2@42

I turn 42 only once, and I doubt I’ll ever have two books released at the same time again, so this is just to mark a day when friends new and from a while back might want to spend some time with my work, if not with me, online. This is my way of getting around the barriers of time (six hours behind my motherland the Philippines!) and space (I’m still in Cape Town, South Africa and my teleporter is not yet fully functional!).

There are amateur blogs (put up by yours truly) for each book with links to Scribd.com where the sample pages are up for browsing. I intend to post some audio clips of my Kermit-like voice (might actually be closer to a Miss Piggy voice) during the course of the month just to make you guys laugh. Visit the blogs and listen at your own peril.

If you are lucky enough (not begging here, ok?) to have already got yourself copies of the books and found some poems that made a connection – even if it was just a YIKES! or OOOH THAT WAS BAD! or EH, ANO BA ANG PINAGSASABI NI JIM DITO? or perhaps anything a bit more positive – then please feel free to post a comment on the relevant book’s blog.

I am also opening the door for the more visually or musically creative friends I have met to make their own interpretation(s) of any of my poems – a short video, a visual poetry rendition, a sketch, a spoof, a song, an opera (hahaha) anything at all.  I know it’s not a lot of time, and maybe people won’t even bother to pitch up (pitch in?), but hey, it’s worth a shot.

You may participate via the following or on Facebook. You don’t have to wait for the 31st of March to take part, and it certainly does not have to end on the same day.

http://www.alientoanyskin.wordpress.com

http://www.karupukan.wordpress.com

skype & ym: matangmanok

National Bookstore chain will soon have my books on display

I just got news from my publisher that both my books – Alien to Any Skin and Baha-bahagdang Karupukan – will soon be available at the behemoth retailer National Bookstore (in the Philippines they are far too easy to bump into). The titles won’t come up in their website’s search box I bet, but I’ve been told you can start phoning their branches to add some pressure in putting the books on display.

I remember when my first book came out – it was a back to back edition with another poet’s collection (ouch!). Whenever I went into a National Bookstore outlet that had it I would go over and flip the book so that my side would be visible.  🙂  Naughty me.  And the “hidden” employee (a paid character who pretends to be a customer just to keep an eye on shoplifters) would come over and look at me funny, until I told him I was the author and he smiled and left me to my petty devices.

Here’s the cover of that book which, if you search on Amazon.com, you will find to be on sale as a collector’s item at a staggering price.