Year: 2011

glass soup

I don’t want to talk too much about this excellent Jonathan Carroll novel because I want you to experience it (if ever you went ahead and read it – you should, you know) the way I experienced it. I didn’t read the blurb, and had no idea what the book was about, so essentially I threw myself into the first chapter empty of expectation. And lo, how I floundered. The novel has the most interesting chapter titles (“Tunica Molesta”, “Knee-Deep in Sunday Suits”) and the first chapter is called, “Simon’s House of Lipstick”. In it, Simon Haden gives a bus tour to a group of odd creatures (including a bag of caramels, who is bored) with a little man named Broximon, wondering how he can pay his bills. I read, interested, but the chapter was getting weirder and I didn’t know what was happening. Then I knew, and oh, what sweet bliss as I understood, and I kept on reading.

More than the characters and the incredible plot, I was amazed by Carroll’s pacing. How he leaves you with questions and gives you the answers, slowly, like a striptease. It made reading the story a wonderful experience. It was as if I were given a slice of the best chocolate cake and given all the time in the world to savor it.

You can read the first chapter here.

The Mighty Reading List!

Feast for Crows

The Kobayashi Maru of Love

Showbiz Lengua

PGS Horror issue

Floating Dragon

El Bimbo Variations

The Tesseract

Faithful Place

Moxyland

Zoo City

The Dispossessed

Our Story Begins

Glass Soup

Here on Earth

The Pull of the Moon

Little Bee

Story Quarterly Issue 44

The Bell Jar

compli copies from story quarterly

Got these beautiful things from the post office:

This is Story Quarterly’s Issue 44.

I have a story here.

One of the copies will go to my parents, the other will be on my TBR list!

To wit:

The Mighty Reading List!

Feast for Crows

The Kobayashi Maru of Love

Showbiz Lengua

PGS Horror issue

Floating Dragon

El Bimbo Variations

The Tesseract

Faithful Place

Moxyland

Zoo City

The Dispossessed

Our Story Begins

reading now: Glass Soup

Here on Earth

The Pull of the Moon

Little Bee

Story Quarterly Issue 44

The Bell Jar

Thank you to the editors.

Founded in 1975, StoryQuarterly has been publishing emerging and established writers for over 30 years. Originally an independent quarterly based in Illinois, its contributors’ work has been selected for inclusion in the annual collections The Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards, The Pushcart Prize: The Best of the Small Presses, and The Best American Non-Required Reading. Among the acclaimed writers who have written for the journal are Margaret Atwood, Ann Beattie, Frederick Busch, Joyce Carol Oates, T.C. Boyle and Jhumpa Lahiri.

In the summer of 2008, Rutgers University–Camden acquired Story Quarterly. J.T. Barbarese, associate professor of English who teaches poetry in the newly established MFA Program in creative writing, is the new editor. Rutgers–Camden novelists Lisa Zeidner, professor of English, and Lauren Grodstein, assistant professor of English, will serve as assistant editors. M.M.M. Hayes, who edited Story Quarterly for the past decade, remains with the journal as senior contributing editor.

Through its new affiliation with Rutgers University, Story Quarterly will continue to publish an annual print edition, the first one to appear through Rutgers–Camden in the summer of 2009 and will continue as an online presence that will showcase new work year-round. In addition Story Quarterly will begin to publish creative nonfiction and look to make the interview a staple feature.

You may contact their office for subscription questions, or if you want to get your hands on a copy.

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I had to go to the Makati post office and pay a parcel fee of P40 to get these copies, and I still don’t know why. (Where will the P40 go?) Apparently the package had to go through Customs? (Again, why? My books from The Book Depository reached me just fine.)

Dinner for two: soup, spam-and-egg sandwiches, rootbeer floats.

We had Thor-day on Thursday. Friday was supposed to be badminton, but Jaykie was feeling sick, so I lifted weights while he rested with his iPad. Saturday was Free Comic Book Day and the first day of the two-day Comic Con, but it was too hot to leave J’s air-conditioned room. It was so hot I had to take at least two showers. Saturday pm it began to rain really hard, complete with thunder and drama. Counterproductive weather. We did nothing but eat and watch shows. White Collar. Sons of Anarchy. Battlestar Galactica (the remake). How I Met Your Mother. Parks & Rec. Big Bang Theory. Community. Modern Family (their Mothers’ Day episode cracked me up – I love Gloria). Plus Inside Job, a documentary that J and I liked a lot.

Around 800 words on a new story. Yaaaay.

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Happy Mothers’ Day, Nanay (who thankfully doesn’t read this blog, haha). :)

thor

If I had known Kenneth Branagh directed this film, I would have expressed interest sooner. (Branagh directed the Sleuth remake, which I loved.) I’ve never read the Thor comic books. I think he’ll bore me the way Wolverine bores me, all anger and muscle and big pronouncements. (No offense to fans.) “How dare you threaten the son of Odin with such a puny weapon!” Thor screams in the film, and promptly gets tasered. Thor is simple (three acts: hubris/fall – realization – victory), maybe even too simple for some, but there are highlights: Anthony Hopkins as Odin, Idris Elba as Heimdall, Tom Hiddleston as Loki (very very good), lines like “We have Xena, Jackie Chan, and Robin Hood”, and that (surprisingly) effective exchange between Thor and Loki on Earth. I thought it was a fun ride.

pizza monday

Monday night, we were on our way from Makati to QC. Jaykie wanted to eat somewhere, and I mentioned Domino’s.

He seemed pretty excited haha. He said he hadn’t had Domino’s pizza in a long while. The last time I had Domino’s was in grade school! There was a Domino’s branch near our home, but it folded I think only after a year.

Anyway I liked their ordering system. Your name appears on a screen, plus the number of minutes before your order can be served, and the status of the pizza (IN OVEN, etc.). Pretty cool.

The pasta (I had bolognese) was blah but the pizza’s pretty good. We had Domino’s Deluxe. The pizza remained soft even after it went cold.

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Fantastique Unfettered has reviewed the third issue of Stone Telling 3. :)

‘reunion’ recorded – now live!

Remember this announcement? Well the podcast for “Reunion” is now available for download!

Many thanks to Elyss Punsalan and reader Solo Galura. I’m thrilled. :)

Running Time 36m 53s

For the merry month of May, Pakinggan Pilipinas presents the prize-winning short story “REUNION”, written by Eliza Victoria. It’s narrated for us by Solo Galura, an architect based in Quezon City. The story was published in 2009 in the Philippines Free Press, and won the Grand Prize for fiction in the magazine’s 2010 Literary Awards.

Eliza’s fiction and poetry have appeared in various publications, locally and abroad. She has also received the Palanca award for her poetry. And if you’d like to read more of Eliza’s recent works, you could look for them in Stone Telling, Kritika Kultura, and Story Quarterly. She will also have a story in the upcoming sixth volume of the Philippine Speculative Fiction anthology series.

And by the way, do drop by at the year’s most awaited launch:

PHILIPPINE SPECULATIVE FICTION VOL. 6
Edited by Nikki Alfar and Kate Aton-Osias
Book Launch on 28th May, 2011, Saturday
U-View Theatre, Basement of Fully Booked
Bonifacio High Street