Diaspora Ad Astra (27 page)

“War Zone Angel” was first published in
Tales of Enchantment and Fantasy
(Milflores, 2008) before it was published in the online edition of
Diaspora Ad Astra
(2012)

RAVEN GUERRERO
is a proud son of San Pedro, Laguna. He is now based in Chicago, Illinois where he is a graphic designer and working artist. He remains active
in the local steampunk community, and hopes to one day build his own orrery. His work can be seen at
www.ravenguerrero.com
.

“Lucky” was first published in the online edition of
Diaspora Ad Astra
(2012).

CARLJOE JAVIER
teaches English, Literature, and Creative Writing at the University of the Philippines Diliman. He has written books of fiction, nonfiction, and
pop culture criticism. He spends too much time playing video games and reading comic books.

Aside from being published in the online edition of
Diaspora Ad Astra
(2012), “The Day the Sexbomb Dancers Invaded Our Brains” has also been
published in Carljoe’s short story collection
Geek Tragedies.

ANNE LAGAMAYO
is now a grad student based in New York.

“Space Enough and Time” was first published in the online edition of
Diaspora Ad Astra
(2012).

KATYA OLIVA-LLEGO
lives in Daly City, California with her husband and her newborn daughter. She works as a Senior Research Associate for a healthcare IT
company. Her speculative poems and stories have appeared in
Scifaikuest
,
Moon Drenched Fables
,
Static Movement
,
Expanded
Horizons
, and
Electric Velocipede
. 

“Gene Rx” was first published in the online edition of
Diaspora Ad Astra
(2012).

ALEXANDER MARCOS OSIAS
is a frequent visitor to the lands of speculative fiction, favoring the massive continents of science fiction, fantasy, and horror and
all points in between. Records of his explorations have been published in
The Digest of Philippine Genre Fiction
, themed anthologies like
A Time for Dragons
,
several volumes of
Philippine Speculative Fiction
, and
InterNova
, an international science fiction online magazine. He was also the co-editor of
Philippine
Speculative Fiction 7
, and is a founding member of the LitCritters, a writing and literary discussion group.

“Oplan Sanction” was first published in the online edition of
Diaspora Ad Astra
(2012).

RAYDON L. REYES
’ short stories have recently appeared in the New York-based literary journal
Chelsea Station
and in
100 Word
Story
. His poetry has been published in Philippines Graphic and Paper Monster Press. He is currently taking up his Master’s Degree in Applied Social Psychology in De La Salle
University.

“Robots and a Slice of Pizza” was first published in the online edition of
Diaspora Ad Astra
(2012).

RAYMUND REYES
is a 33-year-old English teacher in a college in Saudi Arabia. Writing is a hobby of his, and he has published stories in the
Philippine
Graphic
and
Free Press
magazines,
Story Philippines
, and has contributed to the anthologies
First Love and Short
and
Short
Stories for Harried Readers
.

“Ina Dolor’s Last Stand” was first published in the online edition of
Diaspora Ad Astra
(2012).

VINCE TORRES
is a copywriter whose attempts at fiction began simply as a creative outlet. With encouragement from Joseph Nacino, and with the realization that
over a decade in advertising had steeled him against various forms of rejection, he began submitting his stories. Since then, his work has been published in
Philippine Genre
Stories
and
Thursday Never Looking Back
. He also writes for the indie comic group Pelikomiks Studios, and is planning to come out with a graphic novel based on “The
Cost of Living”, illustrated by his fiancée Kitty. He’s guilty of using his Twitter account @vincetorres mainly to post pictures of sunsets, cityscapes, and whatever he’s
eating at the moment.

“The Cost of Living” was first published in the online edition of
Diaspora Ad Astra
(2012).

CELESTINE TRINIDAD
is newly licensed physician, currently taking up her residency training in Pathology, but she still tries to read and write as much as she
can in her spare time. Her stories have appeared in other print and online venues, such as
Digest of Philippine Genre Stories
,
Philippine Speculative Fiction
,
Philippines Free Press
, and
Usok
. Back in 2008, much to her own surprise, she won the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Award for Literature for her short story for
children “The Storyteller and the Giant”.

“Taking Gaia” was first published in the online edition of
Diaspora Ad Astra
(2012).

ELIZA VICTORIA
is the author of the short story collection
A Bottle of Storm Clouds
(2012) and the poetry collection
Apocalypses
(2013).  Her fiction and poetry have appeared in several online and print publications in the Philippines and abroad, and have won prizes in the Carlos Palanca
Memorial Awards for Literature and the Philippines Free Press Literary Awards. She graduated with a degree in Journalism from the University of the Philippines-Diliman in 2007. Visit her at
http://elizavictoria.com.

“Rizal” was first published in the online edition of
Diaspora Ad Astra
(2012).

AUDREY ROSE VILLACORTA
is a Journalism graduate from the University of the Philippines. Bicol-grown, she’s had three years of work experience in the
education industry, and has been busy for the past three years pursuing a career in Marketing. “The Keeper” is her first published work.

“The Keeper” was first published in the online edition of
Diaspora Ad Astra
(2012).

ISABEL YAP
will be graduating this year from Santa Clara University with a degree in Marketing, though she has clung to her love of writing via an English
minor, and her love for ramen via a Japanese minor. Shortly after graduation, she will attend the Clarion Writers’ Workshop in San Diego. Her interests include heartbreaking poetry, the weird part
of YouTube, and finding the best chocolate chip cookies. Although she has lived in California for the past three years, Manila will always be her home. Her short fiction and poetry have appeared in
The Best of Philippine Speculative Fiction I-V
,
Santa Clara Review
,
Lauriat: An Anthology of Filipino-Chinese Speculative Fiction
, the
Philippines Free Press
, and
Cha: An Asian Literary Journal
, among other places. In 2012 she was awarded an honorable mention in the Tamara Verga Poetry Prize.

“A List of Things We Know” was first published in the online edition of
Diaspora Ad Astra
(2012).

EMIL M. FLORES
is an Associate Professor at the University of the Philippines where he has taught Anglo-American Science Fiction. His memoir,
Virginia
Tech Memories
, published by the UST Publishing House, includes reflections on science fiction and comics. His science fiction and fantasy stories have appeared in collections such as
Nine Supernatural Stories
(UP Press),
Pinoy Amazing Adventures
(PsiCom) and
Tales of Enchantment and Fantasy
(Milflores). He currently writes the
indie espionage comic,
Cadre
, produced by Polyhedron Comics.

JOSEPH F. NACINO
has had stories published in Kenneth Yu’s
The Digest of Philippine Genre Stories
and the
Philippine Speculative
Fiction
series edited by Dean Francis Alfar, as well as in Vincent Michael Simbulan’s
A Time of Dragons
anthology,
Playboy Philippines
magazine, and
the one-shot
FHM Ladies’ Confessions Erotica Special
. One of his stories won first place in Fully Booked and Neil Gaiman’s
Philippine Graphic Fiction Awards
in 2007 and came out in the collected print edition published by the award-giving body. The same story was later reprinted online in the
Fantasy Magazine
(now
Lightspeed
) website. He published three online anthologies showcasing local speculative fiction writing under his online imprint
Estranghero Press
:
The
Farthest Shore
(fantasy),
Demons of the New Year
(horror) and
Diaspora Ad Astra
(science fiction).

He can sometimes be found at his blog, Grin without the Cat,
http://estranghero.blogspot.com
.

Copyright © Emil M. Flores and Joseph Frederic F. Nacino 2014
ePub design and production by Flipside team

eISBN 978-971-9640-04-2

This e-book edition published 2014
by Flipside Publishing Services, Inc.
Quezon City, Philippines

flipside.ph