Second Issue

Philippine Genre Stories has just informed me that the second issue of their digest has just arrived in the stores. That means that sometime during the next week, you'll be able to find copies at various places; I'll leave it to the publishers to disclose a complete list once all of their stocks have been delivered.

By some interesting coincidence, the author of one of their short stories has a name that is very similar to mine. An excerpt from this author's work, "The Final Interview", goes as follows on the Philippine Genre Stories blog:

Sarah jumped at the sound of the closing metal door, the folder and its contents almost spilling from her arms. She stumbled in the darkness and almost cried out, but at the last second, her sense of propriety stopped her from screaming.

She steadied herself. This was a test, she nervously concluded. A professional banking firm wouldn't have locked her in an empty room for no reason at all. Some HR representative somewhere probably had a warped sense of humor. Or maybe it was Mr. Hazhenaas who had the warped sense of humor, if he existed at all.

Slowly she regained her composure. It was most likely a test, yes. They wanted to see if she would panic. They wanted to see what she was going to do.

Sounds curious, doesn't it? I'll be gunning for this story -- and the other five short pieces of its ilk -- once I get the chance to pass by the bookstores next week.

What's more, I've been invited to post a full review of this second issue's works as well, much like what I wrote about their previous effort. Despite the presence of a nasty workload, I'm really looking forward to this one -- I mean, how often do people contact you asking for honest literary criticism? Now if I could get paid doing this, then I'd be really happy. (And maybe pigs would do corkscrews in the sky.)

Nevertheless, I fully encourage people to grab a copy of this one. Buy it, read it, then contact that slimy writer I mentioned above and ask him why he's stealing my name. I'm sure that he'll love the comments about his story, regardless of who you are or where you come from.

In the meantime, I have my work to do. At least I've got some reading material staked out for next week...