Breaking the Silence

As I mentioned in the earlier post, I realized I still owed some people a few stories, which unfortunately took me two(!) years to finally complete. Really, really sorry for this. I could say I was busy, or reeling from not one, but two heartbreaks in succession (ahaha), but really, it's no excuse. But I guess, better late than never?

Anyway, this fic is for books2thesky who donated to the Typhoon Haiyan Fandom Aid for a 1000-word fic about the Kambal from the comic Trese by Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo. I was supposed to write something a little bit more goofy, but somehow ended up writing this instead. I am still writing the more lighthearted story, but I decided to post this now in case something happens again and life sucks me in again before I ever to finishing it, ehehe.

This fic is set after the first case in Volume 3, where Trese and her father first battled the Talagbusao and rescued the twins.

Hope you enjoy! Comments, again, will be appreciated.

Title: Lost Boys
Pairings: N/A
Word Count: 1253 words
Rating: T
Warnings: character deaths, implications of a murder attempt
( Alexandra did not always agree with her father, but she had never disobeyed him. This time, she wanted to.Collapse )

Hello, LJ! Yes, I'm still alive. And apparently, so is my account, haha.

How are all of you? Who among you here (in my friendslist I mean) are still active on LJ? What are you all doing now? Do drop me a line, I miss all of you. :)

A lot has happened over the years that I haven't been posting here, mostly because I had been busy with my post-graduate residency training in Pathology. Pathology is a field that not a lot of people are probably aware of, but pathologists are the doctors who work inside the laboratory, reading biopsies, doing autopsies. In short, we are the doctors who can tell you, with certainty (at least most of the time) what kind of illness you really have.

And I have graduated from my training, and also, just recently, was certified as a diplomate in both Anatomic and Clinical Pathology, to which I'm really, really grateful.

So just this quick update, and since I'm currently on a bit of break after all the training and exams, you can expect a few more posts here and there from me from here on. I still owe some people some stories, both fanfiction and original fiction, so watch out for more stuff from me.

And so with that, see you all here again soon!

Hello everyone, how are all of you? Breaking the silence this time to post some good news (and a bit of shameless plugging at the same time, heh). My story, "Finding Those Who Are Lost" is included in the anthology, "Outpouring: Typhoon Yolanda Relief Anthology", edited by Dean Francis Alfar. All proceeds from the anthology will go to the Philippine Red Cross, which will aid in the continuing relief efforts for the victims of this terrible tragedy.

The anthology includes the following stories:

“The Wordeaters” by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz
“Invisible Empire of Ascending Light” by Ken Scholes
“The Photograph” by Veronica Montes
“A Moment in Time” by Charie D. La Marr
“A Gentlemen's Agreement” by Susan S.Lara
“X” by Karissa Chen
“Cunning Syncronicity” by Berrien C. Henderson
“Godsend” by Joel Pablo Salud
“Ondoy” by Laura McPhee-Browne
“Rescuing the Rain God” by Kate Osias
“The Wish Head” by Jeffrey Ford
“Flash Forward” by Jhoanna Lynn B. Cruz
“Where Sky and Sea Meet” by Dan Campbell
“Arrow” by Barry King
“Finding Those Who Are Lost” by Celestine Trinidad
“Synchronicity” by Victor Fernando R. Ocampo
“We're All Stories in the End” by Matthew J. Rogers
“Silverio and the Eidolon” by Vincent Michael Simbulan
“Tinkerers” by Jay Wilburn
“Finding” by David B. Ramirez
“Ikan Berbudi (Wise Fish)” by Jason Erik Lundberg
“Pilar Escheverria” by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard
“Scraps” by Michael Haynes
“Freeborn in the City of Fallacies” by Andrew Drilon
“Storm Warning” by Lilian Csernica
“The Nameless Ones” by Gabriela Lee
“Whispers” by Grant J. McMaster
“Highway Run” by Alexander Marcos Osias
“Black Sun” by Todd Nelsen
“Life at the Lake's Shore” by Alex Shvartsman
“Aliens” by Fiona Mae Villamor
“Little Italy” by Isa Lorenzo
“Discipline” by Rebecca McFarland Kyle
“Unmaking” by Julie C. Day
“Fresh Fruit” by Yvette Tan
“The Sparrows of Climaco Avenue” by Kenneth Yu
“Gellen's Retirement Plan” by Tim Sullivan
“When We Were Witches” by Nikki Alfar
“All the Little Gods We Are” by John Grant
“Tuba Knight” by Cesar Miguel G. Escaño

I'm really happy about this, because I really do think that the victims of the typhoon still need help now, and every little bit given to them will go a long way. Also, the story is a Tikbalang and Sinukuan (Maria and Juan) mystery, and I really did miss writing these two. (With all their snark and sarcasm, hee. <3)

I hope you do consider getting a copy! It's available online from these venues:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I3BCNGW
Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/outpouring
Wizard’s Tower Books: http://www.wizardstowerbooks.com/products/outpouring-typhoon-yolanda-relief-anthology-dean-francis-alfar
Flipreads: http://flipreads.com/outpouring

Thank you for your support! :) Hope all of you are doing fine.

My country, the Philippines, was recently hit by a supertyphoon, named Yolanda (or Haiyan, internationally). It wreaked havoc in the Visayas region, particularly the provinces of Samar, Leyte, north Cebu, Negros, Panay, as well as in Romblon, Mindoro and Palawan.

My family and I are all right, but the extent of the destruction in these areas, and all those lives lost, is truly heartbreaking. We're helping out as much as we can, and hopefully, through the efforts of all those who are lending a hand, those affected by this typhoon, can recover.

By the way, fandomaid is hosting a buy-it-now fundraiser for the victims of typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan. I put up an offer here.

I'm offering original fic (Philippine mythology and folklore, as well as the Sinukuan and Tikbalang series) and fanfic (Noli/Fili, because I noticed no one had offered it yet, as well as Trese, since I was working on that crossover fic anyway). Thank you!

Thank you again, everyone, for all your good wishes/prayers/support, because:

I am now a licensed physician.

I'm still a bit dizzy from all the cheering and giggling and jumping up and down about the news, so it hasn't properly sunk in yet, but anyway...

Thanks again, everyone! Such love for all of you! XD And congratulations to all of us newly licensed physicians!

Hi.

I know I disappeared around here for the past month, mostly due to studying (or pretending to, at least), because on Saturday, August 6, up to next Sunday, August 14, along with most of my batchmates, I will be taking the Philippine Physician Licensure Examinations. And this is probably one of the most important exams I will be taking in my entire life, ehe.

I'm actually really really nervous about the exam, because not only do I have to pass each and every subject, I have to get a passing total average too--and with subjects like Gross Anatomy still plaguing me after all these years, that's not a very easy thing to do. Sigh.

So um, prayers/best wishes would be very much appreciated?

Thanks so much, readlist. :)

Title: Late
Author: luckychan
Artist: frabjously
Genre: Fantasy
Pairings: N/A
Word Count: 2254 words
Rating: T
Warnings: character death, implications of self-harm/suicide
Summary: She has to save them, but it might be too late.
Author's Notes: For the Reverse Bang Challenge 2011 over at originalbigbang. Art Master Post is here (so you can see Connie's wonderful art that inspired the story): Dreamwidth / Livejournal.
And yes, the allusions to a certain classic novel were intentional. ^^;

( She knew she could find him, even in the gray bleakness of this place.Collapse )

I can't believe that it's already the 31st. 2009 just seemed to sort of fly by me, with my days defined by the amount of work I finished, and the amount of work I still had to do. And yet there were still times when time seemed to move very slowly--those times when I was sitting at a particularly boring conference, or those times when I was waiting for my turn to present a case to a consultant (and then be yelled at for being so darn incompetent). *sigh*

It's good that I still had still had friends, both online and IRL, that distracted me enough to keep me sane. :) So thanks, everyone--only a few more months left, and pray that I don't have to be delayed one year because of that one final oral test we all have to take in February. *gulp*

So, 2009 was mostly a good year, although it could have been better. I've lost count of the number of times I've been made to feel as if I was the worst clerk in the entire history of UST (which just may be true), and the number of times I've been disappointed, in old friends and the people I work with (and with love nyehehehe me ganon). But there have also been times when I could actually feel some of my hard work paying off, and when good friends pleasantly surprised me in a lot of ways, and because of them I didn't give up completely. The publications this year also made me very happy (thanks to you especially, touyatouya-san).

But I still feel, well, dissatisfied. Probably because there were a lot of goals that were not attained this year, and some things that I really wanted to happen still didn't happen. I don't know. I still wish the next year could be much, much better.

So here's to a better year ahead, for all of us. :)

***

And so, the year in review, based on my fandoms! XD (Copying from blissery and ekmisao)

Favorite books of 2009:

The Dresden Files ("Storm Front", "Fool Moon", "Grave Peril" by Jim Butcher)
The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett
A Time For Dragons edited by Vin Simbulan
The Pinhoe Egg by Diana Wynne Jones
Arsene Lupin, Gentleman-Thief by Maurice Leblanc
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Trese: Mass Murders by Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo

Favorite movies of 2009:

Star Trek
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans
Up
500 Days of Summer

Favorite TV shows of 2009:

Harper's Island
How I Met Your Mother
Glee
Big Bang Theory

I did watch the fourth season of Supernatural, and though I like Castiel very much (I do have this thing for er, holy characters), recent spoilers about the show is making me doubt if I should keep watching, and I do miss the old episodes of Supernatural, when they were only fighting demons and not, well, dealing with God and the devil and the apocalypse all over again.

Favorite anime of 2009:

Toradora!
Kuroshitsuji
Nodame Cantabile
Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

I thought I'd put Darker than Black: Ryuusei no Gemini, but I'm still unsure about this. On one hand, I like how the plot is a bit smoother now than the first one, but...I'm not sure I like the amount of abuse I see in the series. I know Hei could be a jerk even in the first series, but this much? And Lord, can Suou not fight back even just a little bit?

Favorite manga of 2009:

Perfect Girl Evolution
Beast Master
Pandora Hearts (the little I've read of it, at least)



( Longer commentaries under the cut.Collapse )

***

Oh, and some shameless plugging (for a good cause!):



Due to the recent typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng which left the country in its wake of devastation and destruction, Paolo Chikiamco (touyatouya) put out a call for submissions for Ruin and Resolve, a charity speculative fiction anthology. It is now up for sale at Smashwords. It includes stories from me ("Strange Salvation" and "Cutis Marmorata"), blissery and ekmisao, as well as other authors. Proceeds will go the Philippine National Red Cross. :) Do support? :D

***

Shout-outs:

lilacfield: Thank you for the coupon! :) I'm not sure how to use it though, because I don't have enough money to purchase a paid LJ account. But thank you so much anyway. :D
ekmisao: Happy New Year to you too, and good luck with the new job! :)
manghahabi: I still owe you a package. @_@


***

So that's all for this post, and for 2009. ^_^

Happy New Year, everyone!

(Ooh there's a blue moon out tonight. Pretty. I hope it's a good omen?)

ETA: How could I forget Big Bang Theory on the list? Sheldon is awesome. And Up, too! That movie made me cry three times.

Hi! Just a short entry for some (shameless) plugging (and God I missed doing this):

I have two stories now up on two publications this week.

The first is "Fifty-Five Percent", a light romantic science fiction flash story, now up on Everyday Fiction.



The second is "The Coming of the Anak-Araw", a fantasy story set in a world based on pre-Hispanic Philippines, is now published in the first issue of Usok, the new online Philippine speculative fiction magazine by touyatouya's new imprint, Rocket Kapre. The story's actually part of the same series of stories as "The Storyteller and the Giant", and the novel in my head that I could never get around to writing, sigh.

Comments on both stories would be very much loved! :D

I've been busy (well, you've heard that before), being constantly on duty at the hospital and all, but since I finally get a holiday (even if it's only for one day), I thought I should at least update this long-forgotten journal. Besides, it's that time of the year--no, not Christmas.

I mean Halloween, and All Souls' Day. And yes, that means--ghost stories!

I was on skeleton duty (meaning, only the people assigned to be on duty were required to go to the hospital) last Halloween due to the storm. I was initially really annoyed at that, because I like to stay at home on Halloween and watch horror movies (or those horror specials on TV, like the ones on the old Magandang Gabi Bayan or Rated K). But then I realized that hospitals are inherently scary places, and this was an opportunity to go ghost-hunting.

And find those ghosts I did. I didn't have to go very far, even...apparently there were three ghosts in the Surgery ward. And I was rotating there.

( On skeleton duty with ghosts, whooCollapse )

There were probably more stories, but this was all I heard (or, those I could stand to hear). That entire night I was completely edgy, jumping at little shadows. The funny thing was, we relayed the stories to one of our residents, and he was annoyed at us because he was going to be alone in the staff room all night. And when I came to the room to have something checked, I noticed that their TV was on full blast, and no one was watching--and he admitted that he kept it on so he wouldn't have to be alone in eerie silence. LOL.

And that's all the ghost stories I have for now. For now, to satisfy my need for horror, I shall be watching Harper's Island, which isn't the most well-made series in the world, and is actually like any slasher flick, but still has strangely addicted. (It's probably Christopher Gorham and CJ Thomason? *cough*) I was a bit disappointed with the recent horror film I watched, Jelangkung, or, Haunted Doll. Any recommendations?

Tomorrow, I go back to the ward and face the residents again--actually a thought more horrifying than seeing any ghost. *gulp*

***

Some shout-outs:

lilacfield: I got your postcard, doujin, and novel! Thank you so much! :) Will be sending something this week.
manghahabi: Will be sending something to you too. :)