Plug: The Medieval Studies Society of the Philippines
Mr. Ralfy Acuña left a comment at my blog talking about his organization, the Medieval Studies Society of the Philippines (MSSP). For those who may be interested in joining, here's Mr. Acuña's announcement:
Greetings! We are in the process of forming a Medieval Studies Society of the Philippines (Mediaevalis Studii Philippinarum Insularum Societas). The core members are professors and researchers in philosophy, literature, theology, history, and political science from the Ateneo de Manila University, San Beda College, University of Asia and the Pacific, and the University of the Philippines (Cebu, Diliman, and Manila campuses). The goal of the Society is to foster the study of medieval cultures from different parts of the world. Planned activities include tours of local sites such as churches, academic lectures and conventions, exhibitions, educational outreach programs, and publications. We would like to work with various local groups interested in topics connected to medieval culture, including C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, fantasy fiction, the Gothic, and others. We would like to invite you to subscribe to our low-volume announcement mailing list, which you can join by sending e-mail to mspis-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mspis/. We'll send updates to the list once a month, including updates to the website. (The current website of the Society is located at http://mssp.kritikon.net, but it only contains a banner. I'll try to update it during the next few days.) Finally, you have any questions or comments, you may write to medievalph at gmail dot com. Feel free to offer suggestions on what you want the Society to exhibit or discuss in the future. Regards, Ralfy AcunaI confess I'm curious about how "medieval" Philippines will be represented here. Wikipedia says "The Middle Ages are commonly dated from the 5th century fall of the Western Roman Empire until the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire in the 15th century," although this is still disputed. But if we're going by the general time frame, this would be pre-Spanish era, yes? The Spanish explorers and colonizers came sometime during the 16th century, IIRC. Writers who lean toward a specific subgenre of speculative fiction (alternate history) could learn a lot from the group discussions. Also, history is fun!
Telefantasyas as Spec Fic Influences
I've been thinking about something. We've been experiencing a steady stream of telefantasyas, which I believe is definitely a good thing - especially for very young viewers who have yet to discover their potential for art, writing, directing, acting, etc. It's also a good thing for aspiring writers, who are finding richer ground in the realm of the imagination.
I confess, the only telefantasya I've ever really watched a whole episode of was Encantadia. I was rather impressed, though I could barely understand what was going on (I remember Miao was once kind enough to relay the whole fascinating saga to me. Thanks again, Miao!). The sets and costumes were gorgeous, the acting was good and the dialogue was actually fun. The story itself seemed ambitious and grandiose. Best of all, I found it to be all-original, a serious effort to present Pinoy folklore in a modern light.
I also rather liked the concepts behind Mulawin and Pintados, back when they were still showing. Those were the good old days, actually. I think I have some issues with some of the more recent stream of foreign-inspired telefantasyas.
I haven't had all that much time to stay up to date on recent TV shows, but I hear things from friends - like this new telefantasya is a not-so-subtle ripoff of Stargate: Atlantis, and that telefantasya is a mishmash of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Star Wars, etc.
Those of us who know better can probably still laugh it off. But doesn't this look like a downward slide, after the progress we've made with the advent of original telefantasyas?
The only reason I can think of for big networks to want to finance projects like these, is that their regular scriptwriters have run out of original ideas. But instead of pool new talent, or spend time, money and effort setting up a search for new storylines, they just decided to task the staff they have on hand to hurriedly put something together, even something that borrows heavily from various foreign influences. At any rate, after Kampanerang Kuba, Majika, Mulawin and the rest, ANY telefantasya is bound to sell.
And it leads me to wonder about the future that is in store for speculative fiction in our commercial media. It's undisputed that a lot of the Philippine-made fantasy works we now regal as "classic" had foreign influences: Darna may have been derived from Wonder Woman. Kapitan Kidlat was based on The Flash. Captain Barbell is a parody of Captain Marvel, and so forth. (At this point, I feel like mentioning that I consider Jim Fernandez's Zuma an original character, even if he was based on Aztec legend. And yes, I do think he is awesome, even if he's not a hero per se.)
But that's all in the past. The kids who used to watch Darna and Ang Panday are now accomplished writers and artists, who make their own fantasy works that inspire and move others. Sure komiks fantasy has helped us build our current TV fantasy traditions, but do we have to perpetuate that? Do we have to take one step forward and two steps back all the time?
What can we look forward to? What can we build from this?
Or is there, in fact, nothing to be afraid of?
Throughout the years, our pop media (and oral traditions, actually) has regarded fantasy highly; we've all grown up on a wealth of fantastic fiction, local and foreign. It's just a damn shame that our biggest TV networks don't want to risk opening up their creative avenues to their own viewers - otherwise we would probably see a telefantasya revolution even greater than Encantadia. Libro.ph soft launch
I wasn't able to plug this yesterday! This is going to take place later at 4 PM. Those who could, please do attend.
Join Read Or Die at the Libro.ph soft launch on June 30, 2007 at 4PM at the “Portrait Of The City†exhibit at the Glorietta 3 Park. Adarna House will also be on hand for a storytelling session for children. This event is part of the 11th Philippine Book Development Month and is made possible by the National Book Development Board and the Filipinas Heritage Library. FREE FOOD WILL BE SERVED. Or UCC Coffee, at least. And cakes.The lovely poster was designed by Mia of Miamor :)
Independent Publishers Welcome at the Manila Book Fair
This may be of special interest to independent publishers, and artists who wish to showcase their finished, unpublished work. The upcoming 2007 Manila Book Fair (August 29 - September 2) is open to indie publications!
From Read or Die:
[...] So to reiterate, if you are an independent publisher, you can sell in the Manila Book Fair. We have Mr. Ed Sabolvoro and Atty. Flores of the NBDB to thank for this and of course Mr. Sandoval of the Book Development Association of the Philippines as well. Indie! In the book fair! This ties up so nicely with Read Or Die’s collective function in the book fair called “Ang Bagong Libro.†We can host an event for independent publishers if enough people turn out. Atty. Flores told me that the NBDB will also support a discussion seminar/workshop about independent publishing. The website of “Ang Bagong Libro†is technically up–it’s here–though I’ll make a formal announcement about it in another entry since this post is already long enough. But! if you’re an indie publisher–that is, you’ve independently printed or produced literary works (komiks, stories, novels, zines, folios)–contact us at readordie.ph@gmail.com. If you’re reading this and you’re acquainted with an indie publisher (or publishers), please tell them about this offer.Read more about it at the Read or Die Weblog.
Team Alfar Interviews at PinoyCentric
Via the Bibliophile Stalker:
Nikki and Dean Alfar, both well-known Filipino speculative fiction writers, have interviews up in PinoyCentric.
Read Nikki's interview here.
Nikki wrote about her experiences as a young writer, which were quite fun to read about. Perhaps they're also something a lot of us can identify with.
At six, Nikki already knew that she was going to be a writer. "I started writing Nancy Drew-type stories, then I moved on to the Sweet Dreams type. I used to get in trouble a lot in school because my notebooks were full of stories but had no notes," she relates. "Pretty much from the start, I was really into this whole speculative fiction bent. One of the first novels I read was Stephen King’s Cujo and later The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien," Nikki remembers. Her parents were not as encouraging, however. "My mom brainwashed me, 'If you're going to be a writer, you will be poor!' and I didn't want to be poor. I'm kikay [stylish], so I can't be poor!" she laughs. Enrolling at UP Diliman's creative writing program didn't provide much encouragement either. "You know how it is," she explains, "in grade school and high school, you think you're very brilliant—and then you get to college and you realize: hey, there are other more brilliant people and you're just okay!"Read Dean's interview here. Dean talks about advocating speculative fiction:
DFA: Speculative fiction or "spec fic" is the umbrella term we use for the genres of fantasy, science fiction, horror, surrealism, magical realism, and slipstream fiction. These labels are bookstore labels, and for me, are as artificial as fiction itself. Definitely all fiction is fiction. It's all make-believe. I advocate this movement of shifting the paradigm and thus exposing more people to these stories, so that the value of these stories becomes more apparent rather than the status quo, which is they are considered worthless. Academics raise their eyebrows at these stories because they have privileged the mode of realism. I have no issue with the realist writers. All I'm saying is they should have no issue with us and permit these stories to be published and to be read.It was interesting to note that if Dean had not been successful as a writer, he would have wanted to be a teacher! Although I daresay he'll probably be successful as both :) Those who may be interested in joining the next open session of Litcritters: it's on July 7, 2007. See Dean Alfar's post for details.
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.
Why Fanfiction Isn’t Encouraged on the Philippine SF and F Writers ML
I often find myself seriously considering writing about fanfiction in this blog. These days, I read just about the same amount of fanfiction as original fiction (by which i mean precious little) and from time to time I feel like sharing my thoughts on a particularly lovely piece of fanwriting.
But I do have some difficulty relating fanfiction to the themes I wish to discuss here, or on the Phil SF and F Writers ML. Certainly there are some spectacular fanfiction writers who are Filipino, but they usually write in English... or are not so keen on being identified as Filipino, for a variety of reasons. So talking about them on a blog called "Philippine Speculative Fiction" may not be met with much enthusiasm.
Finally, today, I came across a side of fanfiction that I could talk about. While contemplating the flash fiction contest (or, to be more precise, my unsurprising lack of ideas for good flash fiction), I realized something: There's actually tons of great flash fiction on the Web - they're called drabbles. They just stay under the radar because they're done for and within fandom. (more…)
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.
Flash Fiction Wanted
Got this off Charles, who got it off Kristine and Luis are Listening:
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS i magazine, the newest quarterly publication from the team behind the i section of the Manila Bulletin, is now accepting submissions for FLASH FICTION in English. Launching October 2007, the i magazine is high-concept publication inspired by Another magazine and Tank, headlining fashion (a whopping 120 pages of it) as well as Filipino excellence, both here and overseas. Feature stories range from Filipinos excelling in their fields (i.e. designers, artists, writers, professionals, or high-level executives abroad), new angles on Filipino culture stories (i.e. comparative story on a famous sculptor and a new young sculptor with similar aesthetics, or ethnographic stories of Filipino culture in European countries), and special-interest stories relating to Filipinos or Filipino culture ( i.e. Filipino toy designer in an international toy company, Filipinos who have more eclectic collections, or Filipino architects and engineers involved in reconstruction or preservation of historical buildings). The i magazine is currently accepting flash fiction submissions for the maiden issue, in keeping with the editorial direction to introduce fresher, more intelligent, and though-provoking content that is still digestible for local readers. We are looking for stories that capture a brief moment, a single breath. We are looking for an irreverent piece, in the structured prose of fiction, with the lyrical movement of poetry. Hopefully, through these shorts bursts of story, we can slowly open up more readers to Philippine fiction. Accepted submissions will be paid P500.00 a pop. Deadline is July 16, 2007. Send in your stuff now!For the guidelines, see Luis K.'s post. Just one month left before the deadline!
Call for Submissions: Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol.3
I may have been away for a while, but this is one yearly event I don't ever want to miss plugging! The deadline for submissions to the third volume of Philippine Speculative Fiction is coming up in a few months, so now is a good time to start working on those stories :)
From Dean Francis Alfar's blog:
I am now accepting submissions of short fiction pieces for consideration for the anthology "Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol.3". 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. However, if you have a Young Adult story that is particularly well-written, send it in. 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. Kindly state also in your cover letter that you have the permission, if necessary, from the original publishing entity to republish your work. 6. First time authors are welcome to submit. In the first two volumes, there was a good mix of established and new authors. Good stories trump literary credentials anytime. 7. No multiple submissions. Each author may submit only one story for consideration. 8. Each story’s word count must be no fewer than 2,500 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: PSF3 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 - PSF 3 Submission: How My Uncle Brought Home A Diwata 4500. 11. All submissions must be accompanied by a cover letter that includes your name, brief bio, contact information, previous publications (if any). 12. Deadline for submissions is September 15, 2007. After that date, final choices will be made and letters of acceptance or regret sent out via email. 13. Target publishing date is December 2007/January 2008. 14. Compensation for selected stories will be 2 contributor’s copies of the published anthology as well as a share in aggregrate royalties. Kindly help spread the word. Feel free to cut and paste or link to this on your blogs or e-groups. Thanks, Dean Francis AlfarPS: I updated the blogroll with some new links. Still gearing up to add more. Need to clean house and check every link to see which ones are dead or have moved. Also, perhaps, to write some people asking if it's ok for me to add their blogs to the roll :P If anyone has any links related to Philippine fiction or interesting speculative fiction sites, please do tell me about them? I'll add them to the links the next time I update. PPS: I've also syndicated Philippine Speculative Fiction for Livejournal. So those of you who have LJs now have the option to view updates on their friends pages. Add this to your list of LJ feeds.