Year's Best Fantasy & Horror 2008 TOC

The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror was one of the anthologies that I eagerly waited for every year, especially since back in the day, not a lot of anthologies made it to our shores.

Here's the table of contents for this year's upcoming release (from Small Beer Press):

“The Cambist and Lord Iron: A Fairy Tale of Economics” Daniel Abraham
“The Gray Boy’s Work” M.T. Anderson
“Troll” (poem) Nathalie Anderson
“The Monsters of Heaven” Nathan Ballingrud
“The Forest” Laird Barron
“Reversal of Fortune” Holly Black
“The House of Mechanical Pain” Chaz Brenchley
“The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate” Ted Chiang
“Scenes of Hell” (poem) Billy Collins
“Toother” Terry Dowling
“The Drowned Life” Jeffrey Ford
“The Last Worders” Karen Joy Fowler
“Monkey” (poem) Eliza Griswold
“Up the Fire Road” Eileen Gunn
“Winter’s Wife” Elizabeth Hand
“A Perfect and Unmappable Grace” Jack Haringa
“The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs of North Park After the Change” Kij Johnson
“The Boulder” Lucy Kemnitzer
“The Hill” Tanith Lee
“The Ape Man” Alexander MacBride
“Lovers (Jafaar the Winged)” (poem) Khaled Mattawa
“Hum Drum” Gary McMahon
“A Thing Forbidden” Donald Mead
“England and Nowhere” Tim Nickels
“Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz Go to War Again” Garth Nix
“Valentine, July Heat Wave” Joyce Carol Oates
“Mr. Poo Poo” Reggie Oliver
“Fragrant Goddess” Paul Park
“Holiday” M. Rickert
“Vampires in the Lemon Grove” Karen Russell
“Rats” Veronica Schanoes
“The Fiddler of Bayou Teche” Delia Sherman
“Village Smart” (poem) Maggie Smith
“The Tenth Muse” William Browning Spencer
“Follow Me Home” Sonya Taaffe
“The Swing” Don Tumasonis
“Closet Dreams” Lisa Tuttle
“The Seven Devils of Central California” Catherynne M. Valente
“Splitfoot” Paul Walther
“The Hide” Liz Williams

Internations Horror Guild Award nominees announced

From Ellen Datlow:

PETER STRAUB has been named as this year's International Horror Guild Living Legend. Mr. Straub is the author of numerous short stories and novellas as well as seventeen novels (including two co-authored with Stephen King), which have been translated into more than twenty foreign languages. The recipient of many awards and honors, he has achieved both critical acclaim and commercial success in a notable career in which he has continually reshaped and expanded the field of dark literature.

The International Horror Guild Awards have been presented annually since 1995. Based on public recommendations, the juried awards recognize outstanding achievements in the field of Horror and Dark Fantasy. Nominations are derived from recommendations made by the public and the judges' knowledge of the field. This year's awards will be presented Friday evening, October 31, 2008 in an online presentation via its Web site (www.horroraward.org).

INTERNATIONAL HORROR GUILD NOMINATIONS for WORKS from 2007

NOVEL

* Grin of the Dark. Ramsey Campbell (PS Publishing)
* Generation Loss. Elizabeth Hand (Small Beer Press)
* The Missing. Sarah Langan (HarperCollns)
* Season of the Witch. Natasha Mostert (Dutton)
* The Terror. Dan Simmons (Little, Brown & Company)

FICTION COLLECTION

* The Imago Sequence and Other Stories. Laird Barron (Night Shade Books)
* Plots and Misadventures. Stephen Gallagher (Subterranean Press)
* Shadows Kith and Kin. Joe R. Lansdale (Subterranean Press)
* Masques of Satan. Reggie Oliver (Ash Tree Press)
* Dagger Key and Other Stories. Lucius Shepard (PS Publishing)

LONG FICTION

* Procession of the Black Sloth. Laird Barron (The Imago Sequence: Night Shade Books)
* The Man in the Picture: A Ghost Story. Susan Hill (Profile)
* Softspoken. Lucius Shepard (Night Shade Books)
* The Scalding Rooms. Conrad Williams (PS Publishing)

MID-LENGTH FICTION

* "The Janus Tree". Glen Hirshberg (Inferno: Tor)
* "Lie Still, Sleep Becalmed". Steven Duffy (At Ease with the Dead: Ash Tree Press)
* "The Bone Man". Fredric S. Durbin (Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, December 2007)
* "Closet Dreams". Lisa Tuttle (Postscripts 10: PS Publishing)

SHORT FICTION

* "Digging Deep". Ramsey Campbell (Phobic: Comma Press)
* "Honey in the Wound". Nancy Etchemendy (The Restless Dead: Candlewick Press)
* "The Tank". Paul Finch (At Ease with the Dead: Ash Tree Press)
* "Splitfoot". Paul Walther (New Genre 5, Spring 2007)
* "The Great White Bed". Don Webb (Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May 2007)

ANTHOLOGY

* Inferno. Ellen Datlow, editor (Tor)
* Summer Chills. Stephen Jones, editor (Carroll & Graf)
* American Supernatural Tales. S.T. Joshi, editor (Penguin)
* Strange Tales Volume II. Rosalie Parker, editor (Tartarus Press)
* At Ease with the Dead. Barbara and Christopher Roden, editors (Ash Tree Press)

NON-FICTION

* Frankenstein: A Cultural History. Susan Tyler Hitchcock (W.W. Norton & Company)
* Mario Bava: All the Colors of Dark. Tim Lucas (Video Watchdog)
* Warnings to the Curious: A Sheaf of Criticism on M.R. James. Rosemary Pardoe & S.T. Joshi, eds. (Hippocampus Press)
* Sides. Peter Straub (Borderlands Press)
* The Science of Stephen King. Bob Weinberg & Lois M. Gresh (John Wiley)

PERIODICAL

* Black Static
* Dead Reckonings
* The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
* Postscripts
* Weird Tales

ILLUSTRATED NARRATIVE

* Scalped: Indian Country. Jason Aaron (writer) R.M. Gu�ra (artist) (Vertigo/DC Comics)
* The Nightmare Factory. Thomas Ligotti (creator/writer), Joe Harris & Stuart Moore (writers), Ben Templesmith, Michael Gaydos, Colleen Doran & Ted McKeever (illustrators) (Fox Atomic/Harper Paperbacks)
* The Blot. Tom Neely (I Will Destroy You)
* The Arrival. Shaun Tan (Arthur A. Levine Books)
* Wormwood Gentleman Corpse: Birds, Bees, Blood & Beer. Ben Templesmith (IDW)

ART

* Didier Cottier for Exhibit at Utopiales, Nantes, France, November 2007
* David Ho for his body of work
* Elizabeth McGrath for "The Incurable Disorder", Billy Shire Fine Arts, December 2007
* Chris Mars for "New Salem", Jonathan Levine Gallery, October 2007
* Mike Mignola for cover & illustrations: Baltimore, or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire (Bantam Spectra)

The IHG Awards

The International Horror Guild Awards are now in their thirteenth year. Based on public recommendations, the juried awards recognize outstanding achievements in the field of Horror and Dark Fantasy. [List of recipients and nominees] Nominations are derived from recommendations made by the public and the judges' knowledge of the field. Edward Bryant, Stefan R. Dziemianowicz, Ann Kennedy, and Hank Wagner currently adjudicate. Paula Guran is the award administrator. The awards are overseen by a non-profit corporation, The Mirabundus Project, Inc.

If you have a recommendation to make for a work published in 2007, please check the award rules, and email your recommendations to info@horroraward.org. It is also important to provide, whenever possible, copies of the work to the judges.

Call For Submissions: HAUNTED LEGENDS

From Nick Mamatas:

Below are the submission guidelines for the forthcoming anthology Haunted Legends. We are releasing them now so that submitters have all of May and June and much of July to write a new story for us. Do not submit immediately. Do not submit trunk stories.

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Haunted Legends, to be published by Tor Books, seeks to reinvigorate the genre of "true" regional ghost stories by asking some of today's leading writers to riff on traditional tales from around the world. We don't just want you to retell an old ghost story, but to renovate it so that the story is dark and unsettling all over again.

Classic tales of the Jersey Devil, the spirits of the Tower of London, ghost lights, and phantom hitchhikers continue to capture the imagination. The Haunted Legends difference is that our contributors will tell the stories in ways they've never been told before.

We pay 6 cents a word, up to 8000 words.

The open-reading period will begin on midnight, EDT of July 15, 2008 and end 11:59p.m., July 31, 2008.

All submissions must be emailed as a RTF file to Ellen Datlow and Nick Mamatas at hauntedlegends@gmail.com. Please send no more than one submission. Please send no correspondence, such as queries, to hauntedlegends@gmail.com either before or after the reading period – all mail sent to the address at any time other than the reading period will be automatically deleted unread.

Note that much of the anthology is full and that a large number of ghost stories, especially those with an American or UK origin, are thus already “taken” by authors who have been personally solicited for work. Your best bet for this anthology is to go far afield – we are especially interested in renovations of traditional ghost stories from Africa, Latin America, and Asia, or in other tales that may not be well-known.

We also want to emphasize that we are interested only in traditional ghost stories made new again by the ingenuity of the writer. We do not want “campfire” versions of old stories, or slavish recitations. Think of new forms, new voices, new themes, new ways of considering these classic tales. Do not send us your trunk stories. It should be as though your version was always occulted within the classic rendition, but never before perceived or acknowledged.

And now, a brief AFAQ (anticipated frequently asked questions):

May I query you with an idea for a ghost story to make sure that it has not already been taken?
No, you may not. If you believe that your idea is already taken, you may wish to research another idea. Indeed, even if the idea has not already been claimed by one of the solicited authors, you may well still face competition from a dozen other variations in the slush. Novelty is your best approach.

Well, what if I query you anyway?
I may decide to give you a misleading answer, or no answer at all.

So how about if I query Ellen Datlow instead? She’s the nice one, anyways.
You have misapprehended the situation. Let us put it this way: when was the last time Ellen Datlow had an open-reading period for any of her original anthologies? She doesn’t want your queries either.

Can I just make up a ghost story?
No. You have to find an existing one and renovate it in an utterly brilliant fashion.

How will you will be able to tell the difference?
We are obsessive experts and we are friends with even more obsessive experts.

Is this all some kind of cruel joke?
I’d call it the end result of a large number of compromises, all of which were necessary to guarantee any sort of open-reading period.

This is madness! Why does everything have to be so hard all the time? We are we pitted against one another in these awful competitions, and for crumbs? Crumbs, I tell you, crumbs, as if we were starving rats! I hate you!
Fools! Your despair only makes me stronger!

The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror 2008: Twenty-first Annual Collection TOC

From Ellen Datlow:

The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror 2008: Twenty-first Annual Collection
Edited by Ellen Datlow and Kelly Link & Gavin J. Grant

Table of Contents

“The Cambist and Lord Iron: A Fairy Tale of Economics” Daniel Abraham
“The Gray Boy’s Work” M.T. Anderson
“Troll” (poem) Nathalie Anderson
“The Monsters of Heaven” Nathan Ballingrud
“The Forest” Laird Barron
“Reversal of Fortune” Holly Black
“The House of Mechanical Pain” Chaz Brenchley
“The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate” Ted Chiang
“Scenes of Hell” (poem) Billy Collins
“Toother” Terry Dowling
“The Drowned Life” Jeffrey Ford
“The Last Worders” Karen Joy Fowler
“Monkey” (poem) Eliza Griswold
“Up the Fire Road” Eileen Gunn
“Winter’s Wife” Elizabeth Hand
“A Perfect and Unmappable Grace” Jack Haringa
“The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs of North Park After the Change” Kij Johnson
“The Boulder” Lucy Kemnitzer
“The Hill” Tanith Lee
“The Ape Man” Alexander MacBride
“Lovers (Jafaar the Winged)” (poem) Khaled Mattawa
“Hum Drum” Gary McMahon
“A Thing Forbidden” Donald Mead
“England and Nowhere” Tim Nickels
“Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz Go to War Again” Garth Nix
“Valentine, July Heat Wave” Joyce Carol Oates
“Mr. Poo Poo” Reggie Oliver
“Fragrant Goddess” Paul Park
“Holiday” M. Rickert
“Vampires in the Lemon Grove” Karen Russell
“Rats” Veronica Schanoes
“The Fiddler of Bayou Teche” Delia Sherman
“Village Smart” (poem) Maggie Smith
“The Tenth Muse” William Browning Spencer
“Follow Me Home” Sonya Taaffe
“The Swing” Don Tumasonis
“Closet Dreams” Lisa Tuttle
“The Seven Devils of Central California” Catherynne M. Valente
“Splitfoot” Paul Walther
“The Hide” Liz Williams

2008 Stoker Winners

From Horroscope:

Superior Achievement in Poetry
Winners (Tied)

• Being Full Of Light, Insubstantial by Linda Addison (Space and Time)
• Vectors: A Week In The Death Of A Planet by Charlee Jacob & Marge Simon (Dark Regions Press)

Superior Achievement in Nonfiction

• The Cryptopedia: A Dictionary of the Weird, Strange & Downright Bizarre by Jonathan Maberry & David F. Kramer (Citadel Press / Kensington)

Superior Achievement in a Collection
Winners (Tied)

• Proverbs For Monsters by Michael A. Arnzen (Dark Regions Press)
  
• 5 Stories by Peter Straub (Borderlands)

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

• Five Strokes To Midnight edited by Gary Braunbeck and Hank Schwaeble (Haunted Pelican Press)

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

• The Gentle Brush Of Wings by David Niall Wilson (Defining Moments)

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

• Afterward, There Will Be A Hallway by Gary Braunbeck (Five Strokes to Midnight)

Superior Achievement in a First Novel

• Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill (William Morrow)

Superior Achievement in a Novel

• The Missing by Sarah Langan (Harper)

Lifetime Achievement Awards were presented to John Carpenter and Robert Weinberg.

Final 2007 Stoker Ballot

The final Stoker ballot is making the rounds across various author blogs (and congratulations to all of those nominated). The winners will be announced on March 29, 2008 at the World Horror Convention.

Superior Achievement in a Novel

THE GUARDENER'S TALE by Bruce Boston (Sam’s Dot Publishing)
HEART-SHAPED BOX by Joe Hill (William Morrow)
THE MISSING by Sarah Langan (Harper)
THE TERROR by Dan Simmons (Little, Brown)

Superior Achievement in a First Novel

HEART-SHAPED BOX by Joe Hill (William Morrow)
I WILL RISE by Michael Calvillo (Lachesis Publishing)
THE MEMORY TREE by John R. Little (Nocturne Press)
THE WITCH'S TRINITY by Erika Mailman (Crown)
THE HOLLOWER by Mary SanGiovanni (Leisure Books)

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

AFTERWARD, THERE WILL BE A HALLWAY by Gary Braunbeck (Five Strokes to Midnight)
ALMOST THE LAST STORY BY ALMOST THE LAST MAN by Scott Edelman (Postscripts)
GENERAL SLOCUM'S GOLD by Nicholas Kaufmann (Burning Effigy Press)
THE TENTH MUSE by William Browning Spencer
AN APIARY OF WHITE BEES by Lee Thomas (Inferno)

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

THE DEATH WAGON ROLLS ON BY by C. Dean Andersson (Cemetery Dance #57)
LETTING GO by John Everson (Needles and Sins)
THE TEACHER by Paul G. Tremblay (Chizine)
THERE'S NO LIGHT BETWEEN FLOORS by Paul G. Tremblay (Clarkesworld)
CLOSET DREAMS by Lisa Tuttle (Postscripts #10)
THE GENTLE BRUSH OF WINGS by David Niall Wilson (Defining Moments)

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

FIVE STROKES TO MIDNIGHT edited by Gary Braunbeck and Hank Schwaeble (Haunted Pelican Press)
INFERNO edited by Ellen Datlow (Tor)
DARK DELICACIES 2: FEAR edited by Del Howison & Jeff Gelb (Carroll & Graf/Avalon)
MIDNIGHT PREMIERE edited by Tom Piccirilli (Cemetery Dance Publications)
AT EASE WITH THE DEAD edited by Barbara & Christopher Roden (Ash-Tree Press)

Superior Achievement in a Collection

PROVERBS FOR MONSTERS by Michael A. Arnzen (Dark Regions Press)
THE IMAGO SEQUENCE by Laird Barron (Night Shade Books)
OLD DEVIL MOON by Christopher Fowler (Serpent’s Tail)
5 STORIES by Peter Straub (Borderlands)
DEFINING MOMENTS by David Niall Wilson (Sarob Press)

Superior Achievement in Nonfiction

ENCYCLOPEDIA HORRIFICA by Joshua Gee (Scholastic)
THE PORTABLE OBITUARY: HOW THE FAMOUS, RICH, AND POWERFUL REALLY DIED by Michael Largo (Harper)
THE CRYPTOPEDIA: A Dictionary of the Weird, Strange & Downright Bizarre by Jonathan Maberry & David F. Kramer (Citadel Press / Kensington)
STORYTELLERS UNPLUGGED by Joe Nassise and David Niall Wilson (Storytellers Unplugged)

Superior Achievement in Poetry

BEING FULL OF LIGHT, INSUBSTANTIAL by Linda Addison (Space and Time)
HERESY by Charlee Jacob (Bedlam Press [Necro Publications])
VECTORS: A WEEK IN THE DEATH OF A PLANET by Charlee Jacob & Marge Simon (Dark Regions Press)
PHANTASMAPEDIA by Mark McLaughlin (Dead Letter Press)
OSSUARY by JoSelle Vanderhooft (Sam’s Dot Publishing)

PGS Special Halloween Issue: Call For Submissions

From Philippine Genre Stories:

After the PGS holiday-themed issue, let's try, at the suggestion of award-winning writer and PGS contributor Yvette Tan, a Halloween-themed one. In fact, seeing as the workload for PGS is piling up, and it's becoming harder to manage things as both publisher and editor, I've accepted Yvette's offer to let her be the guest editor for this special issue due out near Halloween 2008.

Since stories of the supernatural are what grabs Yvette's attention (and what flows from her pen most of the time), editing the Halloween issue seems like a perfect fit. The guidelines:

- Submissions have to be of the horror/suspense genre. Ghost tales and stories of the supernatural are welcome. Cross-genre tales are also welcome (think "Alien", the first one, which is really more horror with a mix of scifi). Trying to mix horror with other genres like humor, fantasy, or romance is also welcome.

- Horror tropes, whether local or international, are welcome, but preference will be given to tales with a fresh take. Feel free to set your story anywhere, or write about any topic you want, but be aware there are things that have been done many times before.

- It's all right to use in your story mythic creatures, settings, or items that are not copyright protected (like kapres, aswangs, werewolves, vampires, El Dorado, the Fountain of Youth, etc.). But stories with such that are still under copyright protection will be rejected.

Pure, original stories, with original or copyright-lapsed characters, items, and settings, are most welcome. :)

- Send your submissions to pdohs(at)yahoo(dot)com. All stories will then be forwarded to Yvette Tan.

- Deadline is June 30, 2008, about six months away from the date of this post.

All previous horror/suspense submissions that are currently pending will be automatically forwarded to Yvette for this special Halloween issue. If you have any questions, just leave a comment here. Thanks!

Plugging Noctem Aeternus

I plugged it a few months ago and the magazine just came out so in case you didn't, check out Noctem Aeternus, a speculative fiction magazine that contains elements of horror. The non-fiction section for this month even has an interview with Ramsey Campbell and Rob Zombie! And it's all free!

Wizards of the Coast: Discoveries Plug

There are a couple of books I'm looking forward to in 2008 (such as the Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy edited by Ellen Datlow and The Best Science-Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Vol. 2 by Jonathan Strahan) but a new line I'm anticipating is Wizards of the Coast's Discovery line which will feature a variety of well-known and not-so-well-known authors and hopefully an even wider variety of fiction (that's definitely, at the very least, different from their usual D&D-fare fiction). I'm rooting for these guys because they could easily be the sleeper-hits of 2008.

One of the authors I'm eagerly anticipating in that particular line is JM McDermott and Last Dragon is going to be his first novel. I have an ARC copy of the book with me right now and I'm 3/4 through the book but I fell in love with it in the first few pages and it's honestly a great and unconventional read. You can read more about his experiences with the book here. Be sure to watch out for it in February!

Richard Dansky is the first author in the line who's getting published and his book Firefly Rain will be out by January 8, 2008. There's are book reviews over at Horror Reader and Library Journal. Over at Storytellers Unplugged, Dansky expounds on his experience being two weeks away from publication.

Come April is Devil's Cape by Rob Rogers. There are a couple of articles on his novel out there in the wild such as Nola.com, The Monster Librarian, and Publishers Weekly. You can ask him questions about the book over at his blog.

Melanie Tem and Steve Rasnic Tem won various awards for their novella The Man on the Ceiling and it's now expanded into a novel. The book will be coming out on March 4, 2008.

There might just be four books listed at the Wizards of the Coast site so far but there's at least one more book in the same line that's going to be published next year. Ari Marmell, an author whose made a name for himself in the RPG industry, will be having his non-Ravenloft novel Shades of Grey published. You can read more about it in his blog post and watch out for it in August of 2008.

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.

2 Anthologies from Datlow

The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror is always an anthology I look forward to every year. One of the editors, Ellen Datlow, has posted the table of contents:

• La Profonde - Terry Dowling
• Sob in the Silence - Gene Wolfe
• A Pig’s Whisper - Margo Lanagan
• Winkie - Margo Lanagan
• Journey into the Kingdom - M. Rickert
• Father Muerte and the Flesh - Lee Battersby
• The Muldoon - Glen Hirshberg
• Ballade (poem) - William Hope Hodgson
• My Babe, My Babe (poem) - William Hope Hodgson
• 31/10 - Stephen Volk
• Messages - Brett Alexander Savory
• Raphael - Stephen Graham Jones
• The Last to be Found - Christopher Harman
• The Box - Stephen Gallagher
• Landfill - Joyce Carol Oates
• The Churring - Nicholas Royle
• First Kisses From Beyond the Grave - Nik Houser
• The Extraordinary Limits of Darkness - Simon Clark
• Drowning Palmer - Sarah Monette
• Dead Sea Fruit - Kaaron Warren
• Dog Person - Scott Nicholson
• Tell (poem) - Nathalie Anderson
• Is Rain My Bearskin? (poem) - Jeanne Marie Beaumont
• Yep, I Said Camel (poem) - Josh Bell
• Femaville - Paul Di Filippo
• The Night Whiskey - Jeffrey Ford
• The Good Ones Are Already Taken - Ben Fountain
• Persephone and the Prince Meet Over Drinks (poem) - Jeannine Hall Gailey
• Becoming the Villainess (poem) - Jeannine Hall Gailey
• Halfway House - Frances Hardinge
• A Fearful Symmetry - Minsoo Kang
• In the House of the Seven Librarians - Ellen Klages
• Cup and Table - Tim Pratt
• Journey into the Kingdom - M. Rickert
• A Siege of Cranes - Benjamin Rosenbaum
• Another Word for Map is Faith - Christopher Rowe
• Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter - Geoff Ryman
• Fourteen Experiments in Postal Delivery - John Schoffstall
• Lionflower Hedge - Ira Sher
• La Fee Verte - Delia Sherman
• The Lineaments of Gratified Desire - Ysabeau S. Wilce
• Directions - Caleb Wilson

Another of Datlow's anthologies coming out later this year is Inferno. Here's the table of contents taken from her blog:

• The Forest Laird Barron
• Misadventure Stephen Gallagher
• The Monsters of Heaven Nathan Ballingrud
• Inelastic Collisions Elizabeth Bear
• The Uninvited Christopher Fowler
• 13 O’clock Mike O’Driscoll
• Lives John Grant
• Ghorla Mark Samuels
• Riding Bitch K.W. Jeter
• Face Joyce Carol Oates
• An Apiary of White Bees Lee Thomas
• The Keeper P. D. Cacek
• Bethany’s Wood Paul Finch
• The Ease With Which We Freed The Beast Lucius Shepard
• Hushabye Simon Bestwick
• Perhaps the Last Conrad Williams
• Stilled Life Pat Cadigan
• The Janus Tree Glen Hirshberg
• The Bedroom Light Jeffrey Ford
• The Suits at Auderlene Terry Dowling

30 Days of Night Contest

From Babbling Point

Apparently Ben Templesmith, the artist of the comic 30 Days of Night, will becoming here in December. Fully Booked and Inquirer are tying up to give away a free copy of the graphic novel (full details here and here). Meanwhile the Meet and Greet is on Oct. 30 while November 3 is the artist workshop and November 4 the Comicon Creation Conference and book signing.

The artist behind the successful horror series, Ben Templesmith, is coming to Manila! Ben’s artistic style brought a whole new dimension to modern horror and vampire looks in comics. Templesmith will be flying in from his hometown of Perth, Australia, to give a series of art workshops and book signings in schools and at Fully Booked this coming October.

NOW for the best news yet. Send your original vampire artwork to super@inquirer.com.ph with the subject “30 Days Vampire Art Contest” and the best one will win a free graphic novel of “30 Days of Night” from Fully Booked. The selected artwork will appear in the upcoming October issues of Super with proper cred of course!

The Dichotomy of The Pursuit of Knowledge

One would think that education and knowledge should be the primary goals of civilization but looking back on our culture and literature, that's not always the case--or the lesson we teach our children.

In one extreme, we have our Lovecraftian horrors, the idea that there are some things "man was not made to know". Yet in Western literature, this idea did not begin with Lovecraft but draws on from something much older: The Bible. As a child, I always wondered why The Tree of Knowledge would be the source of sin. Wasn't knowledge a good thing? Scholars might argue that's not the moral of the story, that Adam and Eve were punished not for gaining knowledge but because they gave in to the temptation of the serpent. Yet I think the story in Genesis has insinuated into our minds that to be knowledgeable means to lose one's innocence (and in many ways, losing our innocence is one of the ways to learn more about the world). A faint echo of this is the idea of contentment. I often hear the phrase "if it ain't broken, don't fix it" yet this clearly goes against the idea of innovation. As archaic as this mentality might seem, it's prevalent in the present. On one hand, there'll be the people who'll claim that science ruined us all and that corrupt research gave birth to the likes of the Atom bomb, even as they benefit from the comforts of nuclear technology. On the other hand, there'll be the type that are more selective, perhaps agreeing to better health care but disagreeing when it comes to the topics of stem cell research, cloning, or mapping the human genome.

On the other extreme is the idea that we should embrace knowledge unconditionally. I forgot which SF author I was reading at the time (I think it was Isaac Asimov) but he said that the reason we fear something is because it remains in the realm of the unknown. Once we dispel the mystery, we begin to understand and with that understanding comes acceptance instead of "irrational" fear. I think in many ways, this is a hard idea to accept. Perhaps the influence of the other mentality is stronger than we think and an unconditional acceptance of knowledge is beyond our comprehension. In the same way that we want to know where money came from when it's offered to us (be it our boss, our relative, or a complete stranger), we also want to find out where certain pieces of information comes from (Was it from the Russians? The Iraqis? The Chinese?) and perhaps more importantly, where it'll lead to (which is impossible because that's the point of research and application). Some people fear that military intervention might lead to the next Atom bomb but many fail to realize that most of our present comforts can be traced to military research and development, everything from the microwave to the Internet. Religion is another subject matter that is hard-pressed when it comes to the accumulation of knowledge for many fear that with better understanding of the universe comes less faith and devotion. (I find it interesting that even the most scientific and modern of countries still have a "national" religion. Perhaps the fear of religious fanatics is unfounded, that even as we come to accept the theories of Darwinism, there'll always be room for the Creation myth.) Even philosophy takes a hit and while Douglas Adams jokes around that the discovery of whether there truly is a God or not marks the end of philosophy and dialogue, in a world where everything is certain and factual, is there still room for debate? Not that the latter should matter. There are those after all who believe that the accumulation of knowledge will never end, that for every question answered, several new questions pop up. If that's truly the case, one can't help but wonder whether there's a point in research. If all we have left and more questions and more mysteries, what's the point of discovery? Will we never reach the end? But I think that is too much of an oversimplification. Awareness that the sun is the center of the Solar System might not have changed life for the common man directly but it certainly has paved the way for the exploration of space and artificial constructs like satellites and the transmission of radio waves.

Literature I think will tackle this idea in one of two ways. Horror movies and novels tend to stick to the realm of the unknown, that awareness gives birth to buried horrors. Science Fiction, more often than not, uses curiosity as a tool for salvation. (In many ways, the science fiction movie is related more to horror than actual science fiction. Robots gone berserker and aliens on a warpath are trademarks of the genre. Movies like Contact are the exception rather than the norm. Even concept movies like Gattaca tend to be dystopian and bleak.) That's not to say science can't be used for evil ends. The reality is, knowledge is just like any other tool. In irresponsible or misguided hands, it can wreak much havoc. In the hands of a master artisan, it can be used for good. But most people in my experience don't take note or forget that fact. They label knowledge--and science--as a blanket moral (whether good or bad) instead of making a judgment based on the people involved in the research or the corporation funding them. Just look at people's approach at nuclear technology. Ever since Chernobyl, people have grown to fear nuclear power. That's not to say nuclear power is full-proof but there are certainly fail-safes which can be applied to make it a safer and more efficient power source. But rather than ask who's managing the power plant or where it's situated, people's blanket reactions are a loud cry of denouncement.

Perhaps one thing people overlook is that with knowledge comes the burden of responsibility. Irregardless of how smart you are (or how not smart you think you are), everyone in my opinion is charged with making the most of what they know, whether it's seeking further knowledge or making the right choices based on their current state of mind. Perhaps the most pathetic of excuses one can hear from somebody is not that they are ignorant but that they are unaware of their ignorance.

EXPEDITIONS: The 1st Philippine Graphic Fiction Awards Compilation

From Fully Booked Online

COMING SOON!

The long-awaited book compilation of the winning entries from the 1st Philippine Graphic Fiction Awards will be launched by end-November at Fully Booked Bonifacio High Street, together with the awarding ceremony of the 2nd Philippine Graphic Fiction competition with Neil Gaiman as co-presentor!

Entitled, "EXPEDITIONS" the book will compose two parts: Prose Fiction and Comics.

EXPEDITIONS Fiction features the winning stories, "The God Equation," "A Strange Map of Time," "The Great Philippine Space Mission," "The Omega Project," and "Atha" as well as selected short listed works. EXPEDITIONS Comics will showcase the winning "Hika Girl," " SPLAT!," "Defiant: The Battle of Mactan," and "Dusk" along with selected short-listed entries.

As promised, the Foreword is written by Neil Gaiman, with the cover art by Leinil Francis Yu.

Details on the book launch will be announced soon.

The 2nd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards

I apparently missed it last week but here's the plug from Fully Booked's website:

Award-winning author Neil Gaiman and Fully Booked present:

The 2nd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards!

Calling all Filipino writers, artists, and just about anyone with a wild imagination! Neil Gaiman wants YOU to join this nationwide writing competition to seek out excellent work in two categories: comics and prose fiction.

The contest starts on September 1 and deadline of submission of entries is on October 31, 2007.

Over P300,000 in prizes, including P100,000 grand prize for the first place winners!

COMIC BOOK WRITING CONTEST:
1st Prize - P100,000
2nd Prize - P30,000
3rd Prize - P15,000

SCIENCE FICTION/FANTASY/HORROR WRITING CONTEST:
1st Prize - P100,000
2nd Prize - P30,000
3rd Prize - P15,000

Downloads:
Contest Guidelines
Official Application Form

Freddy vs Jason vs Ash

I'm a fan of Freddy Kreuger and I'm a fan of Jason from Friday the 13th (I even watched through the entire first movie even if I found it boring as hell). I didn't really watch Freddy vs Jason though and for awhile, there was a rumor that the sequel would be Freddy vs Jason vs Ash. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be in film although apparently, it got the go signal for it to be executed in comics.

Classics of Fantasy

Back in 2002, Wizards of the Coast had a series of articles on "the classics of fantasy", naming a lot of obscure and not-so-obscure writers, including those pre-Tolkien and post-Tolkien. I've taken the liberty of compiling the links here. Sadly, the series has been discontinued.

The Well at the World's End by William Morris

The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia McKillip

A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay

Collected Ghost Stories by M.R. James

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series by Fritz Leiber

Silverlock by John Myers Myers

Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart

The Worm Ouroboros by E.R. Eddison

The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by H.P. Lovecraft

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula le Guin

The Face in the Frost by John Bellairs

The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson

Watership Down by Richrd Adams

Book of the 3 Dragons by Kenneth Morris

Clark Ashton Smith

The Books of Wonder by Lord Dunsany

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Hobberdy Dick by K.M. Briggs