I'm at Strange Horizons, "Rehearsal for When He Wakes"

This must be the most exciting year for me yet. I've always dreamt of appearing on SE's pages. Who'd have thought? "Rehearsal for When He Wakes" is up in their February 24, 2014 issue. The podcast of the issue is also available in two parts.

• Podcast: February Poetry Part 1, by John Philip Johnson, Peter Chiykowski, Susan Carlson, Natalia Theodoridou, Alicia Cole, and Amal El-Mohtar, read by Diane Severson Mori, Peter Chiykowski, Kristopher Goorhuis, Kate Baker, Ciro Faienza, and Amal El-Mohtar (2/24/14) In this episode of the Strange Horizons podcast, editor Anaea Lay presents poetry from the February issues of Strange Horizons. 
• Podcast: February Poetry Part 2, by Jenn Grunigen, Mike Allen, Jessy Randall, Lisa M. Bradley, Anne Carly Abad, Rose Lemberg, and Danielle Higgins, read by Jenn Grunigen, Mike Allen, Tina Connolly, Lisa M. Bradley, Ciro Faienza, Julia Rios, Rose Lemberg, and Clare McBride (2/24/14) In this episode of the Strange Horizons podcast, editor Anaea Lay presents poetry from the February issues of Strange Horizons.

Many many thanks to the editors, especially to Ms. Adrienne Odasso and Ms. Anaea Lay.

More Cool Things

I realized I'm doing things without really thinking about a goal. Really, I'm just doing this eat, sleep, write, run thing. While a "now" mentality is useful for stress-reduction (and is very Zen), seems like I'm going nowhere. From now on, I'll set my mind on these things: my own property in the next five years and three books published in print (and maybe a big writing award).

And maybe I'm closer to that award than I think. I happened to earn a "Special Recognition" prize in the Fujisan Haiku Competition 2013. Here's my winning piece:

peeling oranges
what little is left of snow
on a sunlit peak

I've also received some more pleasant news in the area of publishing. My poem "I'll Take the Farthest Room" will appear in the 7th issue of the Los Angeles Review of Los Angeles, a little irreverent place for irreverent writes. Thanks so much to Robin Wyatt Dunn, the cool editor of this joint.

Dear Anne,

I'll take "Farthest Room" for LAROLA 7, and feel free to send along a
few more poems if you wish.

Yours,
Robin Wyatt Dunn

Where I'm at, or Gonna be at this 2014

Feeling slang today. I know my slang ain't good, but I got lots to celebrate. It's a good date, first rate. And my rhymes are feelin' fine. Not sour like lime.

Yeah, I'm at Shot Glass #12, published by Musie-Pie Press. This fine place focuses on all thing short and sweet, in poetry yeah. Check em out, they be real cool yo! My haiku and two tanka be there.

Soon to be, Imma be appearin' like a badass yo momma joke. At The Yellow Medicine Review, guest-edited by Carter Meland. Here be what he has to say:

Hello Anne Carly Abad!

I'm pleased to say that I really like the three poems you submitted to Yellow Medicine Review--The Choosing of the Babaylan, The Badjao Sisters' Wager, and The Babaylan Sleep--and will, with your permission, go ahead and publish them as part of the Spring 2014 issue. Congratulations! They are sharp little pieces and I found "The Babaylan Sleep" especially resonant. Great stuff!

[snipped]  

Carter Meland

Such beastly news! Thanks so much to the team, you can see how happy I am.:)

Just a bit of a conflict on the piece: "The Badjao Sisters' Wager," coz it's already reserved for The Southeast Review. But no more issue there, it's nice and fixed and ironed out.

About SER, where I'll also be this Fall 2014:

The Southeast Review, established in 1979 as Sundog, is a national literary magazine housed in the English department at Florida State University and is edited and managed by its graduate students and a faculty consulting editor. The mission of The Southeast Review is to present emerging writers on the same stage as well-established ones. In each semi-annual issue, we publish literary fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, interviews, book reviews and art. With nearly sixty members on our editorial staff who come from throughout the country and the world, we strive to publish work that is representative of our diverse interests and aesthetics, and we celebrate the eclectic mix this produces.

Great stuff, yeah? And great sites, too. Come on, run along now and visit em, so I can bow from my shady rhymes.

Scam: CashCash Pinoy

LOL, looks like more people are cracking down on this. A good post about this here.

I also reported them for a similar issue a long time ago, but DTI doesn't really do anything. The deals claim to give me 50% off, but when I went to the merchant I discovered I saved only 20%. The DTI site has no form where you can report, not even a live chat. I tried calling them back then, and they said I had to go to their office to give the details since their emails are full. I confronted CashCash instead, and all they could tell me was that they're "sorry" I felt deceived by their deal price. Wow.

Of Sluts, Saints and Sinners

Ah yes, something worthy of a blog post. Being called "bastusin." Bastusin, if translated, roughly means slutty. Slutty because I happen to be a woman. Filipino men use the word to describe women who are a bit on the low side. To be on the low side means to deserve a lesser bit of respect.

Yes, to be bastusin means to deserve disrespect.

And it amuses me. One, because I don't care. I wonder why, when I don't ask for advice or opinions,  I get a lot of them (for some reason)? Do these people hope I will change for them? Ah, but I love myself too much to care if people think I am a saint or a slut. I also respect myself too much to watch how I speak, act, or write, just to prevent an image meltdown. Image is illusion. Image is imagination. It means nothing. It doesn't affect my writing. Doesn't affect my Muay Thai skills, nor my speed in running.

Second, to think some types of people deserve disrespect is a big problem--on the part of the person who holds such a view. To think that certain people are not worthy of respect is a sorry state indeed. But it isn't my problem. I have no business convincing people to see me a certain way. I also don't need to explain why there's a problem here somewhere.

Perhaps this is why I somewhat like Miley Cyrus. I've never seen her in her Hanna Montana state. I only noticed her when she became the "trash" that people call her to be. I like her trash. It's quite a treasure.

Four Poems in Manila Bulletin's Cruising #GoingPlaces Magazine Jan-Feb 2014

Cruising Magazine January 2014

Several of my poems appear here. Read them below:

Provenance of Light

sun through the trees

white-striped

green

mirror lake

a duck shakes its feathers

on clouds

rising steam

a suggestion

of breasts

roiling springs

the ripples

meet

crowd

a face I thought

I knew

~ * ~ * ~

To Pay Homage

chants echo
from the temple spire
a crow caws 

golden statues
the voice of Buddha
is silence 

three realities--
sanctum archways
one after the other 

ancient mural
cat sprays at the feet
of avatars 

shining droplets
newly-hatched snails
on a lily pad 

lengthening shadows
the last of the incense
burns out

~ * ~ * ~

Given

There is much we can’t believe.

While on the bus to Panagbenga

we couldn’t believe the sky could be so blue, so open

readily taking the glistening cranes into its cerulean hold.

We couldn’t believe the paddies could don sunlight

in so many greens that tremble with the wind.

Breathless amid the flowers and dance

you blossomed into bells and laughter

and I couldn’t believe how you could become

the sky, the fields, the cranes, the blooms, all at once

I couldn’t believe the extent of my want

“I can’t believe you’re mine,” your words

and mine, though unspoken—yours, mine

perhaps this was where we went wrong

being us was too much a given

I couldn’t believe that years later you’d still be calling

to tell me the same things.

You couldn’t believe we parted the way we did

No skies, no fields, no birds nor blooms.

All I know is we started believing

we were together, nothing more

and the end came with little surprise.

And I'm also in their February 2014 issue. Pleasure to be included in such a lovely magazine!

Cruising Magazine January 2014

The Snake in the Gutters

Serpent, how far you’ve fallen

from godly lineage.

Herald of ultimate healing

did you not bless the temples of Asclepius

and slither into fevered dreams—

revelations of therapy, promises of recovery.

Apophis, eternal destruction

gods enlisted gods in battle

to stop you from swallowing the sun

and returning the world to darkness

as deep as the length of your coils

Serpent, you would be cut down

but we were fools to think you could be slain

Versed in your secret, the alchemists knew:

Ouroboros devours himself to renew his life

immortality is eternal return

to them, you gave the magnum opus.

Harbinger of truth to Adam and Eve

When you eat of it your eyes will be opened

within all of us—the darkness we call desire

refuses to come full circle with reason,

refuses to be understood, or we refuse it, fear it—

perhaps the very reason why we lack eternity.

There is a snake coiled in the gutters

a protuberance in its belly

a crowd has gathered in reverent distance

a man prods its head with the tip of his umbrella;

shouts ripple through the onlooking host

as the serpent stands and strikes

a residual memory of its former glory

Ares Magazine Kickstarter Success!

Yahoo! We're actually gonna see their War of the Worlds Board Game come to life! That, and the amazing art and fiction they're launching in their magazine this year.

Here's their short "about":

Bringing you 80 pages of amazing new science fiction and a complete board game in a bi-monthly periodical.

What's the big idea? Our big idea is to fill a void with a new magazine that combines a standalone, unique, playable board game with a collection of spectacular, new science fiction in each issue. We need your help producing issue #1.

Cool huh?

I don't know if I'm gonna be part of their first issue, but hey I can't wait to see how their mag takes off :) Visit Ares Magazine here.