shiny, writerly things: visprint sale and promo, new estranghero press paperback

Currently nursing a swollen tonsil, which is decidedly not shiny.

In other news: books!

Every Saturday of October, Visprint (which is celebrating its anniversary – happy anniversary!) will be holding a warehouse sale in their office in Pasay City. Here’s the price list.

A Bottle of Storm Clouds (PhP132) and Project 17 (PhP 120) are both on sale. Both can also be found in bookstores. (Just Fully Booked for Project 17, but other bookstores will be carrying it soon.)

If you can’t make it to Pasay, Visprint can deliver the books to you for free. Prices will be based on SRP. No discount, but hey free shipping, and you don’t have to leave your home.

Like their Facebook page to get more updates.

UP Press is coming out with the third Estranghero Press book, Demons of the New Year. “Salot” first appeared in this anthology.

Look at this gorgeousness.

That’s it for now. I need to gargle with Bactidol.

horror: filipino fiction for young adults

Photo: Proofing "Horror: Filipino Fiction for Young Adults" with Kenneth Yu.  If the stars align, there will be future editions that will focus on scifi, fantasy and so on.

Dean Francis Alfar and Kenneth Yu, editors of the upcoming YA anthology, Horror, has released the table of contents.

The volume is coming soon from the University of the Philippines Press. It includes my short story, “Dan’s Dreams”. Can’t wait to get my hands on this!

Horror: Filipino Fiction for Young Adults
Table of Contents

Honesty Hour by Gabriela Lee
Eat Me by Kally Hiromi R. Arsua
Mommy Agnes by Vince Torres
The Running Girl by Elyss G. Punsalan
Education by Ate Flora by Renelaine Bontol-Pfister
The New Teacher by Alexander Osias
Gago’s Got Your Back by Andrew Drilon
Dan’s Dreams by Eliza Victoria
Itching to Get Home by Joseph Anthony Montecillo
Lola’s House by Fidelis Tan
A Yellow Brick Road Valentine by Charles Tan
Lucia, the Nightmare Hunter by Kate Osias
Frozen Delight by EK Gonzales
Misty by Isabel Yap

Edited by Dean Francis Alfar and Kenneth Yu
Coming soon from TeamUp Press

launch of estranghero press books + Aklatan!

A couple of announcements!

Several UP Press books are going to be launched next Friday, August 23, including two books by Estranghero Press, The Farthest Shore (which includes my story, “The Just World of Helena Jimenez”, a story that also appears in A Bottle of Storm Clouds) and Diaspora Ad Astra (which includes “Rizal”). Do drop by and buy some books!

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Invitation

On Sept. 7, Visprint, Inc. (publisher of my story collection) and co-presenter National Book Development Board will present the first annual Aklatan: The All-Filipino Book Festival. Read the official press release for the details.

Alphaland Southgate, Magallanes will host this year’s Aklatan on September 7, 2013, Saturday. Although doors open as early as 8 a.m., the formal program will begin at 9 a.m. Artists include Lourd de Veyra, Eros Atalia, and other writers.

Break-out rooms Boracay and Balesin will host talks or seminars and an “unwritten book audition” during which writers will have an opportunity to pitch book ideas to eager publishers, “The Voice of the Philippines” style.

Due to the nature of its inception, the event boasts of a wide and inclusive line-up of Filipino writers and book publishers from critically acclaimed National Artists to their contemporaries preeminent popular culture. Bigger publishers will stand shoulder to shoulder with independent presses.

The complete program is scheduled for release by mid-August. The entrance fee for non-students is P20 while students will receive a 50 percent discount.

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a review of ‘a bottle of storm clouds’ in international speculative fiction # 4

Sean Wright the Bookonaut reviews my first collection, A Bottle of Storm Clouds, in the fourth issue of International Speculative Fiction.

Issue 4 of International Speculative Fiction is out featuring yours truly’s review column. In which I cover some of the recent works of independent self publisher Rabia Gale and the award winning Eliza Victoria.  But of course I shouldn’t be the only reason you pick up a copy of this FREE publication in one of its multiple formats (mobiepub orpdf).

It’s free! Do download a copy to read the entire issue. Many, many thanks to Sean Wright. Such kind words.

Eliza Victoria’s, A Bottle of Storm Clouds, makes me yearn for closer writing relationships between the Australian and Filipino speculative fiction communities (considering our relative geographical closeness). Here is a writer that many Australian fans of the weird, of the dark and edgy modernization of folklore, would love.

Continue reading a review of ‘a bottle of storm clouds’ in international speculative fiction # 4

‘fairy tales’ on short story review

Writer Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam reviews her five favorite faerie stories on Short Story Review, and includes my story, “Fairy Tales”. The other stories are by Jeffrey Ford, Cat Rambo, Kelly Link, and Katherine Vaz. Great writers, great stories.Thank you very much! I am very happy and honored. Read more here.

“Fairy Tales” by Eliza Victoria
Daily Science Fiction
“Fairy Tales” is a cyclical story. It begins with a man, Dante, who meets a wounded woman in a train station; the world of “Fairy Tales” is one in which people have discovered the faerie world, called Lambana, and the faerie folk, the Diwata, have been forced to assimilate into our society. Because the Diwata are forbidden from showing their wings in public, Dante is worried for the wounded woman, who says that she is not capable of folding her wings. He takes her home with him. In the second section, a woman named Pauline interviews a famous Diwata, Crystal, who has had her wings removed. This Diwata, it turns out, is a close friend of Dante’s. And Pauline is the woman in the train station, who had an ulterior motive for interviewing Crystal.
This story’s world is rich, and a wholly fresh take on the fairy lore, though it does use some older conventions; the fairies worship the moon and once possessed magical powers. I love how everything comes together for the unexpectedly hopeful ending.

 

the big 5-0, zalora loot, and home cooking adventures

My father recently celebrated his 50th birthday. I don’t have photos of my mother’s birthday because the rains were crazy and floodwater entered the house, so I decided to come home a week later. I think this made me daughter non grata for a short while haha. But there was water inside the house!

Anyway. Here’s a giant cake from Conti’s.

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My father is very happy he’s 50. “Kaya pa 1/4th! (25 years),” he told me. Hehe.

Ze Zalora loot! I received a text from them saying I am eligible to a 20 percent discount for my next purchase. I couldn’t resist.

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I got:

Original Carmex Jar

Bare Naturals Mineral All Over Glow – Precious

Bare Naturals Vitamin Stix – Definite Lips

Charm Retractable Kabuki (Pink)

Wet n Wild Mega Glo Illuminating Powder in Catwalk Pink

This is my first time to use Bare Naturals and Wet n Wild. I haven’t cracked open the All Over Glow, but I’m loving their tinted lip balm, which is very pigmented. I also love Mega Glo. I’ve been looking for a good illuminating powder, but I find Guerlain’s Météorites too expensive. I think Mega Glo is a good place to start for me. (I would have just stuck with the All Over Glow, but it’s a loose powder, and I need something travel-friendly.)

And this is my first kabuki brush! I love it. Look how cute it is.

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And of course, the kitchen adventure continues. Here’s some microwave bread pudding, and beef burgers with a side of cucumbers.

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20130704_193420Okay, the burgers in the photo above were a mess because I couldn’t cut garlic and onion properly. The pieces were too large!

This is a better set, thanks to J.

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Something to look out for: My story, “The Missing”, will be appearing in VOLUME One, an anthology of stories edited by Dean Alfar and Sarge Lacuesta. Launch will be in September.

The volume will be edited by Dean Francis Alfar and Angelo R. Lacuesta. Volume 1 will be the first book in an anthology series that will showcase fiction by Filipino writers, age 45 and under, selected without regard for boundaries or genres.

Hope you can get a copy. I am proud of this story, and I can’t wait to share it with readers.

Here’s the (still unedited) opening paragraphs:

The Missing

There were only six of them in the group, but several times during the trip in Thailand, Harold would think that they were missing one person. During dinner he would catch himself saying, Let’s wait for – and then realize that there was no one left to wait for, as he counted his seated friends already digging into grilled fish and steamed rice at the sidewalk stall. One two three four five six. Inside Platinum Mall, as they made their way through hordes of fellow tourists buying scarves and cheap shoes, the sudden bursts of Filipino words (Mahal, Ang ganda o, Tawaran mo pa) causing both confusion and delight, one of his friends said, Meet you downstairs at closing time?, and Harold very nearly said, Okay, but we should tell –

One two three four five six.

There was no one to tell, but Harold felt the uneasiness nestling in his bones, the same disquiet that invaded him whenever he left his rundown Makati apartment in a rush: Did I leave the light on? Did I lock the gate properly? Did I unplug the computer?

Am I forgetting someone?

End of excerpt. Eliza Victoria © 2013

the amazing tripartite book launch on july 27

I don’t know why I’m mentioned here! (Thank you?)

This is from Nikki Alfar:

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The Amazing Tripartite Book Launch

The UST Publishing House, Flipside Publishing, and Kestrel DDM invite you to the launch of ‘Philippine Speculative Fiction volume 8’, edited by Dean Francis Alfar and Nikki Alfar, ‘Now, Then, and Elsewhen’, a short story collection by Nikki Alfar, and the digital edition of the ‘Best of Philippine Speculative Fiction, 2005 – 2010’, edited by Dean Francis Alfar and Nikki Alfar.

Ours has regularly been called “the most fun book launch of the year”, so do join us for an afternoon of laughter, merienda, and the inevitable teasing of Eliza Victoria.

And probably you. And probably me. But, you know, we believe that mockery is the sincerest form of friendship.

(Please note that this will be held at The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf at EDSA Shangri-La MALL, not the hotel, and also not the 26th Street Bistro at the new wing. It’s the ground-level Coffee Bean, facing the driveway.)

Do feel free to invite everyone you want, and post this indiscriminately!

When Sat, July 27, 2:00pm – 4:30pm GMT+08:00
Where The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, ground floor, EDSA Shangri-La Plaza Mall, Shaw Boulevard corner EDSA, Mandaluyong

I have a story in PSF 8 called “A Fire That Cannot Be Touched”.  It starts like this:

HER NAME WAS Nemeli of the Firelands, and she saw the Moirae Shade approaching while she was peddling bird bones at a Christmas bazaar.

“Ah, shit,” Nemeli said, because a visit from the Shade like this—without warning, among mortals—had never been known to be pleasant. She turned to her fire-companion, and saw that Dene’s face had turned the color of brackwater.

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I’m going with J. See you there!

PS Please don’t tease me.