked on the book. Anthology prizes are awarded to the editors, but clearly it is the content that makes such things work - so this honor belongs to all who contributed to the book, as well as Nautilus Comics, our publishers. We are especially delighted because our agenda of creating comic books that push a more literary slant has been recognized.


Vin Simbulan with the mysteriously camera-shaped award.