Work that's Appeared in the Philippines Graphic Magazine this 2014

While I have my eye on the international scene, my heart still belongs in my home country. That's why I've been aiming to have my work out in local joints, which are becoming fewer and fewer every year. :(

The Philippines Graphic Magazine has remained strong throughout the years, thanks to the efforts of dedicated editors Joel Pablo Salud and Ms. Alma Anonas-Carpio. The literary dream lives on!

This is a late post, the result of many things going on in my life, moving jobs and homes being two of them.

In the Graphic's June 9 issue appears my poem "Transit"

Transit

Can hell be any nearer?
This infernal heat--
sun, swelter, pigslush of bodies.
Behind the scenes, someone winds up
a music box playing
the chilling tragedy of transit:

The mob puts Dante's damned
to shame.
The line is the first circle
of anguish, patience
is no virtue
in this push-and-shove contest
where everyone finishes last

because the trains are a lottery
in themselves. Fickle as storms
they decide whether or not to take you
to your destined haven, serving suffering
with a fleck of hope--
success for some, failure for most.

Until routine sets in,
birthing Devil whelps
wallowing in the third hell
of peaceful torment.

Meanwhile, I cut down and finalized my long short story "Sage's Reckoning" and subbed it to the team months later. The story, at a whopping 6500 words, thankfully made it to the coveted pages. Whew.

Part 1 of "Sage's Reckoning" appears in the August 18, 2014 issue;
Part 2 is in the August 25, 2014 issue, which my friend Angelo
luckily came upon and obtained in a branch of NBS in Ortigas.
YES! I have a copy!

I'm thinking about posting the story in this blog. Still thinking about it. I mean, it's so long, so it's not particularly fun to read on-screen, right?

Some Poems that Came out 2013: No One Wants a Girl with Brains and Things We Tell Ourselves After Elections

Thanks to the editors of The Philippines Graphic Magazine. I wasn't able to get a copy of this particular June 14, 2013 issue since National Bookstore may have run out of it that time :(

No One Wants a Girl with Brains

No one wants a girl with brains
just make sure she doesn't burn your bacon
but when she does
raise your voice immediately

make known the vastness of your displeasure

and if for some reason, she causes you to go hungry once more

you may have to go old fashioned on her--

ball your hands into fists

you're sure to get her knees wobbling.

No one wants a girl with brains

you need someone who won't complain

she should smile when you get home late

never to figure out why

you no longer touch her withered prunes

that you're tired, is all

she will ever know.

If you do get a girl with brains
just make sure she doesn't like to use them

she should laugh when you tell her to make a sandwich

(and maybe make you a real one, too)

and solicit your help even when she knows what to do

making you feel needed,

she might just be

the prize among all prizes!

~

Things We Tell Ourselves After Elections

Keep telling yourself
that the masses are the powerful
ones, yeast that works through the whole dough
much more potent than you
in your leathers and power suits
or even you with the still-hot diploma in your hands.

Keep telling yourself
that the masses are the ones that kick ass
at election time, and once more you’ve gotten whopped,
you whose vote couldn’t make a modest dent
into the iron doors of a tomorrow
you can but now accept.

Keep telling yourself
that the masses are not stupid
just a bit drunk on TV, and easy
to manipulate, as all things
that run on empty
tend to be.

Keep telling yourself
all they need is you, and your gift
of information
just maybe a dash of a better
education. Keep telling yourself that
we need just one solution.

 

"Alphonse" in the Philippines Graphic Magazine (July 1, 2013)

The fiction jive seems to have returned to me. I'm getting lots of interesting ideas that can actually be made into stories! I've even tried out something new. Well, I call "Alphonse," which is my latest story, a crime fiction piece, but I'm not really sure what it is. It wasn't my intention to make it just about crime. Anyway, genres are a matter for critics.

Last, last week, I asked around for some interested readers so I could get some comments on my story. Sir Joel Pablo Salud was one of those who volunteered, and to be honest, I was like, "Uh-oh. Prepare for workshop days!" Because during those days in Dumaguete and Bacolod, I got mostly raised eyebrows and awkward reactions bordering on dafuq-did-I-just-read, for my scifi pieces.

I believe no story is perfect. Though I think part of the reason why I stopped writing fiction for a while was all the ouch-level comments I got from stories I wrote two years ago. My fiction hiatus wasn't such a bad thing though, as I discovered my now-first love--poetry.

And back to those who volunteered to read, I was surprised to get mostly positive reactions. And a few days later, Ms. Alma Anonas-Carpio tagged me on Facebook to tell me they're publishing "Alphonse" in the Philippines Graphic Magazine. I was so happy, but then I also panicked. I was like, "Waitaminit is the story in tip-top shape already?!" So I checked and checked my work and well, I guess a panicky mood isn't a good way to get into the revising zone. One needs to be cool and logical. Everything tends to look wrong when you're harried. I wonder why?

But hey, I mean, I trust the editors of Graphic to know their stuff. And it's certainly an honor to grace their pages once more, so I relaxed and just enjoyed my week, knowing that I was able to write something different, and hopefully worthwhile, too. Wait, worthwhile? Actually, I want to write terrifying stories with grit and glamor.

So if you have time, do grab a copy of the July 1, 2013 issue of the Philippines Graphic Magazine, and tell me how "Alphonse" affected you (hopefully it will!).

Available in National Bookstore outlets and other distributors.

Strange Horizons, At Last! Plus the Philippines Graphic

*cartwheels*

*roundhouse kicks*
*jumping jacks*

Who cares if that wound on my shin is gonna scar like hell (though let's hope it doesn't. I still want to wear my dresses). Last week was a hell of a bad week for me, but maybe bad luck fuels creativity?

Just too excited right now. I've been wanting, or more of dreaming to be a part of one of my favorite speculative fiction sources ever, Strange Horizons. (Town's End by Yukimi Ogawa is a recent fave. Go read it's not that long). About two years back, I read about how a Pinoy, Dean Alfar, got in there. I was so envious given that the speculative writing genre isn't so in among the Filipino writing community. It has been heavily criticized, the point of many writers being that genre writers are not literary enough, relying on plot devices to make stories stimulating and exciting. Another point is that it is redundant, as fiction in itself is supposed to be speculation/speculative.

Yet I beg to disagree. I've enjoyed speculative fiction since I was a child, and I may not be a lit major, but I can tell the difference between the so-called literary works and the specfic I enjoy. Literary works have this trend of being so heavy with symbolism that there is almost NO story in the story. There is also a trend to use the first person narrator, which is not bad in itself, but the stories have, for some reason, begun to sound alike, as though just one person wrote them. Heavy on inward thinking, and the character's preoccupation with how he/she feels, it gets tiring after a while. The stories smell great, but give me something to eat.

I tried getting into Strange Horizons via fiction first. Fiction is my first love, but maybe it doesn't love me back. So I combined my specfic writing skillz with my poetry, and voila, I've found something I love even more, and it actually looks like it loves me back! @_@

Ms. Adrienne Odasso, Poetry Co-editor of SH got in touch this morning as a poem of mine got in at last! *tears of joy.* Maybe I'll frame the letter? Or is that weird? Hahaha

Dear Anne:

We are pleased to inform you that your poem titled "Rehearsal for When He Wakes" has been selected for publication in Strange Horizons. [cut short by me]

I will be in contact with you shortly about minor edits to the poem (mostly punctuation, etc.)

Regards,

Adrienne Odasso
Poetry Co-Editor

This week is too good to be true! I mean... I should probably see a priest / medicine man to protect me from bad luck because I don't want to pay with another big wound. Please please please.

Earlier this week, Ms. Alma Anonas-Carpio, Literary Editor of the Philippines Graphic magazine also got in touch with an acceptance. (I'd have blogged sooner if my work weren't so darned heavy with an exciting new mobile app):

Hi Anne!

I am pleased to inform you that we are taking all your poems. However, because we need to give way to other authors, I am calendaring your poems to appear pair by pair three months apart, so you have work coming out in the next issue, then in September and December. 

I hope this is okay with you.

Alma Anonas-Carpio

Literary Editor

Philippines Graphic magazine

So that's June, September, and December 2013, where any of the following poems will appear:

• Things We Tell Ourselves After Elections
• No One Wants a Girl with Brains
• An Appetite for Words 
• Salt
• A Study of Swarm Intelligence

So I just have to control the happiness now because it might make me go pack up like a bear and hibernate. No, these aren't reason to take a break. These are reasons for me to push on harder and write better. One thing I've learned, the more hard work you put in, the better the work that comes out. Some people rely on being inspired to write, but I just go out and look for the inspiration. I'm fortunate to find them everywhere I look.

Thank you Strange Horizons and the Philippines Graphic Magazine for making my year.

Now, to do some Muay Thai...

Two Poems in the PH Graphic Mag

They're already available in the newstands, I heard, but I can't seem to get my hands on a copy of the Philippines Graphic mag.

As I wrote last month, my poems "A Sense of Loss" and "Habagat" appear in the magazine's issue for the week of November 5, 2012. Posting them here:

A Sense of Loss

The body is a cruel thing

wise, like the spirit,

like that little voice within

that whispers of odds

something is changing

yet, while the voice can be silenced,

senses are always acknowledged

much like how, before rains,

my skin crawls as though beset

by unseen ghosts, passing.

Yes, the body knows,

but it doesn’t understand

there are things

we just don’t want to know.

You are the same

but I can’t ignore how

your skin on mine

has become an annoyance;

your voice some noise

that disrupts my reading.

Somehow, I’ve returned to days

when it didn’t make a difference

whether or not someone waited

or met me at the door

and what of this dizziness

frequent tremors

haunting migraines

fever and tasteless tongue?

It feels much like grief

but right now, I don’t have to

put a name to it.

Things are going so well

and we still have a movie to catch

this Saturday.

Habagat

Jesus walked on water

            when the rains hit

            we walked in smog-gray waters

            that rippled over our knees

            I imagined I was San Pedro

            but all I did was slosh and wade

Genesis 8:7-12

            we never got home

            mudwaters rose higher

            than the riverbank trees

        we were being punished

the bishops said

what did we do this time?

my brother is down there

I cried for forgiveness

On the third day, he rose again

            people reciting the Creed

            while I ate noodles and sardines

        in the tomb of the Cruz family

        they’re keeping the ghosts away

but I worried more for my brother

nowhere in this shelter

has he joined our many friends

previously buried by Ondoy?

Revelation           

they said you’re nameless

            rain or flood isn’t good enough

            to remember you by

            but I’ll always know you

            by my brother’s name…

            still missing. still missing.

Two of my poems accepted in the Philippines Graphic Magazine

So aside from me signing up for my first official Muay Thai fight (wtf did I get myself into???), I received an acceptance letter last night from Ms. Alma Anonas-Carpio of the Philippines Graphic Magazine. I'm so happy that I feel like I'm gonna do good in my first fight! I'm gonna train much harder starting today.

Here's the letter I got:

Hi Anne,

Thank you for submitting your poems to the Graphic. We have selected two of your poems, A Sense of Loss and Habagat, for our literary section. They are lovely pieces and it is our pleasure to carry them in our pages.

Alma Anonas-Carpio

Literary Editor

*Positive thinking*

Nick Joaquin Literary Awards 2011 Invite!

What does this mean?! 

That was the first thing that popped up in my head when I saw the subject line of the email. My goodness they sure can get a girl worked up. I read the email to find that it's an invite to the Awards night on September 22. I don't want to expect, but seeing the invite made me hope that I might have a chance. Argh! *pulls at hair*

 Whatever happens, I know I shouldn't let this affect my attitude toward writing. But it sure is hard to ignore...

Published in Philippines Graphic Magazine

Kinda forgot to post about this. Was published in the October 4, 2010 issue of the Philippines Graphic Magazine. "Topheth No More" appears in the fiction category, under a rather plain-sounding name: Anne Abad. I've been so busy at work I don't have much energy left to update my online life.