Top Things to Do #1 and #2 for This Week

#1 Announce the roster of Diaspora Ad Astra e-anthology FINALLY:

After more than half a year, I'm finally getting my act together to announce the line-up of the Diaspora Ad Astra online anthology, edited by Professor Emil Flores and yours truly. My deepest, sincerest apologies for the long-delay on this one.

Alas, I'm man enough to say that the fault lies solely on my head for the delay on this one due to life, writing and work issues getting in the way. I mean, geez, eight months to get this out? Still, even as I proffer my mea culpas to all those involved, from Prof. Emil to the contributing writers, I also know that I should finish what I started and this means finally letting this antho come to light. Hopefully, the writers present will still allow me to present these stories to the world, even if I have to get on my knees and beg.

But enough of my whiney chatter and let's get on to the good parts. The stories in the TOC are as follows (in no particular order):

1. War Zone Angel, Professor Emil Flores
   
2. The Day the Sexbomb Dancers Invaded Our Brains, Carljoe Javier
   
3. The Malaya, Dean Francis Alfar
4. The Cost of Living, Vince Torres
5. Ina Dolor's Last Stand, Raymond P. Reyes
6. Oplan Sanction, Alex Osias
7. The Keeper, Audrey Villacorta
8. Ashes Ember, Dannah Ruth S. Ballesteros
9. Rizal, Eliza Victoria
10. Gene Rx, Katya Oliva-Llego
11. Robots and a Slice of Pizza, Raydon Reyes
12. Lucky, Raven Guerrero
13. A List of Things We Know, Isabel Yap
14. Taking Gaia, Celestine Trinidad
15. Space Enough and Time, Anne Lagamayo
    

There are three reprints here but these stories are what I think best represents some of the best Philippine SF that have been earlier published, including Carljoe Javier's generational-starship comedy The Day the Sexbomb Dancers Invaded Our Brains and Dean Alfar's far-flung horror-SF The Malaya. And of course, you can't think of Pinoy SF without including guest editor Professor Flores, which is why we have his story War Zone Angel here.

#2 Launch the Diaspora Ad Astra e-anthology by this month. Make sure I clean it up before I let it out into the wilds. Present also the alleged "cover" of the antho, once again done by Oscar Alvarez:

Evocative of both old pulp SF as well as classic Pinoy cinema, yes? I thought so too. All it needs now is the late great movie icon Fernando Poe, Jr. wandering around the dusty landscape in a spacesuit and a ray gun.

Anyway, I hope you people can stick around the final act. We're almost done here.