Thank you so much to London-based Malaysian editor, writer, and theatre practitioner Zhui Ning Chang for inviting me to be a guest speaker at Birkbeck, University of London’s Arts Week 2023 yesterday. We had a great conversation about the themes of liminality, displacement and death in my book The Infinite Library and Other Stories, as well as my writing process, and the state of speculative fiction in Southeast Asia today. Thank you also to the very lively audience for all the thoughtful questions.
As requested, here are the links to where it’s available in the UK – Bookshop.org and Amazon UK
I am so thrilled to announce that I finally get to share a TOC with the amazing #NeilGaiman!
Eclectic Dreams, A Milford Anthology is a book that collects some of the amazing fiction that has come out of this long-running workshop over its many years of its existence (including one of my favourite stories, my fellow 2019 resident Tiffani Angus ‘s “Mama Leaf”). Apart from Neil and Tiffani, other contributors include the wonderful Jacey Bedford , Val Nolan, David Langford and many others. You can read a great review here – https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/blog/2023/3/13/eclectric-dreams-the-milford-anthology-edited-by-j-w-anderson-pete-w-sutton-and-liz-williams
Proceeds from this book will fund Milford’s bursary scheme for writers of colour and financially disadvantaged writers. Thank you so much to Liz Williams , Pete Sutton and Jim Anderson for all your work to make this happen! Please support this project and order a copy here – https://www.milfordsf.co.uk/anthology.htm or here – https://linktr.ee/milfordanthology
As someone who writes professionally about technology and writing, I’ve decided to make my non-fiction work available under my own name instead of under a corporate by-line.
Medium is an excellent platform to showcase your work and reach a wider audience. With its vast user base and diverse range of topics, it provides a unique opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals and engage in meaningful discussions. In my case it’s about the latest trends in emerging technologies like Web 3.0 and how this will affect the writing and publishing industries.
If you haven’t done so yet, kindly follow me on Medium. Please also leave comments, subscribe to my feed, or share it with your friends and colleagues. Your support is what keeps me and my always-hungry smol sales dog (pictured below) motivated to create more high-quality content. Together, we can continue to learn and discover new things. Thank you for being a part of my community!
Expressive creative writing can help you regain your mental clarity and give you the ability to take healthy, productive next steps after a sudden job loss.
No matter what you write or how you publish, every author needs to learn about cyber security. In this article, you’ll learn why you need to think about cybersecurity and learn some basic tips to protect yourself.
A digital identity is an online or networked likeness that an individual, organization, or electronic device adopts or claims in cyberspace. From social media accounts to online banking, and across several communities, users need a way to prove who they are really who they say they are in order to navigate safely and securely.
It was a privilege and a pleasure to run two storytelling workshops last 26 February and 26 March for the Migrant Writers of Singapore with SingLit Station. These folks are among the most talented writers I have ever met and are absolutely unmatched in heart.
We Filipinos are natural storytellers. It’s our way of sharing and building our communities, our faith and deepening our connections with one another. Salamat sa inyong lahat!
Very pleasantly surprised to learn that “Here be Dragons” is part of the literature coursework at a secondary school here in Singapore. Thank you to my friend and ex-Yahoo! colleague Janet Leong for the heads up!
Thank you to the UST Faculty of Arts & Letters and the UST MaKatha Circle for inviting me to share my writing journey at their ” Roots & Refractions: Bridging MaKatha Traditions” event last 27 February. I really enjoyed interacting with so many young writers.
Keep reading what makes your heart sing. Fill yourself up with all the beauty that life throws your way. And keep writing — because young creatives like you are our best defense against all the terrible and ugly things darkening our reality. Once you realize what this world is worth, you will fight to defend it.
Write a new world for all of us…
#MaKaATIN
Up next, meet Victor Fernando R. Ocampo, a Filipino author of speculative and experimental fiction stories!
A fellow at the Milford Science Fiction Writers’ Conference in the UK and the Cinemalaya Ricky Lee Film Script Writing Workshop in the Philippines, he currently resides in Singapore where he was also a writer-in-residence at the Jalan Besar at Sing Lit Station. His works have been shortlisted for the International Rubery Book Award in 2018, and he won the Romeo Forbes Children’s Story Award in 2012.
Victor’s most recognized stories include:
THE INFINITE LIBRARY AND OTHER STORIES. Three Filipino siblings fighting an enemy that uses words as weapons, sigbin monsters in space, a banned children’s book hiding a secret that could save a doomed generation ship, a slow-motion disaster turning people into living math equations,?! Name it and this book surely has it. Grab this collection of stories that goes beyond what our mind deems possible and be carried away by all its mystical twists and turns.
Grab a copy:
HERE BE DRAGONS. Ever wished to have a map that would make life easier? Well,
Isabella met the perfect guy that makes a map of just about anything! Would she take the risk
“An Excerpt from the Philippine Journal of Archaeology (04 October, 1916)”, a Lovecraftian metafiction story told in footnotes, first appeared in Likhaan Journal 8 by the U.P. Institute of Creative Writing in December 2014. – https://journals.upd.edu.ph/index.php/lik/article/viewFile/5072/4577
“The Easiest Way to Solve a Problem” is a short story about adding the consciousness of expat Filipino PMET workers to a massive corporate AI in Singapore. It appeared last April, 2022 in the book Get Luckier: An Anthology of Philippine and Singapore Writings (Singapore: Squircle Line Press, 2022), edited by Migs Bravo Dutt, Claire Betita de Guzman, Aaron Lee Soon Yong, and Eric Tinsay Valles. – https://www.get-luckier-anthology.com/victor-fernando-r-ocampo
“I m d 1 in 10” , his experimental story inspired by Anicius Manlius Severinus Boëthius’ De Consolatione Philosophiae, first appeared in the July 2014 issue of The Future Fire (Editor: Djibril al-Ayad). It was written with Latin, L337, IM and SMS speak, emoticons and a Filipino argot called Jejemon. – http://futurefire.net/2014.30/fiction/imd1in10.html
Immerse yourselves in Victor Ocampo’s works with this playlist!
#MakaATIN
#MKC2223
#MakaTraditions
#GrowWithMKC
: Anjellyca Villamayor, and Roanne Aludino
: Chrystal Cariño, Lauren Ainella Tagle, and Sophia Mendoza
The original Fish Eats Lion was one of the first and finest collections of Speculative Fiction from Singapore. I am so happy to be part of both books but it’s also a bit of a shock to realize that I’ve been getting published for so long. I have my editors to thank for this, particularly Jason Erik Lundberg, who edited both books, as well as the sorely-missed Lontar series.
Thank you to everyone who showed up for the launch of Fish Eats Lion Redux at Neo Kinokuniya Singapore Main Store. The Crossroads area was absolutely packed, and we spent about 30 min afterwards signing copies!
Most Filipinos don’t know that the Philippine’s national hero Jose Rizal had quite a few connections to Singapore. In fact in 1896, Rizal’s friends urged him to save himself by remaining here, but sadly, it was not to be…
Thank you to the Philippine Embassy in Singapore and Penguin Random House Southeast Asia for hosting today’s celebration of Jose Rizal’s life, writing and his connection to Singapore. Chargé d’ Affaires (and author) Dr. Emmanuel R. Fernandez, his wife Alice and Penguin authors Noelle De Jesus, Migs Bravo Dutt, Mookie Katigbak Lacuesta and Sarge Lacuesta, as well as yours truly, read excerpts from our national hero’s poetry, letters and novels
Afterwards, I moderated a lively panel that discussed Rizal’s influence on Filipino writers, writing from the diaspora versus from the homeland, speculations about a hypothetical third novel, and other interesting topics. If host and cultural attaché Rosellie L. Bantay had not gently reminded us of the time, we would have probably talked for the whole afternoon.
Thanks to Patricia Mulles for the photos below.
Special thanks to Penguin publisher Nora Nazarene Abu Bakar for inviting me! Have a meaningful Rizal Day!
Eclectic Dreams, A Milford Anthology 
Name it and this book surely has it. Grab this collection of stories that goes beyond what our mind deems possible and be carried away by all its mystical twists and turns.
Well,
: Anjellyca Villamayor, and Roanne Aludino
: Chrystal Cariño, Lauren Ainella Tagle, and Sophia Mendoza
The Infinite Library and Other Stories 