Transcript of Philippine Genre Stories Interview on NU 107
Philippine Genre Stories went on the air one more time last Wednesday, this time on NU 107.5. Charles also has the full transcript of this interview up on his blog.
This section of the interview may be especially interesting to other spec fic writers out there:
NU107: I heard you have a writing contest coming up. You wanna talk about it? Kenneth: That's right, thank you for reminding. Each issue has an image and it's a section called Image Inspiration, and has an image be it a photo or a drawing by a local artist. NU107: Where can you find that? Kenneth: It's at the last page. NU107: For this issue, you have... Kenneth: A drawing by Andrew. Who's also a talented artist. So we invite people to write a short short story, between three hundred to five hundred words, and then a panel of judges, who don't know each other, will give their comments and rank them and the winner gets to win a free copy and have their story published in the next issue. NU107: So how do they go about sending their entries? Kenneth: Everything is on the blog, philippinegenrestories.blogspot.com, but this particular contest is over. So wait for the third issue, we'll have a new picture, a new image, for which people can join.Vin and Andrew, spec fic pros also present in the interview, also have interesting responses to the rather general question: What is the value of writing stories? Read the full transcript to know their answers.
A Transcript of Philippine Genre Stories Interview on Mellow 94.7
Charles Tan (Bibliophile Stalker) has finished transcribing the Mellow 94.7 appearance of Vin Simbulan, Dean Francis Alfar and Kenneth Yu of Philippine Genre Stories. You can read the full transcript here.
I especially liked how Dean defined an "inventory" of stories in this passage. I wonder how many spec fic writers out there can say this goes for them as well -
Dean: Well an inventory is just a collection of stories that a writer has written over a brief period of time, let's say several months. Some writers like to have things when they're struck by inspiration of because they have discipline, write a story or two. And then when there are calls or obvious venues or calls for submission, we send it out. Some times though, we write specifically to submit or if there is a competition or contest, then we write. It's good discipline to have an inventory, to have some stories up your sleeve. You never know if four publishers suddenly come knocking down your door saying we want your story, each! And you say no problem, no problem.
Again, the full transcript is here.
Update on Tropics of Love, Feedback on Unmasked Winners, and Some Blog Resolutions
For those interested in participating in Quatre Gats Press' Tropics of Love anthology - yes, LBGTQ fiction is welcome :)Set your imaginations loose!
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Congratulations to the winners of the 1st Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards!
Some interesting reviews have been made about the winners, among which are Dean Alfar's, Banzai Cat's [ 1 ] [ 2 ] and Charles Tan's. Not having read all the winning entries myself, I'm loath to give out my personal opinion. But I believe everyone should be free to impart his/her opinions, and civilized discussion should always be welcome.
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Have added a bunch of links to the sidebar, specifically to the Philippines-based SFF Fandom Groups section. All links should be active. Do check them out! And if anyone has any new links, please give me a holler.
Have also decided to post at least one essay a week on this blog. Starting tomorrow, which is a Friday by my timezone. No really, I promise!
Also, should really be updating the design of this blog soon...
ELMER by Gerry Alanguilan
I'm several days late in helping promote this, but here's something else to look into for an alternative comic theme:
ELMER by Gerry Alanguilan
In the author's own words:
ELMER is a window into an alternate Earth where chickens have suddenly acquired the intelligence and consciousness of humans, where they consider themselves a race no different than whites, browns or blacks, and push to recognize rights for themselves as the newest members of the human race. It tells the story of a family of chickens who live and struggle to survive in a suddenly complicated, dangerous and yet beautiful world.You can purchase copies of ELMER through Komikero Publishing and Alamat Comics. The first issue is available at ComicQuest Megamall, Comics Odyssey Robinson's Malate, and Druid's Keep in Magallanes.
Quatre Gats Press: Site Launch and Call for Submissions
Quatre Gats Press is a new local publishing alternative for Filipino SSFF writers. They also have an upcoming anthology that still needs contributions. As quoted from the official website:
Quatre Gats is a newly launched independent press based in the Philippines which aims to specialize in publishing innovative thematic anthologies, both fiction and non-fiction. We’ve opened up submissions for â€Tropics of Love,†an anthology of fiction based on Jose Rizal’s “Noli Me Tangere†and “El Filibusterismo.†If you’re interested in submitting for the anthology, please take a look at the submission guidelines. Deadline for submission of stories is on November 1, 2006. We’re looking at a publication date of January 2007.submission guidelines are here: http://www.quatre-gats.com/submit.html check out their blog as well: http://press.quatre-gats.com
Call for Submissions: Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol.2
From Dean Francis Alfar's blog:
I am now accepting submissions of short fiction pieces for consideration for the anthology "Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol.2". Speculative fiction is the literature of wonder that spans the genres of fantasy, science fiction, horror and magic realism or falls into the cracks in-between. 1. Only works of speculative fiction will be considered for publication. As works of the imagination, the theme is open and free. 2. Stories must cater to an adult sensibility. 3. Stories must be written in English. 4. Stories must be authored by Filipinos or those of Philippine ancestry. 5. Preference will be given to original unpublished stories, but previously published stories will also be considered. In the case of previously published material, kindly include the title of the publishing entity and the publication date. 6. First time authors are welcome to submit. In the initial volume, there was a near 50-50 split of established and new authors. 7. Each author may submit only one story for consideration. 8. Each story’s word count must be no fewer than 3,000 words and no more than 5,000 words. 9. All submissions must be in Rich Text Format (.rtf – save the document as .rft on your word processor) and attached to an email to this address: dean@kestrelimc.com. Submissions received in any other format will be deleted, unread. 10. The subject of your email must read: 2nd Philippine Speculative Fiction Submission: (title) (word count); where (title) is replaced by the title of your short story, without the parentheses, and (word count) is the word count of your story, without the parentheses. For example - 2nd Philippine Speculative Fiction Submission: The Last Siren 4500. 11. All submissions must be accompanied by a cover letter that includes your name, brief bio, contact information, previous work (if any). 12. Deadline for submissions is September 15, 2006. After that date, final choices will be made and letters of acceptance or regret sent out via email. 13. Target publishing date is December 2006/January 2007. 14. Compensation for selected stories will be 2 contributor’s copies of the published anthology. Dean Francis Alfar, editorQuestions? Comments? Email Dean at dean@kestrelimc.com or leave a comment at this post in his blog.