in the company of worldbuilders

I was about to use “writers”, but I think this word is better. (Source: most probaby Neil Gaiman’s blog, or his Twitter page, or one of his stories.) Such a beautiful image, and such an accurate word to describe approximately 10,000 hours of staring at a blank page and too much potato chips and having absolutely no social life.

I’m kidding. Maybe 1,000 hours.

Anyway. Book launch yesterday (Feb. 28) of the fourth installment of Philippine Speculative Fiction.

I’ve been published in an anthology before (a collection of flash fiction) but was not able to attend the launching. (Actually I’m still not sure if there had been one.) So the event yesterday was my first ever book launch. Attended it with my friend Eula, who frequents the place because she lives nearby.

I, on the other hand, have never been there before because (kindly refer to first paragraph).

The venue was the U-View Theater inside the gigantic Fully Booked branch on High Street, and to get to there we had to pass the Graphic Novels aisle. It killed me. The books were unattainable. Dear Fully Booked, kindly put the graphic novels on sale. Ktnxbye.

The Alfars (who edited the anthology) were very welcoming, very lively, and just the right amount of insane. I LOVE IT. Each author’s bio sketch was flashed onscreen, which Dean Alfar read out loud. Fun, really fun, except that the authors had to get up and say something. In my head I prepared this speech: “I am so thankful to be in this room filled with writers and readers. This is the kind of room that I’d like to embrace (and do crazy stuff with).”

Instead when I finally got up to get my copies, I said something like: “OHMYGOD I am so THANK YOU [laughs like a hyena] [starts moving around like a jackhammer]” I was moving around so much that Eula said she had a hard time taking a photo of me.

You see, this is why I write.

* * *

Big, big mistake: I didn’t stick around after the program to collect signatures from the other authors. STUPID!

But anyway, at least Eula and I had time to give ourselves blisters walking around Fort Bonifacio. Dinner was fun. Eula, we should do this again!

* * *

This stuck with me, though: when I came up to Dean Alfar to shake his hand, he said: “We wanted so much to meet you, you made us cry.”

You see, this is why I write. :D

Do buy a copy. :)

(The rest of the photos are over here. And here be a bunch of links, compiled by Charles Tan. Know the other authors! Hehe.)