Plugging Holes in My Reality

While I'm trying to finish several articles for work (including my day-job), here's some interesting things that are out in the Internets:

A. Nikki Alfar, together with Kate Aton-Osias, is calling out for submissions for the yearly Philippine Speculative Fiction Volume 6. Wow, is it that time of the year already?

Editors Nikki Alfar and Kate Aton-Osias invite you to submit short fiction for consideration for Philippine Speculative Fiction Volume 6.

Philippine Speculative Fiction is a yearly anthology series, which collects a wide range of stories that define, explore, and sometimes blur the boundaries of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and all things in between. The anthology has been shortlisted for the Manila Critics’ Circle National Book Award, and multiple stories from each volume have been cited in roundups of the year’s best speculative fiction across the globe.

First-time authors are more than welcome to submit; good stories trump literary credentials any time.

Submissions must be:
1. speculative fiction—i.e., they must contain strong elements or sensibilities of science fiction, fantasy, horror, magic realism, alternate history, folklore, superheroes, and/or related ‘nonrealist’ genres and subgenres
2. written in English
3. authored by Filipinos or those of Philippine ancestry

Submissions are preferred to be:
1. original and unpublished
2. no shorter than 1,000 words and no longer than 7,500
3. written for an adult audience

In all cases, these preferences can be easily overturned by exceptionally well-written pieces. In the case of previously-published work—if accepted, the author will be expected to secure permission to reprint, if necessary, from the original publishing entity, and to provide relevant publication information.

Submission details:
1. No multiple or simultaneous submissions—i.e., submit only one story, and do not submit that story to any other market until you have received a letter of regret from us.
2. All submissions should be in Rich Text Format (saved under the file extension ‘.rtf’), and emailed to kate.osias@gmail.com, with the subject line ‘PSF6 submission’.
3. The deadline for submissions is midnight, Manila time, November 15, 2010. Letters of acceptance or regret will be sent out no later than one month after the deadline.

Editors’ notes:
1. Please don’t forget to indicate your real name in the submission email! If you want to write under a pseudonym, that’s fine, but this can be discussed upon story acceptance. Initially, we just need to know who we’re talking to.
2. If you’d like to write a cover letter with your brief bio and publishing history (if applicable), do feel free to introduce yourself—but not your story, please. If it needs to be explained, it’s probably not ready to be published.
3. We advise authors to avoid fancy formatting—this will just be a waste of your time and ours, since we will, eventually, standardize fonts and everything else to fit our established house style.

Compensation will be Php500 for selected stories. In previous years, we’ve provided contributor copies of the book, as well as small royalty shares, but we are strongly leaning toward shifting Philippine Speculative Fiction to digital format, so we’re shifting to outright financial payment as well.

Please help spread the word! We’d really appreciate it if you’d publish this invitation on your blog, e-group, etc.

Thanks,
Nikki Alfar & Kate Aton-Osias, co-editors
Dean Alfar, publisher

What's doubly-interesting is that this is the first time the PSF series is offering payment for the work. Cool.

B. The infamous Adam David has put up this one-time project he asked us to write for, a six-word graphic story compilation called Sais. Go check it out. My story was called (and appropriately drawn) "Noir."

Below is a quick snatch-and-grab of the first part of the story from Adam's site:


Pretty, no?