Category: links

“sand, crushed shells, chicken feathers”, reviewed

The Portal recently reviewed the January to February stories published on the World SF blog, and gave a favorable review to “Sand, Crushed Shells, Chicken Feathers“.

The World SF Blog, run by Lavie Tidhar and Charles Tan, was set up in 2009 to carry news and features on science fiction from the world over. For the last few months, the blog has also been publishing fiction (mostly reprints); this is a look at the stories posted in the first two months of 2011, and it is quite a mixed bag. Nick Wood tells a fine tale of a man whose relationship is becoming as dried out as the land. Pyotr Kowalczyk contributes an amusing portrait of a ramshackle trip into space. Michael Haulica’s story of a gastronomic experiment gone wrong is let down by its translation. Ekaterina Sedia’s piece evokes a keen sense of loss as the supernatural meets the real world. Eliza Victoria brings magic into the real world in a different way, magic that’s enigmatic to her readers and characters alike. Stephen Kotowych poses some intriguing questions about time, in a story that doesn’t quite succeed as a whole. And Charlie Human chills with his brief depiction of a new way to fight a battle.

…

Eliza Victoria’s story “Sand, Crushed Shells, Chicken Feathers” (2010; first published in the Philippine Free Press) concerns two college roommates: John, a firm believer in the supernatural; and Zachary, who is much more skeptical, despite all his grandmother’s tales of magic. Zachary may have cause to question his assumptions, though, when he comes home one day to find John in tears, with the strange voice of an apparently lost girl on the other end of his phone. John was trying to find the spirit of his dead sister, Emma, and instead found two strangers. What really makes this tale work is that Victoria incorporates the supernatural in such a way that it becomes both down-to-earth and mysterious; the magic feels as though it belongs to the contemporary world (with, for example, its use of modern technology), yet one’s sense of exactly how it works and what it does remains murky. The combined effect is nicely unsettling.

The Portal also liked “Parallel“.

Click on the links if you want to read the reviews and/or stories. :)

how to donate to japan via paypal

If you have a PayPal account and wants to help Japan in your own little way, click here.

You can donate any amount to participating non-profit organizations. I donated to GlobalGiving’s Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund.

GlobalGiving supports grassroots projects around the world. This project will disburse funds to organizations providing relief and emergency services to victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. GlobalGiving is working with International Medical Corps, Save the Children, and other organizations on the ground to provide relief to victims.

Washington, DC 20005

You may also donate via the Philippine National Red Cross.

If you know of other ways to donate, just leave a comment. Thanks!

free press + further story pimpage

I love that Philippines Free Press has already updated its website. New stories/poems every week!

Some recommendations:

“The Battle of Ayala” by Glenn Diaz

“Two Poems” by Allan Justo Pastrana

the divining that doesn’t reach the ear, as all hear,
from the gut, pure animal pain instead when the car

they’re in passes by—so what of the poor pig lying
near the gutter, writhing for being alive still, the throat

slit, from where too much blood gushed,
from what seems to be the only opening, like a window

alone that you lean to, pocket of air, the middle
you once dreamed about, that is as hollow as what a body

can be made of. That no one recalls the last word. That no-
body makes a sound—

* * *

Another thing I love: that friends and fellow writers are telling me that they enjoyed “Summer Evening“, with Tin Lao saying it’s “sick, a la Inglorious Basterds/Pulp Fiction”.

Go read! /whore

one for vanilla

My story, “Summer Evening“, is in the Winter Issue of Vanilla. Click and read!

On the fiery front porch, her back to the screen door, Amarilis stretched her bare legs and stared at the parked car. It was parked right across their house, almost in front of their gate. Amarilis was holding a yellow bell she had plucked from the garden in one hand. She played with the flower, twiddled the stem with her fingers. A few minutes later two men approached the car. She didn’t see where they came from. One had stubble on his face. This one took his time opening the door of the car. He was looking over his shoulder. Amarilis knew he was looking at her, at her bare legs. She was wearing a short denim skirt. Amarilis placed the yellow bell lightly against her knee, twiddled the stem with her fingers. She didn’t like the look he was giving her. Read more.

post-KK

Recall that I’ve written a recap of sorts of the Kritika Kultura soft launch. Check out these other links:

1) Adam David tries to articulate/define/pinpoint what the “new” is in Pinoy writing. He mentions the “Pinoy strain of Postmodernism” which could possibly be dubbed the “New New Romanticism”, which sounds just about right to me.

Read:

It could also be the country’s general Romantic Catholic aesthetic rearing its big red head, the Modern Pinoy Writer’s undying deference to the Sublime/Padrino/Matrona, to the Modern Pinoy Writer’s undying worship of Artifice: so, instead of it being a departure in the way the Postmodern is in the West, maybe it’s actually more a mutation of the Romantic Tradition, ie, the Old reregarded with rose- and sapphire-tinted spectacles. So maybe, the truer taxonomical claim would be that the antho is an exhibit of New New Romanticism.

And really, it does make sense. Despite the many experimentations of new Filipino writers in their prose and poetry, we can still smell a whiff of the sublime, the soul, the soaring spirit, and all manners of the awe-inspiring ek-ek we identify with Romanticism in their work.

But maybe the editors will have a deeper exploration of this thesis in their upcoming intro to the anthology.

2) Adam has also uploaded mp3 copies of the KK soft launch. Download them and listen to the roundtable talks and the poetry readings.