Category: writing

saturday shopping

But before that

I unfortunately was not able to attend the Metro Serye launch yesterday. I regret missing it. Here’s Adam David with a copy of the zine:

And here’s an interview with editor Mookie Katigbak-Lacuesta.

YOUNG STAR: So why the title “Metro Serye”?

MOOKIE KATIGBAK-LACUESTA: I chose the title for a number of reasons. The first being its city associations. The second because the term “Metro” is the Tagalog word for meter — not just the contraption in taxi cabs but also the literary device. “Serye” for the simple reason that this is a series. Also as a kind of wink-wink, nudge-nudge to the country of teleseryes.

There are tons of anthologies printed every year, usually by the big presses. From what I understand, Metro Serye is halfway between a zine and a chapbook. Why did you choose to do it in this format, despite the backing of a big printer?

Well, any publisher will tell you that poetry doesn’t sell. They’re impractical economically and, intellectually, it’s hard to commit to an entire poetry collection. This is a kind of middle ground. People may not commit to reading a poetry book but I’d like to think they’d commit to a sampler that’s easy on the pocket and still caters to the need to read. This format is especially congenial to students. I’m also a teacher so this aspect appeals to me very much. Of course, this isn’t the first time this format has been used — this isn’t an innovation but I think you’ll find the content innovative.

Hope to get a copy of this soon.

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J took me shopping today as a birthday treat! Lunch first at Tokyo Cafe.

Cappuccino and eel for me, please!

After shopping, ice cream at Swensen’s! This is fast becoming my favorite dessert place.

Mmm Maltesers.

And here’s my loot! (I bought another book! Damn it, self-control!)

Thanks J, and I hope you didn’t have too hard a time following your girlfriend around the mall. ;)

Happy to share that my short story, “Departures”, will be appearing in the online issue of the Philippines Free Press. (The magazine will be strictly online in the meantime, I’m told.) It is my shortest story to date: around 3,000 words.

Free Press’s literary ed is Joel Toledo, also one of the judges in this year’s Palanca Awards for the poetry category. While replying to him I was reminded of the citation he sent me shortly after the award winners were announced:

1st prize: “Maps”

In terms of a firm handling of theme and focus on its chosen subject, this entry readily emerges as the judges’ unanimous first-placer. Yet more than being thematic, it comes across as a suite driven by a precise, almost journalistic tone. The lines leave no room for meandering; they coalesce, but with a grounded temperance: one that distrusts rhetoric and points to vivid, charged images. It maps out a terrain recovering from disaster, the poet’s eye never losing focus, unearthing and patiently collecting what is left behind.

Right now, in my head, a new story. Now to find the time and energy to hunker down and write it.

friday madness

But a happy kind of madness!

Via snail mail:

Thank you thank you thank you Rose and Shweta! (I think I owe you a poem.)

Via e-mail:

Eliza,

We would like to publish your story, “Fairy Tales”, in Daily Science Fiction.  We’ll email a contract to you shortly for your approval. A sample email, including any edits to your story that may be necessary, will come later.  The edits will be sent with enough time for your feedback, so we may resolve any issues and present the best possible story to our audience.

– Jonathan & Michele, Daily Science Fiction

PS If for any reason, you no longer wish to publish this story with us (e.g, forgotten prior publication, actually authored by a Unicorn, etc.), now would be a very good time to let us know!

No unicorns were involved in the making of this story!

On top of all the happy news, I’ll finally be able to go home to Bulacan and see my parents. Wish me a safe trip. (Some roads are still flooded, I’m told.)

Happy Friday, everyone!

metro serye launch

I’ve been keeping this a secret for a while now. Remember: October 28, 6 pm, Sputnik Comics, Cubao. Hope you can attend with your friends and family. (Actually, I hope I’ll be able to attend. It’s a Friday night, and there’s work. I’ll do my best.)

Please spread the word!

alternative alamat toc revealed

Exciting news from Paolo Chikiamco of Rocket Kapre!

It gives me great pleasure to finally be able to announce the table of contents of our first commercial anthology “Alternative Alamat: Stories Inspired by Philippine Mythology”. It’s been a long road, but I’ve enjoyed every step of the way. The book will be digital-only for now, and will be published in cooperation with Flipside Digital before the end of the year. I’ll be releasing more information about the anthology in the coming weeks.

“Ana’s Little Pawnshop on Makiling St.” by Eliza Victoria

“Harinuo’s Love Song” by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz

“The Last Full Show” by Budjette Tan

“The Alipin’s Tale” by Raymond G. Falgui

“Keeper of My Sky” by Timothy James Dimacali

“Conquering Makiling” by Mo Francisco

“The Sorceress Queen” by Raissa Rivera Falgui

“Beneath The Acacia” by Celestine Trinidad

“Offerings to Aman Sinaya” by Andrei Tupaz

“Balat, Buwan, Ngalan” by David Hontiveros

“A Door Opens:  The Beginning of the Fall of the Ispancialo-in-Hinirang” by Dean Alfar

Appendix A: A Few Notable Philippine Deities

Appendix B: Interview with Professor Herminia Meñez Coben

Appendix C: Interview with Professor Fernando N. Zialcita

Appendix D: On Researching Philippine Mythology

Cover and interior artwork by Mervin Malonzo

Stay tuned.

moment of change toc

Here’s a note from anthology editor, Rose Lemberg:

I’m very proud of this. Putting this book together has been quite a journey. I cannot begin to tell you how much I love these poems.  You can get a glimpse from the ToC as to how diverse the contents/contributors are, but you cannot truly see it just from the ToC, but trust me:  this is both tremendous and diverse.

And I couldn’t have done this alone. Thank you so much to everyone who gave advice and held my hand through this process  (I’m looking at you, Team Stone Telling!). Special thanks to Sonya Taaffe for suggesting poems, and Shweta Narayan, Jennifer Smith, and Sharon Mock for help w. ordering the ToC. And of course, many thanks to the contributors.

Congratulations to everyone!

People who want to know about preordering: not yet, but I will let you know as soon as I can.

And here’s the TOC!

The Moment of Change: An Anthology of Feminist Speculative Poetry

Rose Lemberg. Introduction.

POETRY:

Ursula K. Le Guin, Werewomen
Nicole Kornher-Stace, Harvest Season
Eliza Victoria, Prayer
Shweta Narayan, Cave-smell
Theodora Goss, The Witch
Amal El-Mohtar, On the Division of Labour
J.C. Runolfson, The Birth of Science Fiction
Kristine Ong Muslim, Resurrection of a Pin Doll
Lawrence Schimel, Kristallnacht
Cassandra Phillips-Sears, The Last Yangtze River Dolphin
Peg Duthie, The Stepsister
Catherynne M. Valente, The Girl with Two Skins
Theodora Goss, Binnorie
Nandini Dhar, Learning to Locate Colors in Grey: Kiran Talks About Her Brothers
Rachel Manija Brown, River of Silk
JoSelle Vanderhooft, The King’s Daughters
Lisa Bradley, The Haunted Girl
Mary Alexandra Agner, Tertiary
Sara Amis, Owling
Athena Andreadis, Spacetime Geodesics
Lisa Bradley, In Defiance Of Sleek-Armed androids
Sofía Rhei, Cinderella
Alex Dally MacFarlane, Beautifully Mutilated, Instantly Antiquated
Shweta Narayan, Epiphyte
Elizabeth R. McClellan, Down Cycles
H.E.L Gurney, She Was
Kelly Pflug-Back, My Bones’ Cracked Abacus
Kat Dixon, Nucleometry
N. A’Yara Stein, It’s All In The Translation
Sally Rosen Kindred, Sabrina, Borne
Adrienne J. Odasso, The Hyacinth Girl
Delia Sherman, Snow White to the Prince
Phyllis Gotlieb, The Robot’s Daughter
Vandana Singh, Syllables of Old Lore
Greer Gilman, She Undoes
Emily Jiang, Self-Portrait
Ki Russel, The Antlered Woman Responds
Catherynne M. Valente, The Oracle at Miami
Athena Andreadis, Night Patrol
Koel Mukherjee, Sita Reflects
Lorraine Schoen, Hypatia/Divided
Sharon Mock, Machine Dancer
C.W. Johnson, Towards a Feminist Algebra
Jo Walton, Blood Poem IV
Meena Kandasamy, Six Hours of Chastity
Samantha Henderson, Berry Cobbler
Sofía Rhei, Bluebeard Possibilities
Sheree Renee Thomas, Old Scratch poem featuring River
Elizabeth R. McClellan, The Sea Witch Talks Show Business
Ranjani Murali, Chants for Type: Skull-Cap Donner at Center-One Mall
Sonya Taaffe, Madonna of the Cave
Jeannelle Ferreira, Anniversaries
Rebecca Korvo, Handwork
Patricia Monaghan, Journey To The Mountains Of The Hag
Ari Berk, Pazerik Burial on the Ukok Plateau
Neile Graham, Dsonoqua Daughters
Sonya Taaffe, Matlacihuatl’s Gift
Ellen Wehle, Once I No Longer Lived Here
Yoon Ha Lee, Art Lessons
JT Stewart, Say My Name
Amal El-Mohtar, Pieces
Sofia Samatar, The Year of Disasters
C. S. E. Cooney, The Last Crone on the Moon
Minal Hajratwala, Archaeology of the Present
Jennifer McGowan, Mara Speaks
JT Stewart, Ceremony
April Grant, Trenchcoat
Tara Barnett, Star Reservation
Mary Alexandra Agner, Old Enough
Nisi Shawl, Transbluency: An Antiprojection Chant

My sincere thanks to Rose for including my poem here. Can’t wait to get my copy!

post-pedring, etc

Really bad storm yesterday. J and I were in his parked car around lunch and we felt the car rock as the wind slammed against us. Didn’t go to work, couldn’t. (Office work was suspended anyway, but I heard some office mates had continued with their shoots like a bunch of crazy people.) No electricity. Cell phone dying by midday. Back in Bulacan, my parents had to deal with the chest-high flood outside the house and the waist-high water inside and the fact that our refrigerator was submerged. I could replace the refrigerator, but I heard the frustration and the exhaustion made my father cry and that really broke my heart. So fuck you, Pedring. Fuck you very much.

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But today’s another day. (My parents said pretty much the same thing.) So yes – I have a poem in the fifth volume of Stone Telling called “Prayer“. Read and share, if you are so inclined. Lots of fantastic authors here.

And I’ve been reading a lot of comics lately! I’ve finished two memoirs. In Pyongyang, Guy Delisle talks about his stay in the North Korean capital with equal snark and sadness. For such a dark topic, Delisle actually manages to keep the tone light till the last page. There is a degree of outrage, but it is dampened with humor. I guess it’s a defense mechanism – if he allowed himself  to be affected by the apparent brainwashing and injustice going on around him, he’d go insane. (Hell, I would.) Or end up dead. (He did bring a copy of Orwell’s 1984 to his hotel, and even had the audacity to lend it to his North Korean guide. Ha!)

Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home is a brave introspection of her relationship with her father, his life and his death, and how his secrets had affected her family. And oh, what beautiful, vivid language to go with the art!


Some (ongoing) series that I would recommend:

Chew – Set in a post-bird flu world, where chicken and other bird meat are declared illegal,  and the Food and Drug Administration is kick-ass and the Department of Agriculture has sexy covert operatives. (I know, right?!) Tony Chu, a police officer, gets hired by the FDA after a chicken buy-bust operation. He is a cibopath, a person who gets information about the origins and circumstances of everything he eats. (Except beets. He gets nothing from beets.) He uses this ability to solve crimes, so yeah, sometimes he has to eat a severed limb. Or worse.

The Unwritten – A story about stories! That is all I’m going to say! Very engrossing.

Runaways – Set in a world where superheroes and villains are a regular occurrence. (Especially  New York.) A group of teenagers discover that their parents are members of a crime ring called The Pride. I think the quality is inconsistent – the series kept changing writers and illustrators – but I guess I’ll keep reading. I’ve heard this series is on hiatus.

Bone – Premium kids’ literature right here. Funny and exciting and I can’t wait to read the entire series.

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How much does a good refrigerator go for these days?