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.