Updates

party people + flipside news

Blog backlog!

On June 25, my mother celebrated her birthday.

We had to cajole her to have this picture taken.

She thought it was really silly, blowing candles at her age.

Happy birthday Nanay!

Before that, Jaykie and I tried the The Burger Project in Maginhawa:

Check out this link for the menu and more photos.

Here, you can customize your burger. Choose the patty, choose the toppings, choose the bread.

I had beef patty in an oatmeal bun, with mozzarella cheese, sliced onions, and pickles smothered in special BRGR sauce (which I think is just mayo and ketchup – I’ll just skip it next time). Simple and boring haha.

This is Jaykie’s burger. He added mushrooms and jalapenos, and chose gruyere for his cheese.

Fries:

On June 30, we went to the party of my boss’s children at the Rockwell Club.

Photo of a photo:

Flipside giveaway/Philippine Speculative Fiction 7 launch details/The Viewless Dark blurb

Giveaway!

…we’ve an impromptu giveaway for three (3) lucky commenters! In the comments section of this post, tell us which is your favorite cover (from PSF 1-5) and why. Take note, you can’t just identify a specific cover; you’ll have to explain what you like most about it. Feel free to wax poetic.

Cut-off date for leaving the comments is on July 9, 12NN, Philippine time.The three winners will be selected based on how much we loved the comment. And since we all have different standards for the word “love,” this means that your comment can be praising, funny, witty or even snarky (as long as it’s funny snark).

Winners will be announced on July 10, 2012. And what do they win? An ebook edition of any volume (winners’ choice) of Philippine Speculative Fiction! If you’re one of the winners, we’ll be contacting you to get your email address and the file format that you prefer.

So, let us know which PSF cover rocks your boat! But just in case you can’t wait for the announcement of the winners, then go ahead and grab a copy at Amazon, Flipreads, Kobo, iTunes.

We’re also on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FlipsidePublishing

PSF 7, edited by Kate and Alex Osias and to be digitally published by Flipside, will be launched on the last Saturday of the month.

Also, the latest volume of Philippine Speculative Fiction, Vol. 7, edited by Alex and Kate Osias will be launched on 28 July 2012, Saturday, 2PM at The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, Ortigas Park (along F. Ortigas Jr. [formally known as Emerald Avenue]) Shangri-La Plaza, EDSA. We hope to see you there, too!

My short novel, The Viewless Dark, will be available on June 11. Will post the cover once it’s available. But for now, here’s the book description.

The Viewless Dark
AUTHOR: Eliza Victoria

DESCRIPTION:
When Anthony found Flo dead, locked overnight in one of the reading rooms of the university library, he knew it must have had something to do with Mary. Mary Prestosa, fourth year graduating Philosophy student, whom they had been investigating. Mary, who surprised her roommate one night by suddenly standing up from her bed, throwing the windows open, and jumping down, headfirst, to the dormitory grounds below. Mary, whose memory marked the trail of mysterious deaths and bizarre occurrences that followed her own fateful fall: the fifth-year Computer Engineering student who prowled the campus on all fours, thirsty for blood, believing he was a wolf; the discovery of an all-girls’ satanic cult; the demonic possession of a fourth-year student from the Department of Psychology; and now—Flo, dead.

The students traced it all to Mary. They believed Mary didn’t commit suicide. They believed Mary tapped into something dark, and released it, and was consumed.

And Anthony was determined to pry out the truth.

bringing life to my tbr (to-be-read) pile

I am very much guilty of abandoning books, and equally guilty of amassing them. Among the books I recently abandoned are Lord of the Rings (I TRIED I REALLY TRIED) and Let the Right One In. 

So there they continue to sit on my shelf the floor, looking at me with contempt as I order the following online:

From The Book Depository

Carol by Patricia Highsmith (Crime)

Slights by Kaaron Warren (Horror)

We Bury the Landscape by Kristine Ong Muslim (Surreal/Slipstream?)

I wanted to buy only ebooks because SPACE. (Have I told you that I do not have a bookshelf in my place in Makati? And that the shelves in Bulacan are overflowing with paperbacks?) Unfortunately I don’t own a credit card, so Amazon won’t let me buy shit.

It was only after I’ve ordered a paperback copy of Slights did I find out that Angry Robot (who brought us Lauren Beukes’s wonderful novels) has an ebook arm – The Robot Trading Company.

Well, dammit. Why didn’t you tell me? I could have ordered Slights off of that and be able to read it tonight instead of, you know, a month from now. (Thank you snail mail.)

But TRTC is awesome. They sell DRM-free ePubs that get dispatched instantly. How about that!

I already have:

Ghostwriting and A Writer’s Life by Eric Brown (both Horror)

The Accord by Keith Brooke (Science Fiction)

And I have Lionel Shriver’s Post-Birthday World somewhere.

Now: where can I order time to read all this?

we need to talk about kevin (novel)

After every school shooting (and there have been many – and not just in the United States) the news reports become saturated with expert insights and armchair analyses of the shooter. Was he disturbed? Was he sad? Was he bullied? Classmates are interviewed, and a picture is painted of the teenage outcast turned murderer. Such an extensive coverage, but I have yet to read an in-depth interview with the shooter’s mother. How can we even begin to imagine the pain and guilt of a woman who gave birth to a boy and ended up with a monster?

Lionel Shriver imagined it in this powerful novel. In We Need To Talk About Kevin, Eva Katchadourian writes a series of letters to her husband, eighteen months after their 16-year-old son Kevin killed nine people in his own school. The book is not just about Kevin – it’s about motherhood, marriage, the nature of evil and violence, Middle America, traveling, women and their wants and their bodies, the United States and its shame. It is told through Eva’s eyes, so we as the reader have no choice but to see things as she sees them. Was Kevin truly born evil, or were Eva and her husband partly to blame? I don’t know. It is hard to tell. The novel is absorbing and beautifully written; as suspenseful as any horror story, as insightful as any work of art. Throughout the novel, Shriver manages to withhold an important piece of information from us, and when she reveals it, it feels like an arrow to the chest.

I was in a haze after I finished this book. Stunning.

prometheus, girl with the dragon tattoo, some photos

Haven’t been blogging much because it appears that I’m working on a novel! Or at least, something definitely longer than a short story.

In between jotting down character names and story ideas, I have seen:

Prometheus

Initially planned to just skip this due to several friends commenting that, in effect, it is a waste of time. Now that I’ve seen it, I don’t get the hate. Maybe it’s just a matter of improper pre-movie orientation? Wrong expectations? I heard someone announce loudly that he hated Prometheus because he thought “it’s about the myth”.

Look: if you’ve been living under a rock and believe that the film Prometheus is about that dude who gave away fire to mortals and got chained to a rock as punishment, and wouldn’t be open to watching a science-fiction horror film that could get bloody at times, then watch something else. 

Prometheus is a prequel to Alien. If you’ve seen Alien, then you’ll know exactly what this film’s got in store for you. Expect an Act One of chat and build-up and an Act Two of gore. It’s not flawless, and it’s not necessarily groundbreaking – it’s premise of Panspermia (theory that life on Earth might have originated from somewhere else in the big Universe) has been dissected to death. Try watching one episode of Ancient Aliens. But don’t overthink it. It’s going to be a fun two hours.

(And don’t you just love their suits?)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

I haven’t read any of Stieg Larsson’s books, so I was confused while watching this. Not because it’s hard to follow, but because it feels like three films crammed into one. One film could be about Lisbeth Salander, freelance surveillance agent and the titular girl with the dragon tattoo. The second could be about Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist charged with libel by the billionaire he’s investigating. The third could be about Harriet Vanger and the Vanger family. Harriet disappeared 40 years ago, and Henrik Vanger believes she was murdered.

How it all connects: Henrik Vanger hires Mikael Blomkvist and promises him damning evidence against the billionaire so Mikael could win his case and clear his name. Later on, Mikael asks for a research assistant as he investigates Harriet’s death, and they hire Lisbeth Salander.

Because of all the arcs, I knew next to nothing about Lisbeth. A straightforward plot would have Lisbeth front and center, solving a cold case, with Mikael as supporting character.

I’d still recommend this film (it’s a long film though, more than two hours) because I liked the performances, but bear in mind that they’d focus more on The Man Who Runs Millennium Magazine than on The Girl with the Damn Tattoo.

In other news

J and I have been together 32 months on the 17th. :)

Espresso date at Cafe Maxims.
Ravioli at Bizu.
Helloooo.
You took this picture.

“fairy tales” now online

My story, “Fairy Tales“, is now online on Daily Science Fiction, a week after it has been sent by email to DSF’s subscribers. Feel free to share the link!

If you want to receive free stories in your email from DSF, be a subscriber. It’s free. Click here.

the happy list

I suck at blog entry titles.

Anyway, I’m happy because 1. “Fairy Tales” is getting a handful of positive comments on Daily Science Fiction’s Facebook page, and I’m receiving them online and in my email. Thank you to everyone who read it! Ken Liu (who wrote one of my favorite stories, “The Man Who Ended History“) said “it is a great story!” and “like all tales with political overtones, different readers will read it differently. I found it a delicate and moving metaphor.”

2. I just got waxed. This is slowly sliding into TMI territory but before you look away in disgust I just want to plug Lay Bare.

Services are cheap in price but the place is very clean and the waxers are very professional. Lay Bare also offers packages. For example, Package 2 involves a Brazilian, half-leg wax, eyebrow threading, and underarm wax, all for less than 900 pesos.

Some important notes to remember:

– Taking a painkiller before a waxing procedure helps with the pain. (But actually the pain is very bearable.)

– You can’t wet the area for 4 hours after waxing.

– You can’t have contact (sexual or otherwise) for 8 to 10 hours after waxing. Similarly, you should avoid activities that will make you sweat heavily (like exercising) after waxing because your pores will be wide open and prone to infection.

– Exfoliate!

3. This photo, which makes me smile every time I see it.