Updates

fiction nation

Inquirer Lifestyle features the editors of Maximum Volume (formerly, Volume 1), Dean Francis Alfar and Angelo Lacuesta.  Read on!

Alfar’s and Lacuesta’s big idea is a yearly selection of outstanding short stories, called “MAXIMUM VOLUME,” published by Anvil Publishing, Inc. The inaugural book, “MAXIMUM VOLUME: Best New Filipino Fiction 2014,” is due for release in February and, according to Alfar, is meant to “celebrate the best new Filipino fiction and encourage its writing.”

…

“Maximum Volume” features the following stories: “The Case of Two Husbands” by Heinz Lawrence Ang, “Posing” by Noelle Q. de Jesus, “The Other Woman Narrative” by Daryll Delgado, “Basta” by Glenn Diaz, “Journey Back to the Source” by Gino Dizon, “Man of Letters” by Marc Gaba, “Little Places” by Crystal Koo, “The Red Cup” by Francezca C. Kwe, “The Secret Adobo Wars” by Kate Osias, “My Life as a Bee” by Michelangelo Samson, “The Missing” by Eliza Victoria and “Cruising” by Isabel Yap.  All in all, the line-up of writers represents an intriguing mix of experience and promise, of talent and polish.  Alfar and Lacuesta speak of the selected stories with overwhelming pride and awe, with Alfar describing the writers as “luminous lights.”

Read more: http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/145593/fiction-nation#ixzz2pVoEM2ZZ
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The article does not list all of the stories. Here’s the complete TOC:

My Life As A Bee by Michelangelo Samson

Exchange by Christine V. Lao

Posing by Noelle Q. de Jesus

Other Woman by Daryll Delgado

Cruising by Isabel Yap

The Secret Adobo Wars by Kate Osias

The Missing by Eliza Victoria

The Red Cup by Francezca C. Kwe

The Case of Two Husbands by Heinz Lawrence Ang

Man of Letters by Marc Gaba

Basta by Glenn Diaz

Little Places by Crystal Koo

Journey Back to the Source by Gino Dizon

the shining girls

The Shining GirlsThe Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Lauren Beukes’s earlier novels – Zoo City and Moxyland – are plot-driven and fast-paced. They are the kind of books you sit down to read in the morning and finish at dawn the next day with bleary eyes and greasy hair because you are too engrossed to stop reading and take a bath.

The Shining Girls, concerning a time-traveling serial killer and a survivor who starts hunting him down, is a slow burn, the kind of book you savor. The writing, the language – the descriptions of places, of emotions, of insight (particularly into victim psychology and how people respond to violence and disruption) – is concise and excellent, and the dialogue, as always, is knife-sharp.

However, unlike Zoo City and Moxyland, novels built like solid, sturdy houses, no piece out of place – Shining Girls has elements that don’t quite fit. The serial killer seems pretty blase about the whole time traveling thing, which I think is the intention of Beukes, to stay away from the stereotypical hysterical guy who ends up in a different time, but his calm acceptance feels strange to me, and the girls he hunts down feel underdeveloped, like they’re nothing more than a name and one other detail (occupation/quirk/sexual orientation/talent/etc). Which is a shame, because one of the important points Beukes raises in the novel is: we often see female victims of violence as nothing more than a name and a pretty face. But because there are so many victims, and the novel isn’t very long (at least, I think, not long enough), that’s all we get of them, a tiny glimpse. Too tiny that I don’t feel that I know them enough to mourn them properly.

Also, after the big reveals are made, the slow burn quickens and the novel starts feeling tedious, just a trail of victims moving toward a predictable conclusion.

But it has its moments, and I still think it’s a worthy read from one of my favorite novelists.

View all my reviews

happy new year!

It’s been an interesting year. A better year, I think, personally, than my confusing 2012. This year I: Moved in with J, learned to cook (sort of), traveled out of the country for the first time, went to Panglao with my siblings for the first time, wrote and read stories (always, always), tried my hand at publishing, selling, and marketing my own stuff, talked to readers, ate good food, laughed in the company of good people.

May 2014 be kind, and may we be kinder to ourselves and to each other.

Here’s to more stories! (Always–always.)

news on the writing front + an excerpt before the year ends

1) Project 17 is featured in the December issue of SPEED Magazine! http://bit.ly/1jNUQnd 

Go pick up a copy. :)

2) I will also have a column article in Speed Mag’s upcoming January 2014 issue. Something about robots. Watch out for it!

3) This photo from a friend, where my book sits beside Enrile’s inside Fully Booked’s Greenbelt branch.

4) This wonderful news: I will have a horror story called “Deliver Us” in Philippine Speculative Fiction vol 9! Can’t wait to share it with readers. :) PSF 9 is edited by Charles Tan and Andrew Drilon.

Here are the (unedited) opening paragraphs. I hope this excerpt will intrigue you enough to drop by the launch next year. Cheers!

Continue reading news on the writing front + an excerpt before the year ends

ace water spa – del monte, quezon city

When my sister invited us to join her for hydrotherapy at Ace Water Spa, I wondered what she was smoking. One, I didn’t know such a spa existed and so I was naturally hesitant and suspicious, and two, I can’t swim, so how can that be relaxing?

But you know what, I enjoyed myself. There were three hot herbal pools – mint, jasmine, lavender, with temperatures from a really hot 38 deg C to a scalding 40, but there’s a nifty cold “neck tube” where you can rest your nape and – you know what, I want to go back there already.

Photo from Ace Water Spa’s official website.
See those metal tubes? Those are cold tubes you can hang on to so the hot pool won’t stress you out so much.

Hydrotherapy massage – is a kind of therapeutic massage that utilizes “Ultrasonic Jet System” that massages specific areas of the body with its aquatic jets strategically located to relax and soothe tired and aching muscles. This treatment is best done in heated water.

These one push-of-a-button equipments are categorized as soft, moderate and hard massages. Because of these, the customers are assured of the same consistent experience, unlike manual hand massages wherein every visit may be a different experience due to different factors. For example, a masseuse that offers hard massages may not be as strong as before because he is already tired.

Moreover, the massage systems, being “do-it-yourself” type, gives the customer the freedom to decide which water equipment to use and which part of his body needs more attention

Cameras were not allowed inside the place, so that solved my (tiny) issue with cumbersome poolside selfies, but unfortunately I can’t share any photos with you now except a bunch of before (swimming) photos.

Fee is PhP 550 per head for four hours. That’s a LOT of time already. You’d get sick of pushing buttons soon enough.

But I did have a relaxing time. Thanks, sister.

Ace Water Spa Quezon City:
399 Del Monte Avenue (near cor. Banaue St.) SFDM, Quezon City
Trunkline: (6 32) 367-8040 to 41 / 367-8061 to 62

kritika kultura reading series: fiction

Payment for reading fiction = books. Love it!

I spent Monday afternoon in Ateneo de Manila University reading from my novel and talking about writing stories and my crazy what-ifs.  Thank you thank you Mark Cayanan and Vincenz Serrano for the invite, and thank you to the students who dropped by.

From KK’s Twitter account: https://twitter.com/KulturaKritika

The high point for me was when students approached me after the reading and said they CANNOT WAIT to read the book and find out what happens next. I think it generated some excitement, and I’m thinking of doing the reading again when the book launches, hopefully next year.

Oh, and the working title of the novel is Dwellers.

Are you ready, ready, ready?