THEOREM in Philippines Free Press

My poem 'THEOREM" appears in this week's online issue of Philippines Free Press

LINK :  http://philippinesfreepress.com.ph/?p=5023

Taj Mahal Review

I'm pleased to receive an acceptance letter from the Managing Editor of Taj Mahal Review for a poem I submitted. It will be included in the June 2012 issue.

Taj Mahal Review is edited by Dr. Santosh Kumar

Edited by: Dr. Santosh Kumar

Binding: Paperback
ISSN: 0972-6004
Publisher: Cyberwit.net
Pub. Date: June 2012


How to get a copy:  http://www.cyberwit.net/publications/405

haiku - 2nd placer

Glad to win 2nd place for my haiku judged by Kirsten Cliff .  

 Here's the link:  http://blossomrain.blogspot.com/2012/05/results-of-1st-haiku-my-photo-challenge.html

Blossom 

CONFIUCHUS

CONFIUCHUS
by Angelo B. Ancheta
published in Philippines Free Press, June 18, 2011
LINK:  http://philippinesfreepress.com.ph/?p=3451

Journaling as Talking

I have a  short guest post in the April 27, 2012 issue of WritingKid, a newsletter written by kids or adults for kids, titled "Journaling as Talking". WritingKid is a section of FundsforWriters, edited and managed by C. HOPE CLARK, author of LOWCOUNTRY BRIBE.

My essay is a recollection of the time I started journal writing.

The Borrower

My story "The Borrower" is the 2nd place Winner of PSICOM's 3rd Ghost Story Writing Contest and is included in True Philippines Ghost Stories 31 anthology now available in National Bookstore and Bestsellers outlets.

"TEST CASES"

TEST CASES
by Angelo B. Ancheta

Eliza Victoria's debut e-book of two-novellas titled LOWER MYTHS demands readers'(especially those who are following her work)dedication as she leads them inside her labyrinth of magic and madness.

Trust Fund Babies reeks of gangster, power lust, whodunit gases diffused in a cloud of biting rivalry between two supernatural clans: the mambabarang (witches) and the diwata (fairies) minus the expected display of sorcery or magic wands and spell casts that are all too common in a traditional fantasy. TFB's twists-and-turns are comparable to modern day whodunits' that could knock a Sue Grafton or a Michael Connelly potboiler off the bestseller chart. In the conflict between supernatural families, it is easy to tell which side Victoria is on. On another level, Victoria's subtle commentary on rich scions is hardly refutable.

The Very Last Case of Messrs Aristotel and Arkimedes Magtanggol, Attorneys-at-Law is a head-spinner. Victoria's switching POVs and alternating between two narratives could trigger a migraine. But she is too quick to offer a ticklish balm that makes a reader hesitate between raising an eyebrow or stifling a guffaw or do both. Is her antic a sheer sweet dream or a delicious nightmare?

Victoria tackles and compresses themes so intricately interwoven: duality in nature, catatonia, angst (toward a certain kind of father), brotherhood, ravages of war, crime, violence. The Very Last Case of Messrs. Aristotel and Arkimedes Magtanggol: Attorneys-at-Law is a highly-textured novella and is not an easy read yet full of surprises for the patient reader. Moreover, taking down notes could be helpful so as not get lost as there are traps so subtly implanted in the mansion of many rooms but with doors locked.

Lower Myths is an incontestable showcase of Eliza Victoria's storytelling range, depth, dexterity when mixing together elements of magic, suspense, horror and crime in a cauldron exclusively for her.

***

LOWER MYTHS e-book is published by Flipside Publishing and is available on Amazon Kindle and Flipreads.

"REFRACTIONS"

REFRACTIONS
by Angelo B. Ancheta
published in Philippines Free Press

The glass has lost its sheen.
A child could hardly see what he used to laugh
at: a missing tooth, a pimple on his nose
because like the ants too-soon swept away
by the onslaught before they could save
the future, he did not think better than to subsist
on what was on hand while his mother attended
to her daily business. But she soon went cold
on the other side of the glass. The last time
he kissed her, she did not say a word. The rest
did not even sense what it was like to bend
with the light. It ought to be the best of times.
But remember Einstein. There at the end, he said,
they would all come together again if we only know
how to listen. What he might be saying was:
there is only one light. But there is not one solitude.

— Angelo B. Ancheta

This poem appeared in Philippines FREE Press, 03/31/2012
LINK: http://philippinesfreepress.com.ph/?p=4813

BUHAY MAYNILA BOOK 2 review

My review of the e-book "BUHAY MAYNILA BOOK 2" by Jose Corazon de Jesus or more popularly known as "Huseng Batute" is in this week's issue of GRAPHIC magazine dated March 19, 2012.

Huseng Batute is the Philippines' "King of Balagtasan".

Walt Whitman Foundation's "Funny Thing That Happened on the way to the Library/Bookstore" essay contest

Just glad. My essay "Funny Thing That Happened in the Library" won Honorable Mention / Most Outrageous in the Walt Whitman Foundation's essay writing contest hosted/organized by readlearnwrite.com

Here's the link: http://readlearnwrite.com/winners-announced-a-funny-thing-happened-on-the-way-to-the-bookstorelibrary/

thank you

Thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart to all those who greeted me. Thanks and God bless always.

Love After Love

LOVE AFTER LOVE
by Derek Walcott

The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

Click to listen to my reading: http://soundcloud.com/user1145146/loveafterlove

on contests and a disclaimer

On joining writing/writers' contests

I have nothing against contests; however, I don't use the "contest" as my driving force. Of course, I'll be happy to WIN if I do join. By the way, you(anyone) can tell that I join contests, that is, if you're(or s/he is) reading my previous posts.

A WORD OF CAUTION: Those who are reading my blogs (especially young ones or students), please note that whatever I post here are not final, and most of the time I go back to my previous blogs to edit, to correct errors, both typo and grammatical, as well as the contents. Sometimes I remove them entirely. Just a friendly reminder and a disclaimer.

SF authors

A few of my "favorite" (for lack of a better modifier) SF authors in no particular order:

1. Ray Bradbury
2. Isaac Asimov
3. Michael Crichton
4. Philip K. Dick
5. William Gibson
6. Neal Stephenson

7. Cory Doctorow
8. Paolo Bacigalupi
9. ken liu

what I have written so far

Here's the list of short stories I have written and published (submitted and/or won) so far.
All of these I wrote last year(2011)

1. "Where's the Moon?", Philippines GRAPHIC (08/01/11)
It's a story of a young, working mother's denial and later acceptance of her child suffering from a "developmental" condition. The seed of this story germinated more than five years ago when a 'yaya' was attending to a three-year-old kid one early evening and was pointing at the moon.

Where's the Moon? is my very first published short story.

2. "Text Talks", Philippines Free Press (10/01/11)
Partly-based on true-to-life story of a young, working, blind woman who wants (sighted) people to have faith in her and not to treat her like the rest of the blind people one usually encounters in the street alleys or church premises.

Here's a link to the story: http://philippinesfreepress.com.ph/?p=4303

3. "SEEDS",
This short short story won a "Certificate of Distinction" from the Intergeneration Foundation for its story-telling contest on intergenerational stories or stories focused on grandparents and grandchildren. I was so surprised when I received an e-mail that my entry was one of the 'Winners' from almost 170 participants worldwide. It is not everyday that this happens. And it's my very first short-short story.

Here's the link where my name is listed: http://www.intergenerationday.org/storyboard.html

4. "The Borrower", PSICOM's True Philippines Ghost Stories
I've been writing in my journal(not really formally since bits were written in a small notebook, and some in a private blog) about some of my real ghost encounters/paranormal experience. When I saw the call for submission from PSICOM for it's 2nd GHOST-WRITING Storywriting Contest, I compiled the stories I have written and by some twist of fate I saw an invisible 'thread' binding them, and thus one cohesive narrative came to mind. I submitted my story THE BORROWE and to my surprise it won 2nd place in PSICOM's 3rd GHOST WRITING CONTEST. It will be included in True Philippine Ghost Stories Vol 31 (TPGS31) this year.












https://www.facebook.com/psicompublishing/posts/10150383035771616

5. a coming-of-age story for a contest which didn't win
6. a sci-fi story (cyberpunk) which is actually a beginning of a novel, and needs a little rewriting if I want to have a short story out of it, or a chapter that could stand alone
7. a Christmas horror story which I haven't finished

I find that horror, sci-fi, children and realist stories are within my comfort zone. Fantasy and other genres are harder for me.

**********

My Translations:

1. Five Filipino Poems, http://artinsitemagazine.com/ezine/five-filipino-poets-five-translations-byangelo-ancheta/

2. "BONSAI" by Edith Tiempo, "http://www2.rizalnewsonline.com/?p=1124"

3. "BETWEEN US" by Mark Angeles, http://patikimnimakoy.blogspot.com/2011_08_01_archive.html

4. "THE MOST BEAUTIFUL POEM ON EARTH" by Wallei Bautista Trinidad, http://kuwentongfabulous.blogspot.com/2011/04/ang-pinakamagandang-tula-sa-balat-ng.html



Some Poems:

1. "A New Song", the Asia Mag, http://www.theasiamag.com/poetry/poetry-from-you/a-new-song

2. "Confiuchius", Philippines Free Press, http://philippinesfreepress.com.ph/?p=3451

3. “BIR-IT, JAN-NY!”, Under the Storm: An Anthology of Contemporary Philippine Poetry, September 2, 2011.

Filipino Poems:

1. "Paglalagom kay Rizal", http://www.rizalnewsonline.com/2011/06/tula-paglalagom-kay-rizal-ni-angelo-b.html

HUSENG BATUTE: BUHAY MAYNILA

Pantas Project Philippines, headed by Fernando V. Cao,Palanca-award winner, launches the "JOSE CORAZON DE JESUS: BUHAY MAYNILA", a collection of poems that appeared in pre-War TALIBA Book 2 (February 15 0 June 7, 1921). The e-book, available in PDF, is made available solely for personal enjoyment or academic purposes and not to be reproduced in any form and distributed for profit.

It's available from: http://pantasprojectphils.net84.net/lit-elib/husebatute.html

OR from the alternate site: http://www.freefilehosting.net/bm-2

***
ABOUT FERNANDO V. CAO & MEOPHELIA SANTOS-CAO
FERNANDO VILLARCA CAO used to teach history, sociology and literature at various UP units. He is a writer who has received recognition for his short story (Palanca, 1991), one-act play (Palanca, 1993), essay (Jose Diokno Essay Awards, 1994) and children's story (National Book Awards Finalist, 1999). After leaving the academe in the mid-90s, he established a printing and publishing firm which he still manages at present. He authored the book "Retracing the Shadows, Refracting the Light: Critical Notes Towards a New Historiography."

MEOPHELIA SANTOS-CAO is a medical doctor who had been involved in education, both as an administrator and a teacher in the elementary level. A Biology graduate of UP Diliman, she used to be a faculty member of the UERM Department of Preventive and Community Medicine. She was the Chairperson of the UERM Student Council in 1988-89 and was involved in the Generic Drugs campaign during her student days.

"Creative Crime Reportage" essay

If you have time please have a look at my essay "Creative Crime Reportage" in this week's issue of Philippines GRAPHIC issue dated Feb 06, 2012 (Miriam D. Santiago on the cover page). Thank you !

hai, haiku

two books of haiku of haiku friends I'd like to have:
1. Svetlana Marisova with Ted Van Zutphen "BE STILL AND KNOW"


2. Victor P. Gendrano "HAIKU AND TANKA HARVEST"

reading list

on my list
1. Future Lovecraft edited by S.M. Garcia/P. Stiles
2. Angel Esmeralda by Don Delillo
3. The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje
4. Full Dark by Stephen King
5. Pacific Rims by R. Bartholomew

Filipiniana
1. "Huseng Batute: Buhay Maynila" Poetry Collection
2. Hunyango sa Bato (A. Balde )
3. Ang Huling Dalagang Bukid ( J.C. Reyes )
4. Sagad sa Buto (J. Baquiran)
5. Different Countries (C. Militante)
6. Blue Angel, White Shadow (C. Ong)

POETRY
1. INSOMNIA (K.O.M.)

2. RUINS AND RECONSTRUCTIONS (J.T.)

REVIEW: We Bury the Landscape by Kristine Ong Muslim

My review of WE BURY THE LANDSCAPE by Kristine Ong Muslim appears in this week's issue (Chinese New Year's) of Philippine GRAPHIC magazine dated Jan 30, 2012


"We Bury the Landscape" is a collection of Ms. Muslim's ekphrastic writings, both prose poems and microfiction. This is her third book preceded by Night Fish and Insomnia.

For more info on Kristine Ong Muslim visit her site at http://kristinemuslim.weebly.com


ACKNOWLEDGMENT: Much thanks, Kristine Ong Muslim, for giving me permission to review as well as for sending me an ARC.

WE BURY THE LANDSCAPE is published by Queen's Ferry Press and will be out by April 2012

a little personal, writerly

I wrote this for those who do not know about writing or about being a writer or what being writerly means especially by people, friends, classmates, office mates who know me in the 'real world' or those who never had the slightest idea that I was into writing, and that I'm actually writing.

Contrary to what an I.T. (someone involved in/with information technology both hardware and software) colleague/friend remarked, I have not become a 'poet' or a 'writer' by choice. Neither did I turn my back on I.T. work. I still do programming work.

Somewhere or elsewhere I have already shared about my writing background that I feel I'm making a fool of myself if I mention it again unless I'm asked again and again (but I will get to that part, i.e., writing my writer's profile, or revise what I have written in the past and posted online which some of my 'friends' are using as reference). My writing activities do not stop at what I have posted on my 'about me' page/s. Right now, I'm in the middle of rushing an essay, composing a poem, submitting a haiku poem for the day. Of course I do not mean to say I'm doing it all at the same time or that I write every hour or every minute of the day. I write in the early morning for about an hour or so. By 8a.m. I'm back to the real world and I'm just as ordinary as anyone else.

Why am I writing? I do not write because I simply want to be popular or to be rich or to be great, although those are very tempting. I write because there is something to write about(that may not sound original but that is how I feel). Also, I don't write whenever and whatever. I continuously study the craft (of writing) needless to say by reading, reading, reading a lot as well as writing, writing, and writing a lot. I know I'm not (always) good at what I do but I strive to improve and it's okay to make mistakes.


I think I'll always be a student/learner of life.

INCIDENTALLY, I'm halfway through the memoir of Haruki Murakami, whose KAFKA ON THE SHORE hooked me and enticed me to read more of his works (NORWEGIAN WOOD, HEAR THE WIND SING, SUPER FROG SAVES TOKYO), titled "WHAT I TALK ABOUT WHEN I TALK ABOUT RUNNING", which reminded me (and which Murakami acknowledged) of another favorite short story writer, Raymond Carver, and his "WHAT I TALK ABOUT WHEN I TALK ABOUT LOVE". This paragraph on writing novels are memorable:

"Writing novels, to me, is basically a kind of manual labor. Writing itself is mental labor, but finishing an entire book is closer to manual labor. It doesn’t involve heavy lifting, running fast, or leaping high. Most people, though, only see the surface reality of writing and think of writers as involved in quiet, intellectual work done in their study. If you have the strength to lift a coffee cup, they figure, you can write a novel. But once you try your hand at it, you soon find that it isn’t as peaceful a job as it seems. The whole process—sitting at your desk, focusing your mind like a laser beam, imagining something out of a blank horizon, creating a story, selecting the right words, one by one, keeping the whole flow of the story on track—requires far more energy, over a long period, than most people ever imagine. You might not move your body around, but there’s grueling, dynamic labor going on inside you. Everybody uses their mind when they think. But a writer puts on an outfit called narrative and thinks with his entire being; and for the novelist that process requires putting into play all your physical reserve, often to the point of overexertion."

REVENGE OF THE GOLD FISH

REVENGE OF THE GOLD FISH

This short fiction by Kristine Ong Muslim is the first story I read from the hundreds she has written. And it still lingers in my mind, so resonant that I was tempted to read it aloud and record.

Here it is. Violent reactions are welcome.

http://soundcloud.com/user1145146/revengeofthegoldfish

Here's a link to her story: http://brooklyner.org/2011/revenge-of-the-goldfish/

"INSOMNIA", "WE BURY THE LANDSCAPE" by Kristine Ong-Muslim

Kristine Ong-Muslim releases her new chapbook this January. Watch out for it !

Title: Insomnia
Author name: Kristine Ong Muslim
Publisher: Medulla Publishing
Publication Date: January, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-105-23980-9
35 pages



The first few poems I read blew me away. Will get back to this as soon as I'm done.

***

Also forthcoming this April 2012 from Queen's Ferry Press is her collection of micro-fiction and prose poems which appeal to both the visual and tactile senses entitled WE BURY THE LANDSCAPES:



"WE BURY THE LANDSCAPE" by Kristine Ong Muslim
Published 2012 by Queen‘s Ferry Press
Cover art by Siobhan McCusker
First edition April 2012
ISBN 978-0-9839071-4-5
Printed in the United States of America

PHILIPPINE SPECULATIVE FICTION 7 and DIASPORA AD ASTRA

Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol 7 edited by Kate Aton and Alexander Osias announces the contributors who made it to the anthology which will be published this year. Congrats to all !

Philippine Speculative Fiction 7: Lineup!

(for details visit : http://wishcatcher.blogspot.com/ )

1. All That We May See by Kenneth Yu

2. All the Best of Dark and Bright by Victoria Isabel Yap

3. Bastard Sword by Nikki Alfar

4. Chasers by Chris Mariano

5. East of the Sun by Dean Francis Alfar

6. Faith in Fiction by James Constantino Bautista

7. Mother of Monsters by Philip Corpuz

8. Never Land by Mo Francisco

9. Oblation by Paolo Chikiamco

10. Pet by Kristine Ong Muslim

11. Sarsarita Time by Melissa Sipin

12. The Call of the Chained God by Dariel Quiogue

13. The Changes by Benito Vergara

14. The Commute to Paradiso by Charles Tan

15. The Day Nostalgia Swept Over a Town by F. Jordan Carnice

16. Dragon's Orb by Vincent Michael Simbulan

17. The Likeness of God by Crystal Koo

18. The Little Things the Datu Did by Andrew Drilon

19. The Love Spell by Julian dela Cerna

20. The Nature of Apocalypse by Joseph Anthony Montecillo

21. The Scrap Collectors by Arlynn Despi

22. username: tanglaw by Eliza Victoria

23. What the Body Remembers by Tin Lao

24. What You See by Ian Rosales Casocot

Meanwhile Joseph Nacino finally releases the sci-fi anthology DIASPORA AD ASTRA which should have been issued/posted last year since the TOC was already announced and posted. I wonder what happened.

Here's the link http://astradiaspora.kom.ph

My review of "ALTERNATIVE ALAMAT"

My official review of ALTERNATIVE ALAMAT appears in Philippines GRAPHIC magazine dated Dec 25, 2011 - Jan 02, 2012