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Philippine Genre Stories

Here's the call for submissions for PSF8:


Call for Submissions: Philippine Speculative Fiction 8

Editors Dean and Nikki Alfar invite you to submit short fiction for consideration for Philippine Speculative Fiction volume 8.

Philippine Speculative Fiction is a yearly anthology series, which collects a wide range of stories that define, explore, and sometimes blur the boundaries of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and all things in between. The anthology has been shortlisted for the Manila Critics’ Circle National Book Award, and multiple stories from each volume have been cited in roundups of the year’s best speculative fiction across the globe.

First-time authors are more than welcome to submit; good stories trump literary credentials any time.

Submissions must be:
1. speculative fiction—i.e., they must contain strong elements and/or sensibilities of science fiction, fantasy, horror, magic realism, alternate history, folklore, superheroes, and/or related ‘nonrealist’ genres and subgenres
2. written in English
3. authored by persons of Philippine ethnicity and/or nationality

Submissions are preferred to be:
1. original and unpublished
2. no shorter than 1,000 words and no longer than 7,500
3. written for an adult audience
In all cases, these preferences can be easily overturned by exceptionally well-written pieces. In the case of previously-published work—if accepted, the author will be expected to secure permission to reprint, if necessary, from the original publishing entity, and to provide relevant publication information.

Submission details:
1. No multiple or simultaneous submissions—i.e., submit only one story, and do not submit that story to any other publishing market until you have received a letter of regret from us. We don’t mind if you submit to contests.
2. All submissions should be in Rich Text Format (saved under the file extension ‘.rtf’), and emailed to nikkialfar@gmail.com, with the subject line ‘PSF8 submission’.
3. The deadline for submissions is 11 p.m., Manila time, September 15, 2012. Letters of acceptance or regret will be sent out no later than one month after the deadline.

Editors’ notes:
1. Please don’t forget to indicate your real name in the submission email! If you want to write under a pseudonym, that’s fine, but this can be discussed upon story acceptance. Initially, we just need to know who we’re talking to.
2. If you’d like to write a cover letter with your brief bio and publishing history (if applicable), do feel free to introduce yourself—but not your story, please. If it needs to be explained, it’s probably not ready to be published.
3. We advise authors to avoid fancy formatting—this will just be a waste of your time and ours, since we will, eventually, standardize fonts and everything else to fit our established house style.

Authors of selected stories will receive Php500 pesos in compensation, as well as digital copies of the book.

Please help spread the word! Feel free to copy this and paste it anywhere you see fit that happens to be legal. :)

Thanks,
Dean and Nikki Alfar, co-editors



Blog EntryMay 15, '12 3:16 AM
for everyone
Here is the TOC for Horror: Filipino Fiction For Young Adults, edited by Dean Alfar and myself, and coming soon from U.P. Press:

Honesty Hour - Gabriela Lee
Eat Me - Kally Hiromi R. Arsua
Mommy Agnes - Vince Torres
The Running Girl - Elyss Punsalan
Education By Ate Flora - Renelaine Bontol
The New Teacher - Alexander Osias
Gago's Got Your Back - Andrew Drilon
Dan's Dreams - Eliza Victoria
Itching To Get Home - Joseph Montecillo
Lola's House - Fidelis Tan
A Yellow Brick Road Valentine - Charles Tan
Lucia, The Nightmare Hunter - Kate Osias
Frozen Delight - EK Gonzales
Misty - Isabel Yap

Congratulations to all!

Blog EntryMay 14, '12 9:13 AM
for everyone

Over at The Cogsmith is a discussion on why diversity is important in SF. Joining in this discussion is Charles Tan, The Bibliophile Stalker. 


Rochita Loenen-Ruiz has also weighed in on the issue with her essay, Decolonizing as an SF Writer. She also is part of this discussion on non-Western SF


This is an interesting discussion on all writers of SF, from all over the world, and the insights that are made are quite enriching. 


My thanks to Short Story Reader for the brief but thoughtful and positive review of one of my stories from two years ago, "The Concierto Of Señor Lorenzo" (Innsmouth Free Press). Thank you very much!

Please do check out Innsmouth's site, as they have a lot of new books up with fresh stories ready for order!

Blog EntryApr 30, '12 10:26 AM
for everyone
The latest story on Philippine Genre Stories: "How I Spent My US Vacation" by Jenny Ortuoste. Guest-edited by F.H. Batacan.

Blog EntryApr 28, '12 12:20 AM
for everyone

I was bringing The Eldest Child to guitar lessons at nine this morning, but about half-an-hour before we left the house:

Eldest Child: I think it's time to leave, but you're not going that way, are you Dad?

Me: That way? What way?

Eldest Child: Change your clothes!

Me: Change what? What's wrong? What's wrong with my t-shirt and shorts?

Eldest Child (to The Wife): Mooommm! I can't make him change his clothes! Make him change his clothes!

Me: What?! What?! Barely two months after turning thirteen and you're already embarrassed to be seen with me?!

The Wife: Change your clothes.

Me: What?!?!?!?!

The Wife: Change your clothes.

Eldest Child: You look like you just rolled out of bed!

Me: It's the middle of summer! I want to wear this (and I pointed to my extra large t-shirt, loose shorts, and sandals).

The Wife: Your shorts and shirt look old already.

Me: They're comfortable! I don't have any newer pair of shorts! I don't want to wear slacks!

The Wife: Change your clothes.

Eldest Child: Yeah!

The Wife: Change your clothes.

Me: I don't want to! It's hot!

(Youngest Child walks in, rubbing eyes, freshly risen from bed)

Youngest Child: Where are you going, Dad?

Me: I'm bringing your sister to guitar lessons.

Youngest Child: You're not going out that way, are you?

Me: (sighs) All right! I give in! I'll wear slacks.

Eldest Child: Good. You should hide your hairy legs from the world, Dad.

Me: (gets fresh slacks and a collared shirt from the closet, grumbling and mumbling)

It has come to this. 


Blog EntryApr 22, '12 5:53 AM
for everyone
The latest story on Philippine Genre Stories: "Scourge And Minister" (Part 2) by Crystal Koo. Guest-edited by F.H. Batacan.

PGS contributor Dominique Cimafranca, who has stories in all three special PGS issues (under three different editors), has a collection of his stories out, "An Unusual Treatment and Other Stories". The collection contains all three stories from the PGS Holiday issue, the Crime issue, and the Horror issue, as well as his other tales that came out in other publications. The book was published on a grant from the National Commission on Culture and the Arts. He says that the NCCA is distributing the book, but if you have any questions as to how else to get it, leave a comment for him on his blog. Congratulations, Dom!

Here's a review of D.O.A.: Extreme Horror Collection by Blood Bound Books over at Horrornews.net by Anton Cancre. My story, "Cherry Clubbing", is in this anthology. An excerpt:

"...it does have some pretty damn entertaining yarns held within.

I expected Edward R. Rosick’s “Cold Air” to be a cheap rip off of Lovecraft’s “Cool Air” but instead found an interesting take on the vampire mythos wherein it isn’t so much that the blood is the life as the sexual organs. Kinda makes you wonder if eternal life would be worth the necrophilia. Opener “Cherry Clubbing,” by Kenneth Yu managed to get past the rather forced feeling second person perspective to deal with the underground markets that would inevitably arise if the creatures of fable and religion were found to be real in a way that caught me a bit off guard. Also, Tonia Brown did some neat things with the Sin Eater mythos in the course of “Sickened”.

However, special notice needs to go to Chad Mckee’s “Cena” and JW Schnaar’s “Frogger.” The former deals very personally with the problems of tourists inserting themselves and their values into cultures they do not understand. It’s fraught with honest fear confusion that bleeds from the page. The latter, a short and sweet tale of Atari inspired revenge, delivers a marvelous sharp punch. Adrian Ludens also deserves a high five for the nod to a favorite scene from American Psycho that left me giggling like a schoolgirl."

Here's a link to a post of an earlier review of the anthology by Shaun Hamilton.

Congratulations to all the writers who made it to esteemed editor Ellen Datlow's list, The Best Horror of the Year Vol. 4 (2011) Honorable Mentions, especially the Pinoy writers!

Tina del Rosario and Kristine Ong Muslim for their story and poems, respectively.

Special mention, of course, for the tales from Philippine Genre Stories:

Marianne Villanueva's "The Departure" on PGS Online, guest-edited by Charles Tan.

"Less Talk, Less Mistake" by Xin Mei and "God is the Space Between" by Maryanne Moll, from the PGS Crime Issue, guest-edited by F.H. Batacan. This issue and all other PGS print issues are available at Avalon.ph.

My deep thanks to Ellen for choosing my story, "The Kiddie Pool", to be on her list as well! It is in Philippine Speculative Fiction 6, edited by Nikki Alfar and Kate Osias.

Special, special thanks to Charles Tan for all his effort and support of not just Philippine spec fic, but all spec fic. He's the one sending locally printed publications to North America for editors and other readers to go through.

Ellen's complete list is here.

Blog EntryApr 14, '12 8:22 PM
for everyone
The latest story on Philippine Genre Stories: "Scourge And Minister" (Part 1) by Crystal Koo. Guest-edited by F.H. Batacan.

The ebooks of Philippine Speculative Fiction 1 and 2 are now available as ebooks through Flipside Publishing. They are available on Amazon and for the Kobo,and on Flipside's website itself. Here are the links care of the press release on The Bibliophile Stalker's blog:

Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol.‭ ‬1‭ ‬is now available on Amazon for‭ ‬$0.99‭ ‬and‭Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol.‭ ‬2‭ ‬for‭ ‬$3.99.‭ ‬The next two volumes will eventually be released in May.‭ ‬The eBooks are also available at‭‬http://www.flipreads.com for P80 and P195 respectively. 

Other speculative fiction titles that Flipside Publishing has published include‭ ‬Lower Myths by Eliza Victoria,‭ ‬Alternative Alamat edited by Paolo Chikiamco,‭ ‬Geek Tragedies by Carljoe Javier,‭ ‬News of the Shaman by Karl De Mesa,‭ ‬and‭ ‬Ghosts of Infinity edited by Lara Saguisag‭ & ‬April Yap.‭ 

The Bibliophile Stalker, Charles Tan, is the editor of Lauriat: A Filipino-Chinese Speculative Fiction Anthology, coming soon! It's now available for pre-order on Amazon. A number of the authors in this anthology are PGS contributors, such as Paolo Chikiamco, Yvette Tan, Andrew Drilon, Christine Lao, Crystal Koo, and Erin Chupeco. Charles himself is also a PGS contributor. Congratulations, all!

Blog EntryApr 10, '12 10:48 AM
for everyone
Just a gentle reminder of the call for submissions blogged about here. :)



Blog EntryMar 24, '12 11:17 AM
for everyone
The latest story on Philippine Genre Stories"Needle Rain" (Part 2) by Eliza Victoria. Guest-edited by Joseph F. Nacino.

PGS contributor Paolo Chikiamco, owner of Rocket Kapre, is in the anthology "Scheherazade's Facade". Click here for more details.

Blog EntryMar 16, '12 1:53 AM
for everyone