Philippine Speculative Fiction

Since genre fiction also interests me, I’d like to share this open call for submissions with everyone. First spotted on Banzai Cat’s blog:

Philippine Action Fiction

We would like to invite you to contribute a story to the first ever action-adventure fiction anthology in the Philippines! The action-adventure genre has long been downplayed by critics as shallow and lacking in literary merit. We disagree; a well-written action-adventure story contains all the necessary elements of good fiction. We believe that this genre deserves recognition if only for the sheer reading pleasure it accords the audience, in part due to the vicarious experiences, the likes of which real life so seldom allows.

We are looking for stories written in English that provide excitement and thrills through fast-paced action and adventure. Action-adventure stories may take the form of detective or crime stories, espionage, the supernatural or even science fiction. The stories must feature a Filipino protagonist while the setting can be the Philippines or other countries (as in the case of espionage). The stories may be set in the present day, the historical past (no alternate histories) or the imagined future (Earth based, no interplanetary romps). Stories must be 10 to 15 pages long, double-spaced with a font size of 12.

Send your stories to: philactionfiction at gmail dot com

We hope to continue to expand Philippine fiction with this anthology. Send us your contribution soon!

Sincerely yours,

Emil M. Flores and Gerald T. Los Baños

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FH Batacan gives us a second crime fiction prompt. Go look!

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I’m probably the last to know about this: my story “Spaceman” has come out in the December 24 special Christmas issue of the Philippine Graphic.

I first learned about it from Kenneth Yu’s blog post (read very, very late - I’m sorry for the tardiness) and earlier today I was able to confirm it from members of my family. I wonder if there are copies of this issue left in newsstands?

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In other news, I’ve started a blog for my uncle Vernon Gerard, a Kiwi geophysicist who participated in a historic expedition to the Antarctic in the late 1950’s and received a Polar Medal. His accounts are fascinating and I’ve done my best to preserve them verbatim.

[ Old Antarctic Days ]

As per his instructions, I’ll only be posting a few times a month. Should be posting the next chapter soon, in fact. Take my word for it: there is and will be a lot of good (possibly even controversial) stuff there, especially for science/history buffs!

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I’m way waaaay behind on things. I’m out of the country currently and my Internet time is very limited. I’ll still try to post as much as I can, though.

In the meantime, I post a reply from the managing editor of Liwayway Magasin to my inquiry regarding short story publication. This is a follow-up to this earlier post.

Bb. Ar[a]cega:

Malugod po namin kayong inaanyayahan na makibahagi ng inyong mga panulat sa magasing Liwayway.

Natutuwa rin po kami kung inyong ipamamalita sa inyong kapwa manunulat ang paanyayang ito.

Ang Liwayway ay bukas para sa lahat ng mga taong may kakayahan sa pagsusulat ng maikling kuwento, sanaysay, tula at ibang may kaugnayan sa Panitikang Filipino.

Salamat po,

ANGIE J. PEREZ
Managing Editor

I’ve asked where the submissions should be emailed to, and what the format should be. If anyone has any information, please do share!

EDITED TO ADD: Ms. Angie Perez wrote back to say submissions should be emailed to liwayway_manilabulletin@yahoo.com. If anyone has access to a recent copy of Liwayway Magasin, perhaps they have already started printing their submission guidelines. If not, I guess anything goes :)

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1. Mia and Charles both recently made posts related to writing science fiction:

• More Notes on Science and Writing - Mia shares what she sees are possible angles for good science fiction stories.

  An abridged version of this entry may be found at the Read or Die blog. Share your own ideas!

• Writing Science Fiction - Charles tells about how the heart of a science fiction story is not actually the science. I find this essay comforting, because while science fiction fascinates me the most, I don’t think I can write hard science to save my life :P Not right now, anyway!

2. via Kenneth: Vin Simbulan’s short story “Silverio And The Eidolon” has come out in the October 13, 2007 issue of the Philippines Free Press.

3. Read or Die tells about its upcoming events.

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My powers of observation fail me. I failed to take note when Kenneth and Dean posted about Nikki Alfar’s short story coming out in Fantasy Magazine later this year (Winter 2007/2008 issue).

The latest news from the US-based Fantasy Magazine is that they will be converting from a quarterly print format to a weekly online format beginning this November. Does this mean we’ll be able to read Nikki’s work online for free? :D

Speaking of November, Kenneth Yu’s short story “House 1.0″ is coming out next month in The Town Drunk, a monthly webzine for light-hearted spec fic.

I learned about all of this from Charles‘ comment over at Banzai Cat’s blog. Thanks, guys!

Congrats, Nikki and Kenneth!

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I wasn’t able to attend Dean’s book launch on Saturday, but I’m still happy to hear it went well. See his post for photos and cool anecdotes (crack fiction? XD Asteg!).

The Kite of Stars and Other Stories is now available at Powerbooks and National Bookstore. Soon it will be available at Fully Booked and other local bookshops. Grab a copy now!

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Heads up! I want to upgrade to a newer version of Wordpress today, but since I might botch that, this blog might go down for a few hours. I don’t really feel like changing the layout since I’ve grown quite fond of this one… but if the Wordpress upgrade doesn’t make it any easier for me to edit/reformat existing posts, I’ll be seriously considering it.

Edit: I didn’t botch it! And I’m keeping the old layout for now. Old clothes are hard to throw away.

Even if it’s still a pain to edit >:E

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Speaking of Kristin Mandigma, she has also put up an online publication called India and the Conundrum, which may interest aspiring novelists and serial writers.

India and the Conundrum is a non-paying website that allows you to post your serialized (multi-chapter) fiction online. New installments are released for public viewing once a month.

Registration and posting are free, though authors must abide by the submission guidelines.
All genres are accepted. Writers from all over the world are welcome to sign up. From what I recall, this project has been around for some time. There’s even an exciting wuxia serial up there at the moment :D

In fact, quite a few choice serials have made it to the lineup, and there’s always room for more. NaNoWriMo is coming up, incidentally. Aspiring novelists may want to use this publication as an avenue to get their work read, one chapter at a time.

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Remember when I was encouraging people to submit their work to Clarkesworld Magazine? I mentioned a friend who was about to have her story published there. As it turns out, her story is going live in next month’s issue! The title is “Excerpts from a Letter by a Social Realist Aswang” and the author is Kristin Mandigma.

It’s been officially announced, so I don’t have to keep it a secret anymore :P

Watch out for the next issue! And of course, SUBMIT!

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Congratulations to Dean Francis Alfar! His collection The Kite of Stars and Other Stories will hit the shelves in September :)

This book will be among Anvil Publishing’s upcoming Anvil Fantasy titles. Looks like Philippines-based fantasy buffs have a lot to look forward to!

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