PGS Special Crime/Mystery/Suspense Issue: Call For Submissions

From Philippine Genre Stories:

Given that we have a special call for submissions for the Halloween issue guest-edited by award-winning writer Yvette Tan, she with the penchant for the spooky, wouldn't it be wonderful if someone with the inclination for crime/mystery/suspense handle such a PGS issue?

Talk about good fortune. As with Yvette, Palanca award winner F.H. "Ichi" Batacan, author of the crime novel "Smaller and Smaller Circles", has taken on the guest-editing chores for this special PGS issue focusing on this genre. This might serve as a small push for these kinds of stories. No occasion like Halloween or Christmas is required. Crime doesn't need a holiday.

And so...this is another special call for submissions for crime/mystery/suspense stories, to be perused by Ichi, she who will shape and form that particular PGS issue, tentatively due last quarter of this year (*gulp* here's hoping enough material gets sent in).

Some restrictions: when we say crime/mystery/suspense, we're talking the realist kind. No cross-genre. Don't mix it up with scifi, fantasy, horror, etc. Ichi wants hard-boiled, gritty, dirty, down-to-earth, stuck-in-the-mud, empirical kind of crime/mystery/suspense fiction. To use TV shows as an example, think those programs on the Crime/Suspense or Fox-Crime channel on cable right now (Law & Order, Dexter, Cold Case, CSI, etc.). And keep the stories Rated PG people. You can get as close to Rated R as you want, just don't cross the (yellow police) line. Think deeply about character and motive, folks, as well as the common themes of such stories, like justice. Or injustice, for that matter.

Other notes: The story need not be set in the Philippines. Given how spread out Pinoys are, it is conceivable to write a story set anywhere in the world. Come up with your own conflict/situation. Ah, but Filipino leading characters, please.

Deadline is August 15, 2008. Please follow international manuscript guidelines as stipulated here. Send all entries as rtf attachments to pdocrmy(at)yahoo(dot)com. They will be immediately forwarded to Ichi. All previous submissions to that email address that are still pending will be sent to Ichi.