Enter the Octopus

Filipino blogger and writer Charles Tan has been a quiet but persistent force in the online world, producing quality interviews with some of the western world’s top science fiction and fantasy authors while working to promote speculative fiction in his own country.

Tell me a little bit about yourself. Who are you, where did you grow up?

By day, I’m an editorial assistant who, uh, stalks celebrities and CEOs. By night, I’m a blogger who stalks authors/editors/publishers/publicists!

I was born and raised in the Philippines so I consider myself a Filipino. I’m born to two pure-blooded Chinese though so there’s some racial tension there (on both sides–the Filipino-Chinese community has some biases against Filipinos and vice versa).

There’s nothing I like more than talking about myself, but to keep it brief, I’m someone who’s passionate about books. One day, I was this ignorant boy who was playing around on the Internet and the next day, I was pushing myself how I could use this medium to help other people as well as myself.

READ MORE AFTER THE JUMP!

How did you become interested in speculative fiction? What was most available to you growing up, local or non-local authors?

When I was a kid, there were two things that immediately caught my attention: myths and dinosaurs. Not much came of the former until around 7th grade when I discovered mainstream fantasy like Terry Brooks and David Eddings. It went downhill from there. Later on, meeting Dean Francis Alfar gave me a change in perspective as far as reading goes. He opened me to writers like Kelly Link and Jeffrey Ford. And that’s the period where I developed a love for the short story.

As for what was available growing up, I have two answers. The first is that I wasn’t much of a reader during my pre-teen years. (I’m currently making up for “lost time.”)

When it comes to what was available to me growing up, both options were abyssmal. Let me talk about local books first. For the most part, unless it’s required reading for academia, local authors aren’t popular. The typical print-run of fiction books by a big Philippine publisher is 1,000 – 2,000. That’s what, the equivalent of a POD press in the US? And the sad news is that while those numbers applied back then, they’re still applicable today. Then there’s the nightmare called distribution. Suffice to say, at this point in time, it’s probably easier for me to order an import book from the local bookstore as opposed to a local book. And that’s not to say there aren’t best-sellers here. The romance genre is a strong seller (its covers mimic the Mills & Boon or Harlequin designs) and has print-runs in the tens of thousands but the quality of the text is frowned upon. Slightly doing better, although I hear it’s petering out, are the Chick Lit and Horror genres with print-runs in the ten thousand or so mark. But the honest answer is that at the time, few local authors interested me, mainly because a lot of the published books were dull and uninteresting to me as a kid. Most Filipino novels aspire to be politically and socially relevant so there’s a certain didacticism in the text.

As far as non-local authors are concerned, until recently (the past decade), there was a virtual monopoly by two bookstores. This meant that we didn’t really get a variety of books and we were pretty much stuck with whatever books the bookstore stocked (and fell at the mercy of the book buyer). As a genre reader, this was awful because not a lot of thought was put into books they ordered. I mean for fantasy, you’d think someone like Tolkien would be stocked but that’s not the case. And during the pre-movie hype, you’d find Return of the King on the shelves one month and Two Towers would only be stocked a few months later when Return of the King sold out (why they didn’t get all three books at once is beyond me). And of course they usually stocked the mainstream authors at the time like Anne McCaffrey or Mercedes Lackey but only their most recent titles. Today, I take for granted that local bookstores now stock the entire Wheel of Time series or the entire Riftwar saga because back then, you’d get a novel or two, not the entire line.

I think the best example I can give is that when I was heartbroken and depressed, my only outlet was through books. I splurged on fantasy books at the local bookstore and came home with something like four dozen Dragonlance novels mainly because it was the only fantasy on the shelves!

Who were some of your favorite authors, local or otherwise?

Internationally, there are a lot of modern authors I admire: Kelly Link, Jeffrey Ford, Anna Tambour, Terry Dowling, Elizabeth Hand, Joe Hill, John Grant, Jeff VanderMeer, Lucius Shepard… the list goes on. And then there are the usual “classic” authors such as Roger Zelazny, Isaac Asimov, etc.

Locally, it’s an uphill battle to become aware of Philippine authors. While the bookstore problem has improved in recent years – yay variety and efficient book ordering! – the same can’t be said for the local publishing industry. Personally, I’m fans of local speculative fiction authors like Dean Francis Alfar, Ian Rosales Casocot, Luis Katigbak, and Yvette Tan. These are the authors who consistently produce material even before “speculative fiction” was being touted as a genre here.

There are a couple of new local authors though that I enjoy such as Nikki Alfar, Alex Osias, Kate Aton-Osias, Andrew Drilon, Vincent Simbulan (disclosure: the five names I’ve mentioned so far are part of my writing group), Francezca Kwe, Apol Lejano-Massebieau, Crystal Gail Shangkuan Koo, Mia Tijam, Gabriela Lee, and M.R.R. Arcega (or whatever pseudonym she goes by these days).

Is speculative fiction very popular in the Philippines? How hard is it to find this sort of literature?

To me the question here is two-fold. International speculative fiction is quite popular, especially those fantasy and sci-fi series’s with movies: Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Twilight, Chronicles of Narnia, etc. There’s even an entire shelf devoted to Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, and the Warhammer/Warhammer 40k, Star Wars, and Star Trek. Unfortunately, while these mainstream titles are easy to acquire, the indie presses aren’t so much. I really, really love Prime Books, Night Shade Books, Small Beer Press, Tachyon Books, and Lethe Press for example but with the exception of Prime Books and Night Shade, local bookstores don’t stock them and I have to special order their titles. And in the case of Prime Books and Night Shade, that only applies to certain bookstores. Oh, and an author like Jeffrey Ford, as talented as he is and a favorite of mine, he’s virtually unknown here (and a lot of indie authors suffer from the same fate).

When it comes to Philippine literature, again, it’s abysmal. Honestly speaking, what was selling a few years ago was horror and a publisher developed an entire line for it with labels like “True Philippine Ghost Stories” and “Haunted Philippines.” Now those are best-sellers but honestly the writing is, well, pulp-y and not to my particular tastes.

When it comes to books like Philippine Speculative Fiction however, that’s more a labor of love on the part of the publisher. The reason it’s annual is because that’s the soonest time that expenses can be recouped from the sales of the previous book’s volume. Magazines like The Digest of Philippine Genre Stories, on the other hand, are severely delayed most probably for the same reason. On the part of the big local publishers, I’m not privy to their financial statements but the fact remains that their usual print-run is a few thousand at best. I know Dean Francis Alfar’s The Kite of Stars and Other Stories is in its second printing so that’s good news but on the other hand, I don’t know how profitable the anthology Tales of Fantasy and Enchantment is faring (I presume that it’s not so good). A popular publisher (the same ones who brought in horror) once tried to launch a scifi book/magazine anthology but quickly dropped it after one or two volumes.

Who are some of the better known (nationally and/or internationally) Philippine spec fic authors?

Dean Francis Alfar is the goal to aspire right now. He’s been published internationally in a lot of venues including Strange Horizons and The Year’s Best Fantasy and horror. He’s also published in independent venues like Ash-Tree Press, Apex, and Velocity Press. And as far as the national scene is concerned, he’s won a few Palanca Awards (the literary awards most Filipino writers compete in) and published a couple of books.

Now here’s where there’s a break between the international and the local scene.

Nationally, other critically-acclaimed authors include Ian Rosales Casocot, Luis Katigbak, Yvette Tan, and F.H. Batacan. They’ve won a Palanca Award or two and have books out (or will soon have one in the case of Yvette Tan).

Internationally, those who are getting their feet wet include Kristin Mandigma (Clarkesworld although last I heard she has no time to write), Nikki Alfar (Fantasy Magazine), Rochita Loenen-Ruiz (Fantasy Magazine, Weird Tales), and Chiles Samaniego (Weird Tales). Then there are the smaller online presses out there that have published an author or two. I’ve compiled a comprehensive list of Philippine speculative fiction stories online: http://charles-tan.blogspot.com/2009/03/philippine-speculative-fiction-in.html

I understand that your nation is one of the most culturally diverse in the world. Has that sort of plurality been an influence in the development of Philippine speculative fiction? Is there a “national character” that informs Philippine speculative fiction?

That’s a tricky subject matter. I’ll start with the simplest one to answer.

When it comes to a “national character,” that’s certainly an element that the scholars and some of the Literati want to see in Philippine speculative fiction (and actually demand that it be present) but personally, I’m not seeing it. I think we’re quite diverse and still discovering our voice so whether a national character emerges has yet to be seen. And personally, I’m more interested in reading/writing good stories, period, rather than looking specifically for stories that emphasize national character (although well-written stories that supposedly have national character are welcome).

As for the plurality, one trend is that the Philippines in general is largely influenced by the West so there’s a lot of American- and European-influenced speculative fiction out there (i.e. your Tolkien clones). The West I think has informed some of our better writers but not all of them. Chiles Samaniego’s fiction for example could take place anywhere, be it the West or here in Asia. Some of Dean Francis Alfar’s fiction draws heavily from Philippine history/culture/myth. Some of our expat authors draw upon their current residence, such as Apol Lejano-Massebieau channeling elements of France, and Crystal Gail Shangkuan Koo incorporating elements of Australia or China. For me personally, I’ll draw upon various sources as appropriate, writing both territory-agnostic fiction and those steeped in Filipino identity depending on the agenda and the narrative.

You’ve been very involved in the promotion of native speculative fiction. Can you tell me about some of the work you’ve done?

Honestly, I have yet to break into the international scene as far as fiction is concerned. Most of my published works are in local publications like Philippine Speculative Fiction III and IV and The Digest of Philippine Genre Stories. (Anna Tambour’s currently hosting my Philippine Speculative Fiction IV story though at http://www.annatambour.net/CharlesTan-DiseasesforSale.htm) And compared to some local authors, I’m honestly not that prolific. The problem there is that aside from the low-print run, people outside of the Philippines (and even those already in the country are having problems acquiring them) have no convenient/cheap access to our books. The publishers certainly aren’t shipping them outside of the country with Dean Francis Alfar’s press being the exception.

Recently, I set up the Philippine Speculative Fiction Sampler (http://www.philippinespeculativefiction.com) to help showcase some of our works.

In terms of my non-fiction though, I’m probably known in the Internets for my book reviews and interviews with authors, either at my blog or sites like The Nebula Awards and The Shirley Jackson Awards.

Visit Charles online at http://www.charles-tan.blogspot.com