A couple of announcements!
Several UP Press books are going to be launched next Friday, August 23, including two books by Estranghero Press, The Farthest Shore (which includes my story, “The Just World of Helena Jimenez”, a story that also appears in A Bottle of Storm Clouds) and Diaspora Ad Astra (which includes “Rizal”). Do drop by and buy some books!
On Sept. 7, Visprint, Inc. (publisher of my story collection) and co-presenter National Book Development Board will present the first annual Aklatan: The All-Filipino Book Festival. Read the official press release for the details.
Alphaland Southgate, Magallanes will host this year’s Aklatan on September 7, 2013, Saturday. Although doors open as early as 8 a.m., the formal program will begin at 9 a.m. Artists include Lourd de Veyra, Eros Atalia, and other writers.
Break-out rooms Boracay and Balesin will host talks or seminars and an “unwritten book audition” during which writers will have an opportunity to pitch book ideas to eager publishers, “The Voice of the Philippines” style.Due to the nature of its inception, the event boasts of a wide and inclusive line-up of Filipino writers and book publishers from critically acclaimed National Artists to their contemporaries preeminent popular culture. Bigger publishers will stand shoulder to shoulder with independent presses.The complete program is scheduled for release by mid-August. The entrance fee for non-students is P20 while students will receive a 50 percent discount.
weekend reviews
The Wolverine
All I can say is I am happy to see Japan and Japanese actors treated with respect in a major Hollywood film. Japan as an actual setting – not as a passing curiosity or a place of alienation (although I did like Lost in Translation) – and the Japanese as actual characters, not as caricatures or object of ridicule. “Everything has meaning,” says Mariko, and thank you for saying that. I love Rila Fukushima (Yukio) in this.
I am really tired of Wolverine (this is Hugh Jackman’s sixth time playing the character), but The Wolverine is an engaging watch.
Jagten (The Hunt) (2012)
Mads Mikkelsen plays Lucas, a kindergarten teaching assistant who is wrongly accused of pedophilia. The small town persecution feels much too much at times – it ends up making me feel like the filmmakers are milking the situation to elicit more tears, to detrimental effect – but my God, watch it for Mikkelsen’s sublime performance (his reaction to the injustice made me physically ill, he is that effective) and that beautiful ending.
Todo Sobre Mi Madre (All About My Mother) (1999)
I remember J asked me what this film is about after I watched it, but even as I told him the narrative, it couldn’t capture the heart of this film, the tragedy and joy of it, the visual mosaic of A Streetcar Named Desire, All About Eve, a transplant coordinator starring in a video about organ donation only to experience it days later in real life. Watch it.
NOS4A2
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
While reading this, I can’t help but be reminded of Joe Hill’s father, Stephen King. It has elements from a quintessential King story – the rhyming crazy goon, the precocious child, the ugly evil antagonist, the eager dialogues and internal monologues complete with words in ALL CAPS and boldface. But this Joe Hill book (all three Joe Hill novels I’ve read so far, really) has something most Stephen King novels don’t – a three-dimensional villain, an understanding of the monster. And hope for a happy ending. All of the elements fit in this novel. It’s a well-thought-out puzzle that Hill built and unpacked for our enjoyment. It presents a theory that ties together his father’s novels and his own, and even those of Lovecraft and possibly all horror tales that put their characters in a part of the world that does not appear on any map. Why do these eerie dimensions exist, and how do we access them? Joe Hill tells us. I like the nods to David Mitchell (one of the characters listens to the Cloud Atlas Sextet) and to his own father. In the Acknowledgments, Joe Hill says, “I guess I have been cruising [my father’s] back roads my whole life. I don’t regret it.” I say he is driving down his own path now, and as his fan ever since the brilliant 20th Century Ghosts, I am enjoying the journey, and I can’t wait for more.
spec fic triple book launch + wildflour
First of all, that Friday downpour was a bitch, wasn’t it. I left the office at 6 pm, carrying a big bag of clothes (I was supposed to stay with J at his parents’ house), but couldn’t get a cab or a bus or a tricycle. It’s alarming how easily this city gets paralyzed by rain. I ended up waiting at The Columns until 7:30 before I could line up for a tricycle. Suffice it to say that the city didn’t let me leave that night.
Anyway. I crawled out of my dungeon the next day to attend the Amazing Tripartite Book Launch with J at the EDSA Shangri-La Mall, where I ended up dancing with Dean Alfar. There was, amazingly, no alcohol involved.
A fun afternoon! It was great catching up with Katz Navarro (I exclaimed, “You’re so cute!” when I saw her, and I am not embarrassed by this outburst, I am not), Kate Osias, Elyss Punsalan, and all the other gorgeous writers. Thanks for having us, Dean and Nikki!
I love the packaging by Flipside. Look at that creepy eye.
Dean Alfar with authors Ichi Batacan and Peep Warren:
Dragons!
My copy of Nikki Alfar’s first collection of stories. Congratulations!
Do buy the books!
Here’s a soberer account by Gabriela Lee on Rappler: “3 books, one community, countless stories“.
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And of course the rain went on and on. I love the rain, I really do, but not when I have to get out of the house.
We were in Ortigas again on Sunday and finally got to try eating at Wildflour Cafe + Bakery. Just their coffee and desserts. Highly recommended, though drop by during payday because their prices are…wild.
I had the Vietnamese latte.
J got honey soy latte. Recommended!
Bread pudding with yummy chocolate sauce.
Coconut cake.
a review of ‘a bottle of storm clouds’ in international speculative fiction # 4
Sean Wright the Bookonaut reviews my first collection, A Bottle of Storm Clouds, in the fourth issue of International Speculative Fiction.
Issue 4 of International Speculative Fiction is out featuring yours truly’s review column. In which I cover some of the recent works of independent self publisher Rabia Gale and the award winning Eliza Victoria. But of course I shouldn’t be the only reason you pick up a copy of this FREE publication in one of its multiple formats (mobi, epub orpdf).
It’s free! Do download a copy to read the entire issue. Many, many thanks to Sean Wright. Such kind words.
Eliza Victoria’s, A Bottle of Storm Clouds, makes me yearn for closer writing relationships between the Australian and Filipino speculative fiction communities (considering our relative geographical closeness). Here is a writer that many Australian fans of the weird, of the dark and edgy modernization of folklore, would love.
Continue reading a review of ‘a bottle of storm clouds’ in international speculative fiction # 4
we bury the landscape
We Bury the Landscape by Kristine Ong Muslim
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
What can you do with a couple hundred words? Create worlds, present dreams, crush a heart – a lot, in short, and you need only look at Kristine Ong Muslim’s remarkable collection of ekphrastic micro pieces. Each short fiction/prose poem/dream element is based on a work of art, and this makes for a great reading experience. Read the words first and view the art in a different light; see the art first and realize how rich the words become. Some pieces are complete narratives, others have no plot but evoke atmosphere and emotion. My favorite is “What Better Lure” based on a De Chirico painting, which begins, “A man in a gray suit watches his future unroll”, and ends in hope or regret, depending on how you see it.
‘fairy tales’ on short story review
Writer Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam reviews her five favorite faerie stories on Short Story Review, and includes my story, “Fairy Tales”. The other stories are by Jeffrey Ford, Cat Rambo, Kelly Link, and Katherine Vaz. Great writers, great stories.Thank you very much! I am very happy and honored. Read more here.
“Fairy Tales” by Eliza VictoriaDaily Science Fiction“Fairy Tales” is a cyclical story. It begins with a man, Dante, who meets a wounded woman in a train station; the world of “Fairy Tales” is one in which people have discovered the faerie world, called Lambana, and the faerie folk, the Diwata, have been forced to assimilate into our society. Because the Diwata are forbidden from showing their wings in public, Dante is worried for the wounded woman, who says that she is not capable of folding her wings. He takes her home with him. In the second section, a woman named Pauline interviews a famous Diwata, Crystal, who has had her wings removed. This Diwata, it turns out, is a close friend of Dante’s. And Pauline is the woman in the train station, who had an ulterior motive for interviewing Crystal.This story’s world is rich, and a wholly fresh take on the fairy lore, though it does use some older conventions; the fairies worship the moon and once possessed magical powers. I love how everything comes together for the unexpectedly hopeful ending.
Eliza Victoria 
