It’s time for WIT 2! September 8, Saturday, 6th Floor, Alphaland Towers, from 8 to 5 pm. Entrance is only P100! Check this link for information and recordings about the first WIT event in September of last year.
Will update this post once I get the complete schedule with time slots, but from my end, expect a short talk about A Bottle of Storm Clouds, reading and storytelling, and the markets where aspiring writers can send their stories. Expect excerpt readings of my stories as well!
Panelists and speakers include Budjette Tan (Trese), Manix Abrera (Kikomachine Komix), Karen Francisco (Naermyth), Carlo Vergara (ZsaZsa Zaturnnah), Karl de Mesa (News of the Shaman), and many more. Save the date and stand by for updates!
Poster art and design by Manix Abrera
UPDATE!
Morning (8AM-12NN) divided into (2) two sessions (Session A & Session B)
I pre-registered J and I to the Filipino Readercon but when the day came we almost didn’t go. We woke up late and J has this big exam on Monday (UP decided to go ahead with their exam because it’s UP) so he needs to study a lot and there might not be enough parking and traffic might be bad etc etc. In the end, we decided to go, even just to catch the afternoon panels.
I am so glad we went. The Filipinas Heritage Library was filled yesterday with people who genuinely loved to read (and write) so much that they would punch each other to get a free copy of a sponsor’s book. Haha! It was a glorious thing to witness, and I would most definitely go again next year. And the years after that.
On to some photos and stories.
I would have gone to the 1st Readercon, except that I didn’t even know it actually happened. Oops. This year though, the organizers, headed by Flipside VP Honey de Peralta, upped the ante with regards to marketing the event, and it paid off. I don’t have the exact number of attendees, but I bet it easily numbers past 200 participants.
J and I signed up a few minutes before 1 pm to catch “Authors as Readers”. It has two panels happening simultaneously, and we decided to sign up for the panel with Dean Francis Alfar, Budjette Tan, and Bebang Siy, moderated by Carljoe Javier.
Quick note on registration: PhP150 reg fee inclusive of AM and PM snacks, a cute magnetic bookmark from OMF, and a raffle entry.
The panel under Carljoe met up in the basement Library, a cozy venue.
Helloooo from the Readercon.
Dean (Philippine Speculative Fiction), Budjette (Trese), and Bebang (It’s a Mens World), talked about their favorite books, and how reading them led them to writing their own creations.
While Budjette was setting up his presentation, Dean took out his copy of Storm Clouds and took this photo. Woohoo!
Next: book discussion panels. We signed up for Pacific Rims, but had to step out to eat lunch.
Death by milkshake! Ahhhhhh –
When we came back, it was time for the second book discussion we signed up for: Antoine Saint-Exupery’s The Little Prince, moderated by the Filipino Goodreads group.
I got me a cute button for sharing my thoughts. But oh dear, I read this book probably over a decade ago haha!
Then it’s time for the much-awaited 1st Filipino Readers’ Choice Awards. A big congrats to Alternative Alamat!
The winners of the 1st Filipino Readers’ Choice Awards are:
Children’s picture book category: But That Won’t Wake Me Up! by Annie and Anelka Lumbao and Liza Flores (Adarna House) – The organizers had three judges per category, but for Children’s book, they had children as judges. It was a nice touch.
Chick lit category: Fairy Tale Fail by Mina V. Esguerra
Novel in English category: Ilustrado by Miguel Syjuco (Anvil)
Novel in Filipino category: Ang Huling Dalagang Bukid at ang Authobiography na Mali by Jun Cruz-Reyes (Anvil)
Comics/graphic novel category: KikoMachine Komiks Blg6 by Manix Abrera (Visprint)
Short story anthology category: Alternative Alamat edited by Paolo Chikiamco (Rocket Kapre and Flipside)
Essay anthology category: It’s A Mens World by Bebang Siy (Anvil) – “Alam niyo ho ba, muntik na akong umuwi,” said Bebang as she received her award, and went ahead and danced onstage in a fit of joy. Haha! She’s hilarious!
Poetry anthology category: Off the Beaten Track: Tulaan sa Tren 2 (Vibal)
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Before the raffle, we were served kani mango sandwiches, chicken lollipops, pesto pasta, and brownies for dessert. I loved everything.
The organizers had so many books to raffle off that I think everyone who stayed got a free book. :) I got a book from Visprint! Resty Cena’s Mga Angst Ng Isang Di-Mahapayang-Gatang, while J got the YA scifi horror novel 172 Hours by Norwegian author Johan Harstad.
A copy of my book was also raffled off, and was won by a participant named Orly. Hope you enjoy it!
Congratulations to the organizers! It was a great Con and I will see you next year!
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Off we went to Starbucks 6750 to meet up with the Bookswap girls.
And Ice, who won in my giveaway contest, finally got her signed copy. :)
I have confirmed today that my haunted house story, “The Ghosts of Sinagtala”, will be appearing in a future issue of Philippine Genre Stories. Many thanks to editor Kenneth Yu.
And in another Kyu-related update (hehe), here is an interview with Kenneth Yu about Philippine Horror Stories for Young Adults, a horror YA antho he edited with Dean Francis Alfar and to be published by UP Press. It includes my story, “Dan’s Dreams”. Thanks to EK for the link!
Some friends have been posting photos of my book/themselves with my book. How cute is that?
Here’s my copy of Eliza Victoria‘s lovely book. I don’t usually approach the Customer Service counter when looking for titles, but this time I did…with a smile.
She’s that good with stories. Go buy a copy! :D
Ever since I read her short story “Sugar Pi” back during our college days, I already became a BIG fan! I’m so proud of you Eliza! Congratulations!
Friends, I can vouch that this book is a good buy! Woot woot! Supportahan natin ang talentong Pilipino!
I know trading six months of your life for the non-stop rains so you can write good stories was worth it. (FB The Fort said I was the first to buy your book at their branch! Congrats Eliza! :)
And Adam David poses with it:
Thank you very much! The book’s out now in the Metro Manila branches of Fully Booked, Bibliarch, and Pandayan; coming soon to National Book Store, Powerbooks, and provincial outlets.
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I will be at the Readercon tomorrow, and in Visprint’s WIT event on Sept. 8! Details on WIT to follow. Please come over and say hi. :)
ISBN: 971-0545-15-5
Filipiniana, Fiction
SRP: Php220.00
Cover design and illustrations by Karen Francisco
Award-winning author Eliza Victoria mixes magic with the mundane in this special concoction of 16 short stories. A girl meets a young man with the legs of a chicken. A boy is employed by a goddess running a pawnshop. A group of teenagers are trapped in an enchanted forest for 900 days. A man finds himself in an MRT station beyond Taft, a station that was not supposed to exist. A student claims to have seen the last few digits of pi. Someone’s sister gets abducted by mermaids.
Includes stories that have appeared in the critically acclaimed anthologies Philippine Speculative Fiction and Alternative Alamat, and stories that have won prizes in the Philippines Free Press Literary Awards and the Amelia Lapeña-Bonifacio Literary Contest.
Take this bottle of storm clouds and explore the worlds within.
NOW available in the following outlets, for P220.00 only:
Fully Booked – The Fort, Greenhills Promenade, Gateway Mall, SM Mall of Asia, The Block North EDSA, Rockwell, Shangri-la, Greenbelt 5, Trinoma
Bibliarch – Glorietta 3 and Waltermart Pasong Tamo
Pandayan Bookshop – Metro Manila branches
VERY SOON in National Book Store, Powerbooks Store and all other provincial branches. The books are already in transit :)
Thank you to everyone who joined the contest! If I could give you all an advance copy I would – but I have a limited supply, and my family wants the advance copies. All of the copies.
All of them.
On to the winners!
The first winner shared a story that I haven’t read before, and wrote about it in such a way that made me want to read it immediately. And I did. And it was such a haunting, heartbreaking story. When I went back to the entry comment, I could only nod and agree with the descriptions and insight.
Congratulations Jammi!
When asked the question, a multitude of stories come to mind. I’m sure by this time tomorrow, I will have thought of more stories that I could easily call my favorite, and I only happened to forget at this time how much they have moved me, or changed my view on important things, or questioned certain paradigms I operate in. But there is one story that never fails to move me, and make me ponder on the nature of perspective.
I discovered it years ago, something I stumbled upon entirely by accident (aren’t some of the best stories discovered this way?). “The House of Asterion” (By JORGE LUIS BORGES) is a beautiful story that shines in the short burst of images and emotions it displays. I cannot be any more detailed without taking away from the experience of reading it, its subtle and painful revelations are what makes it so unique. I read this story every so often, and its last words always leave me with a sense of uncomfortable sadness and genuine empathy.
Some of the very best speculative fiction are the stories that force you to question the viewpoints you take for granted, and the perspectives we choose to ignore. The unique voices that are often drowned out by the majority, by cultural norms.
I read this story every so often, and its last words always leave me with a sense of uncomfortable sadness and genuine empathy. That’s it. That’s it exactly. Thank you for sharing this, Jammi! And you guys should read “The House of Asterion“.
The second winner shared a story that I’ve read before, and made me want to revisit it again. The winner’s description of the story is straightforward, but very intriguing.
Congratulations, Ice!
My favorite SF story is Ray Bradbury’s All Summer in A Day. I read it as a child and I was terrified by the cruelty of Margot’s classmates. Children are generally assumed to be sweet and innocent, but in reality, they can be very, very mean, especially when they form a pack.
When I read this story as an adult, it was still heartbreaking.
Didn’t you just want to read the story right now? Do yourself a favor and click here.
Hi ladies! Do email your complete names, mailing addresses (office or residential), and cell phone numbers to victoriaeliza [at] gmail [dot] com so you can get the book this week. :D Hope to see you in future book events!
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So let me share my own as-of-now favorite stories:
One of my recent favorite reads is Ken Liu‘s “The Paper Menagerie”. It features a very specific kind of magic, and it is about an immigrant mother’s pain of not knowing anyone and not understanding anything – even her own son.
You know how when you are separated from your homeland, you tend to find your home in other people? But what if those people rejected you? What then? This is that story.
Another beautiful story that I’ve mentioned on this blog before: “Immersion” by Aliette de Bodard. I haven’t read the story in text form, but I was able to listen to the audio download. It was such a compelling story, and such a beautiful audio adaptation by Kate Baker, that I didn’t notice the time passing by.
In “Immersion”, locals use immersers to assume the appearance, language and body cues of Galactic, a former colonizer. At the end of the reading, Kate talked a bit about the story, and I found it strange that she would read it simply as a story about addiction, that she would identify with Quy as a young woman who wants to help a junkie break a habit. It is not just about addiction. It is about being ensnared by the power of a (former) colonial master even in the age of (supposed) freedom. It is about being jailed in a mindset that there is a superior race, and you do not belong to it because your language is wrong, your skin color is wrong, your faith is wrong, you are wrong. It is about giving up your identity to join the majority, to avoid the hate, and how there is a price, and sometimes the price is too high.
I live in a country with a colonial past: 300 years under Spain, 50 years under the US, and there was a time when the Japanese took over and raped our women. Aliette is of French-Vietnamese descent (and she dedicated this story to Rochita Loenen-Ruiz), and you can see her understanding of the horrible effects of being a colony in this story. A colonizer’s hold doesn’t end with the declaration of a colony’s independence.
Friday awesomeness: I received my complimentary copies of A Bottle of Storm Clouds from Visprint! Thank you Ms Nida and the rest of the Visprint family!
The book looks so beautiful – and I’m saying that not just because my name is on the front cover.
Each story is accompanied by a unique illustration.
This story, “Siren Song”, is original to the collection. Grab a copy to read this one. :)
My honorary first reader:
Details, details:
If all goes well, the book will hit the local bookstores this weekend.
The launch will be at the Visprint WIT (Writers in Talks) event in late August or September. Stay tuned for that. We plan to have at least 3 excerpt readings. I will be inviting writer and reader friends to read for me. (I hope they’ll be free on that day!!!)
How you can support the book:
1. Buy the book. Of course! :)
2. Sharethis link and other ABOSC info on your social networking sites (Twitter, Facebook, Plurk, Tumblr, etc.).
3. Review the book. Share your thoughts. Doesn’t matter if it’s positive or negative.
Thank you!
Oh, you’re still here? How sweet.
And because of that –
SURPRISE SUNGAZER BOOK GIVEAWAY!
I will be giving away one (1) signed copy of A Bottle of Storm Cloudseach to two (2) lucky winners.
All you have to do is leave a comment here in answer to the question: What is your favorite science fiction, fantasy, or horror short story, and why?Leave a link to the story, if you wish. Doesn’t matter if local, foreign, or from outside of the Milky Way Galaxy.
Make me want to read that story. Or if I’ve read it, make me want to read it again.
No, you cannot tweet, email, or FB message me with your answer. Contest winners will be chosen only from the answers left in the Comments section of this blog post. Don’t forget to leave an email address. (Well, WordPress asks for it anyway.)
The contest will run from today, Monday, to Wednesday, August 1, at 12 noon. In case WP acts up, I will extend the contest duration.
Winners will be announced Wednesday afternoon or Thursday, Aug. 2.
Open to residents living in the Philippines only.
I will get the winners’ full names and full addresses, and the books will be shipped, hopefully immediately (it depends on how busy I am) via 2Go.
Disclaimer: The copies I will be sending are from my own set of advance copies from Visprint, but Visprint is not a sponsor of this contest. Neither is 2Go. I am the only one running this shindig. Impress me!
Once again: What is your favorite science fiction, fantasy, or horror short story, and why?
Feast your eyes on this gorgeousness! The cover art is here and my first short story collection – A Bottle of Storm Clouds – is coming to bookstores real soon, courtesy of Visprint.
Cover art and design by Karen Francisco, author of Naermyth.
Award-winning author Eliza Victoria mixes magic with the mundane in this special concoction of 16 short stories. A girl meets a young man with the legs of a chicken. A boy is employed by a goddess running a pawnshop. A group of teenagers are trapped in an enchanted forest for 900 days. A man finds himself in an MRT station beyond Taft, a station that was not supposed to exist. A student claims to have seen the last few digits of pi. Someone’s sister gets abducted by mermaids.
Includes stories that have appeared in the critically acclaimed anthologies Philippine Speculative Fiction and Alternative Alamat, and stories that have won prizes in the Philippines Free Press Literary Awards and the Amelia Lapeña-Bonifacio Literary Contest.
Eliza Victoria 