If you’re planning to join the 3rd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards, then heed this advice:  don’t strive to imitate Neil Gaiman.  In this article by The Manila Times’ Rome Jorge, Fully Booked’s marketing manager, Tals Diaz, advises aspiring contestants:  “One thing we can tell you not to do is mimic a Gaiman story.”  Awards chairman Erwin Romulo adds, “Neil’s theme is Filipino unrealism. It has to have that unique sense of Filipino-ness about it. We do have a rich tradition of Filipino mythology and folklore that we hardly explore in our literature.”  More when you click the link below.

Link: “How not to be the next Neil Gaiman” via The Manila Times
Hat Tip: Azrael Colladilla

Cross-posted from NewWorlds.ph

NEIL GAIMAN and FULLY BOOKED
present

The 3rd Philippine Graphic Fiction Awards

After two successful years of exploring Filipino Unrealism through prose fiction and comics, the Philippine Graphic Fiction Awards opens its third with a new category: short film.

All Filipino citizens may send their original entries in the prose fiction, comics, and short film categories to any Fully Booked branch.

The winning prose and comics entries will be compiled and published by Fully Booked, with a foreword by Neil Gaiman. All winning short films will be screened on awarding day.

CONTEST GUIDELINES:

1. Submissions must be given or delivered before or on September 30, 2008, with a duly accomplished application form and resume, to be sealed inside a legal size letter envelope with the heading, “3rd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards.” All submissions should be given or delivered to:

Fully Booked Customer Service
Fully Booked
Bldg 6, 902 Bonifacio High Street
Bonifacio Global City
1634 Taguig City

Only 1 submission per envelope (for those submitting to all three categories). Application forms may be downloaded below.

2. The contest is open to all Filipino citizens, even those who may be in a foreign country at the time, so long as they are still legal citizens, except current officers and employees of Fully Booked and the contest’s sponsors.

3. All submissions must be in English except for the short film category, which may be in English or Filipino with English subtitles.

4. There are three categories: comics, prose fiction and short film. Contestants may join in all categories, and collaborations are allowed; however, each contestant may only submit and/or be involved with only one (1) submission per category.

5. Submissions must not have been awarded by another body or published in a national publication. Submissions to the short film category must not have been exhibited commercially, locally or internationally.

6. All submissions must be original. No adaptations of produced / published / copyrighted material are allowed. All intellectual property rights of submissions must belong to the author/s and director/s. Fully Booked and its sponsors shall be exempt from any and all liability in the event that the submission is said to infringe upon the intellectual property rights of another existing work. All rights revert to respective authors and directors, but FULLY BOOKED maintains/reserves the right to publish submissions without permission / approval / compensation.

7. a. PROSE - Submissions must fall under the genres of science fiction, fantasy and/or horror. Stories may not exceed seven thousand (7,000) words. Submissions must include four (4) hard copies, typewritten or computerized (preferably computerized). Submissions should be double-spaced on letter-size bond paper (8 1/2 X 11 inches), with approximately one-inch margin on all sides. Fonts should be Arial or Times New Roman and the font size should be 12. The author/s’ name and address must not appear on the submission or any of its pages. Every page must contain the title of the work and must be numbered consecutively (e.g. 1 of 20, 5 of 15 and so on). The submission must include one (1) soft copy on a CD-ROM (files should be in .rtf [Rich Text Format]).

b. COMICS - For Comics, the theme is open (non-fiction is allowed). Twelve (12) pages is the maximum length. All submissions should be in black and white. Contestants may use any media they wish. No signatures/names must appear on any of the pages. Submissions must include four (4) hard copies (letter-size bond paper [8 1/2 X 11 inches]) and one (1) soft copy on CD-ROM (files should be in .jpg format, with art scanned at a minimum of 300 dpi); no original art must be submitted.

c. SHORT FILM - Submissions must fall under the genres of science fiction, fantasy and/or horror. The production of the short film must be in 2008, it should not exceed 20 minutes (including credits) and must be submitted in a digital video format (DVD). This category is open to professionals, however, no corporate financing is allowed.

8. Fully Booked has no obligation to return submissions.

9. In case submissions from overseas win, an authenticated copy of the Authorization Form by the Philippine Embassy or Consulate will be required.

10. The Board of Judges shall have the discretion, not to award any prize if, in its judgment, no worthy submission has been entered.

12. Fully Booked has the sole right to designate the persons who shall constitute the Board of Judges in each of the contest categories. The decision of the majority of the Board of Judges in all categories shall be final.

13. All rules and guidelines of the contest must be followed STRICTLY. Non-compliance will subject the submission to immediate disqualification.

Download the application form HERE.

The finalists for this year’s Locus Awards have been announced, and Neil’s The Witch’s Headstone was nominated for Best Novelette.  The winner of the Locus Awards will be announced on June 21.

Neil’s short story, Orange, is featured in The Starry Rift: Tales of New Tomorrows, a young adult science fiction anthology edited by Jonathan Strahan.  It’s available for pre-order on Amazon, and will be released April 17 in the US.  Here’s the list of stories in the anthology:

1. Repair Kit, Stephen Baxter
2. Anda’s Game, Cory Doctorow
3. Lost Continent, Greg Egan
4. The Dismantled Invention of Fate, Jeffrey Ford
5. Orange, Neil Gaiman
6. Sundiver Day, Kathleen Ann Goonan
7. Cheats, Gwyneth Jones
8. An Honest Day’s Work, Margo Lanagan
9. The Surfer, Kelly Link
10. Incomers, Paul McAuley
11. The Dust Assassin, Ian McDonald
12. Infestation, Garth Nix
13. The Star Surgeon’s Apprentice, Alastair Reynolds.
14. Post-Ironic Stress Syndrome, Tricia Sullivan
15. Ass-Hat Magic Spider, Scott Westerfeld
16. Pinocchio, Walter Jon Williams.

Charles Tan has posted a review of “Fragile Things” on his blog, Bibliophile Stalker.  We’ve added his review to the archive HERE.

The BBC is counting down the top 7 of the 9 World Book Day free books (if you have a Book Token, 1 Pound otherwise), and they’ve put up Chapter 1 of Neil Gaiman’s Odd and the Frost Giants.

Click HERE to read Chapter 1 (pdf format).

Hurray for free books! 

Originally posted on MTV

“I just read this book ‘Black Orchid’ and it’s a really interesting character,” the actress said. “She’s a superhero that’s a flower. I don’t know if that would work or the audiences would be interested in that, but she was kind of cool.”

Read the full story HERE.

You can now read American Gods online for free! For a month!  Courtesy of Harper Collins.

Click here!

Mr. Neil has kindly posted a good quality copy of the “Coraline” teaser trailer released last year!  Click here to view it - Quicktime .mov format (click!).

Mr. Neil announced that The Graveyard Book will hit US stores, all at the same time, on September 30th. He also said there might be midnight parties and such. Sounds like fun! Hopefully some local bookstore will put up a similar event. (hint hint, FB! :p)

For those who can’t wait, an excerpt from the book is included in M is for Magic. It’s called “The Witch’s Headstone”, and it will eventually become chapter 4 of Graveyard.  There is also video of Neil reading from Graveyard here (click!).