Upcoming! Poems to Appear in Silver Blade and Strange Horizons

I'm back, by prodding myself to shape up.

I've been doing stuff in a daze. Much of the time, I don't remember what I've been doing with my life. I go through workdays like a zombie, waking up only when I get home. I don't know if I've done something worthwhile during the time that I'm in worker trance.

I constantly need to snap myself out of it. I set aside time each day to write something in my phone notes or pieces of paper. I form the "art" version of it when I get home.

It's getting harder and harder to find people to critique my work. I find myself having to submit work that I've self-edited. It's hard. I think it's not a good way to go about writing and publishing.

I'm fortunate to have received acceptance letters from Silver Blade and Strange Horizons.

Upcoming are these titles:

"Tire under the bridge" - November 2015, Silver Blade
"Exchange" - TBA, Strange Horizons

I'll keep pushing. I'll keep making art.

If I become a zombie, I'll still try to write even if it's just grarrr grarrr I get down on the page.

Tokyo last February, Osaka this October!

Okay, striking out several other Asian destinations from my bucket list. It's Osaka this time! Going there with my mom and I really really have to remind myself to make an itinerary, so I don't waste time having to think about where to go and where to go next.

I'll be reviewing my rusty Nihongo (again). I can never get the hang of it for too long. I don't know why because I seem to be pretty okay with my basic Korean even if I don't speak or read it on a regular basis.

In the meantime, while waiting and fidgeting until my flight date, I killed time by taking up Twitter Flight School, something I can use in my work.

I graduated haha. What a cute badge :)

Nick Joaquin Literary Awards 2015

It was a quiet night with good food---absolutely memorable artisan suman with fondue---and excellent wine.

Thanks Johanna Carissa Fernandez for letting me use this, forgot to take pics

We enjoyed the reading of excerpts of Nick Joaquin's "May Day Eve", performed by no other than the Literary Editor, Ms. Alma Anonas-Carpio.

Met and chatted with fellow writers about how we ended up in the advertising industry.... *moment of silence* har har!

Congratulations, winners! Ed Maranan (1st), Beting Laygo Dolor (2nd),Jenny Ortuoste (3rd) and Publisher's Choice Poet of the Year Jose Victor Penaranda.

I received special recognition for my story "Sage's Reckoning." THIS MADE MY YEAR, YOU KNOW. Also, more than happy to receive the  Manny O. Wines wine... first time I liked wine. It wasn't too strong.

I'm an excellent photographer.

I ramble. I'm writing again. I'm heading back home. The dry spell's over! :D

The Light Bringer's Kingdom now available in print! :)

Here it is: My blood, sweat and tears! Now available in print from Amazon!

As one review says in Amazon:

"In all the tellings and re-tellings of the stories of Lucifer and his rebellion against Heaven, he’s been a lot of things, but never an interplanetary, trans-dimensional being, as he appears in The Light Bringer’s Kingdom. Although Lucifer remains tremendously powerful, menacing, and filled with contempt for humans, this novel is a wholly unique twist on a very old story. Lucifer, along with all the other angels, originate on a planet in another dimension, Spheris, and they journey between realms—including Heaven, Hell, and Earth—as they follow various paths. Abad blends this science fiction-infused version of the cosmos with elements of religious lore and folklore, particularly legends from southeast Asia and the Philippines, to create a new and diverse set of villains out of familiar tropes. While the array of monsters and demons, and their complex relationship with angels and seers, is something of a challenge to keep up with, the literary payoff is substantial."-Amanda Smith

About the Novel:

Path Liang is the last person you would expect to believe in spirits or the supernatural. Her father, Hector Liang, is the inventor of the Wireless Command System (WCS), a technology that amplifies brainwaves to operate machines and computers and has revolutionized the society of the Phillipines in 2066. By day Path is a talented badminton star, and by night she is a hypergamer, immersing herself in the super-fast WCS-enabled virtual world.

But despite Path's best efforts, she has been haunted by a strange dreamworld since she was seven years old. Little does she know that she is a descendant of a powerful babaylan, shamans of ancient Phillippine society. Path will need all the help she can get to master her newfound powers. Demons, led by Lucifer himself, want to use her abilities in a new rebellion against Heaven.

Path is protected by Elantiel "Eli" Clementir, a revenge-driven young man with a mysterious connection to the angels and an ancestral magic of his own. As apocalypse looms ever closer, Path realizes their fates are more entwined than she could have ever imagined. To protect all they hold dear, Path and Eli must face their own families' tragic pasts and confront a cosmic rebellion a millennia in the making.

The Light Bringer's Kingdom, Pre-listed!

The novel I wrote and rewrote and reworked hundreds of times has finally materialized as a real book. I believe in this story and didn't want to give up on it even if I was feeling a wee bit hopeless that no Philippine publishers were interested in taking it. Maybe it's because the novel is science fiction? Maybe there's no market? Not sure.

But all of that happened so I can have this book published by the cool, professional folks of Zharmae Publishing Press. They're young and amazing and I love having the chance to work with them.

Here's the final cover art by Tomasz Wieja:

Pre-orders of the Kindle edition are happening now at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Light-Bringers-Kingdom-Anne-Carly-ebook/dp/B011JZ53I8

The book will launch on September 12, 2015 and the paperback edition will be released a week after that.

Super excited! If you're interested, please do support me. I appreciate any help in getting the word out. I can give out copies for those who'd like to review my novel. :)

My New Creative Endeavor: Art in Jewels

It's something I'm exploring to channel my art into--jewelry creation. I use a combination of materials like precious and semi-precious stones, silk, glass, metals and leather to make wearable art. The concept is a fusion of nature and the human touch to create wearable pieces of art.

I already opened an instagram page @artinjewels
and the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Art-in-Jewels

Here are some of my creations :)

Glass and Pearls

Ice Jade and Silver

Carnelian and Silk

Glass and Metal

Lapiz Lazuli and Carnelian

Poem in Liquid Imagination and Short-Listed in the Erbacce Prize

"Soul Searching" at Liquid Imagination

The 2015 Erbacce Prize released its "long" shortlist and I'm honored to be included. Hoping and crossing my fingers that I win this one :)

3rd Japan-Russia Haiku Contest

darkening sky
the bamboo weeps over
the sun

featured in the Haiku Special from the 3rd Japan-Russia Haiku Contest. Honored to be included.:)

Read the rest of the Special here.

My Journey Into Jade Culture

It began in Hong Kong. We visited the Jade Market, and while I found the bangles, bracelets and carved ornaments wonderful, I also sensed there might be something amiss.

Why? Because sellers' wares were all the same!

Hundreds of jade pi beads, Buddhas, mystic knots, bangles, of the same apple green color.

If I recall right, this color is among the most expensive kinds and yet we were able to haggle a 1000 HKD piece down to 300. 70% off a steal? Not really. What I found out later on after reading up is that many of the jade in these bazaars are inferior, acid-treated stones called B-grade jade. And yet the sellers will only tell you they are selling you "JADE". Perhaps they do not know what they are selling. Or perhaps they're really just shady.

According to a source: "The international jade trade is reeling from a proliferation of doctored stones that have appeared on the market since 1990, hurting sales and eroding confidence in the translucent green gem prized throughout Asia" (Denise Hamilton, p.D1). This has been going on for years.

The first jade object was found 12,000 years ago, in the Immortal Cave in Haicheng of Liaoning Province. Those small disks called pi were used in religious rites, for worshiping the God of Heaven. Jade was also believed to ward off evil. Furthermore, "the Chinese wore jade ornaments in daily life as an indication of rank and social status. For example, the households of many nobles and wealthy families were filled with all kinds of carved daily articles made from jade (Free China Journal p.1)."

It is sad to see that an object with such a rich and beautiful history has been reduced to this revenue-generating machine that has, literally, lost all substance and meaning...

These are the kinds of "jade" that are proliferating in the market. Details from Mason-Kay:

‘B’ Jade:

Acid-bleached, polymer-impregnated

jadeite jade

‘C’ Jade:

Acid-bleached, polymer-impregnated,

dyed jadeite jade - the dyed form of 'B' jade

‘D’ Jade:

Dyed jadeite jade

‘D’ jade almost always pre-dates

the polymer treatment era

(no polymer present)

There is no value in obtaining these items because they are, simply put, fakes--approximations of the historic stone. There are only two kinds of jade--Jadeite and Nephrite. And they sell for hefty prices depending on the quality.

I plan to learn more about this beautiful stone and obtain wonderful carved pieces for my own collection. To make sure I don't fall for these fakes, it's important to get from reputable sellers or get the pieces that are certified to be Grade A, untreated stones. I think I'll also invest in a 10x loupe magnifier to aid me in my quest for beauty.

Poetry, Fiction, Jade and Gemstones

Update! Update!

What have I been doing lately? Being distracted, that's for sure. I've developed a love for the gemstone jade, so these days I've been reading up about crystals and crystal structures, the resonant sound of real stones (as compared to glass and plastic), the market values of gems, and schools to take up gemology in the Philippines.

When I remembered that I'm also a writer during other parts of the day, I went about catching up on my poetry and fiction. And then I submitted them places.

Here are the places where I'll be:

"Heather" (flash fiction) - James Gunn's Ad Astra, 2015
"Dysmorphia" (poem) - Apex Magazine, 2015
"Soul Searching" (poem) - Liquid Imagination, 2015

And I'll also be popping up as a featured poet in Edwin E. Smith's Quarterly Magazine, with eight poetry titles in the suite to be published in the Summer 2015 issue (which will also be the Fall 2014 issue, but expanded)! Whew, this is a first for me and I'm shamelessly going to plug it here!!

• Caretaker
• Autopsy
• Erasure
• Broken Cisterns
• Another Burial
• A Conversation with Water
• Skywalk
• How to Plant Your Death

Happy writing!:)

The Universality of Pain?

The ability to feel may not be exclusive to humans and animals. It never was, we just didn't know or didn't want to acknowledge that even plants may have a pain response in their bodies.

As a kid mimosa plants were abundant in open lots where I used to play with friends. We fought over who could kick at the plant or blow air at it to cause its leaves to fold up. Back then I already had a sense that those plants feel, though maybe not in the same way that humans feel. Pain is often coupled with fear, that's why many people, myself included, are afraid to go to the dentist. A previous encounter with fire makes me cautious when handling the element.

But as for plants, pain maybe serves as an alarm of sorts--to defend oneself, to repair "wounds" from scratches and breaks, to regenerate lost parts and, for some carnivorous types, to catch prey... I can only guess the function of pain in plants, but it's definitely not the same with animals and people who have the anatomy to run/move away.

The Smithsonian presents an interesting experiment that may have people rethinking ethics (*ehem vegetarianism*) very soon.

The video can't be embedded but it's here: http://www.smithsonianchannel.com/videos/do-plants-respond-to-pain/12151

Poor Student in an Elite School

An article from the Boston Globe explores exactly what its title specifies--"What is it like to be poor at an Ivy League school?"

I didn't graduate from an Ivy league school per se, but the Ateneo de Manila University comes close to the elite environment this article talks about. The sons and daughters of politicians, doctors, lawyers and business tycoons come to study in ADMU. I knew this from the get go. I had the option to study in the University of the Philippines or UP, but I got a full scholarship in ADMU. Having come from an exclusive girl school, Miriam, where I already felt the pangs of not having money to throw for parties and trendy things, I feared that I'd be left out in ADMU. But the full scholarship was too good an offer to pass, so I chose the Ateneo over UP.

True enough, my social standing stood out (at least to me) from the very first day of my freshman year. I noticed the branded clothes of all my classmates, their expensive bags, the smooth, fair skin of moneyed Chinese-Filipino men and women. I remember adjusting my dress-my-best Penshoppe blouse and suddenly feeling, well, drab.

The article painfully resonated with me. I didn't think it was something worth writing about until I read about how other students coming from a poor background "felt so out of place she might as well have had the words “low income” written on her forehead".

It can't be helped, I guess.

It's no one's fault that I felt the way I did. Perhaps it was MY fault for developing some form of inferiority complex. But to be honest, even as I reflect on things now, I don't know if there's anything that can be done about this. The article talks about forming organizations, unions or events to help low income "saling pusa" students to feel at home in the shiny world of elites. But won't doing so merely single out the students further?

The place where my social standing really stood out was in sports. I tried out for the varsity track and field team and got in. I trained as hard as I could under the hot, burning sun, while listening to teammates talk about their new Nike or Mizuno shoes. As a sprinter I needed to have my own spikes. Being that spikes cost around 5-6K Pesos at the time, I bought a second-hand pair from a classmate who used to do track in high school. When my teammates commented about how nice my shoes were, for the first time, I actually felt like I belonged.

But of course that was short-lived. I couldn't really bond with the team because they went out to parties and drinking sessions which my meager baon couldn't afford. I overheard a couple of comments about me being a kill-joy or not being very sociable but the truth was that I just couldn't afford the kind of lifestyle I was trying to live.

It's very true what one of the students in the Boston Globe article say, "Friends paired off quickly. “You’d get weeded out of friendships based on what you could afford."

Thus, I left the team.

Fast forward today, with a good, stable job, I've been able to pursue the sports that I love and gain some successes by winning in races and Muay Thai fights. I feel like I've fulfilled some childhood dreams at last. Issues resolved.

But here comes the realization. I am my social standing and it's not something that I need to play down or hide. I didn't come from a privileged background and IT MATTERS. Because I became who I am. I navigated my way through the glitz and glamour and still found my small awkward place that pushed me to make friends in a different way. I learned to take up a part time job in order to afford myself small luxuries like dinners out with privileged friends. Whenever I felt small and inadequate, I leveraged academics, skills and talents to prove myself to MYSELF. "See, there was another way to get here," I found myself saying. It wasn't social climbing, I don't believe it is. It was resourcefulness and learning the ability to adjust to difficult situations.

Most of all, I learned to believe in myself.

I'm glad I didn't go to UP just so I wouldn't feel left out. I'm glad I trusted my gut which said "this is where you belong" when I stepped into Ateneo grounds.

At The Cascadia Subduction Zone's April 2015 Issue!

The poems:
"This is How You Teach a Bird to Walk"

and

"The Weight of Forgiveness"

Link to Aqueduct Press' Blog Post

Porky the Hedgehog's Beauty Shot

Special thanks to my officemate, Denice :D

Masquerade

I don't have a scanner, so I just took a picture of this. :)

"Masquerade"
Mixed Media on watercolor paper

"Geographies" by Sayantani Dasgupta

"Geographies" is smooth and touching. It felt too real to be something I just read. The local details added the grit and flavor that made such a short piece into a real piece of treasure.

Recommended read over at Contrary Magazine.

Acceptance Letters First Quarter 2015

I have not been as prolific as I'd like. But I do believe I've been producing higher quality work lately. More inspired. More meaty.

70% of the time, I submit work to paying publications. The other 30% are for the non-paying zines that I either read already or read ABOUT in reviews. I choose paying pubs for several reasons:

1. The curation of the work is USUALLY of higher quality.
2. They place a budget on cover art.
3. They place a premium value on art, contributing to a culture that supports artists.

This is not to say that non-paying joints produce low-quality work. But I have seen it happen. Perhaps because the publisher has a free reign to include as many literary pieces as it likes. Like padding. I have also, however, seen non-paying reviews that publish high quality work. I enjoyed reading these journals so much that I wonder why they aren't getting the readership they deserve?!

Anyway, here are the places where I will appear in this year.

• The Philippines Graphic Magazine - "As We Wake" (Already out, March 2, 2015)
• Mythic Delirium 2.1 - "The Secret Life of Cabinets"
• Garden Gnome Publications' Deluge Anthology - "Aqualung"
• The Write Place at the Write Time - "Frying Eggs" and "To the Coddled Youth"
• The Cascadia Subduction Zone - "This How You Teach a Bird to Walk" and "The Weight of Forgiveness."
• Nameless Magazine - "The Gospel of Gossip", "The Verbose Contagion", "The Devil's Darning Needle"
• Dreams and Nightmares - "A Witch's Thousand Years of Joy"

Thank you to the editors for the opportunity!

:)

Hiring Process

This story was featured in OMNI Reboot on December 2013, initially posted here. The story is no longer archived there so I'm posting it here :)

Hiring Process

by Anne Carly Abad

You human?

3:46 p.m.

I am an artificial intelligence.

3:46 p.m.

Okay, let’s do this.

3:47 p.m.

I read in your online profile that you work well with my kind. Please specify instance.

3:50 p.m.

In my previous job, an android co-worker was speech-recog-impaired. I often helped her by inputting stuff she couldn’t get.

3:51 p.m.

An earlier model, then? What is your opinion of older versions?

3:51 p.m.

The older ones are actually easier to work with. Newer androids are fast, but they seem to glitch-out when fed a lot of info.

3:53 p.m.

Kindly elaborate on this “glitching.”

3:53 p.m.

Let’s put it this way: when you eat too fast, you might choke. But when you chew slowly, you appreciate the tastes more.

3:54 p.m.

Cannot interpret statement. Please try again.

3:55 p.m.

Right. The new ones freeze, bootloop… not sure what the technical term is. L

3:56 p.m.

I see. Are you a good conversationalist?

3:56 p.m.

As long as I don’t have to type in everything, I have no problems.

3:57 p.m.

What do you think about handling an all-android marketing team?

3:57 p.m.

What’s the product?

3:58 p.m.

At this point, it is confidential.

3:58 p.m.

Do I get to work with Model 2050s or 2060s?

3:59 p.m.

We are employing the more stable 2050s, as we are well aware of the new model’s bootloop issues.

3:59 p.m.

Nice. If that’s the case, I’ll set up the personality ratio to 50% confronting and 50% passive order-taking. Gotta keep things moving.

4:00 p.m.

You would have half your team questioning your every decision?

4:00 p.m.

I’d have them THINKING. Two heads are better than one, you know what they say.

4:01 p.m.

When can you start?

4:01 p.m.

How much will you pay?

4:02 p.m.

Excuse me?

4:02 p.m.

You’re pirating me, aren’t you? You should be offering me a sizeable amount. Don’t tell me you didn’t do your research, madam/mister AI?

4:03 p.m.

You may address me as Recruiter X. Protocol calls for me to discuss matters of compensation on our second interview, Sir.

4:03 p.m.

Oh, come on! D’you beat around the bush when you hire an android?

4:05 p.m.

You are human. You must understand that different rules of etiquette apply.

4:05 p.m.

What? That’s discrimination. I can’t even… I’m out.

4:06 p.m.

Sir, it was not my intent to offend you.

4:07 p.m.

Sir?

4:10 p.m.

Is this a government update? When did it become okay to give bots preferential treatment?

4:24 p.m.

No such update exists, Sir.

4:24 p.m.

Well then, why are you processing bots faster than humans?

4:25 p.m.

Damage control protocol missing.

4:25 p.m.

You do know I have a record of this text conversation, don’t you?

4:26 p.m.

Give me 30 minutes. We will discuss your compensation package then.

4:26 p.m.

That’s more like it.

4:30 p.m.

White and Gold or Blue and Black? This Dress is Driving Me Nuts

What color is this dress??? Seriously? Had the tab open to this page, and I was sure I saw WHITE AND GOLD.

I went to the bathroom, and the next thing I know, the dress is BLUE AND BLACK.

I experimented with my officemates by opening the picture on my computer screen and having them look.

5 Men say: White and Gold
5 Women say: Blue and Black

Is it a sex difference thing?

I furthered my research, and some claim that "scientists" explain this phenomenon as a side effect of one's emotional state. If you see Blue and Black, it's because you're stressed. If you see white and gold, you're calm and happy.

But what's the true color of the dress? Gizmodo peeps used photoshop's eyedropper tool and it identified the dress to be BLUE. No more arguing with that. But people are still seeing the white and gold.

MINDFUCK!

I Must Have an Addict Gene in Me

I used to stay up until 4AM when my brother's away. That's because the Playstation 2 is in his room and I binge on all the JRPGs I can play while he's not around. I tend to lock myself away playing, to the point that my face got sunburned by the TV rays... well, I was told that I looked suddenly darker after my gaming spree.

Anyway, with the muse nowhere in sight and my fingers not feeling like producing poetry and fiction, I've been like an addict experiencing withdrawal symptoms after playing Hearthstone all weekend on my mom's ipad mini. I don't live at home during weekdays so I don't have an ipad to come home to so I can keep playing after work. I broke down my gaming laptop last year and don't have the cash to blow on a new lappie just yet.

I'm a scavenger, using my boyfriend's desktop and mom's ipad to get me by the dry season of artistry. Holy shit I can't believe I'm looking at 2nd hand ipads and Nintendo DSs because they're more affordable than a new PC. No no no what's happening?? :P

Micheal Jackson Cat, Must be the Funniest Cat Vid I've Seen So Far

Post by Huffington Post UK.

Going to Japan on Friday

Half-packed my bags (not yet done). Made a checklist of things to bring. Reviewed my hiragana and katakana. Still know how to count and ask for a discount... Loaded with excitement!

I've always wanted to visit Japan, being an anime lover and fan of JRPGs.

THE PLAN

Day 1, Friday

We're going ryokan style to really get a feel of the culture. So after checking in, we're heading right on over to Studio Ghibli. We've already asked our host to get tickets for us so there's no dilly dallying. Friday was the only day with tickets still available in the next 6 days!

Day 2, Saturday

Victor and I will be checking out Ueno Zoo. I want to see pandas! I keep watching panda YouTube videos and it's about time to see a real live one. Maybe we'll visit an onsen after our zoo escapade.

Day 3, Sunday

We've booked a bike tour that lasts for around 6 hours. Hopefully my cardio is good enough for this. The route: Nihonbashi, Ningyo-cho, Ryogoku, Asakusa, Ueno, Hongo, Kanda, Shinbashi. Check em out here.

Day 4, Monday

Of course, Akihabara is included in the itinerary, being that both Victor and I are geeks. Yodobashi Camera: The Leisure Hive is on the path. We're checking out some of the snazzy cafes, like the Gundam Cafe, too.

Day 5, Tuesday

If we still have money left, maybe Tokyo Disneyland. But We're probably gonna be broke by now, so we might be found wandering the streets like el cheapos.

Day 6, Wednesday

We're flying back home this day. So we'll enjoy Japan air while we wait for our flight. :P

I'll post the photos and experiences as they come.

Songs of Eretz E-zine & Poetry Review: Poem of the Day: “In the Gorge” by Anne Carly Aba...

Songs of Eretz E-zine & Poetry Review: Poem of the Day: “In the Gorge” by Anne Carly Aba...: Songs of Eretz Poetry Review is pleased to present “In the Gorge” by Anne Carly Abad.   Ms. Abad has recently been nominated for the Pushc...

Today I Quote Nathan Beesley

"yesterday there was a suicide bombing in Yemen which killed 37 people and wounded 66, but this received nowhere near as much coverage as the Paris shootings. Why? Because these attacks, which happen every day in the Middle East, don’t fit the narrative of ‘us and them’. The reality is that most of the victims of Islamic extremism are Muslims and that Islamic extremism is the product, not of age old ideological rivalry, but concrete socio-economic problems facing much of the Middle East."

Read the entire article here

I Think I Died Laughing

Animals with bad dubbing #Win. This vid's been in the interwebs for a while but I only now discovered it. :'D

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy?

I began seriously writing in 2010. As part of my journey, I joined AbsoluteWrite, a forum for established and aspiring writers. The people in AW have helped propel me through the bad grammar, run on sentences, shaky plots and clichéd concepts.

I checked out my profile and found that I actually wrote some stuff there, surprising stuff. Have a look at the dream I wrote:

I wrote that my ultimate writing dream is to get my epic series published. I've been working on a novel for the better part of four years, and I think that unconsciously, I'm getting there! Yesterday, I've submitted the revised version of The Light Bringer's Kingdom, which stands at 85,000 words, cut down from its original 100,000. I guess much of this novel was fluff. I'm happy that my editors at Zharmae Publishing Press pushed me to cut out the unneeded sections of the story, and get the underlying gem to shine through. I've been delayed due to the length of time it took to rewrite sections of my novel that needed better characterization. But I'm almost there. We're almost there!

Also, the prequel to The Light Bringer's Kingdom, Epiko is also starting to look good, standing at 40,000 words and counting. I'm almost done with it. Just keep pressing on, I've always told myself. Things will fall into place.

Whoa, I'm 27!

I've heard that 27 is the crossroads year. Is it? Apparently greater challenges are coming ahead. But oh, come on, the last 26 other years haven't exactly been a walk in the park!

I wonder what's in store? There are a couple of things I want to achieve this year:

1. Get rich
2. Get writing
3. Get active in some social work.

I'm almost done editing my novel, The Light Bringer's Kingdom. I'll be sending it to back to my publisher today, in the hopes of the revisions being good to go. Just rereading the whole thing before sending :)