elizavictoria

one more page reviews ‘unseen moon’

Tina of One More Page has posted her review of Unseen Moon.

Her favorite is “The Ghosts of Sinagtala”.

The Ghosts of Sinagtala (4/5) – This is a story of Ben and Emma, who inherited a mansion from their grandparents that had a dark history. Oh what a creepy, creepy story. Tricia was tweeting about this when she read it first, so I knew well enough to read this in broad daylight. And even then, I still got terribly creeped out. This is my favorite in the book, and I really liked the connection between the mansion’s past to Ben and Emma. This is the story that successfully made me not want to go out of my room at night to get a glass of water because I was afraid to find a little girl crying in the darkness. O_o

She gave her thoughts per story, and rated the collection three stars out of five. Thanks Tina!

Overall, Unseen Moon is another good collection of Eliza’s stories. It’s not as scary as I expected (except for The Ghosts of Sinagtala – remembering several scenes still gives me the creeps), but it was really quite dark. This collection is a little bit more similar to Lower Myths than A Bottle of Storm Clouds, sans the paranormal aspect. If you want to get to know Eliza’s works but you’re not a huge fan of anything that is out of the normal world, then Unseen Moon might be the right Eliza book for you. If you’ve read Eliza’s other works and you want more, then you won’t want to miss this one. :)

binondo!

J is now working in Manila, and one day he brought up the idea of us going on a Binondo food trip.

We finally went on Saturday. Commute from our place was easy and cheap; two jeepneys, and we got off in front of the Yuchengco Tower a little after 8 AM.

Crossing the street to a tiny alley, we went to Breakfast, Lunch, and Snack. It’s not usually part of the usual Binondo itinerary (Binondo is the oldest Chinatown in the world, so the food trip cuisine should be Chinese), but J has eaten there before and would like to have sisig for breakfast.

(Photos taken in stealth mode hahaha.)

I loved their sisig; most sisig dishes I’d tried had chewy fat, but this one just melted in your mouth.

Lumpia House wasn’t completely open yet when we got there, but we ordered pancit and lumpia.

I could still taste that lumpia. It had nuts and sugar, so you could eat it without the sweet sauce. It was so good.

Two or three people could share this single pancit order.

Some plants in Lumpia House.

After a stop at a Merriam-Webster bookstore (it was so ancient they had floppy disks [!!!] and disk drive cleaners [!!!!!] for sale), we went to Quick Snack, and had some kuchay-ah. Kuchay-ah has tofu and veggies, great for vegetarians.

We walked to Lucky Chinatown Mall, and from there took a trike to 168 (we could have walked, but didn’t know the route) where I…bought a lot of cheap things.

Ehem.

Back to the mall.

We planned on going to the original Sincerity branch, but there’s a Sincerity right there in the mall, so might as well eat there.

You should try their signature fried chicken and rice.

Photo-op break haha.

Hee.

Back to Binondo and a quick stop at Tea Haven. Nothing special, but it’s cheap.

Then Eng Bee Tin! Their custard hopia is heavenly.

We were full from Sincerity, so no siopao, siomai, or mami. Next time. ;)

neon literary magazine, issue # 34, now live

Issue 34 of Neon is here, and I have poems in it. It also features the work of Sam Frankl, Lynn Hoffman, Tracey Iceton, Michael Frazer, Kate Folk, and Heidi James. The cover photograph is by Andrew Shoemaker.

It’s free to read online, but consider donating, or buying a physical copy. Each issue is 40 pages, A5, saddle-stitched and photo-illustrated in black and white.

Here is “Elegy for the lost minutes“, chosen as part of the preview. My thanks to editor Krishan Coupland.

10 succinct reasons to watch ‘iron man 3’

Ben Kingsley
Rebecca Hall, who proves, once and for all, that the Pepper Potts character (played by Gwyneth Paltrow) is boring.
“Are you going to leave me here like my Dad?” “…Yes.” AKA the big guy/little guy relationship that could have been Hollywood-sappy but wasn’t.
Robert Downey, Jr. I wasn’t too moved by the dramatic scenes, but RDJ, as always, nailed the comedy. I can’t imagine Tony Stark being played by anyone else.
In order to wash away the bad taste left behind by the second movie.
In order to pretend the second movie did not exist.
Ben Kingsley
Ben Kingsley
The skydiving scene
The skydiving scene, because how the hell did they shoot that?

Watch it!

pre-order the print copy of ‘unseen moon’ (until may 10 only)

Unseen Moon by Eliza Victoria

6″ x 9″ (15.24 x 22.86 cm)
220 pages

Paperback

Fiction / Horror / Suspense / Crime

Cover art and design by Biboy Royong

Ghosts in a mansion. A home invasion. A group of friends haunted by a murder. An unlikely friendship, a dead body in an abandoned house. A girl falling to her death, and another falling into the viewless darkness.

Unseen Moon collects five suspenseful stories by award-winning author Eliza Victoria.

Story excerpts, ebook link, and pre-order form after the cut.

Continue reading pre-order the print copy of ‘unseen moon’ (until may 10 only)

Just a quick post for some writing news. Over the weekend I have received proof copy of Issue 34 of Neon Literary Magazine – I have three poems in it! It will be available soon, both online and in UK stores.

And here’s a draft of the upcoming cover for the ebook edition of A Bottle of Storm Clouds, forthcoming from the folks at Flipside.

from the beach to the casino

I had a fun, food-filled weekend. On April 19 to 20 the department went to Palm Beach Resort in San Juan, Batangas. According to their website, “The Resort is designed to be a private retreat for those who prefer the tranquility and peace of a place with a well-preserved natural setting as an alternative to other overdeveloped destinations.”

It is definitely a private place. It’s a long drive from the main road (it felt like the edge of the earth), and there is no signal.

But it is serene and beautiful.