Self’s choice is RED.
Self at 19, with Masako in Shibuya, Tokyo
Red Woven Bag from the Philippines, in Self’s Closet
Self’s Red Knapsack: The Penn Club, London, 23 November 2018
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: COLOR OF YOUR CHOICE
February 13, 2019 at 9:06 pm (Personal Bookshelf, Places, Traveling)
Tags: Cee Neuner, Japan, London, memories, nostalgia, Philippines
First Story of Self’s New Collection, “Magellan’s Mirror”
January 22, 2018 at 3:22 pm (Artists and Writers, Books, Explorers, Filipino Writers, short story collections, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: J Journal, literary awards, Literary Magazines, Mondays, Philippine History, Philippines, short story, speculative fiction
Self’s story was first published in J Journal, 2012. She just decided it will be the title of the new collection she’s completing. Thanks to the editors at J Journal, who published it and nominated it for a Pushcart.
Read the excerpt below:
And if our Lord and the Virgin Mother had not aided us by giving good weather to refresh ourselves with provisions and other things we had died in this very great sea. And I believe that nevermore will any man undertake to make such a voyage.
— Antonio Pigafetta, Chronicler of the Magellan Expedition
The crew encountered the giant during the winter, after months of battling the water just south of Brasilia. He was described by the sailors as being twelve or thirteen palmos tall, which is to say, over eight feet.
Stay tuned, dear blog reader. Stay tuned.
Weathered in the Philippines
January 16, 2018 at 3:25 am (Artists and Writers, Books, Flowers, Philippine History, Places, postaday, Recommended)
Tags: Ateneo, Manila, memories, Philippines
Volumes of Manuel Blanco’s FLORA DE FILIPINAS
The trees in the Quadrangle of the Ateneo de Manila University (self’s alma mater) have been there for decades. So have the stone benches.
Never Forget: The Ampatuan Massacre, 23 November 2009
November 21, 2017 at 4:40 pm (Filipino Writers, Philippine History)
Tags: causes, grief, Philippines
The victims: 32 journalists (most from central Mindanao), the wife of a gubernatorial candidate, innocent passersby who stumbled on the massacre as it was unfolding
The ditch prepared by the murderers for the dumping of the bodies was so large it accommodated an entire car. No, a van. A mini-bus.
Stay tuned.
Self’s “First Life” (Juked.com)
April 6, 2017 at 11:26 am (Artists and Writers, Explorers, Filipino Writers, Places, Recommended, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: dystopia, fantasy, flash fiction, Juked.com, Literary Magazines, Philippines, short story
“First Life” first line:
- Ever since they moved our colony from Tonle Sap to the Philippines, my mind hasn’t been the same.
2017 Winners: World Press Photo Awards
February 13, 2017 at 6:00 pm (Links, Lists)
Tags: causes, China, Iraq, Mondays, Philippines, photography, politics, praise
Self only has a few minutes to post this, as she’s running here there and everywhere and the only reason she is still in her apartment is because she decided to work a little more on her sequel to “First Causes”: “This Is End” (dystopia, fantasy, apocalyptic, etc what else is new, lol)
Winner: Associated Press Photographer Burhan Ozbilici, for his image of a gun-wielding off-duty Turkish policeman standing over the body of Russia’s ambassador, Dec. 19
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES
Singles
- Jonathan Bachman (USA), Reuters: “Taking a Stand in Baton Rouge”
- Vadim Ghirda (Romania), The Associated Press: “Migrant Crossing”
- Daniel Etter (Germany): “The Libyan Migrant Trap”
Stories
- Amber Bracken (Canada): “Standing Rock”
- Lalo de Almeida (Brazil): “Victims of the Zika Virus”
- Peter Bauza (Germany): “Copacabana Palace”
DAILY LIFE
Singles
- Paula Bronstein (USA), Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting: “The Silent Victims of a Forgotten War”
- Tiejun Wang (China): “Sweat Makes Champions”
- Matthieu Paley (France), National Geographic: “China’s Wild West”
Stories
- Tomas Munita (Chile), The New York Times: “Cuba on the Edge of Change”
- Elena Asonova (Russia): “Out of the Way”
- Francesco Comello (Italy): “Isle of Salvation”
GENERAL NEWS
Singles
- Laurent Van der Stockt (France), Getty for Le Monde: “Offensive on Mosul”
- Santi Palacios (Spain): “Left Alone”
- Noel Celis (Philippines), Agence France-Presse: “Inside the Philippines’ Most Overcrowded Jail”
Reading Life 2016
November 2, 2016 at 4:36 pm (Books, Lists, Memoirs, Personal Bookshelf, Pianos, Recommended, Women Writers)
Tags: book lists, essays, Irish writers, Jane Austen, Japanese writers, mysteries, nonfiction, novel, Palestine, Philippines, Russian literature, translation, war literature, World War II
October 2016
- Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II’s Greatest Rescue Mission (history), by Hampton Sides
- A Short History of Women (novel) by Kate Walbert
September 2016
- The Way to the Spring: Life and Death in Palestine (nonfiction), by Ben Ehrenreich
- Brazillionaires (nonfiction), by Alex Cuadros
August 2016
- Northanger Abbey (novel), by Jane Austen
- Swimming Studies (memoir), by Leann Sharpton
- The Course of Love (novel), by Alain de Botton
- The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Sketches (travel book, poetry), by Matsuo Basho
- The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone (essay collection), by Olivia Laing
July 2016
- The Green Road (novel), by Anne Enright
- Girl Waits With Gun (mystery), by Amy Stewart
June 2016
- The Girl on the Train (novel), by Paula Hawkins
- My Brilliant Friend (novel), by Elena Ferrante
May 2016 Read the rest of this entry »
#amwriting: Novel-in-Progress, WILDERNESS, Chapter 1
August 1, 2016 at 6:18 pm (Explorers, Food and Drink, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: advice, Banff, Mondays, novel, Philippines, revising, writing process
- The old servant woman placed before each of them a white plate on which were artfully arranged four thin, golden slices of ripe mango.
Novel got her into the 2015 Banff Literary Studio, where one of her mentors was so scrupulous he marked sentence by sentence. Things like: WHO IS THE SPEAKER HERE?
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
Emptiness of Air: Published in Vela Magazine In a Response to Typhoon Haiyan
July 16, 2016 at 7:10 am (Flowers, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: flash fiction, Fridays, memories, Philippines, short story, writing process
EMPTINESS OF AIR
Pericles lost his wife to a great emptiness of air, water, and sound. One moment, she was alive in the house. In the next moment, she had shifted somewhat. She still had the same form, the same face, but something had changed. He couldn’t explain it, but he knew what had happened had happened. He also knew there was no going back. She was stolen from him, as surely as if she had been abducted.
All the sampaguita blossoms had been knocked off the trees. He wandered the garden, lost. He smelled jasmine.
He picked up a white petal from the ground. The brown edges were uncommonly soft.
All the red flowers — santan, lantana, gumamela — where had they gone?
And the orchids his wife had loved: purple and white, tongued.
Small brown Maya birds used to perch on telephone wires strung up and down the street. Now, there were no poles. Wires dangled like snakes, a few sparkling like firecrackers.
- NOTE: Since self wrote this super-quick (in about 30 minutes) under Vela’s deadline, she’s now going back and editing for clarity. Stay tuned.
Face: The Daily Post Photo Challenge, 13 May 2016
May 13, 2016 at 6:06 pm (postaday, Traveling)
Tags: Bacolod, Dublin, England, Fridays, Ireland, memories, Philippines, postaday, postaweek, The Philippines, Wordpress
FACE is the theme of this week’s Daily Post Photo Challenge.
Gave self an excuse to go back over her thousands and thousands of archived photos and indulge in a nostalgia trip.
Abigail !!! Oxford, England, July 2015
Londis, Tyrconnell Road, Inchicore, Dublin, 2014, across the Street from the Church of the Oblates. When this woman learned self was a writer, she paid $2 on-line to read self’s novella, the one that became a finalist for the 2014 Saboteur Awards.
Receptionist, L’Fisher Chalet, Bacolod City, Philippines: Self’s Dear Departed Dad was born and raised in Bacolod City. She hasn’t been back since 2013, and L’Fisher Chalet has been remodeled. Who knows when self can visit again.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
