My first YA story “Infinite Degrees of Freedom” was was accepted in “Science Fiction: Filipino Fiction for Young Adults”.
This far-future coming-of-age tale is about a boy trying to bond with his estranged (and distant) father while on a road trip to salvage nano-tech from old battlefields.
This work also features a lesser known Filipino mythical creature called a “Sigben” or “Sigbin” which has been described by various sources as a bloodthirsty Chupacabra-like chimera that’s half dog, half reptile or half goat (more from Wikipedia). Yes, its an obscure Visayan monster in a space opera setting. So sue me.
Before this story I had no idea how hard it actually was to write YA fiction. I’m happy I did and I might write more in the future if people like this.
Thanks once again to editors Dean Francis Alfar and Kenneth Yu !

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Published by Victor Fernando R. Ocampo
Victor Fernando R. Ocampo is the author of the International Rubery Book Award shortlisted The Infinite Library and Other Stories (Math Paper Press, 2017 ; US edition: Gaudy Boy, 2021) and Here be Dragons (Canvas Press, 2015), which won the Romeo Forbes Children’s Story Award in 2012. His play-by-email interactive fiction piece “The Book of Red Shadows” debuted at the Singapore Writers Festival in 2020.
His writing has appeared in many publications including Apex Magazine, Daily Science Fiction, Likhaan Journal, Strange Horizons, Philippines Graphic, Science Fiction World and The Quarterly Literature Review of Singapore, as well as anthologies like The Best New Singapore Short Stories, Fish Eats Lion: New Singaporean Speculative Fiction, LONTAR: The Journal of Southeast Asian Speculative Fiction, the Philippine Speculative Fiction series and Mapping New Stars: A Sourcebook on Philippine Speculative Fiction.
He is a fellow at the Milford Science Fiction Writers’ Conference (UK) and the Cinemalaya Ricky Lee Film Scriptwriting Workshop, as well as a Jalan Besar writer-in-residence at Sing Lit Station (2020/2021).
Visit his blog at vrocampo.com
View all posts by Victor Fernando R. Ocampo