One: Unseen Moon is available on Smashwords for only $0.99.
Two: My poetry collection, Apocalypses, can now be read online as a DRM-free PDF or Text file for only $0.99 on Scribd.
Both are still available in print – just contact me.
Thanks for looking!
I have a guest post up on Rocket Kapre, manned by fellow writer Paolo Chikiamco.
I posted an announcement about my new collection of dark fiction, Unseen Moon, the same month two pressure cooker bombs exploded during the Boston Marathon. The following month, three women escaped from a house on Seymour Avenue in Cleveland, freeing themselves from a decade of sex slavery and confinement. In the face of real-life tragedy, who needs horror stories?
Read more here.
It was the country’s Independence Day yesterday, June 12. We stayed inside and fed ourselves home-cooked meals that J experimented on, like this very tasty tuna sisig:
A can of tuna sauteed in a skillet with chopped garlic, chili, and onion. Add mayonnaise and calamansi after. Soy sauce, calamansi and chili for sawsawan. Pair with steamed rice. Sarap!
Book Giveaway Alert: Chris Mariano of Ficsation is giving away a signed copy (with a special bookmark) of Unseen Moon! Contest runs until June 22. Head over here to read the details. Go, go, join, join! :)
So I’m finally done with the posts about my trip. Moving on!
These Tweets from my friend Kate cheered me up this gloomy Friday morning.
Intrigued? I am done with shipping all of the pre-ordered copies of Unseen Moon, and I’m back to accepting orders. There are two ways you can order:
Either way, if you’re interested, just email me and let’s see what we can do.
Each copy comes with a small gift:
Cards shipped from London, printed by Moo UK (Note: I only have 50 of these.)
If you live outside of the Philippines, you may want to try the ebook version, or the print version via CreateSpace.
Thanks for looking!
Here’s J wearing the shirt I got him in Bangkok:
He celebrated his birthday recently, so we got some cupcakes!
Salted caramel:
Pistachio sans rival:
On our way to meet with friends, we passed by a Japanese-Korean grocery store and got these:
J ended up on Rada St. for work, and we found Mondo Juice + Sip. Try their green tea drink and Caramel Cheesecake.
Instead of a straw, they give you a tiny wooden knife to cut the plastic cover. The place is called Sip, after all.
Butchie of Filipina Explorer has included me in her “11 Essential Blogs (And Bloggers) You Oughta Read“. Honored! Thank you very much!
And here’s a recent title consumed, which kept me company from Hanoi to Bangkok:
Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The novel Into the Darkest Corner
The novel switched to first-person and introduced us to another woman afflicted with a severe case of OCD. “Here I have to check and re-check the flat door properly six or twelve times, and then the communal front door as well.”
The novel, Elizabeth Haynes’ debut, was well-written and tightly paced. I was intrigued, and despite the one-dimensional antagonist (his motivation is plot!) and the not-so-explosive reveal, it kept me reading until the end.
I’ve read many thrillers about escape, but this one is a good, hard look at an escape’s aftermath.
Meann Ortiz reviews the stories in Unseen Moon.
Following last year’s magic and fantasy-inspired A Bottle of Storm Clouds, Palanca Award-winning writer Eliza Victoria’s new anthology Unseen Moon features five tales that explore darker themes with a touch of fantasy against the backdrop of familiar places and events that sound like they came straight out of news reports or the spooky stories you’ve heard but do not want to believe.
About the first story, “Needle Rain”:
In this story, Victoria delves into the minds and hearts of four longtime friends as they become involved in an accidental killing of one of their own—a suspense-filled look at how each of the characters unravel as fear and guilt take their toll.
What I find particularly compelling is how this story feels just a little unreal—its chilling sequence of events heightened by one character’s eerie dreams and visions—and yet everything begins with a perfectly normal get-together to work on a school project. It makes one question what you would do if it happened to you and your friends one dark and stormy night.
On “The Ghosts of Sinagtala”
This is one of the creepiest stories I’ve ever read. Siblings Ben and Emma visit Sinagtala, the old mansion they have inherited from their grandparents. It walks the line between the haunted house shenanigans that we’ve come to expect from “Shake, Rattle, and Roll” and the downright frightening paranormal manifestations showcased in “A Haunting.”
This is standard horror fare, really, but Victoria crafts it skillfully, intertwining the past and the present, reality and hallucinations, in a very cinematic writing style that wreaks havoc on the characters’ minds and fuels the readers’ imaginations.
If you’re a scaredy-cat like me, this is not recommended reading for when you’re alone in the house at night.
Visit GMA News Online to read the full review. Thanks Meann!
And I’m back from my nine-day Hanoi-Bangkok-Siem Reap trip with friends! Will post a day-by-day detailed account – with itinerary and costing for interested travelers – after I catch up with my work emails.
UPDATE: Start reading. :)
Anyway, some photos from my phone:
Also, the paperback copies of Unseen Moon are here! Will be shipping these out soon. Visit the Goodreads page or this page for reviews and details about the collection. Thanks to those who have ordered! I hope it’s worth the wait.
Will work on the next posts/do my laundry/sign the book copies now. *flails and runs*
Tricia Gervacio reviews Unseen Moon (ebook edition) on Mangojuiced.com:
This most recent work of Eliza Victoria involves beautifully woven stories of horror, insanity, and juvenile crimes. I am not exactly a fan of dark and scary novels but I found myself enjoying Victoria’s book. It was wicked and creepy. Reading this book was a new experience for me because I’d never before come across a Filipino book that touches on the sensitive themes of juvenile crime, gender, and sex.
She reviews each of the four stories in the ebook. “The Ghosts of Sinagtala” is a favorite of hers. (This story appears to be the favorite of readers, so far.)
“Ghosts of Sinagtala”
Just like most grandparent’s stories, this is about the ghosts that live in a mansion built during the Philippine Spanish occupation. It touches on the dark histories of Filipino families who lived during those times. Ben and Emma inherited a big mansion called Sinagtala, located in an isolated place in the province. It was taboo in the community to talk about the ghost stories about the mansion, and Ben, the oldest sibling, dismissed them as nonsense. This is the creepiest and scariest story I’ve read in the book (or maybe all my life). I started reading it one night but I had to stop and finish it in the morning because it was too terrifying. Victoria uses a technique — connecting the past to the present — that can be found in other horror stories, and it was intense! I can’t even believe I survived reading the story. Despite that (or because of it), “Ghosts of Sinagtala” is a favorite.
Eliza Victoria 