The Philippine Online Chronicles

Philippine Speculative Fiction 6 was introduced to the world last 28 May 2011 at the UView Theater, Fully Booked Serendra, in a book launch hosted by publisher and speculative fiction advocate Dean Alfar.

Among the stories showcased in this issue are Xin Mei's “Less Time, Less Talk”; Maryanne Moll’s “God is the Space Between,” which gives names and faces to each nameless woman made a victim of violence; Dominique Cimafranca’s “Grenadier,” the story of a kidnapping victim fighting back; “The Last Time I Saw Uncle Freddie” by Crystal Koo, about an amateur sleuth unearthing family secrets after the death of her uncle; and “Blogcaster” by Alex Osias, speculating on the dangers posed by fact-revealers despite the new method of exposing crimes through the Internet.

“I want to thank all these writers for their submissions to the PGS crime issue…it’s not about whodunit, but why,” said Batacan in her speech. “This is the Philipppines, where 57 people can be massacred in broad daylight….they [the contributors] show a real understanding of motive, of the basic impulses that drive the human animal.”

After Yu stepped down, Alfar took over with this ominous announcement. “If you’re a contributor, we’re gonna make you get up in front and talk—or no free copy for you! Even if you’re not a contributor, we may do this to you anyway; we’re just like that. You have been warned.”

A little background: the annual PSF anthology has been ongoing for about six years, beginning with the efforts of Dean and Nikki Alfar, then Nikki Alfar and Vincent Michael Simbulan, and now Nikki Alfar and Kate Aton-Osias—in Dean’s words, the first girl power tandem.

“We started humble and we’re still humble.” Alfar said. “Tonight is about the authors; it should always be about the authors.”

The writers of Philippine Speculative Fiction vol. 6

The first of the anthology's contributors, Asterio Enrico N. Gutierrez (“The Big Man”) was not present, so award-winning indie filmmaker Noel Lim stood in for him. Ian Rosales Casocot (“Alternative Histories”) was also absent, so Dumaguete and Silliman fellow Alyza Taguilaso claimed his contributor’s copy. Other contributors, however, put in an appearance and a few words—including Elyss G. Punsalan (“Ashland”) and Arlynn Despi (“Carpaccio (or, Repentance as a Meat Recipe)”).

Vincent Michael Simbulan (“The Grim Malkin”) went next.

“It’s a special time to be with fellow writers who really understand what you go through when you’re writing a story,” he said.

He was followed by Christine V. Lao (“From the Book of Names My Mother Did Not Give Me”); John Philip Corpus (“Prisoner 2501,” his first published story); and Maria Elena Paterno (“A Smell of Mothballs”).

The youngest author—15-year-old Joseph Anthony Montecillo with his second published piece, "Villainoguing"—went next, followed by Paolo Chikiamco (“On Wooden Wings”) and Francis Gabriel Concepcion (“The Break-in on Batay Street,” his first published work). Next was Kenneth Yu (“The Kiddie Pool”, winner of Fantasy Magazine’s 2009 Halloween Flash Fiction Contest), Maria Pia V. Benosa (“Eternal Winter”), Jay Steven Anyong (“Lament of the Counselor”), and the author whose global following led Dean Alfar to describe him as the ‘Kris Aquino ng Spec Fic’—Charles Tan (“The Bookshelves of Ms. Go”).

Andrei Tupaz contributed “Offerings to Aman Sinaya”, which was inspired by his mother.

On the importance of speculative fiction, he said, “A lot of people here of a certain generation don’t even know that sci-fi and fantasy are now called speculative fiction. So I guess we need to read speculative fiction since we’re still in the memoirs stage.”

Victor Fernando R. Ocampo (“Resurrection”) was next; then Andrew Drilon (“Strange Adventures in Procreation”), the lone author whose stories have appeared in all six volumes. The final four contributors were Crystal Koo (“Hollowbody”), Eliza Victoria (“The Storyteller’s Curse”), Alexander Marcos Osias (“The Impossible and the R.S.C. Gregorio Del Pilar”), and Dean Alfar himself (“Simon’s Replica”).

The event concluded with the announcement that the call for submissions for the seventh volume will begin the following day (29 May 2011), and that the editors for this upcoming volume are married couple Kate and Alex Osias. For the interested, Alex Osias is into military, action, and science fiction stories, while Kate Osias has leanings toward pieces dealing with “love, longing, sweetness, sorrow, grief, loss, and lyricism”.

Dean Alfar left a prophesy for aspiring contributors at the closing: “Maybe next time, it will be you, I say generically.”

Also see:

An interview with the PSF6 editors on Rocket Kapre.

Watch out for Metakritiko's upcoming review of the Philippine Genre Stories Crime Issue.

Copyright for PSF6 cover art is believed to belong to the publisher of the book, or the graphic artist.