exotic gothic 2

Good news from my editor, Danel Olson. Exotic Gothic 2, from Ash Tree Press, is out and should be available in various bookstores (as well as Amazon.com) soon! Huzzah!

For a sneak peek, here are the Table of Contents, Preface and advanced reviews.

Thank you so much, Danel. I'm happy and proud to be part of the book.

pinoy spec fic among the best of the year

One of the books that Nikki and I (and the LitCritters) look forward to every year is The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror, an annual thickie chockfull of wonderful stories from around the world.

The editors (Ellen Datlow for Horror, and Kelly Link & Gavin Grant for Fantasy) scour a veritable mountain of publications from around the world (and the internet), from the New Yorker to Strange Horizons, taking on magazines, periodicals, anthologies, collections and websites, seeking the best stories of the year. The annuals are fascinating reads for a number of reasons: as an indicator of zeitgeist and authorial concerns/themes, as a showcase for startling new ways to tell stories, as a primer for what makes excellent spec fic (YBFH reprints stories previously published in other sources, which means that their selections pass through two editing/vetting processes), and as an introduction to new authors whose work may be difficult for the regular reader to find. It is an honor to be selected (I had one story chosen for the 17th annual collection, and still get all fanboysy when I see my story along the likes of Ursula Le Guin, Neil Gaiman, Stephen King and Nathan Ballingrud) and there is much happiness in being part of the list of Honorable Mentions.

This year, six stories from Philippine Speculative Fiction III (Kestrel) are Honorable Mentions in The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror 2008:

"Hamog" by Joanna Paula L. Cailas
"The Datu's Daughters" by Raymond G. Falgui
"Pedro Diyego's Homecoming" by Apol Lejano-Massebieau
"In Earthen Vessels" by Rodello Santos
"Sidhi" by Yvette Natalie U. Tan
“The Ascension of Our Lady Boy” by Mia Tijam

Huzzah! Not bad for a small press driven by a hope for bigger things.

And to make things even better, two more stories by Filipinos made it to the list from other sources:

“The River Stone Heart of Maria Dela Rosa” by Kate Aton-Osias (from Serendipity)
“Stella for Star” by Yvette Natalie U. Tan (from Expeditions – which gives Yvette a double whammy!)

Nikki and I very proud and happy that these stories, both the ones from our antho and the ones from Serendipity and Expeditions (from Fully Booked), have been read and appreciated. This is our reward - validation that we Filipinos, clearly, can write spec fic with the best of them – we just need to produce more, produce excellent stories consistently, and submit to the markets. This – the act of writing and getting published and read – is more important than the inbred navel-gazing many of us tend to do, arguing semantics and terminologies instead of writing.

(This is our biggest number of citations. In Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol.1,we had:

"Emberwild" by Nikki Alfar
"In the Arms of Beishu" by Vincent Michael Simbulan
"Lovelore" by Francezca Kwe

and in Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol. 2:

"Feasting" by Joshua Lim So
"Six from Downtown" by Dean Francis Alfar
"The Sign of the Cross" by Stanley Geronimo)

Kudos to Joanna, Raymond, Apol, Rod, Yvette, Mia and Kate!

And even bigger thanks to Nikki, who did all the heavy lifting and edits (without her, we couldn’t publish a word)!

And to add to my almost indecent happiness, my work is cited in the Single Author Story Collection, just above Lucius Shepard (fanboy thrill, I tell you) in Link and Grant’s Fantasy Summation:

“Editor and writer-to-watch Dean Francis Alfar is at the forefront of a recent and vigorous speculative fiction scene in the Philippines. His first collection, The Kite of Stars and Other Stories (Anvil) contains tales that draw on the traditions and tropes of magic realism.”

And also in Ellen Datlow’s Horror Summation:

“The Kite of Stars and Other Stories by the Filipino writer Dean Francis Alfar (Anvil Publishing) features eighteen stories, most previously published in venues ranging from Strange Horizons and Bewildering Stories to the Philippines Free Press. Five of the stories were published in magazines and anthologies in 2007 and one is original to the collection.”

Many, many thanks to Ellen, Kelly and Gavin for every word of encouragement.

philippine speculative fiction IV table of contents

Nikki and I went through multiple readings of all the submissions (read everything, step away, read again after several days, discuss, read again, step away, read again, short list, wrestle with each other, finalize list - plus one last re-reading and discussion session, which resulted in two stories going by the wayside and another, whose virtues shone after rereading, coming in).

And what we have this year is a beauty.

Some stats for Philippine Speculative Fiction IV:

24 original stories (which means all stories were not previously published anywhere, making this volume an all-original anthology)
-- 12 stories by women
-- 12 stories by men

17 authors not previously published in any of the older volumes of the Philippine Speculative Fiction annuals (this makes me very very happy, as fresh voices and perspectives help describe and map the spec fic topography/space better, in addition to the 7 great stories by returning authors)

We've sent out the letters of acceptance and regret - and thank everyone who submitted. We appreciate all the writing done and the stories told, but could not include all submissions (close to a hundred).

Here's the TOC (not the final sequence, this is alphabetical by story title) for Philippine Speculative Fiction IV:

A League of Champions by Ronald Cruz
A Retrospective on Diseases for Sale by Charles Tan
All We Need is Five Meals a Day by Jose Elvin Bueno
Beats by Kenneth Yu
Breaking the Spell by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz
Breathing Space by Maryanne Moll
Dino's Awesome Adventure by Carljoe Javier
Dreams of the Iron Giant by Joseph Nacino
First of the Gang to Die by Paolo Jose Cruz
From Abecediarya by Adam David
Haya Makes A HUG by Erica Gonzales
Hopscotch by Anne Lagamayo
Mang Marcing and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse by Vincent Simbulan
Parallel by Eliza Victoria
Press Release by Leo Magno
Revenge of the Tiktaks by Noel Tio
Sky Blue by Celestine Trinidad
The Dance of the Storm by Isabel Yap
The Day That Frances, The Copywriter, Became God by Monique Francisco
The Maiden's Song by Kathleen Aton-Osias
The Paranoid Style by Sharmaine Galve
The Rooftops of Manila by Crystal Gail Shangkuan Koo
The Secret Origin of Spin-Man by Andrew Drilon
The Sewing Project by Apol Lejano-Massebieau

Our next step is copy editing and house style formatting, cover design, book design and layout, final art, prepping the package for delivery to the printer, printing, (whew!) and then...

The book launch is scheduled for December 13, 2008, 5:30PM at the U-View Theater of Fully Booked (main branch) over at Bonifacio High Street, The Fort, Taguig City. Everyone is invited (be warned though, we tend to fun at our launches).

Again, many thanks to all who submitted and kudos to the contributors. Here's to another year of pinoy spec fic!

linkages

Mixed links from the past and recent past:

Charles Tan's essay: "The Term Speculative Fiction in Philippine Literature" and Rebecca Arcega's - A Reaction to an Essay on Philippine Speculative Fiction

Kristel Autencio posts "The Melancholy of Cultural Identity in Dean Alfar's Short Fiction".

David Dizon of ABS-CBN News 's article: Write A Blog, Win A Palanca (about blogging and a bit of my writing process).

A review of "Salamanca" by Daryll Delgado - Constructions and Disruptions of Jouissance

reportage: spec fic at UP

(Alex, Kate, Dean, Andrew, Vin & Nikki - photo by Kenneth Yu)


The LitCritters were invited to speak on “The New Philippine Fantastic” by the UP Writers Club yesterday, so we made our way to the Claro M. Recto Hall, joined up with PGS publisher Kenneth Yu, and parsed our talk in this way (be warned, assorted plugs for books abound!):

Kenneth Yu spoke about genre and why/how he started the Digest of Philippine Genre Stories. We’re always happy to have Kyu speak about his advocacy for genre, in particular his love for crime and mystery stories. PGS remains one of the consistent markets for spec fic, with an open editorial policy that favors genre stories that entertain. Two issues are slated for release this year: a special horror-themed issue guest-edited by Yvette Tan (who is coming out with her first collection from Anvil soon – watch for it) and a regular issue this December. Another special issue to look out for early next year is one guest-edited by Ichi Batacan, with a focus on crime fiction.

Nikki Alfar spoke about folklore, its origins, importance and relevance. She pointed out that we need to write/rewrite these stories to make them “sexy”, not in an erotic sense, but in terms of discourse and engagement. These stories from across the archipelago are part and parcel of our cultural heritage and are lovely besides. She also advised against talking down to younger readers by dumbing down writing – “kids are short, not stupid”. I wholeheartedly agree (this later brought us a memory of Zarah Gagatiga, LitCritter and Palanca judge, telling us to “make them (the kids) suffer” in the stories). Nikki is finalizing her manuscript and will have her first collection of spec fic out next year, via Milflores.

Vin Simbulan's topic was epic fantasy and secondary worlds, how these subgenres of fantasy inspire imagination and have value beyond simple escapism – by enabling adult readers to reclaim their sense of wonder. Vin’s love for traditional fantasy is infective, this is truly one of his passions. His anthology, “A Time for Dragons”, comes out from Anvil late this year or early next (with quite an interesting lineup and story mix).

Kate Aton-Osias tackled the issue of writing spec fic and being Filipino, a burning issue that provokes questions and discussion. Kate’s take on things is very “Olympics” (not Olympian) in approach – your writing is Filipino if you are Filipino. Later, she would field the question on fantaseryes and reveal her consumption of Dyosa (watch this trailer).

Andrew Drilon was in charge of contemporary fantasy, which gave him a perfect opportunity to speak about the work of Kelly Link, Jeffrey Ford, Aimee Bender and other writers, as well as interstitial fiction, describing the blurring of boundaries between genres. Andrew’s recently completed comics oeuvre is lying in wait for the right time to reveal its presence to an unsuspecting world (check out his latest Kare-Kare Comics!)

Alex Osias's talk was about scifi and mythmaking, positing that scifi is an excellent vehicle for the same themes that myths have, as well as being a way for us to deal with our anxieties concerning the rapid advance of technology, and attendant sociological effects to boot.

I wrapped things up by talking about spec fic, how it flourishes outside of academe, why we should disempower and reclaim “entertainment”, why description is preferred to prescription, and vocalized my desire for the development of spec fic criticism.

Q & A followed and many things were discussed and we went back to our lives happy to have shared our thoughts and passions – not as authorities, of course, but as working writers of spec fic in the Philippines.

I got a chance to chat afterwards with Luna Sicat who asked for a venue for spec fic in Tagalog (sige, gagawan ng paraan), with Adam David (whose critical stance on what we’re doing is certainly welcome), Carljoe Javier (who heroically restrained himself from answering my demand for spec fic to be required in UP classes – because he already includes spec fic in his syllabus), and MaryAnne Moll (one of our favorite LitCritters from our days at Serendra, who is, happily, writing more – huzzah!).

Many thanks to Anne Lagamayo and the enthusiastic members of the UP Writers Club for having us over (and for the good eat, siyempre naman)!

litcritters: reading and writing

Hey LitCritters !

After a brief hiatus (we had children a-borning), we're back and would like to invite you to join the discussions. We resume regular LitCritter sessions on October 4, 2008 (that's a Saturday) at 2PM over at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf at Robinson's Galleria.

Here are the stories we'll tackle (please remember that these are provided for reading purposes only):

Last Contact by Stephen Baxter
The Seventh Letter by Sean Williams
The Disemboweler by Ekaterina Sedia
Companion to Owls by Chris Roberson

All you need to do is download, read up and chime in.


***

The LitCritters is a reading and writing group based in Manila, as well as in Dumaguete. Every week, we read and discuss short fiction from various genres from different writers with the goal of expanding our reading horizons, improving our ability to critique, and learning how to write from the good texts. In addition to speculative fiction, we read Philippine literature in English, as well as world literature.

For those who'd like to join us: first, sign up for the LitCritter mailing list so you can access the archives of readings (the box is on the right side of my blog). Next, read all the stories for the week. Then, join our open sessions at The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Robinsons Galleria at 2PM on Saturdays (watch this blog for schedule announcements and changes).

We'd love to have you there.

fully booked deadline - extended

For those who are planning on submitting entries to for Fully Booked's 3rd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards (which now includes short films - so should it be renamed then?) and are looking at the September 30 deadline with dread, fear no more. The deadline has been extended to November 3, 2008, giving you more than a month of extra writing time.

So go and write up a storm.

iphone and me

When my O2 gave up the ghost (the demise was slow and painful and broke my heart as I loved my phone/PDA/everything very much, even when it would hang for no reason, even when it refused to make calls), I finally had a reason to go get myself an iPhone. As expected I balked at the cost, but my financial soulsearching took only seconds, since I'd been having impure thoughts about the iPhone from the first time I read about it (and last year when Butch Dalisay showed me the one he got from the US - and yes, I plotted how to simply swipe it from him but decided otherwise, after all, he's a tough guy). So I after figured out how I would pay for the thing (I must win a lottery soon), it was just a matter of waiting for it for arrive at my office.

It's beautiful. And more useful than my old O2. And with downloadable apps, very cool. I just have issues with texting (my fat fingers keep tapping the wrong key on the keypad) and the fact that I cannot erase single texts, only conversations. But otherwise, it has integrated my Outlook so I have all my contacts and schedules (without my calendar, I'm a lost fool), and I've moved all my music to it. And...yes, I've gone down the slippery slope of buying apps from the iTunes store (but not music, because the Philippine store doesn't offer them). It started with free stuff, but how, oh how, for example, could I possibly resist TextTwist?

And in the best Filipino tradition of hand-me-downs, Nikki is now the happy owner of my iTouch, which makes Sage the surprised owner of Nikki's iPod, and Rowan just gets all the milk she wants (Me to Sage: What does Rowan get? Sage: Dad! She's just an infant!).

I'm in the happy honeymoon adjustment stage, yes, and still afraid that I might drop the thing.

wanted: critic

It has been, still is, and I suspect will always be, my position that writers should be in the business of writing. In the context of my interest, this is to say that Filipino writers of speculative fiction should be working writers: continuously producing (writing and publishing, in print or online) texts that, eventually, in its variety of voices, approaches and authorial poetics, describe Philippine speculative fiction. This means that the creatives should focus on the matter of the story, exploring the vistas of fantasy, science fiction, horror and other non-realist genres that imagination permits, at same time articulating who they are as writers, as Filipinos, as Filipino writers of the marvelous, and as Filipino writers of the marvelous in their current socio/political/cultural milieu, wrestling, as they will, with issues of personal /authorial and national/post-colonial identity as they contribute texts and locate themselves (or define space for themselves) in Philippine literature.

The interest in spec fic in the recent years has led to new texts by new authors, most of them of the younger generation. This development is noteworthy because it has always been part of my desire to see new stories by new writers (after all, all my generation and older will one day fade away). In these wild and woolly days, these stories are happily, wonderfully all over the place in terms of genre, subject matter, and theme, as these writers experiment without fear (unlike the older writers, or those with an academic background, who find themselves immediately struggling with issues of relevance and gravitas and "literariness") and produce texts that would be unacceptable to the realist literary critics (such as a second world text, bereft of anything Filipino – no Filipino characters, settings, themes or such, perhaps apart from cosmetics such as the occasional pinoy word, name or descriptor). As I mentioned earlier, these are not just acceptable to me, but a necessary and vital part of speculative fiction, as our ability to imagine elsewheres should not be constrained by socio-political chains (we need to give our writers the freedom to create Middle Earth or New Crobuzon or a new planet - in time, their Filipino nature will creep into their texts anyway, because we cannot escape who we are, especially in writing).

So I am not concerned, at this time, that there are not enough writers of spec fic (which is not to say that I think we have an abundance, no , I will always want more: more women, more young people, more in Filipino and regional languages, more, more, more). I am more concerned with the fact that we have no spec fic critics.

Everyone wants to be a writer, nobody wants to be a critic – this is how things are. But we need to accept that vitality, growth and expansion of literature needs writers who write, readers who read and literary critics whose multiple functions (permit me to grossly oversimplify) include analysis, articulation and guidance (and, in some instances, the deflation of writerly egos) as they help push the genre towards the future.

Right now, there are no literary theorists in the Philippines devoted to spec fic (there are those who may think they are, but their tools are not, their critical frameworks are borrowed and ill-fitting, their agenda and ability to speak about spec fic remains in doubt). We need Filipno critics who will develop a critical framework specifically for spec fic, specifically for Philippine spec fic, someone who understands and values the conventions and tropes of the various genres, who will champion spec fic as a different way of seeing, who will help shepherd thoughts and discussions in conversations (and yes, arguments) with spec fic writers (like me), who will help describe what we are doing and why and help us understand our place and our potential better.

I want someone who can think and argue and wrestle and articulate, who is not necessarily another writer like me, whose notions are founded on the reading and study of spec fic, specifically spec fic by Filipino writers, who does not kneel before the gods of Western spec fic canon (these pseudo-critics immediately exalt the Western writers and unabashedly worship at their feet – they are hardly critical), whose poetics are, at the very least, glocal (because while we need to be who we are, we also need to be citizens of imagination, for whom geography, in this world where borders and boundaries fall every day, means little).

I cannot be this critic. I choose to write, to happily produce, instead.

Maybe you?

words of wonder

It's two in the morning and I've just finished downloading the last huge batch of submissions for the upcoming Philippine Speculative Fiction IV anthology. The hour before midnight was crazy, with over 20 stories coming in. You folks really love beating the deadline - but what matters to me is that your stories are in.

From my initial scans (as I reformatted every submission into my and Nikki's preferred reading format - which, for the curious, is Book Antiqua, font size 8, landscape, two columns), we have a very interesting crop of stories this year from all over the country and three continents. A great number comes from new authors (I am always delighted to read stories from people I'm not familiar with - it is every editors dream to "discover" a fantastic new voice), with subs from familiar names as well (who are all upping their game, it seems).

So Nikki and I have our work cut out for us. We will read each and every one - yes, even the too-longs and the too-shorts - and experience the texts as readers first. We'll shortlist and wrestle later. For now, the name of the game is reading pleasure (this is my favorite part of the process). Those that move us, shake us, entertain us, engage us, make us think or tickle our poetics are a step closer to being part of the antho we love to put together.

Thank you to everyone who submitted, for your words of wonder and horror and welcome speculations.

Now to get some sleep - I have a panel at the Book Fair in a few hours.

the maiden and the crocodile

A story of mine, "The Maiden and the Crocodile", is reprinted in this issue of Bewildering Stories. It first appeared in Story Philippines.

vignette: small worlds

We read about Atlantis and Lemuria and imagined how things were in Roanoke. We watched TV specials and films on ancient civilizations: Great Zimbabwe, Egypt-under-sands, Heinrich Schliemann’s Troy, ruins of Viking colonies (marveling how some were found under houses, and some under unremarkable mounds). We mourned the End of the Second Age of Elves, gasped at the red skies that heralded the destruction of the DC multiverse, and were in attendance as Gavriel Kay’s metaphorical Reconquista’s shadow fell upon the noble Moors.

All in the past, all imagined or real, all dwelt upon, written on, celebrated, reviled, constructed, reconstructed, critiqued, discussed, remembered.

But there are smaller lost worlds, less grand, hidden, briefly exposed, then burned, lost, obviated.

When you and I met, we created, in the sphere of our new relationship, such a world. We set out on voyages of discovery and then sent treasure fleets to hoard moments, stories, fragments of memory. We built and plundered and planted and razed down and colonized each other’s space in the name of love or hope or togetherness or fate or choice or chance and it was good, this small world of ours, this small sphere that to us was immense, was the solar system, was the universe. It was all good. We defended our borders against outside incursions (real and imagined), sent the barbarians packing, so we could return to the glorious task of living and conversing and arguing and yes, yes, thinking.

Then one day, it was the end, it was over. It doesn’t matter if it was my hand or yours that thundered down the hapless glittering wonders of our world. It doesn’t matter who pushed the red button, who moved the doomsday clock to midnight, who did what when where how or why.

Our world was smaller than Mu, tinier than Atlantis. It did not inspire books or Discovery Channel or mysterious first-person 3D games, did not proffer the wisdom of the ancients (if anything, we were not wise), did not inspire others to dream or write poetry or bake pottery with achingly beautiful figures.

You moved on. I moved on. Our last mutual act was the walking away (apart, in different directions), crossing the silent gulf between dead small worlds and the come-hither-tither allure of new ones.

book fair sked

Apart from my annual opportunity to sniff out new books, I have a couple of other reasons to be at the 29th Manila International Book Fair at the SMX Convention Center (Mall of Asia) next week.

On the evening of Sept 12, Ateneo Press and I will be there to receive a Gintong Aklat Award for "Salamanca". The Book Development Association of the Philippines (BDAP) hands out the Gintong Aklat Awards every 2 years to outstanding book publishers based on the quality of books they produce year after year. Content is just one of the criteria, along with Quality of Production, Book Design, and Language. Ateneo Press, under my publisher Maricor Baytion, did a great job. Apart from the Palanca in 2005, Salamanca was also a finalist in for Juan C. Laya Award for Best Novel in a Foreign Language in 2006.

On Sept 14, I'll be on the "Publish or Perish" panel along with Jade Bernas (Story Philippines) and Kenneth Yu (The Digest of Philippine Genre Stories). I'll be wearing my hat as the publisher of the Philippine Speculative Fiction annuals. That's at 1PM.

On Sept 16, there's the panel on blogs I'll be on, part of the Pistang Panitik of Likhaan: UP Institute of Creative Writing and the Pambansang Komisyon para sa Kultura at Sining. I'll be joining Marne Kilates, Bobby Añonuevo, Sonny Villafania, and Vlad Gonzales. That's at 10AM.

It seems my big expense will be transporation - not books. I'm hoping for hotdogs!

whirlwind days

The past few days have been a little hectic but fun.

SciFi Panel

I was part of a panel that discussed science and science fiction last weekend over at the Science Discovery Center at the Mall of Asia, along with Queena Lee-Chua, Quark Henares, Emil Flores and host Karen Kunawicz. While scifi is not precisely my forte, I spoke about the genre in the context, of course, of speculative fiction. Highlights include my decision to throw poor Quark under the bus when a rather difficult question from the audience came our way (sorry Quark!), Queena and I exchanging whispers about time travel and Star Trek, and Emil and I arguing over the merits of Mazinger Z's Kouji Kabuto. Later, a Gundam question stumped the entire panel.

The Discovery Center is a very cool place, complete with a planetarium and lots of things to do. I plan on taking Sage there one day.


HBO Sunday

On Sunday, Nikki and I were godparents for the firstborn of Alex and Kate Osias - the handsome Hector Benjamin Osias. Hector and Rowan were born a week apart. The church was beautiful but the reception food was even better - nothing beats chicken and kare-kare at Aristocrat! Secretly, we actually arrived with time to spare and had adobo flying saucers.


Wow-Wow (no wee) at the Palancas

We celebrated Kate's first Palanca Award (Short Story for Children) as well as Ian's first 1st Prize (Short Story - 4 to go for the Hall of Fame, Ian!) and got to share in everyone's happiness (and food, siyempre - combat buffet-style). This was when Butch recruited me for a new project early next year (and rather cleverly managed to foist responsibility on me - haha), Sarge and I ribbed each other as losers, and Jing and Tony gently exerted pressure on Nikki to submit her book to Milfores for publication. I was happy to see Marge Evasco and congratulate her for her Free Press win and join the marginalized smokers (old and new winners) in the adjacent smoking area. Everyone was hoping for a repeat of last year's outrageous door prizes - and we got our wish when P100k was raffled away, half of which went to Charlson Ong.


Ilustrado

We had lunch with the winner of the Grand Prize for the Novel (English), Miguel Syjuco. Such a pleasant and well-spoken man, we were happy to find our poetics aligned in many ways. He wrote "Ilustrado" in the three years and cut down the 200,000 word monster in a more palatable 80,000 words (the same novel, by the way, is long-listed for the Man Asia). Over tapas and champagne we talked shop, and asked ourselves where everything is going, and what should be done, what we could do, and so on. We spoke about how, ultimately, we need to build upon (and then destroy) what has been done and construct new texts - killing our fathers, so to speak.

Yvette Tan, Wanggo Gallaga, Audrey Carpio and Tals Diaz were there for questions and revelations - and somehow, conversation swerved to "Twilight", and glittering vampires (gah), and how the LitCritters should be renamed GlitCritters or Gliterati (haha). The long lunch ended with open invitations for everyone to sit in with the LitCritters and/or play Upwords (we love this game).


Dragon Fantastic

Vin Simbulan's fantasy antho "A Time for Dragons" has been greenlit by Anvil, with cover and inner illustrationsby Andrew Drilon. Authors in the draconic antho include (to the best of my knowledge): Yvette Tan, Elbert Or, Cyan Abad-Jugo, Kate Aton-Osias, Alexander Drilon, Elyss Punsalan, Gabriela Lee, Nikki Alfar, Joseph Nacino, Apol Lejano-Massebieau, Vincent Michael Simbulan, Paolo Chikiamco-Recio, Dominique Cimafranca, Alexander Osias, Oscar Alvarez, Sarge Lacuesta and me.

Kudos to Vin!


I heart Rochita

Big, big thanks to Rochita Loenen-Ruiz (who blogs here and here) for sending me a surprise package: Interzone, Asimov's and stuff for Sage and Rowan! I am so happy - reading material!!!

Someday, I'll figure out how to get published in Interzone (Rochita recommended this lovely piece of spec fic by Aliette de Bodard, "Deer Flight").