Oh goody! The indestructible Charles Tan has finally finished compiling the Best of Philippine Speculative Fiction 2009.

Similar in format to the Datlow/Windling/Grant/Link ‘best-of’ yearly anthologies, Tan has managed to select his 12 best stories published last year. You can check out the website here.

I’m happy to point out that three of the stories– Dean Alfar’s “Strange Weather”, Crystal Koo’s “Wildwater”, and Mia Tijam’s “Spelling Normal”– were first published in the estrangheropress first outing, The Farthest Shore: Fantasy from the Philippines.

For those interested in checking out the stories, you can read it online at the website but it’s also available for downloads here. Personally, I’d go for Best of Speculative Fiction 2009 PDF.

(For tips on how to get its different versions, see RocketKapre‘s how-to post.)

Here’s the list of the 12 stories cited:

1. The Fires of the Sun in a Crystalline Sky by Francezca C. Kwe
2. The Day the World Lost Its Gravity by Camsy Ocumen
3. Strange Weather by Dean Francis Alfar
4. The Sewing Project by Apol Lejano-Massebieau
5. Lex Talionis by Paolo Chikiamco
6. Isa by Marianne Villanueva
7. Spelling Normal by Mia Tijam
8. Daddy by Yvette Tan
9. From Abecediarya by Adam David
10. The Annotated Account of Tholomew Mestich by Elyss G. Punsalan
11. Beats by Kenneth Yu
12. Wildwater by Crystal Koo
13. Moondown and Fugue by Alexander Drilon
14. The Maiden’s Song by Kate Aton-Osias
15. Capture by Gabriela Lee
16. The Secret Origin of Spin-man by Andrew Drilon

Congratulation to all of them!

Following the release of Demons of the New Year, Rocketkapre editor Paolo Chikiamco once more interviewed me on releasing the second anthology. You can read it here.

What’s even more interesting is that as the series grows, I’m learning a lot about the powers and limitations I have as an editor.

Being an editor is more complicated than one might think, and it’s not just about taking the step from writer to editor as one might do from writing to editing. (And we’re not even considering the issues when one’s the writer, editor and publisher as well.)

I keep forgetting to post this series of Rocketkapre interviews for The Farthest Shore but it’s a bitch to backlog. In in any case, head kapre Paolo Chikiamco went around talking to some of the people behind the anthology.

Here they are, the On the Far Shore interviews:

1. Kate Aton-Osias, author of “Light”

2. Crystal Koo, author of “Wildwater”

3. Dominique Cimafranca, author of “Rite of Passage”

4. Eliza Victoria, author of “The Just World of Helena Jimenez”

5. Mia Tijam, author of “Spelling Normal”

Likewise, he talks to me about being both the editor, publisher and writer in the anthology.

Thanks Pao!

Despite pressure to get in with the social networking crowd, I’ve managed to withstand joining places like Facebook and Twitter. Alas, I figured that having accounts in these places will help our little online press. (Thank goodness I already have multiply and livejournal accounts.)

As such, I’ve created a Facebook page for Estranghero Press. Though as of the present, I can’t do much on it because I’m working at the office and my work PC doesn’t allow updates. Just search for ‘estrangheropress’, yes?

Next up: Twitter!

Update: Facebook page here!