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.