Month: February 2010

big story sale

I got this lovely news in the mail today:

Dear Eliza Victoria:

We are delighted to accept your story “December” for a forthcoming issue of the print edition of Story Quarterly and, if possible, for Story Quarterly Online, the electronic edition of our print magazine, where work is reproduced as protected PDF files and in the form of audio (MP3) files.

[redacted]

Sincerely,
J.T. Barbarese
Editor, Story Quarterly at Rutgers-Camden
Rutgers University
Department of English
Camden NJ 08102
http://www.camden.rutgers.edu/storyquarterly/

If this works out, “December” will be my first pro sale. Story Quarterly has published the likes of “Margaret Atwood, Anne Beattie, Frederick Busch, Joyce Carol Oates, T.C. Boyle and Jhumpa Lahiri.”

Great crowd! I love it! :D

* * *

To all those who attended the event yesterday, thank you, and thank you also if you were among those who stopped in their tracks to talk to us lowly researchers. Heh. The article’s over here, m’lovelies. ♥

MANILA, Philippines—Some 80 questions were asked in the first-ever Philippine Daily Inquirer Presidential Debate held Monday at the University of the Philippines (UP) Theater in Diliman, Quezon City, but those who came wanted to ask more.

Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III should have been asked about Hacienda Luisita, “and why he has not done much as a senator,” said C, 54, a businesswoman.

Another, who decided to be anonymous, said: “Noynoy should have been asked about Hacienda Luisita. Up to now, no forum had personally asked him about this issue.”

But Elizabeth San Diego of Quezon City disagreed. “I have already read and heard a lot about the case of Hacienda Luisita so I did not want to hear more about it anymore,” she said.

Amer Amor, a professor at UP Baguio, said, “I expected that someone would ask former Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro about his links to President Arroyo.”

A 20-year-old student leader said he would have wanted to ask Sen. Manuel “Manny” Villar: “How much money does a candidate have to spend on political ads?”

Here’s an article about the forum itself, in case you failed to attend. Orayt. :)

evil, not high school evil

When I first saw the trailer – no, when I first heard of this Diablo Cody writing project, I thought it was going to suck. Although yes, I have to admit I thought it was interesting (and brave?) for Cody to go dark and B-movie-ish after going adorable and Oscar winner-ry in Juno.

But no, I did not watch Jennifer’s Body when it came out in the theaters. And no, I wasn’t surprised when the film was declared a genuine flop. Even Megan Fox wasn’t able to save this horror flick, so yeah, it must really suck then, I thought.

So I watched it today. So I was wrong.

I enjoyed it. A fun watch. ;) To quote Ebert: “It’s not art, it’s not ‘Juno,’ it’s not ‘Girlfight,’ for that matter, but as a movie about a flesh-eating cheerleader, it’s better than it has to be.”

necessary art

Ooh, I forgot to post this!

It was Ate Valerie’s (she’s Jaykie’s sister) birthday last January 29th. Dinner at Barcino. Great food. I’m a fan of the cake and the sweet wine. :) Happy boitday!

ben, valerie, violet

I’m posting this because of the framed painting behind us. I mean look at it.

It is exquisite. :D Haha.


ch-ch-ch-changes

Sorta.

  1. I mean, for the past few days I’ve got nothing here but comic book reviews. For a change, let’s talk about meeeeeeeee. :D (LOL.)
  2. I’ve changed my blog theme/layout. I don’t know CSS, WordPress has limited themes, but I like this one. I think Imma stick with it. I mean, look! The links turn pink!
  3. I’ve converted the Tags to Categories, then the Categories to Tags, then the Tags to Categories again – until I was able to erase that pesky “Uncategorized” label that’s been driving me OC-insane for the past year or so.
  4. I’ve added a subscription button (on ze right). Because I think I’m important.
  5. I’ve added a search bar too because it looks nifty.
  6. The boyfriend (see, I really love it that the links turn pink) has quit his nasty, nasty job, and I’m excited to see where he’s going to go from there. He’s thinking grad school. Excellent choice. I wish him luck. :)
  7. I’ve started writing fiction again, after slogging through several drafts of poems (heh). Getting into the groove of writing every night again, after work. Working on two right now: one solicited, the other – meh, I’ll see where it goes. Haha. I’m glad I’m getting story solicitation emails now. I’m tickled whee. (Hopefully the editor likes it enough to actually take it.)
  8. Right now I am not thinking of grad school, or a teaching job, or learning a foreign language. All of a sudden I’m just coasting along, coasting along, happy enough with a steady job and steady ideas and a steady mind with which to string words together.
  9. Nowadays everything feels right with the Universe. I haven’t felt that way in a long long long while. Oh yes.
  10. Except that I’m gaining weight again. Yeah, I probably should do something about that. *eats pizza*

marvel 1602

Ooh, what endless inventions!

Neil Gaiman teleports Marvel’s best-known and well-loved characters to the dark London of the 16th Century. The court of Elizabeth I is amicable to magic, but the queen is old and sickly and has no heir. James of Scotland, who supports The Inquisitor in his torture of “witchbreeds”, may take the throne – and what will become of Carlos Javier’s students, then?

Meanwhile, the weather brings red skies and curious lightnings, and the good doctor Stephen Strange is sensing that England – and the world – is about to end.

I liked this one. Gaiman in his afterword said there were people who didn’t like it – and when these people didn’t like it, “they really didn’t like it” – but I had such a kick out of guessing which character corresponds to the, well let’s say modern-day, Marvel superhero. It wasn’t that hard, but it was such fun. For example, Scotius Somerisle? Any guesses?

;)