Category: writing

thursday never looking back

Happy to say that I will have three poems – “Notes on the Plagues”, “News About the End of the World” and “Sodom Gomorrah” – in Adam David‘s upcoming electronic anthology Thursday Never Looking Back, a collection that “seeks to gather, process, and perform” various “end-of-the-world scenarios”. The first poem has never been published, while the last two are reprints.

Adam’s aiming to publish this by December the 21st, so you’ll have some pretty things to accompany you before the end of the world. Cover design by Adam David.

thursday never

the next big thing – a chain letter for writers

Before November ended, I got an email from the lovely Kristine Ong Muslim, asking me to participate in The Next Big Thing blog cycle, where writers have to answer 10 book-related/self-promo questions about themselves on their blog, then link up to 5 other writers. A chain letter of sorts, but hopefully not an annoying one.

Here we go!

1) What is the title of your latest book?

It’s a short story collection called, A Bottle of Storm Clouds.

2) Where did the idea come from for the book?

One day I just realized that I have enough stories to fill a collection, and wouldn’t that be fun?

3) What genre does your book fall under?

It’s a collection, so it has a bit of everything: horror, science fiction, fantasy, realist.

4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

BEN WHISHAW!

Just kidding. He can’t play any of my characters because he’s not Filipino. He can try, but that would be weird.

You know what, I have no idea. Maybe Zanjoe Marudo as Gerardo Nagtahan in “Siren Song”? Really grasping at straws here.

5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Sixteen short stories mixing the magical with the mundane.

6) Who published your book?

Visprint!

7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

These were previously published stories collected since 2007, but some of the stories have been written long before that.

8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I don’t know.

9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?

Perhaps I should talk about influences: Donna Tartt, Margaret Atwood, Stephen King, Nick Joaquin, Gregorio Brillantes. And my family, who, like most Filipino families, treat the magical and the supernatural as something common.

10) What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?

It has stories coming from many genres. “Ana’s Little Pawnshop” appears to be a favorite, according to the readers who have approached me, but other readers have different favorite stories, and that’s a wonderful thing.

Tagged, you’re it! Visit these authors’ sites next week, Dec. 19, for their answers.

Budjette Tan

Karl De Mesa

Carljoe Javier

Paolo Chikiamco

Bebang Siy

room magazine issue 35.4 (labours) – out now

It is Room Magazine‘s 35th Anniversary party on Dec. 9. There is NO way I can be in Canada on Sunday, but I do have a poem called “Hospital Work” in the 35th issue.

Lorrie Miller says: “The jobs that women have often expected to take, domestic or service-based, are well represented in our fiction. Debra Martens, who first appeared in Room in 1987, now brings us the plight of a young waitress. Janna Payne highlights the vocal and the silent in a woman worker as she manages work and being true to herself. Vivian Demuth’s poem takes us on a metaphorical vertical wilderness journey.

“Stevi Kittleson creates whimsical botanical wonders from discarded irons and pencils. Colleen Gillis takes readers into the workday of a traffic officer, and the work of the heart, caring and nurturing, comes through the fiction and poetry of Eliza Victoria, Marilyn Gear Pilling, Janet Hepburn, and Sadie McCarney.”

Read the introduction: http://www.roommagazine.com/issues/labours

Room is Canada’s oldest literary journal by, for, and about women.
ROOM_35-4-frontCVR-website

my books on ilovebooks

Hello, hello. My ebooks are now also on ilovebooks.com, “an electronic bookshop stocking over 300,000 ebook titles in over 50 categories. It allows book lovers to purchase their favorite e-books and read them anywhere, anytime on their devices. The store is owned by MediaCorp, Singapore’s most diverse multimedia company with interests in TV, newspapers, radio, magazines and new media”, according to Kristine Reynaldo‘s lovely email.

Buy a copy!
*
In other silly news, I got dragged to the shoot for the company AVP. I played…a corporate officer!
Oh god I hope they won’t show the video in the cinemas.
Happy long weekend! :)

It’s Cyber Monday! (Well, in the States, it’s Tuesday here.) Check out these books on sale by Flipside Publishing.

Do consider buying:

The Viewless Dark by Eliza Victoria | $0.99 (PhP 40.59) | Amazon | iTunes | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Flipreads

Visprint will deliver books anywhere in the Philippines for free – till Dec. 10. Read more here.

Do consider buying:

A Bottle of Storm Clouds by Eliza Victoria | PhP 220

We’ve seen the Lights & Sound show at the Ayala Triangle. Drop by if you have the time.

Lights and Sound Show
Nov. 16 – Dec. 30
Watch the lights come to life in Ayala Triangle Gardens every 30 minutes from 6:00 to 9:00 PM

And I bought some new books. Again. (The KJ Parker title I split with J.)

Now reading: Prince of Thorns, to be followed by Gone Girl.

editing the closet, news of poetry

I planned to go on a jog, but my room was bothering me, so I hunkered down and cleaned my floor and bundled up the shoes and clothes that I no longer use (or, in the case of clothes, those that sadly no longer fit). I filled two large garbage bags, and my closet was finally able to breathe. The shoes that remained I removed from the shoe boxes to save space. I hate how every space I inhabit feels so small and temporary – maybe because they are. I still can’t bring myself to buy items purely for decoration. I have to be practical. I have to be able to fit all of my essentials in one traveling bag. I just know that one day I will be packing up again to a new place.

I would love to live someplace spacious and permanent. Where I can hang a picture on the wall, buy a vase to put flowers in. Sit down with J, have dinner we actually cooked. Settling down, now there’s a phrase. Not marriage, just a place to stay. The opposite of wanderlust. I guess it bites you once you get over your first quarter century.

Guyito to watch over me.
Early morning. View outside the window.

*

In other news, Room Magazine‘s Labours issue (35.4) is coming out soon with my poem, “Hospital Work”. Can’t wait to get my two compli copies! Lorrie Miller sent a teaser in the mail:

As the final issue of our anniversary volume, we are launching issue 35.4, Labours at the Roundhouse Community Centre on Sunday, December 9 at 2:30pm, she writes.

If you’re in Canada, do come and enjoy the poems. The issue will be on newsstands in two to three weeks.

*

How about a children’s book for Christmas? You can order my book “Jeremy’s Magic Well” online.

Winner, 2009 Gig Book Storywriting Contest

Nominee, 2012 National Children’s Book Awards 

In Jeremy’s Magic Well, Jeremy’s father is mostly away, working as a cook on a foreign ship. Thanks to a magic well, Jeremy is able to see and talk to him. Following his father’s advice, he overcomes his fear of David, a schoolmate bully, and discovers that the two of them have something in common.

Also available are books by Kate Osias, Andrea Dela Cruz, and other fine writers.