Episode 11: Eliza Victoria's REUNION

For the merry month of May, Pakinggan Pilipinas presents the prize-winning short story “REUNION”, written by Eliza Victoria. It’s narrated for us by Solo Galura, an architect based in Quezon City. The story was published in 2009 in the Philippines Free Press, and won the Grand Prize for fiction in the magazine’s 2010 Literary Awards.


Eliza’s fiction and poetry have appeared in various publications, locally and abroad. She has also received the Palanca award for her poetry. And if you’d like to read more of Eliza’s recent works, you could look for them in Stone Telling, Kritika Kultura, and Story Quarterly. She will also have a story in the upcoming sixth volume of the Philippine Speculative Fiction anthology series.

And by the way, do drop by at the year’s most awaited launch:

PHILIPPINE SPECULATIVE FICTION VOL. 6

Edited by Nikki Alfar and Kate Aton-Osias

Book Launch on 28th May, 2011, Saturday

U-View Theatre, Basement of Fully Booked

Bonifacio High Street

Link to FULL EPISODE
Running Time 36m 53s

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Eliza Victoria was born in 1986. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in various publications based in the Philippines and abroad, most recently in Stone Telling, Kritika Kultura, Story Quarterly, the Philippines Free Press, and the upcoming Philippine Speculative Fiction Volume 6. Her work has received prizes in the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature and the Philippines Free Press Literary Awards. Visit her at http://sungazer.wordpress.com, or follow her on Twitter (@elizawriteshere).

ABOUT THE READER Solo Galura is an architect based in Quezon City. He dabbles in voice acting, propelled by his love of audiobooks.

Coming May 1st

Click on the PLAY button to stream teaser for Episode 11.Listen to the full story on May 1st, 2011, Manila Time. 

Not Really Episode 10: Yvette Tan's THE BRIDGE (Full Version)

You're probably thinking, "The first Sunday of the month came and went...Where on earth is the new episode?"


It's not really here... and unfortunately there won't be (technically) a new audio story out this month. I'm not really in the habit of making excuses, but a sickness and some personal affairs, did make the aspect of audio production difficult. The challenge of story permissions and voice casting (hence the call for narrators) didn't make the situation easier.


Hopefully in the next weeks, I'll get some things sorted out.


You know what does help? Moral support. If you help me spread the word about this site and what it aims to do, I'd be very happy. You don't know how much high site traffic cheers me up.

Which leads me to: there are people who volunteered to help in one way or the other, and I'm truly grateful for their contribution. So, big thanks to all our authors, narrators, Filcols (Hi, Bebang!), publishers, unofficial PR (Hi, Angelo Ancheta! Charles Tan! Tin Lao!), techie peeps (Hi, Jar! Osc!) ... and there's probably a lot more I've forgotten to include in this list (so I will make sure I thank them properly in a decent write-up). My heart goes out to all of you. Thank you.

By the way, so far I've received narrator audition samples, and I'm quite pleased! If you're interested, the call is still open. Send in a audition recording. All rightee.

Last year, we featured an abridged version of Yvette Tan's THE BRIDGE. In this pseudo-episode, I'm featuring the story again in its uncut glory, voiced wonderfully by author Nikki Alfar. (It did occur to me that I'm beginning to be too fond of Nikki, with this refeature coming after last month's "Adrift on the Street Formerly Known as Buendia". But she's a goddess, so, it's only normal.)

Link to THE BRIDGE
Running Time 34m 06s
Press PLAY to stream full episode.

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WANTED: Narrators

If you're intested in doing volunteer voice work (and uhm, by volunteer, I really mean *for free*, because Pakinggan Pilipinas is a project out of Pinoy-fiction love), drop me a line!


1. Record a four minute narration of any short story in mp3/wav form. (Don't worry too much if the background is noisy.)

2. Send to pakingganpilipinas@gmail.com. Do write: NARRATOR AUDITION in the subject.

3. If you're versatile and you want to send in more than one kind of narration, go for it.

4. Do let me know where you're from (and this has something to do with recording logistics).

I'm currently open to all kinds of voices, as the story calendar is still in progress, and a database of talent would make things easier.
(However, the most urgent need is a male teen for a story I've wanted to produce since last year.)


Thanks, and feel free to pass this note around!


Elyss
http://PakingganPilipinas.blogspot.com/

Episode 9: Nikki Alfar's ADRIFT ON THE STREET FORMERLY KNOWN AS BUENDIA

If you’re one of the country’s commuting public, it’s likely that you’ve been stranded at least once in your life, and almost always the cause of your troubles is brought about by some form of flooding that cannot, or would not, be explained by public works officials.

Author Nikki Alfar offers a bizarre tale on being stranded, in this month’s featured story “ADRIFT ON THE STREET FORMERLY KNOWN AS BUENDIA”, narrated by marketer Karen Vigo. It first appeared in the Philippines Free Press (2007), and then again in Bewildering Stories. The Bewildering Stories editors loved it so much that it became one of the recipients of the site’s most signal honor, the 2010 Mariner Award.

Finally, fixed =) ENJOY!

Click here to stream FULL EPISODE.

 ABOUT THE AUTHOR

NIKKI ALFAR is a fiction and comics writer, editor and resident grammar nazi of the Manila Lit Critters. Her fiction can be found in local publications like the Philippines Free Press, Philippine Genre Stories, and Story Philippines, and in online publications like Fantasy Magazine and Bewildering Stories. Nikki’s stories have received Palanca awards and citations in the Year’s Best Fantasy. She is wife to businessman/fictionist Dean Alfar, and is mother to daughters Sage and Rowan.

You can also listen to Nikki narrate a story by Yvette Tan: The Bridge.

ABOUT THE READER

KAREN VIGO is a full time campaign planner for a multinational cosmetics company. She loves food in all its glorious forms, and considers Coke Regular as the best beverage in the world.

Coming March 6th

Click on the PLAY button to stream teaser for Episode 9. All episodes come out every 1st Sunday of the month. Listen to the full story on March 6th, 2011, Manila Time. 

Music credits: "Investigations" performed by Kevin Macleod

Episode 8: THE SNIFFLES by Carljoe Javier

For the cold month of February, we’re featuring THE SNIFFLES by Carljoe Javier, narrated by Joel Macaventa.  The Sniffles first appeared in the collection Tales of Fantasy and Enchantment, edited by Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo, published by Milflores. It will be republished in the author's book of short stories, Geek Tragedies, to be published by UP Press in late 2011.

Link to FULL EPISODE
Running Time: 14m 10s

Additional Music Credit: "Happy Boy End Theme" performed by Kevin Macleod

Press PLAY to stream full episode.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

CARLJOE JAVIER studied Creative Writing in UP Diliman. He has two books, “And the Geek Shall Inherit the Earth”and “The Kobayashi Maru of Love”. His third book, “Geek Tragedies” is forthcoming later this year. He likes movies, books, TV, and comics, and probably spends too much time with his Xbox. He works as the business manager of the UST Publishing House.

ABOUT THE READER

JOEL "MCVIE" MACAVENTA loves to act. In times he can't, he works as a marketing exec in one of the country's TV channels, helping people sell the next major sports event. Joel blogs at "The McVie Show"  (http://mcvie5.blogspot.com/ ) now on its eleventh season, and also produces the fabulous podcasts of The Fabcasters.