Coyote Wild Plug

Hi! Aspiring speculative fiction writers can also submit to the online quarterly magazine Coyote Wild which accepts, fiction, flash fiction, poetry, essays, and artwork/photography. The guidelines can be found here.

While I'm at it, also want to plug Last Dragon author JM McDermott's short story Last Star. I've been plugging Last Dragon to some of my friends but the book not yet being out and all, can't really gauge how good the novel is but hopefully his short fiction will give us a taste of what he can do.

PGS Christmas Issue!

Breaking from tradition of plugging its latest issue a month or two before its release, Philippine Genre Stories has begun to distribute its Christmas issue in bookstores. Here's the Table of Contents:

"Jumpercable: The Crossing" by Erica Gonzales
"The Magic Christmas Box" by MRR Arcega
"Noche Buena" by Andrew Drilon
"The Off-Season" by Michael A.R. Co
"Twilight of the Magi" by Dominique Cimafranca

So What if All Fiction is Truly Speculative?

Here in the Philippines, I wouldn't go as far to say that local genre fiction gets little respect in literary circles, but rather realism is emphasized more than, well, anything else. And in many ways, this is true to the rest of the world as well. Sure, a few titles have made it into the literary canon, Dracula and Frankenstein for horror, Fahrenheit 451 and 1984 for science fiction, and Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia for fantasy. There is one argument being thrown about however: that all fiction is speculative, so why bother with these labels of genre or speculative fiction? While I don't contend with the fact that all fiction is truly speculative, that's not to say that there is no difference between a realist novel and a speculative one. More importantly, it is that difference that matters to other people. Even if I blindly accept that there is no difference between a Filipino science-fiction novel and a Filipino realist novel, I can't expect other people to see it that way. If I want to bridge the gap between speculative fiction and realist fiction, I need to work with the latter's paradigm (or in some people's opinion, go against their paradigm) but never, ever, ignore that paradigm. If people use the term speculative fiction, it is to distinguish itself from other genres, but at the same time encapsulate the works of fantasy, science fiction, and horror.

Another argument following the line of thought that all fiction is speculative, a certain critic goes as far to say that the Philippines is already rich in speculative fiction and he mentions this in every single discussion about speculative fiction. My honest answer to that is so what? I think every nation is rich in the culture of speculative fiction: old religions into myths and honestly what nation is without their own faiths and beliefs? But that doesn't stop them from writing about it. If you stop writing about something (even realism) just because it's popular, it ceases to grow and becomes stagnant. If we want to push the agenda of speculative fiction, one needs to continue creating such a culture. It is not enough to have a history of speculative fiction but rather one must sustain the act of creating and writing such stories (and this applies to all forms of writing).

Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol. 3 for Sale

Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol. 3 won't be available in bookstores until next year so if you're interested in acquiring a copy, feel free to contact me or Banzai Cat (go get them from Banzai Cat because he's an award winning author and is more pliant and charming). Retail price is P300.00.

Anticipating Philippine Speculative Fiction for 2008

The year is far from over yet so many events seemed to have happened for speculative fiction in the Philippines. First and foremost I think are the local publications. First are the dedicated fiction magazines like Philippine Genre Stories and Story Philippines. The former is a magazine devoted to genre fiction (most notably but not limited to science fiction, fantasy, and horror) while the latter is a more "general" publication and more than a few speculative fiction stories have managed to sneak into its pages. Then there's the more mainstream readership of Psi Com publishing, most famous for its line of True Philippine Ghost Stories but over the years it's managed to publish other horror collections and even a fantasy digest anthology Pinoy Amazing Adventures. There's also the magazines and broadsheets that publish fiction such as the mainstay The Philippines Free Press but we're also seeing short stories in other flashy magazines like Rogue (and hopefully other publications as well like Imagine). Last but not least are the actual books on speculative fiction, most notably the anthologies Expeditions (and the 2nd Graphic/Fiction Awards that accompanied it) by Fully Booked and Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol. 3 by Dean & Nikki Alfar. Of particular note with the former was that Neil Gaiman himself came to the Philippines not only to give a talk at the Ad Congress but to launch the book. With regards to the latter, Dean Alfar also released his collection of short stories this year, The Kite of Stars and Other Stories, under Anvil Publishing, who just launched their new imprint, Anvil Fantasy. Salamanca, Dean's first novel published the previous year, was also short-listed for the Madrigal-Gonzales Best First Book Awards.

But the year isn't over yet and there's still 20 days left in the year! Philippine Genre Stories will be releasing its Christmas issue hopefully before Christmas while more than a few local authors have been published in foreign markets: Philippine Genre Stories publisher Kenneth Yu got published in The Town Drunk, Read or Die founder Kristin Mandigma got published in Clarkesworld Magazine, Lit Critters founding member Kate Aton-Osias got published in Magic Realism, and Nikki Alfar should be published in Fantasy Magazine soon.

As for next year, there's much to look forward to. Story Philippines should be launching its new imprint Story Philippines Junior and for now, it looks like there will be a 3rd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards and hopefully another volume of Philippine Speculative Fiction by the Alfars. I'm also looking forward to Vin Simbulan's A Time for Dragons: An Anthology of Philippine Draconic Fiction and another Filipino author will be published in Weird Tales.

Not A Book Review: Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol. 3 by Dean and Nikki Alfar

Normally, I don't do reviews of publications I'm involved with (errr, all two of them) but I recently finished reading Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol. 3 and I just had to write about it. First and foremost is the cover art and while I still prefer the neatness of the cover of the first volume, the third volume's cover is quite impressive. The Introduction actually blew me away because it's turning into a year-in-review of sorts as Dean and Nikki cite various publications and organizations that are recognizing speculative fiction. It gives me hope that one day it'll be as comprehensive as Ellen Datlow and Terry Windling's The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror tome. Anyway, let's move on to the stories and there's a lot, twenty one to be exact. Absent from the book however are stories from the editors--for some a possible point of contention in the previous volumes. Anyway, I'll tackle the stories that caught my eye. Opening the anthology is "Pedro Diyego's Homecoming" by Apol Lejano-Massebieau and it blew me away with its strong narrative voice. It's far from heavy fantasy but rather a realistic story told with one fantastical element to it--and succeeds! Dominique Cimafranca's "Facester" is easily a guilty pleasure mainly because I love mysteries and how the story is resolved was entertaining. Raymond G. Falgui's "The Datu's Daughters" is a great fairy tale-type story--easily one of my favorites in the collection--while Mia Tijam's "The Ascension of Our Lady Boy" I praise because of the narrator's characterization and tone (especially because I can never imagine the author talking that way but that's just my personal insight coming into play). Another favorite is "The Death and Rebirth of Nathaniel Alan Sempio" by Alexander Osias mainly because by the time I got to this story, it was refreshing with its upbeat and action-oriented pace--a stark contrast from the previous stories which were either too serious or too horrific (Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol. 3 easily could have been the horror anthology). Perhaps the most imaginative story I read was "Frozen Delight" by Marguerite Alcazaren de Leon as it features a concept I would never have thought of and executes it perfectly. One of my observations however is that the anthology is "too Filipino" in the sense that most of the stories use the Philippines as a setting albeit utilized in different ways.

Neil Gaiman & Fully Booked Winners on ANC

From Andrew Drilon:

Here's the video clip of the ANC coverage of Neil Gaiman and three of the Fully Booked winners: Philberty Dy (2nd place, fiction, 2006), Andrew Drilon (2nd place, comics, 2007), and Joey Nacino (1st place, fiction, 2007).

The Philippine Spec Fic Vol. 3 Book Launch

Yesterday was the Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol. 3 book launch and it was the most "entertaining" book launch ever and had all the ingredients of a popular Pinoy movie complete with comedy and drama (alas, while there was music--a violin performance--there was no dancing).

I'm sure photos will pop up from the photographers Kenneth Yu and Kate Aton-Osias as well as the others who took pictures. Thanks for those who attended! The book is priced at P300 and while it's not yet available at bookstores, it will be soon but you can get in touch with me if you're interested in a copy.

Anyway, it was great meeting authors whom I barely get the chance to see such as Luis Katigbak and Ian Casocot (who flew in from Dumaguete). Also finally got to meet authors whom I only know from blogs (to the point that you've memorized the urls of their blogs) such as Sean Uy (keep on trying Sean!) and Dominique Cimafranca (who flew in from Davao). Unfortunately, while I'm a self-proclaimed stalker, there were several authors whom I was too shy to introduce myself. Raymond Falgui has a common experience with me in the fact that I knew Dean from his days as DCI judge for Magic: The Gathering. Me being a single guy, I saw cutie authors (the other female authors I personally know automatically get bumped up to dazzling but alas, you're all taken!) like Joanna Paula Cailas and Marguerite Alcazaren de Leon but I was too shy to introduce myself. The former asked for my signature though so, uh, between the two of us, we know who's more courageous.

When I was up on stage, I mentioned two things. One is that it's a pleasure to be part of an anthology with such diverse and talented authors. Aside from the well-established writers (you know who you are, and that includes you too Yvette), it was also a venue for upcoming writers (I hope). I think this is easily the first book debut of me, Dominique, Joanna, Rodello Santos, and Timothy Dimacali. The other thing I mentioned that this is actually the third time I submitted an entry for Philippine Speculative Fiction but the first time my manuscript actually got accepted. Just so you know, I don't think of myself as a talented writer, merely a persistent one so if you keep at it, hopefully you'll get better. And as I start telling people, go write and submit! I think many aspiring writers don't lack talent but rather suffer from self doubts and a lack of self esteem. In any open call for submissions, there are honestly no "losers". I doubt if the editors will tell you "you suck, you should never have been born!". Instead, there are stories that are accepted, and those that aren't (for a variety of reasons and there are even those who take the time to give feedback on the story). Some see the latter as failure but for me, I see it as an invitation to try again the succeeding year or at the very least, there's room for improvement in my story (if it got declined because of the quality). Remember, editors don't reject writers, they reject stories. The former can evolve while the latter won't edit or revise itself. And you won't know if your story is good enough unless you try. In local competitions and anthologies, how many people actually submit stories? In Philippine Speculative Fiction, it's more than a hundred but let's peg it at around two hundred. There are over 21 stories in the collection which means at the very least 10% of the stories got accepted (of course those statistics are not an excuse to submit a horribly written story). Those chances are better than, say, winning the Lotto! And at worst, you have a story, one that can either be revised or submitted to other markets.

Anyway, here's the Table of Contents from the book, complete with links from the authors who have blogs (at least those who choose not to remain anonymous):

Edit: Apparently, I'm sandwiched between the works of two famous and extremely talented authors, Ian Cascot and then Alfred Yuson. Oh no!

Pedro Diyego's Homecoming by Apol Lejano-Massebieau
Keeping Time by FH Batacan
Facester by Dominique Cimafranca
Reclamation by Sarge Lacuesta
The Datu's Daughters by Raymond Falgui
The Ascension of Our Lady Boy by Mia Tijam
Peekli by Andrew Drilon
The Hand by Marianne Villanueva
Brigada by Joseph Nacino
The Singer's Man by MRR Arcega
Hamog by Joanna Paula Cailas
Visitors by Luis Katigbak
Sidhi by Yvette Natalie U. Tan
The Death and Rebirth of Nathaniel Alan Sempio by Alexander Marcos Osias
In Earthern Vessels by Rodello Santos
Carmen and Josephine by Elyss Punsalan
Sky Gypsies by Timothy Dimacali
The Flicker by Ian Rosales Casocot
Urban Legends by Charles Tan
The Music Child by Alfred A. Yuson
Frozen Delight by Marguerite Alcazaren de Leon

Geeks are Evil with Joey Nacino Part 2

I'd just like to plug that part two of the interview with Joey Nacino is up at Geeks are Evil (many thanks to Anansi Girl who is a very, very busy girl!). Well, the book launch was yesterday so if you missed it, well, you can always grab a copy of the book (soon to be available at bookstores but you can get in touch with me if you're interested in procuring a copy). The retail price is P300.00.

Joey Nacino Interview at Geeks are Evil Podcast

Joey "Banzai Cat" Nacino, consistent contributor to Philippine Speculative Fiction and Digest of Philippine Genre Stories, and the recent winner of the 2nd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Contest is the special guest at Anansi Girl's latest podcast, Geeks Are Evil. It's also the first time I participated in a podcast. =)

Be sure to drop by this Saturday, 4 pm at the basement of Fully Booked in Bonifacio High Street for the launch of Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol. 3.

Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol. 3 Book Launch

I just want to invite everyone to come to the launch of Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol. 3. It's on December 8, 2007 , 4 pm at Fully Booked, Bonifacio High Street.

Fully Booked Announcement

Fully Booked has updated their site and posted the list of winners with photographs.

Graphic/Fiction Awards 2007 Transcripts

I'm juggling too many transcripts currently but here's an abridged version (to be updated when they're finished) of the various speeches at the Graphic/Fiction Awards.

Many thanks to the hosts and --- are words I couldn't quite understand while ... are entire phrases which I couldn't comprehend.

Neil Gaiman's Introduction:

What did you think about your entrance?

The great thing about coming to the Philippines is that people always ask what was the strangest thing that has happened to me in the Philippines. Today when they were asking me upstairs as I was being interviewed was yesterday during the book signing that I did in Subic, somebody named Jason with him through my FAQ line on my website and said I want to propose marriage to my girlfriend, would you mind writing Maui would you marry Jason in my book? Of course I did it. I wrote Maui would you marry Jason and--I did a Sandman drawing first and handed it to her and she looked very baffled at first, possibly I was the one proposing. And then she looked at the word Jason attached to it and by that point she had Jason down on his knees pulling out a ring. That was yesterday's strangest thing.

I assume she said yes?

She did. I was worried if she said no. So that was yesterday's. Today's most peculiar thing was definitely coming on holding the word quintessential. In the middle of a not-quite-arrived typhoon.

Would you tell us Neil why you're so involved in these awards?

How many of you were here at the Rockwell event? So I recognized that-- So I came up around two and a half years ago and one of the first things I had to do, more or less getting off the plane was judge an art competition and I was astonished by how good the art was and then I kept going around and talking to people and meeting people. And I got a sense of how smart everybody was, how good they were, how really cleaned up on science fiction and fantasy and how much science fiction and fantasy and horror was part of the walk of the --- of society here. How well they understood it and nobody seemed to be writing it. There wasn't really a tradition of Filipino fantasy and Filipino horror despite the fact that you got the coolest and richest folklore in the world. And you do! And you have such amazing, intelligent people. When I grew up, when I was around fourteen, the best artists in American comics were Filipinos. They were Alex Nino, they were Alfredo Alcala, they were Tony de Zuniga, Nestor Rodondo. There were lots of them and they were amazing. And then these days you don't seem to be playing very much, just started at it again. There are a few people who are playing on a global stage. But I wanted to encourage them so I phoned up Jaime Daez from Fully Booked and I said okay, I would be with you. We talked about it a bit and I would put up the prize money personally if you run the competition. So that's the way it turned up. I put up the prize money. Putting up the prize money is the easy bit. Jaime Daez, they really have the hard bit because they have to organize it and then to run it. About a year ago, the first round of winners were announced. And then a year later, I've written the introduction and we have two collections of the winners so you can actually read them. It has the winners and has a lot of good stuff in there, but if you're can't be good enough to be runner up or worse, what we'll be doing later today is announce the winners of this year's competition and we'll always talk, I think I'll mention it now. We're going into year three, we're going to do the competition for year three and the quality of the prose entries I actually thought was excellent in year one. You have better writers, better writing than we did in year one. The comics entries weren't actually as good. I should warn you ahead of time that when we talked this evening, we have no first prize. We have two second prizes and a third prizes but no first which we thought was good enough. And we got the --- that we're not giving you long enough so so you have about a year. This year. We are announcing right now, there will be a third year.

Will you be back for the third year?

Depends on the quality of the entries. If they're good enough I'll come back. The other thing we want to do is add an extra category. Up until now we got prose and we got comics. This year we will add short film.

How would you describe or define Filipino Realism?

Filipino on Realism is really, it began as a comment by me out of reading about why are the things coming out of the Philippines is if you come to the Philippines, people give you things. And they give you really cool things you've never encountered before if you're me like Calamansi juice and strange little wooden carvings with enormous penises. Even Chocnut. One of the things I was given in quantity were books of the literature of the Philippines including short story collections and great Filipino short stories and I've been reading this stuff and loving it and wondering why do you have an amazing tradition here of Filipino realistic literature. There's great realism but there doesn't seem to be any unrealism. There's no tradition of great fantastic literature, of great horror, of great science fiction. That's really what I'm looking to pick up the --- tube to use an English expression and see if we can put on Filipino unrealism.

Neil Gaiman's Q&A:

When will we be seeing the Endless on the big screen and who would you want to play Dream, yourself not included?

I'm not tall enough anyway. Or white enough. I don't know. Probably because we're going to see them in the Death movie if that happens. I vote out early this year with Guillermo del Torro as executive producer on the Death movie. And --- will be directing. And Guillermo to be the one offered to me because he's out on ---, He's .... He's filming Hellboy 2: The Golden Army. And so I could shadow him and learn everything, critique me about directing techniques. I can ask him any question I want to. So do. And I follow him around and I think it's marvelous. And we had the marvelous time and what brought me off course is I'm on strike. As a writer's guild member, I'm on strike which means I can't do anything to the script until the strike is over. But once it's over I'm really looking forward to working on the Death movie. As for who would play Dream or who would play Death, that's for me to know or hope and you guys to find out when it gets made.

I would tell you but somebody might post it at Ain't It Cool News.

What is the most important ingredient in making an effective dark plot or dark character?

Most important ingredient in making an effective dark plot or dark character is believing in it yourself. If you want to write something scary, you're going to be scaring yourself. If you're going to write something troubling, you better go find something that actually troubles you. If it doesn't scare you then it probably does not scare anybody else at all. So that's for me is the most effective thing, finding--Coraline, with ---, with nightmares, ---. The thing with --- is that kind of thing that I scare myself when I was a kid. I'd sit there at school, thinking what would happen if while I'm at school, my parents forget me and move out and there's nobody there when I get home. What if my parents move house completely look exactly like my parents move in. And I wouldn't know. I'd sit there absolutely terrified, wonderfully terrified about this. So that for me, and that was the beginning of Coraline. You got to find something that scares you.

I'd like to know your thoughts on the Amazon Kindle or Ebooks in general.

I was very lucky, I was given a Kindle in June. I got to play with it through September when they worried there might be a security leak and made me give it back. It was wonderful. It was not a substitute for a book. A book--a paper object book is always going to be preferable. But if like me you travel too much and you really don't have room in your bag to put for twenty or thirty books, the electronic version is --- and just being able to --- on Kindle was going to be the best with Maddie and sitting on the plane before it took off and she looked at me really worried and said I don't have anything to read and I put out the Kindle and just bought her five --- books to .... and she has books to read all her way through, she has books to read while sitting on the film set. Then when she got bored of ---, she started reading things like Stephen King's The Cell, and Dracula. Which I can't imagine she would have ever read except as a --- on the Kindle...

I'm sure you wouldn't have a problem with your works being sold on the Kindle.

No, I don't have a problem with eBooks. They are not a substitute, they are something else.

How can writers of fiction, especially speculative fiction, engage themselves in social causes? How can writers be agents of change?

Which is a really good question because I think that sometimes people think that you cannot talk about something real when you're talking about something unreal. Whereas I think it's the other way around. I think it's very very hard sometimes to talk about things that people are very very familiar with. Why did I ---? I could have written a novel about homelessness in London and nobody would have ever read it except those people who are interested in homelessness in London. And instead I wrote a novel called Neverwhere. And somewhere you get --- taken away from him about the people who fall through the cracks and I get to write about the dispossessed, I get to write about the people whose lives fall through the cracks, I get to write about the homeless and the land in a way which makes people read the book and look at the homeless encounter possibly for the first time because it's talking about the way that all the people who've become invisible to the people who have jobs working income. But you can do that better sometimes when you sort of go around the prom.... talk about these feelings that you had when you were a kid about --- whether you're gay, whether you're sloppy, whether you're weird, whether you were a nerd, whether you were lonely. And suddenly you're a --- and you could have helped that in a way...

How has being a father to Maddy especially influenced or changed the content of your work? Has any of them shown any writer's inclinations?

That's a good question... Mike come up on stage. Okay, this is my son Michael.... because he works for Google. And I think being a father is great because I've been stealing stuff from my kids now for over twenty years. How many books have I stolen from you?

Michael: Many. I would say you steal from me, you stole from me ---

Goldfish book? That was you? I put him one day and he was really grumpy because I thought he was much taller. I told him something terrible like go to bed or clean his room and he looked up at me and do you know what it was he said?

Michael: I assume it had something to do with, I don't know.

It was. You looked up at me and were very grumpy and said I wish I didn't have a dad. I wish I had, and then you stopped and thought because what else did you have? And then you said I wish I had goldfish. And I thought that's brilliant, I'll steal it. And I did and I wrote a novel.

Michael: And I went to college so it all works out.

And I stole some more from Maddie who woke up and she said dad, she was in bed and crying, and I said what's the matter? She said there were wolves, there were wolves in the house and they came out and they took the house over. I said I think you have a bad dream. She said no, I can show you the place in the wall where they came out from. And I thought there you go. And one day we'll put her through college.

I don't think, I mean my children's books, without any children, I probably would have written all the other books but the children's books, including The Graveyard Book. The Graveyard Book is which is what I'm writing currently began about two years ago. We didn't have a garden so we would drive around in his little tricycle, his little tricycle in the graveyard next door. And sit on the bench and watch this little girl puttering next to gravestones thinking I'm going to use that one, ay? And I did.

Jaime Daez Speech:

Good afternoon everyone. I'm honestly very, very honored, flattered and out of words because this is our first publication ever. For anyone in my position, it is a dream come true that the guy who's launching this book together with me is one of the greatest writers in the world right now. So Neil, once again, I can't thank you enough for all the support, for coming over two and a half years ago, and going through all the hell lines just to satisfy everyone. And for coming back and for keeping on supporting this by already telling everyone that we will be doing this again next year. Having said that, there are a lot of people as well involved, people who don't get acknowledged and I want to acknowledge these people right now who worked very hard to make this happen. These are the people who had to go through the hundreds of entries and basically go through and judge which are the winners. So I would like to acknowledge them right now. Ramon de Veyra, I'm sure he's here right now. Ramon is the guy who really helped sort through the whole comics list and Erwin Romulo, I see you right there. Erwin Romulo was the one who sorted through the whole prose list. And then I have three of my staff. Vivian Chuaseco, and Tals Diaz who really helped as well in sorting everything out and deciding who the final cut was going to be. I would like to make special mention to one of my staff as well, I see her right now. Rhea Llamas. Rhea was the one who really did the work. This was the, this was what Neil was saying when he said this was the hell part. Of compiling everything, going through the printing, going through the editing, checking every word so that everything was done correctly. Again, Rhea, thank you very much. Last but not least, aside from the judges who will be presented anyway later, I would like to thank the guy who did the cover: Leinil Yu, please. For all of you who do not know, Leinil Yu is one of the most sought out comic book artist in the world. Currently drawing the best-selling comic right now in the US, the New Avengers. If you do not know him, by next year you will because anyone of you who has read Civil War, the biggest comic book next year is going to be Secret Invasion and he is the guy drawing it. So he probably makes some people very very proud, we have one of the best right here. Thank you all for coming, I believe that you already know that the books are available but unfortunately, Neil cannot sign for everyone. If you do buy the set, you are guaranteed one book signed by him.

Once again, a big round of applause for Neil.

On This Year's Winners:

"Absolution" is a wonderful little comic. Beautifully drawn, doesn't really have enough of a story to be a first prize winner. And with your story it would have been probably the best drawn I think.

"Afterlife" was beautifully drawn, too wordy and felt too compressed as if it had just a little room to breathe it would have given you a few more pages, it would have worked out better. Nice art though.

"Juan Perez's Corpse" really funny, nasty story. And I loved both the funniness and the nastiness of a corpse of a man killed in a plane crash, wakes up in bed in a particularly nasty condition and goes down for breakfast and the reaction of the neighbors and everybody else to what's going on and it actually manages to be moving as well which I thought was lovely.

The other thing that managed to be moving was "Lines and Spaces", our second place for comics which was basically a tribute to Alex Nino and which I thought was particularly apt since Alex Nino was one of the huge inspirations behind comics and it's a lovely little story.

Second place winner "The Bridge" very spooky. One of the things I loved about all the stories is that they all feel uniquely Filipino. And "The Bridge" which is a story about a psychic little girl and her encounter with a political leader of a country a lot like the Philippines is very, very creepy and really nicely done.

"The Sugilanon of Epifania's Heartbreak" which Ian, who also won 1st place in last year's competition is a lovely little fable and felt it should have been illustrated. If you get it published, maybe in the book next year we can get a few illustrations.

The first place winner is science fiction and fantasy and uniquely Filipino and very, very, very odd in all of the nicest possible ways. And it's a story called "Logovore" about somebody who eats words and their encounters with the people--it's almost indescribable and I've never read anything like it before and was absolutely ready to go on the world stage. I looked at that story and--it could have been fantasy or science fiction and it ought to be picked up by the best of the year anthologies.

So honestly you guys, especially in prose, nothing to be ashamed of. So absolutely terrific showing. What I'm hoping for next year is that we not only get absolutely world class prose but we also get absolutely world class comics as well. Not to mention of course short films. We have strange plans for the short films, quite possibly our own YouTube channel. Maybe having to do the DVD. And I guess I'll have to do the introduction to the DVD.

Expeditions Table of Contents

I encourage everyone to grab a copy of Expeditions by Fully Booked. It's P500 and P600 for the prose and comic paperbacks respectively, and P800 and P900 for the hardcovers. If you buy a set, one of them has a signature by Neil Gaiman and you get a discount. Leinil Yu also contributes art for the cover.

Fiction:
"The God Equation" by Michael A.R. Co
"Strange Map of Time" by Ian Casocot
"The Great Philippine Space Mission" by Philbert Ortiz Dy
"Atha" by Michaela Atienza
"The Omega Project" by Kim Marquez
"Monstrous Star" by Cecilia Estrada
"Stella for Star" by Yvette Natalie Tan
"Divesting Doloris: In the Antechamber of the Heart" by Ma. Ana Micaela G. Chua
"Marty" by Wincy Ong

Comics:
"The Sad Mad Incredible But True Adventures of Hika Girl" by Clara Lala Gallardo and Maria Gallardo
"Splat!" by Manual Abrera
"Dusk" by Rommel Jason
"Defiant: The Battle of Mactan" by Juan Paolo Ferrer and Chester Ocampo
"The Guilty" by Vergel Nino A. Vergara
"Karnabal" by Benjor Catindig and Jonee Garcia
"The Moondancer" by Anna Pallon and Adele Raya
"The Prophet" by Frances Alcaraz and Alvin B. Yapan
"Where Eagles Fly" by Leonard John C. Banaag
"Why I Wake Up Late" by Avid Liongoren

Philippine Genre Stories at Jam 88.3 Transcript

Here's the transcript for the interview that took place more than an hour ago at Jam 88.3. Gamers can probably appropriate a thing or two about "Bangungot" and "Tuko" for their own games.

Jam 88.3: How are you guys doing tonight?

Kenneth Yu, Miggy Escano: We’re fine.

Jam 88.3: We are talking about the Digest of Philippine Genre Stories. Why don’t you give us a backgrounder first?

Kenneth: It started last year around December. The first issue was released last December but even way before that, I was already thinking how nice it would be if we could have an avenue for Pinoy writers to share their talents in telling genre stories in the Philippines. As far as I could tell, there was very little avenue for them or very few magazines accepting genre stories so I thought why not?

Jam 88.3: And when you say genre stories, what exactly do you mean?

Kenneth: Right, I’m glad you asked that question. Genre is defined, genre by its definition means category, but its defined in the publishing world as stories that fall under crime, mystery, thrillers, science fiction, fantasy, horror, supernatural stories, stuff like that. These stories have not been given much attention—I felt. So I thought why not with the popularity of Harry Potter, fantasy, with the popularity of Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, why not come up with an avenue for Pinoys to share the talent that they have to tell such imaginative stories and perhaps they come up with their own something tied in with the Philippines: tiyanaks or whatever. Taking it to a literary level.

Jam 88.3: Weren’t there local publications though that do come out with these kinds of stories, these kinds of material?

Kenneth: As far as I could tell, no. I mean there were few and far in between. Not enough or if ever there were, they were just too few. So why not? That’s why I came up with PGS.

Jam 88.3: How about you Miggy, as a writer, did you also feel that you needed other avenues, other ways to put your writing out there for people to appreciate?

Miggy: Every writer wants someone else to read his or her story. And that’s actually very important to a writer. A publication like Philippine Genre Stories allows your story to be read by a wider audience and not just by my friends or small group or friends.

Jam 88.3: So it all started with that idea. What put everything in motion?

Kenneth: I had the good fortune. Well my regular business is I’m a printer so I have a small commercial press, we print the usual stuff on paper: calling cards, letterheads, marketing materials, brochure, pamphlets, exciting stuff. (laughs) And so it was very easy for me to make a layout, come out with the template for the small digest as you’ve see in the samples I’ve shown you. It was with that easy step, it’s easy for me to get production. The next step was to get the word out, that there’s a new publication coming out. So I just blogged about it.

Jam 88.3: That’s right. Okay.

Kenneth: I got a blog and it’s wonderful, this modern world the youth are all connected, everybody’s connected now. So I just put it up, asked for submissions, and lo and behold, it confirmed my hunch: people submitted.

Jam 88.3: Is that how you got in touch with Miggy?

Kenneth: That’s right, everything was through the Internet, through the Web. It worked. There are people, there are Pinoys, young ones especially, telling stories that fall under genre. That pleased me so much when I got the first set of contributions. So that made me release issue one last December.

Jam 88.3: How soon after were you able to release or publish the issue?

Kenneth: The second issue?

Jam 88.3: The first one, after you blogged about it and you get all these…

Kenneth: I gave myself three, four months. So four months before December I put out the call and went into publication about a month before and then I came out in December, just in time for Christmas last year. The second issue came out about April or May. The third issue just came out with Miggy as the cover story with his horror story “Tuko” and the special PGS holiday issue is coming out before Christmas.

Jam 88.3: All right. I noticed there are a lot of horror stories. Like in the past PGS, the first one and the second one, there are more horror stories compared to the other genres featured. Why do you think that is, Miggy?

Miggy: Filipinos like to be scared and we like writing stories that scare people. And we can see that a lot of movies that are out right now deal with horror, especially with Asians with Japanese films. We Filipinos love to be scared. We love reading and watching stuff about horror.

Jam 88.3: I’m curious as to how you got started writing with horror but I think we can save that for later on. Let’s first finish the story, Kenneth?

Kenneth: The second issue came out, the first issue came out I’m glad I was able to get contributors like Dean Alfar, is THE proponent of what they call speculative fiction in the country. Speculative fiction being the umbrella term to cover sci-fi, fantasy, and horror. Then I got some other contributors like Andrew Drilon, Vin Simbulan, Joseph Nacino, Alex Osias. Later on other contributors, other names started trickling in. Bit by bit I found variations. Yes, it’s true, Pinoys love to be scared for some reason. They love to stay awake at night and be scared but there is a growing fantasy writing segment in the Philippines. I’d like to think that it’s the influence of Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter but I’d also like to think that Pinoys have a rich Pinoy heritage already to begin with.

Jam 88.3: It’s been there, just like what you said, there’s no avenue.

Kenneth: There’s no avenue, correct. So that came out and then sci-fi is growing. There is a sci-fi convention at the end of the month and you didn’t hear about that in the past. So at the end of the month there’s this sci-fi convention at Glorietta.

Jam 88.3: Oh really, is this the first one?

Kenneth: No, it’s been going on but I’d like to think the fact that they’ve reached the fifth shows that it’s growing. It definitely is, there is definitely a sci-fi element growing. What is lacking, I’d like to point out and you might be surprised at this given the state our country is in, is that nobody writers crime, which is a genre too. Which is funny. I haven’t had any crime submissions. But nevertheless sci-fi/fantasy/horror are very much alive and that’s very encouraging.

Jam 88.3: Hmmm, I wonder why. Why do you think that is? Why are there no crime stories?

Miggy: We’re probably fed up with all the crime news.

Jam 88.3: That’s true. (laughs)

---

Jam 88.3: Miggy, you have the cover story for the third edition. I’m just curious by the way because every story, there’s an introduction written to that particular story. Who writes that?

Kenneth: Oh, I do since I double as editor. Maybe one day kung patok na patok if it really becomes a big hit then I can hire a professional editor but in the meantime, I have to double both as publisher and editor.

Jam 88.3: All right, of course at the end of those stories, they also provide you with what inspired them to write that particular story that’s featured in PGS.

Kenneth: It’s a twist I’ve thought of that not only will I put the background or a brief bio of the writer, I thought how nice it would be if the reader could get a glimpse into the mind of the writer as to how that story came about. So there you have it along with their photos, their blogs, their email addresses. I decided to give them some space to talk about how they wrote it.

Jam 88.3: So let’s go on to Miggy and since you are the cover story for the third issue, why don’t you tell us first about your story? Give us a teaser or a backgrounder on what you wrote about for the third PGS and what inspired you of course to come up with the story.

Miggy: My story is entitled “Tuko”. It’s a fictional story that deals with bangungot. It’s actually a medical condition that affects predominantly Filipinos.

Jam 88.3: Is it a medical condition? Because there’s a lot of debate also whether there is, isn’t it like a religious or superstitious thing?

Miggy: Well bangungot according to medicine is supposed to be sudden cardiac arrest while a person is sleeping. That’s why there’s lot of superstitions as to what causes bangungot.

Jam 88.3: If someone has taken a hold of you and you can’t move and paralyzed and you see these…

Miggy: It’s supposed to be in some regions, they believe it’s an invisible giant that sits on a person’s chest, that’s why the person is unable to breathe and that person dies. For others, they say that it’s actually caused by heat trapped in the body. It builds up so that’s why a pan of water is placed beside the bed so the heat transfers to the water. However there’s no conclusive medical evidence what really causes bangungot. It’s actually a medical mystery as of now. So I kind of speculated what if there was something. Something supernatural that causes bangungot and what causes bangungot is the lonely animal called the?

Jam 88.3: The tuko!

Miggy: The tuko, the gecko. But the tuko is not what causes the bangungot, the tuko is actually warns people about another creature that causes bangungot when it’s nearby. That’s why it makes the sound, tuko, it’s actually mimicking the sound of the victim dying of bangungot.

Jam 88.3: Okay! That’s the sound of a dying victim. So for example, a person can’t really vocalize their cry or their plea or their last call so it goes through the tuko.

Miggy: The tuko is actually like an alarm clock, a warning device, a car alarm so when something’s near, it warns people that it’s nearby. And this thing is actually invisible, it can’t be seen. That’s why the tuko has to warn us, it’s the only thing that can see it. Bangungot actually comes from the root word bangon and ungot, which means to rise and to groan. A sleeping person suddenly rises, there’s a sharp pain in his chest, he can’t breathe, and then he suddenly falls dead.

Kenneth: Don’t give too much away. Let them buy and read!

Miggy: The story is basically about that, the tuko and the bangungot. It’s actually about a young man named Jun Crisostomo. He’s assigned to a far flung city in the province. And he encounters the tuko.

Jam 88.3: And in that particular town are there a lot of cases of bangungot?

Miggy: Actually in the Philippines, there are a lot of cases of bangungot. However, there are no specific or concrete numbers because supposedly according to the study by the Department of Health, 1,000 in 100,000 Filipinos die of bangungot annually.

Jam 88.3: 1,000 in 100,000?

Miggy: Yeah, so like one in a hundred. But those numbers include people who die mysteriously in their sleep. So it’s not conclusive because a lot of conditions are misreported as bangungot. Because when a person dies, they say, “o, binangungot” when a person is asleep. It includes those numbers. Bangungot is actually a very interesting subject because surprisingly, it only affects males, predominantly Asian males. So it’s actually something non-Western.

Kenneth: You’re safe.

Miggy: You’re safe. No problem.

Jam 88.3: Okay, good. I like this!

Miggy: It was actually first observed in the 1950s in Hawaii by a doctor who noticed plantation workers, male plantation workers were mysterious dying in their sleep. That’s one of the first documented cases of bangungot. And up to now, there are lot of theories on what causes bangungot.

Jam 88.3: But why did you decide to tie it up with the tuko? I mean when you say tuko, it’s not like a good pest. It’s a pest, people view it as a pest. When they see it, it’s not exactly something that they will keep or cuddle so why decide to make the hero in your story or short story?

Miggy: The tuko is actually very misunderstood, it gets a very bad rap.

Jam 88.3: Probably because of the way it looks.

Kenneth: Miggy has pet lizards at home.

Miggy: Actually you know the lizards we have at home, what we call the butiki, they’re a type of gecko, they’re a cousin of the tuko. The tuko here is the bigger one.

Kenneth: Probably has more than one lizard at home. (laughs)

Miggy: The tuko is a very big lizard that’s very noisy and they say don’t touch it because when it touches you, it’s hard to get off. So the tuko gets a bad rap. I wanted to make it a hero because actually in other cultures, lizards are considered lucky.

Jam 88.3: Really?

Miggy: Yeah. They keep magical charms as lizard tails. Because the presence of a lizard in a house is actually good because the lizards eat mosquitoes and other insects. It’s only here in the Philippines probably because it’s a car alarm that keeps you up at night, it’s annoying.

Jam 88.3: We do have the sound bite for the gecko call and I think you’re going to read an excerpt. For the people who aren’t exactly sure how they exactly sound, if you want to find out more about the story “Tuko”, Miggy is going to read us a part later on. Anything else you wanted to add?

Miggy: You don’t have anything to fear from the tuko, the tuko is actually very friendly. Also lizards get a bad rep. When you go to sleep, they say you shouldn’t open your mouth because they say lizards will crawl inside. That’s actually part of the inspiration for the story: what if something lizard-like crawled inside?

Jam 88.3: Right. Not a good sign. For the people who would like to contribute and send stories by the way, how do they do that?

Kenneth: You can go to the blog, philippinegenrestories.blogspot.com. And we accept contributions anytime, just send them in. There’s a link there on how to submit, just click on the submission guidelines. Anyone, we’re open to any Filipino.

Jam 88.3: Even from children?

Kenneth: There’s a certain age limit, maybe fourteen and above but we take any story by any Pinoy here or abroad. Please send them in, we’d love to give your story a voice. If we can publish it, we will.

---

Jam 88.3: It’s time for us to listen to Miggy read an excerpt from the cover story he had written for Philippine Genre Stories but first Miggy, I understand that this is part of a series, is that correct?

Miggy: Actually yes. The “Tuko” is actually a part of a series of stories that deal with the supernatural. I recreate traditional Filipino monsters then re-imagine them for a modern audience. So we know about the myths of bangungot so I recreated a new myth for the bangungot that involves the tuko.

Jam 88.3: All right, that clarifies it then. And you’re going to read us a part but before that let’s get to the call.

Miggy: We’re supposed to be listening to the sound of a male gecko, the mating call. That’s why the tuko is called by its name because it sounds that way. I’ll read an excerpt from my story, “Tuko”.

-omitted for Copyright reasons-

That’s it.

Jam 88.3: That is an excerpt from “Tuko”, cover story of The Digest of Philippine Genre Stories. Thank you very much Miggy Escano. If you want to read the whole thing, you have to get a copy of the Digest of Philippine Genre Stories. And how do they do that Kenneth?

Kenneth: It’s available at Fully Booked, Bibliarch, Comic Quest, Books for Less, Booktopia, Mag:Net, A Different Bookstore, and The Filipinas Heritage Library at the Ayala Museum and by next week, National Bookstore.

Jam 88.3: Okay, and of course Miggy, watch out!
Miggy: Hopefully more stories to come, hopefully in PGS and other publications as well.

Jam 88.3: Someone texted, I really am a bookworm. I find your genre interesting and proudly Pinoy. Can I have a free copy of bangungot or “Tuko”? That’s coming from Jennifer of Velenzuela city.

Kenneth: Hi Jeniffer. Well we gave an extra copy to Lana so if they have a contest here, you could call in and win.

Jam 88.3: Unfortunately Jennifer we don’t have enough time tonight but I’ll see if I can give that copy out next week. Just make sure to tune in to Shelve It every Thursday 8:00 – 9:00. Again, how do they get updates on PGS?

Kenneth: Check out philippinegenrestories.blogspot.com. I’d like to thank the sponsors who helped PGS. That’s Superbowl of China, Ribisco Chocomucho, Modess, Starbucks, and PLDT MyDSL.

Jam 88.3: Thank you very much.

Philippine Speculative Fiction Volume 3 TOC

Dean has posted the table of contents for the upcoming Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol. 3 scheduled to be released on Dec.8, 2007:

The Singer's Man by MRR Arcega
Keeping Time by FH Batacan
Hamog by Joanna Paula Cailas
The Flicker by Ian Rosales Casocot
Facester by Dominique Cimafranca
Frozen Delight by Marguerite Alcazaren de Leon
Sky Gypsies by Timothy Dimacali
Peekli by Andrew Drilon
The Datu's Daughters by Raymond Falgui
Visitors by Luis Katigbak
Reclamation by Sarge Lacuesta
Pedro Diyego's Homecoming by Apol Lejano-Massebieau
Brigada by Joseph Nacino
The Death and Rebirth of Nathaniel Alan Sempio by Alexander Marcos Osias
Carmen and Josephine by Elyss Punsalan
In Earthern Vessels by Rodello Santos
Sidhi by Yvette Natalie U. Tan
Urban Legends by Charles Tan
The Ascension of Our Lady Boy by Mia Tijam
The Hand by Marianne Villanueva
The Music Child by Alfred A. Yuson

Vote and Recommend New Short Stories Meme

From Ellen Datlow:

Ok. Here's my impassioned plea/push/nag for anyone who reads this blog and is eligible to recommend stories and or novels for the various peer group science fiction, fantasy, and horror awards. I know that some people feel that awards themselves are a bad thing and that they should all be abolished. I'm not talking to you. I don't believe that and I know I'm not going to change your minds.

Awards are NOT going to go away but they could become less visible (which I think is a bad thing). As an editor I really appreciate it when the stories/books I edit make final award ballots and win awards. And I think most writers are even more appreciative of this. It gives a sense of validation for what you're doing by your peers (for the Nebula and Stoker).

Right now is "award rec season" and there are discussions on both the SFWA Bulletin Board and the HWA Bulletin Board about how their respective awards are dying --not enough members are recommending works to even make a preliminary ballot.

Now some people think that this might be because no one likes the work being published.
Others that no one is reading enough short fiction to be interested in recommending works in those categories.
I have a really difficult time believing the first reason. I've been reading sf/f/h short fiction for twenty five years and have found no drop off in quality in any of those fields.

I can't answer for the second but I hope it's not true because if so my profession will die and I love editing short fiction.

If you care at ALL for the genre short story then I urge you to recommend the stories that you think are worth bringing to the attention of your peers.

Well, I wish I had the power to nominate or recommend fiction but alas, that's not within my sphere in influence. Still, this is the age of blogging however so here's my new meme: recommend a new (published this year) short story that you really enjoyed and why--sort of a mini-review (yes, so far, out of something like ten memes I tried to spread, only one caught on but failure isn't stopping me!). The Year's Best Science Fiction is still unopened and The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror hasn't arrived yet (praying to the bookstore gods it'll arrive this weekend!) so I'll take my picks from Rich Horton's anthologies, Science Fiction: The Best of the Year 2007 and Fantasy: The Best of the Year 2007 (and I expect some stories will overlap).

Science Fiction:

I actually read several great science fiction stories this year but the one that stands out the most for me (i.e. I actually remember it after several months) is "Okanoggan Falls" by Carolyn Ives Gilman. It's set on contemporary Earth with a unique twist: aliens invade! Yet Gilman handles the story very differently from what most would expect and has that slow, steady pace as opposed to the adrenaline-pumping War of the Worlds-type of fiction. The aliens are also an interesting concept but the strength of the story I think are the characterizations. No evil overlords here! Never read sci-fi? Give this short story a shot. Love romance? You might want to have a taste of this. Hard science fiction fan? Maybe the aliens will do it for you. Looking for a female SF writer? Give Gilman a try.

Fantasy:

There are actually several great fantasy short stories too that it's difficult to choose. I'd like to recommend "The Osteomancer's Son" by Greg van Eekhout (while it has its weaknesses, I still found enjoyable) and "Moon Viewing at Shijo Bridge" by Richard Parks but I'll go with my gut feeling and choose "A Siege of Cranes" by Benjamin Rosenbaum. Suffice to say, "A Siege of Cranes" is included in the anthology Twenty Epics whose goal was to tell an epic story in under ten thousand words. Rosenbaum's story was great read and incorporated non-standard fantasy fare yet retaining the tropes of such a genre. It satisfies my guilty pleasure senses and my literary fiction intellect at the same time.

Go read and better yet, recommend your own new short stories!

Life Imitating Fiction

Last week, I heard about a murder in Belgium that paid homage to the manga/anime series Death Note. It reminded of how "assassins" Mark David Chapman and John Hinckley Jr. were influenced by Catcher in the Rye. But another idea also struck me. I was listening to Rick Kleffel's podcast on the Singularity Summit and one of the people he interviewed was Paul Saffo. As some of us might have heard, science fiction isn't supposed to be predictive--SF writers write either about the present or even the past. Yet how is it that many SF novels and short stories seem to be a precursor of future innovations? Saffo postulates that SF is a forecast of the future not necessarily because SF writers see that far, but rather because the present innovators were influenced by the books they read as a kid: atomic scientists on the Manhattan Project were inspired by H.G. Well's super bomb, the moon program crew grew up with Buck Rogers and space opera, and of course William Gibson gave us cyberspace. Courtney Brown even mentions how catastrophe theory is similar to a Seldon Crisis and who can forget Arthur C. Clarke and telecommunication satellites (the latter perhaps is the one of SF's truly predictive writers)?

Now innovation and propaganda obviously isn't exclusive to fiction or SF writers. Scientists have written papers, scholars essays and studies on various ideas, and columnists their own opinions on relevant issues. Yet fiction, in many ways, has proven to be more digestible and effective, and in the case of something like Death Note, actually mainstream. For me, it's because fiction gives us a context. Fiction is very unlike the current education system where knowledge is taught without understanding its practical applications. In Math for example, I find it peculiar that they present to us the formulas before the word and story problems. Or how torc and quadratic equations and calculus are so removed from their relevance (which is to say they are relevant yet many students don't understand that). Stories, on the other hand, give us that context. When George Orwell talks about the perils of communism, he gives us specifics in Animal Farm. When Ray Bradbury talks about losing interest in reading literature (or the more common interpretation, censorship), he gives us Fahrenheit 451. Fiction, so to speak, has a humanity and social aspect to it that is not evident in mere empirical theories as beautiful as they are (E=mc^2).

Of course that is not the only explanation. There are a dozen other reasons why fiction has that certain appeal and perhaps the beauty of it all is that each individual has their own set of motivations for reading fiction, whether it's for the beautiful prose, the writer's ideas, or simply for the sake of reading. At the end of the day however, I think fiction resonates within each individual, something that can't be answered by reality. What drives people to commit murder or create devices previously uninvented by man? We may never know the platonic ideal but fiction perhaps is a close second. It's the only other reality we have to compare after all.

Authors Who Blog: JM McDermott

Just got an email from JM McDermott whose first book will be published next year and is one of the authors in the Wizards of the Coast Discoveries. You can visit his blog at http://jmmcdermott.blogspot.com and add him to the SF&F authors who blog and in this case, particular interesting because his book isn't published yet and isn't yet a fiction author that has legions of fans (you know, to the point that you can comment but you won't necessarily get a reply because there's too much fan mail to respond to).

I guess I better start Googling Rob Rogers and Richard Dansky too.

More Thoughts on "Filipino" Speculative Fiction

More ideas seem to be thrown at the table and what's interesting about all of this is that there's discourse. Unfortunately, the questions too are ever-expanding and I think have strayed a bit from the original topic (or at least loosely based on them) so it's best we formulate them into question and address them (feel free to clarify):

1) The Criteria for Filipino Speculative Fiction

This question I think is easily what Bhex and Kenneth are asking. The former gives us a clear-cut definition while the latter not so much. If I may, I'll use Cecille's (see previous comments) questions to attempt to answer this question. Should Filipino fiction be about the Philippines? Well, not necessarily. Most of our stories might take place in the Philippines but isn't that kind of limited in scope. Aren't there other Filipino experience that go beyond our borders, such as OFWs, expatriates, or perhaps a Filipino who's lost somewhere? Should the stories be written in Filipino? Well, when use the language Filipino, we automatically make it our own. But as I pointed out earlier, the country has had a long history of different national languages and what about all the stories that's not written in Filipino, especially the quintessential Filipino novel Noli me Tangere? Must it be written by a Filipino? I think some local writers who aren't natural-born citizens that have managed to capture the Filipino spirit (albeit not necessarily in fiction) such as Fr. James Reuter, S.J. And then comes the bigger question I think: that a story not contain all of these elements or lack one of these elements, as long as at least one of these elements is present in the work. That's honestly a tough question. But at the end of the day, we're talking about speculative fiction here and not realist fiction. The strength of the former is that it goes beyond boundaries. I think by placing such boundaries, in this case an undeniable Filipino element, we are limiting the kind of stories we tell. That's not to say Filipino Speculative Fiction should not contain a Filipino element. I think one can be included even if it's an abstract one. For example, of the strengths of fantasy and science fiction is that it distances readers from reality and uses something else as a metaphor for our current experience. The aliens might represent another ethnicity. Other planets other countries. le Guin writes in Left Hand of Darkness writes about a culture so totally alien yet familiar if you continue on. Could we not write about aliens traveling to far off galaxies and working there, never to return home despite the technology being readily available? Can that not be a metaphor for the OFW experience even if OFW is not spelled outright?

2) The Agenda in Filipino Spec Fic

Tin's more recent post I think best describes this argument. That Filipino Spec Fic should have a thrust, a more social agenda. Now I'm not saying it shouldn't. But isn't that what the realist writers are doing right now? Writing stories that theoretically have an impact on society? Of course I'm not saying that spec fic should or should not be socially relevant. I dread the world of two extremes, one where all the fiction in the world is socially relevant, and the other where all fiction is merely fluff. I was talking to Dean the other day and he makes a point of nurturing both aspects. He talks about how the beginning literature of a civilization starts off with the relevant and later moves on to material with less gravity. Arguably we're still in the former stage but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be writing material belonging to the latter. Does ethics and politics and social responsibility have a place in speculative fiction? Definitely. But I also want to read stories that don't attempt to be as lofty. Ultimately though, what story isn't political, what story doesn't set out to teach a lesson of some sort? Even the most simplistic of mores have something to reach readers, albeit it's not necessarily the ones we want to read about.