My New Spec Fic

One of my first awards was a Palanca for Futuristic Fiction. Although I write in the genre rarely, I can't help dabbling in it now and then, given my lifelong love for the stories of Ray Bradbury and Kurt Vonnegut and my Hunger Games fandom. My latest indie published ebook is a romance with hints of futurism:Always Online. The world's pretty much the same as our own, but online interaction has become more regulated, people can feel each other on computer screens and in the end there's a weird element of online interaction which I won't spoil for you.

I also have a story coming out in the University of the Philippines' next Likhaan Journal--a ghostly romance entitled "Light in the Water" which is similar in character to my story in Of Words and Water: 2014. Similar in setting too. Both take place on a beach. I guess I closely associate ghosts and and the seashore due to a creepy experience in Boracay years ago. Besides, for a city person like me, a quiet, rustic seaside setting puts me in touch with the elemental.

There was actually a trip to a desert island in my futuristic story "virtual Center" and of course the sea is important in "The Sorceress Queen" in Alternative Alamat: Stories Inspired by Philippine Mythology. There are also frequent beach trips in Always Online. I have no idea why the sea is so present in my spec fic. But then it's present too in some of my realistic fiction. I guess it's inescapable when you live in a country composed of 7,000 islands!