Author: elizavictoria

game of thrones boardgame + jaykie’s party

Jaykie broached the idea of playing the Game of Thrones boardgame with him and the guys one weekend. Jaykie looked at the game rules on Friday and kept laughing, because even the set-up was complicated. I was scared. I didn’t think I’d be able to follow. But yesterday, the guys came after lunch, and Phil and Derps explained the objectives and the basic rules, and I actually was able to play. I learn better while playing than by reading the entire guidebook, it appears.

I got the Lannisters, who start at Lannisport and Stoney Sept. The object of the game is to gain as many territories as possible. You can also make a deal with other players so they won’t take your territories (in this game, the Lannisters agreed to a truce with the Greyjoys), or make a deal and break it later (like what the Lannisters did with the Baratheons after taking Cracklaw Point, sorry Jaykie!) I wasn’t able to expand too much. The Greyjoys (Phil) had all the seas and eventually also got Riverrun and won. I was one city behind!

That was fun, though.

Later that night, pizza, pasta and booze with Jaykie and friends. I turned in earlier than the others because I have work the following day. I woke up to empty pizza boxes, steaming cup noodles, mattresses on the floor, and stories of ghosts. Oh no.

Happy birthday, you.

x-men: first class

I was ready to give up on the X-Men movie franchise because the third film was bad (they killed practically everyone) and the first outing of X-Men: Origins (Wolverine) was horrible. But I don’t think I have ever seen a young Magneto and a young Professor X on the big screen, and friends are raving about this new film, so I gave it a try. I’m glad I did. It’s not flawless, but James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender give engrossing performances. They’re really good. The supporting cast is meh. I don’t get that tornado guy at all. Kevin Bacon is more jokey than villainy, and January Jones looks lovely but is bland, bland, bland! I’m not too familiar with Emma Frost, but isn’t she supposed to be seductive and powerful? January looks more angry than alluring. She doesn’t suck you in. It’s like they just turned Betty Draper into a diamond statue.

We we so excited.

It also saddens me that the only characters of color in the film either end up dead or with the bad guys.

Is she really called Angel? Isn't there another X-Men named Angel? With angel wings?
"I knew I shouldn't have gone with these two white guys."

Now the question is: will they now continue with this new set of characters, or go back to the Origins series? So many origin stories! So many characters! This can be confusing.

philippine speculative fiction 7: guidelines

Posting this for the editors! Feel free to re-post. :)

Editors Alex and Kate Osias invite you to submit short fiction for consideration for Philippine Speculative Fiction volume 7.

Philippine Speculative Fiction is a yearly anthology series, which collects a wide range of stories that define, explore, and sometimes blur the boundaries of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and all things in between. The anthology has been shortlisted for the Manila Critics’ Circle National Book Award, and multiple stories from each volume have been cited in roundups of the year’s best speculative fiction across the globe.

First-time authors are more than welcome to submit; good stories trump literary credentials any time.

Submissions must be:

1. speculative fiction—i.e., they must contain strong elements or sensibilities of science fiction, fantasy, horror, magic realism, alternate history, folklore, superheroes, and/or related ‘nonrealist’ genres and subgenres

2. written in English

3. authored by persons of Philippine ethnicity and/or nationality

Submissions are preferred to be:

1. original and unpublished

2. no shorter than 1,000 words and no longer than 7,500

3. written for an adult audience

In all cases, these preferences can be easily overturned by exceptionally well-written pieces. In the case of previously-published work—if accepted, the author will be expected to secure permission to reprint, if necessary, from the original publishing entity, and to provide relevant publication information.

Submission details:

1. No multiple or simultaneous submissions—i.e., submit only one story, and do not submit that story to any other publishing market until you have received a letter of regret from us. We don’t mind if you submit to contests.

2. All submissions should be in Rich Text Format (saved under the file extension ‘.rtf’), and emailed to kate.osias at gmail.com, with the subject line ‘PSF7 submission’.

3. The deadline for submissions is midnight, Manila time, September 30, 2011. Letters of acceptance or regret will be sent out no later than one month after the deadline.

Editors’ notes:

1. Please don’t forget to indicate your real name in the submission email! If you want to write under a pseudonym, that’s fine, but this can be discussed upon story acceptance. Initially, we just need to know who we’re talking to.

2. If you’d like to write a cover letter with your brief bio and publishing history (if applicable), do feel free to introduce yourself—but not your story, please. If it needs to be explained, it’s probably not ready to be published.

3. We advise authors to avoid fancy formatting—this will just be a waste of your time and ours, since we will, eventually, standardize fonts and everything else to fit our established house style.

There will be compensation for selected stories, but we’ve yet to determine exactly what. In previous years, we’ve provided contributor copies of the book, as well as small royalty shares, but we are considering shifting Philippine Speculative Fiction to digital format, so we may be shifting to outright financial payment as well.

Please help spread the word!

Thanks,

Alex and Kate Osias, co-editors

Dean Alfar, publisher

poetry sale

A new poem! “Sadness: A Catalogue” will be included in the June 11 issue of the Philippines Free Press (available in print on June 8). Many thanks to Literary Editor Joel M. Toledo. Will link once the piece is available on the website. (In the meantime, wait for the print copy and maybe buy? Hee.)

 

philippine speculative fiction 6 book launch

Needless to say, happy to be included in the volume again. I attended the book launch at Fully Booked High Street despite another vertigo attack and the sudden rain. It’s just too fun to miss!

Jaykie came with me, and so did Beej (of Nosfecatu fame) and Phil (who also has a story in the volume – congrats!)

my book launch date

Before the PSF launch, Kenneth Yu took the stage to unveil the latest (and sadly, last) print edition of Philippine Genre Stories. It’s the Special Crime Issue, edited by Ichi Batacan. In her message, Batacan thanked the authors for not resorting to the crime cliches: detectives in trench coats, criminals in pinstripe suits.

Thanks Kyu for the copy! (He handed me one, then I lost it in the flurry of signing books and saying hi to friends. Thanks for replacing it, and I’m sorry!) I’ll read this soon.

Despite the end of PGS’s print run, Kyu has moved PGS to an online home. Visit: http://philippinegenrestories.com/ and stand by for more stories.

The PSF launch was hosted by the ever-jubilant Dean Alfar.

As usual, authors, introvert or no, had to stand up and say something. As usual, I tried to appear smart and charming and failed miserably. One of the contributors expressed it best: “Kailangan ba talaga magsalita? Kaya nga ako nagsusulat eh.”

This is Phil.
This is me being giggly and fat.

Meet the editors!

Kate Aton-Osias
Nikki Alfar

Dean also announced that PSF 7 is now accepting submissions. The next volume will be edited by the husband-and-wife tandem Alex and Kate Osias. Stand by for the guidelines, they should be online soon. Click here for the guidelines.

Class picture!

This was followed by a mad scramble for copies (the book sold out fast!) and author signatures.

Happy to see the contributors (some of whom are familiar faces) and to finally meet Honey de Peralta and Elyss Punsalan. Tin Lao introduced me to Dumaguete peeps Alyza and Jordan. It is always lovely to be told that there are indeed people out there who read (and enjoy) my work.

We had to break away from the group for celebratory dinner at Abe + gelato at Gelatissimo + coffee at CBTL. I had two shots of infused cappuccino and I still fell asleep before 3 a.m. (after watching Shaun of the Dead with J). And here I thought I would be up till morning.

At Abe: Bamboo rice + Bicol Express (na walang karne at hindi maanghang pero masarap) + lumpiang ubod (favorite ko to) + green mango with bagoong + pritong baby hito + adobong lamb = ang takaw namin, keri

My loot:

Kelly Link book + The Little Prince Moleskine from the ubiquitous Charles Tan (who gave similar gifts to several writers, kay yaman) - thanks! + a hard copy of the PSF 7 guidelines
PGS Crime + PSF 6

 *

Hey love, public speaking is not my strong suit, so I forgot to say your name in my “speech”. But in my head, in silence, I thank you every day, all the time. I thank you always. Thanks for coming with me to celebrate another publication.

Yiheee. (Panira yung yiheee.)

the bell jar

Sylvia Plath’s only novel is said to be (semi-)autobiographical, and with The Bell Jar written in the first person it was just near-impossible for me to detach Sylvia Plath from protagonist Esther Greenwood. In the novel, Esther, an A-student from Boston in her twenties, wins an editorship at a fashion magazine in New York in the summer of 1953. The story begins harmlessly, with comic episodes, but soon turns to darker alleys, as Esther comes home from the summer and questions her worth. She cannot see anything significant or interesting in her future, and tries to find ways to kill herself.

Sylvia Plath committed suicide and died at the age of 30, shortly after the publication of her novel. (Her husband Ted Hughes’ second wife also committed suicide, and also took her young daughter’s life.) Forty-six years later, Sylvia and Ted’s son, Nicholas Hughes, who was only a baby when his mother put her head in the oven in the next room, hanged himself in 2009.

Esther survives, but she’s only an episode in Sylvia Plath’s life. Who knows what she might have done, the moment she stepped off the page?

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

reviews

Moon


Sam Bell works for Lunar Industries, a company in the business of harvesting helium-3 from the far side of the moon. Sam oversees the company’s automated harvesters and sends back canisters of He-3, which Earth then uses for energy. Sam is the only human being in the facility. Every now and then he receives messages from Earth. The messages (from his wife, Tess, and child, Eve) are not live, because communication problems on the moon have hampered the reception of live feeds. He is accompanied by an AI named GERTY. He has been on the moon for three years. When the film opens, he is nearing the end of his contract.

But there’s a problem: it appears that he is losing his mind. One moment he turns and sees a teenager with dark hair and wearing a yellow jumpsuit in an empty cabin. He longs for his wife. He spends his days distracted. One day, he goes out to drive his rover and crashes into a harvester and loses consciousness.

While watching the film’s first few minutes, I kept asking, Who’d sign up for this? Who’d be so desperate to agree to stay on the moon alone for three whole years? Then I find out.

Moon (written and directed by Duncan Jones, who also directed Source Code) is the kind of film that sucks you in and spawns discussions. The references to 2001: A Space Odyssey and Solaris are apparent. I loved it, and Sam Rockwell is awesome.

Damages


I just finished Season 1. It was brutal and compelling and I just couldn’t peel my eyes off of it. It’s not an episodic show, like Law & Order, and it’s definitely not a comedy, like Boston Legal. There is one big case that the characters try to crack within the 13 episodes. Meanwhile, the body count continues to rise and lawyer Patty Hewes becomes more and more psychopathic. Glenn Close is perfect, but I find myself more drawn to lawyer Ray Fiske (played by Zeljko Ivanek), and the young couple who gets caught in the web.

My sister brought home strawberries and blueberries from Baguio

and they are superb when mixed with milk and cream. Mmm.

Also during this week: Yakimix and Amici with Jaykie’s family, home, lipstick for my mother and sugarfree candy for my father, my mother observing that there’s always murder in my stories (eek!), and that promise that Jaykie and I will eat right, exercise and lose weight – totoo na! :)