Self was interviewed by The Museum of Americana.
Read the interview here.

November 19, 2021 at 6:23 am (Artists and Writers, Conversations, Filipino Writers, Links, Recommended, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: flash fiction, interviews, Literary Magazines, Museum of Americana, writing process
December 30, 2020 at 4:13 pm (Artists and Writers, Filipino Writers, Links, Publishers, Recommended, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: Asian American Writers, COVID Writing, fantasy, flash fiction, Literary Magazines, short story
One cold February night, his wife began to howl.
The becoming was a long process. His wife had been a small woman, barely a hundred pounds. The wolf she became was massive, almost double her human weight. She had thickly furred ears and a long, dense, whitish coat
Read the rest of the story in Spacecraft 13, a literary magazine edited by Gillian Parish
August 8, 2020 at 7:03 pm (Artists and Writers, Filipino Writers, Links, Recommended, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: experimental, flash fiction, Juked, Literary Magazines, Saturday, summer
Excerpts from self’s story “First Life” that appeared in Juked, 2015. The point of view belongs to a boy named Dragon. He’s sitting in a classroom of the future (Just because it’s the future doesn’t mean people don’t daydream, ha!)
Today I’m thick or something because thoughts are dark as dark.
Sunlight and glass, Prisms and mirrors. My mind is floating out there, beyond the windows. Out there, where swish swish goes something, maybe the wind.
June 11, 2020 at 9:06 pm (Dearest Mum, Family, Links, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: flash fiction, Literary Magazines, poetry, Wigleaf, writing process
Self decided to look through her old MacBook Air (which, judging from the dates on there, had stories dating as far back as 2006) and found an early version of her flash, Stonehenge/Pacifica, which Wigleaf published in 2012.
It is fascinating to compare the two versions. It seems that, early on, Stonehenge/Pacifica was a poem. The line breaks are short:
STONEHENGE/PACIFICA
It was a dream I had, some restless night.
Perhaps one of those weeks/ months/ years
when we were worried about money.
But when were we ever not worried?
First, there was the mortgage,
and then the two.
Then your mother got sick,
and your fathe died.
And my mother I think developed
Alzheimer’s
Stay safe, dear blog readers. Stay safe.
June 11, 2020 at 4:36 am (Artists and Writers, Family, Filipino Writers, Memoirs, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: flash fiction, Hotel Amerika, Literary Magazines, memories, TransGenre
In that same issue were: Sarah White * Mary Cappello * Elaine Terranova * Kelly Cherry * Jennifer L. Knox * Brian Teare * Ben Quick * Christina Manweller * G. C. Waldrop
GHOSTS
(An excerpt)
I dreamt about my sister, dead these many years. It seemed she was in a place of ghosts. In my dream I put my face up to hers and kissed her cheek and said, “I’ll always be your sister.” But she turned her face away and closed her eyes. Her cheek was cold.
I said, “Do you want me to take you away, dear? Come, come! Let us go!” But she only looked sad and didn’t speak.
My son was with me but in my dream he was a young boy. I mean, my son at seven, not the way he is now. He was impatient with my sighs and tears and wanted to get away from that place. He was bored.
I gave him a pencil and told him, “Draw!” He took the pencil obediently. He drew. But it seemed to cost him great effort.
Now and then I would peep at what he was drawing: a series of empty rectangles. I asked him, “Why don’t you put people in your drawings? See, here, and here, and here. They are all around us!”
He looked up and slowly I saw understanding dawn on his face. He filled his drawings with the outlines of people. I understood then that he, too, could see them, these guests.
I told my sister: You are under a spell. You should never have gotten married. She nodded, but she didn’t seem to want to do anything about it. Eventually I left, I left my sister there in that cold white house in the middle of a barren plain. The landscape looked like that of a northern country, all bare brown fields as if struck by winter. All white trees.
In the back seat of my car was a white box. It made an angry buzz. I wanted to throw it away but I couldn’t because I knew somehow that there was something in that box that belonged to my sister.
Process: As a matter of fact, self did have this dream. Sometimes that happens. If self can get it all down quickly, the story almost writes itself. Which happened here.
Stay safe, dear blog readers.
March 21, 2020 at 6:30 pm (Artists and Writers, Explorers, Filipino Writers, Links, Recommended, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: Asian American Writers, experimental, flash fiction, Juked, Literary Magazines, Saturday, science fiction, short story, websites
From First Life (Juked, July 2015)
Ku Ling’s Rule: First Life began in the Dome.
Nervous? Her asked.
I nodded. Ever since they moved our colony from Tonle Sap to the Philippines, my mind hasn’t been the same.
December 30, 2019 at 9:16 pm (anthologies, Artists and Writers, Links, Lists, Recommended, Women Writers)
Tags: flash fiction, Just published, Literary Magazines, Mondays, poetry, short pieces, TransGenre
Flash by Alex Behr, César Valdebenito, Kim Magowan, Tommy Dean, Matthew Greene, Anna Oberg, Savannah Slone, Marianne Villanueva, Mary Senter, Corey Miller, Connor Goodwin, Jude Vivienne Dexter, Francine Witte * Short Stories by Stefani Nellen, Marilee Dahlman, Theo Greenblatt (Trigger warning: sexual assault) * Poetry by Alice Hall, Nathan Lipps, Jeremy Rain * Creative Nonfiction by Keygan Sands and Kharys Ateh Laue * Visual Narrative by Trevor Alixopulos * Art by Nance Van Winckel * Emerging Artists and much, much more!
from A History of Anyway
Intermedia
Sad lad of the far north, you with no means and no true lassie, with no way home and no home anyway
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
November 20, 2019 at 2:56 pm (Artists and Writers, Filipino Writers, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: flash fiction, speculative fiction, work-in-progress
Self is attempting to finish all she has left unfinished.
Attempt # 1:
The woman took the letter and set off, but soon got lost and found herself wandering in a forest. In the gathering darkness she saw a faint light glimmering among the trees. She made for it and eventually found herself in front of a cottage. Inside, an old woman sat dozing at a cheerful fire. The old woman took fright at the sudden appearance of the stranger and demanded, “Where have you sprung from and where are you going?” The woman answered, “I’m taking a letter” but forgot everything else. In the end, what is true is what remains.
October 21, 2019 at 1:59 pm (Filipino Writers, Places, Surprises, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: flash fiction, Manila, Mondays, The Philippines, writing process
Living and breathing Philippine history for two weeks does have its advantages. Such as
HISTORICAL FLASH! HISTORICAL FLASH! HISTORICAL FLASH!
Stay tuned.
October 4, 2019 at 10:18 pm (anthologies, Artists and Writers, Links, Lists, Memoirs, Pianos, Publishers, Recommended, short story collections, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: Asian American Writers, Events, flash fiction, Just published, Literary Magazines, Readings, websites
Self is in the issue of Jellyfish Review curated by Grace Loh Prasad: SIGN. The pieces are so delicious and fun. All are really different, showing what self has always known: FLASH RULES. Grace’s opening essay is kick-ass.
(BTW: Seventeen Syllables will be reading at San Francisco LITCRAWL, 19 October, 6:30 – 7:30, at FELLOW, 820 Valencia Street, on the theme: Strangers and Ghosts! These readings are always SRO. Be sure and COME EARLY!!!)
Another story, Tu-an Ju (dystopian science fiction), just came out in Vice-Versa, the University of Hawai’i at Manoa’s e-zine. The theme for the issue was Otherworld/Underworld, a theme self felt could have been tailor-made just for her. Thank you to Pat Matsueda, Lillian Howan and Angela Nishimoto for putting this issue together.
And vol. 3 of msaligned is coming soon! Thanks again to Lillian Howan for soliciting a piece specifically for this volume, and Pat Matsueda for editing the series.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
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