Cesar Miguel “Miggy” Escaño loves playing all kinds of games: from videogames to boardgames and tabletop RPGs. He taught a subject called “Videogame Design and Theory” when he was a college teacher at the Ateneo de Manila. He’s a retro videogamer who pines for the old-school games he can never play again. He would like to believe that he was an expert in playing holen, shato, and sungka while growing up but it’s likely he wasn’t as good as he remembers. He’s always trying out new games for himself and his wife, for his children, and to play with his entire family.

Miggy first appeared in The Digest of Philippine Genre Stories Issue I Volume 3 in 2007 with his story “Tuko” that tackled bangungot or dying from a nightmare, and then returned in Philippine Genre Stories 2023 with a Muslim-Filipino futuristic world in  Sayf Al’Iiman.

Welcome back, Miggy! How does it feel to be published in Philippine Genre Stories this time around?

I’m always glad to be published in Philippine Genre Stories because it feels like coming home. I am honored to be part of a publication that publishes the best in Philippine Speculative and Genre Fiction. Reading a good story always inspires me to try writing something similar. Reading an excellent story always excites me to read more from the author. Seeing PGS transition from print to online and thrive under different editors gives me hope that the stories published in PGS–not the usual “realist” stories found in English textbooks of stories written by Filipino authors, stories born in the imagination and transform when exposed to the author’s milieu into profound works of art, stories that question one’s reality and gives us a deeper and better appreciation of this world we live in with all its glaring imperfections and maddening peculiarities–will always find a home in every reader who’s always looking for a good story to enjoy and savor.  

How did the idea for MASTER OF SUNGKA come about?

I wrote the story in response to a call for submissions with the theme of featuring disabled or neuro-atypical protagonists or characters. I wanted my protagonist to be physically disabled but not in the usual sense. He or she shouldn’t be missing a limb, which would be too easy in response to the theme, so I thought about a neuro-degenerative condition or disease that would compromise the protagonist’s physical capabilities over time. 

But why should my protagonist care about the disease progressing? Maybe because the disease will limit his ability to perform or play at the highest level. What game would that be? I wanted to challenge myself by depicting a game that would be difficult to illustrate narratively as exciting. I took inspiration from Japanese anime titles such as Yugi-Oh and Beyblade that transformed card-playing and top-battling, otherwise prosaic and un-spectator-friendly activities, into amazing and dynamic brawls for the ages. 

Why not Sungka? I fondly remember playing sungka as a child and being fascinated with the seashells used as markers. I often delighted in picking up a single shell and dropping it into an empty bowl just to hear the melodic sound it made as it rolled around the basin until it settled at the bottom with satisfying finality. I could tie the action of picking up sungka shells with one’s fingers to the inability for someone afflicted with a motor-neuron disease to pick up something as small as sungka shells and place them in a row of sungka bowls with piston-like precision. 

I also wanted to write a Steampunk-like story without the need to re-imagine the entire Philippines with steam technology during an earlier era–that would be for another longer story–so I thought about what if I placed the handicapped protagonist inside a steam-powered suit to enable him to play competitive sungka despite his condition. 

In writing the story, I was also inspired by a short piece of historical fiction in a library book I read as a child. The piece was about a chess-playing robot in the Industrial Age. That robot was called “The Turk” by its inventor. The robot was so good at chess that it attracted the attention of European royalty who wanted to play against it. This robot had a secret. Inside was a chess grandmaster who had lost his legs. Being inside the robot enabled him to continue playing chess and earn a livelihood. 

This fictional story about the robot chess player was inspired by a real-life machine also called “The Turk” that was built in 1770 by Wolfgang von Kempelen. There were many chess players who secretly worked inside the box underneath the mechanical robot. It is fascinating to know that the Turk played and won against famous historical figures such as Benjamin Franklin and Napoleon Bonaparte.          

Thank you, Miggy, for being generous in sharing the roots of this story. And what’s the next writing project that you’re working on?

As of this writing in early April 2024, I’m currently working on a submission to a comics anthology. As the writer, I am partnering with a comics illustrator to pitch an idea for a 10-16 page comic that follows a certain time-related theme. When this Q&A gets published in October, the matter should have been decided: Will the publisher accept our pitch for the initial stage and allow us to transform the one-page synopsis into a full-blown comic? I truly hope so. 

I’ve been an avid comics reader ever since I was a child. I became part of a comics-making group when I was 11 or 12. We made our own comics under the imprint of “CAM Comics,” an amalgam of our initials. I later tried to rekindle my comic-making dreams as a member of a comics appreciation and comic-making group called “Comics Every Thursday” when I was a college teacher at the Ateneo de Manila. In my time as a member, I wrote comic scripts waiting for an artist to transform them into illustrated pages. During that time, I also edited a horror-comic anthology that unfortunately the publisher dropped. I would like to revisit getting that project published someday.   

To more hopeful outcomes then in the future! And what are you currently reading? It’s for what kind of readers? Please tell us more about it. 

I’m currently reading three books–to be specific, 2 print books (1 comic book or graphic novel, and 1 prose book) and 1 audiobook. I often read 1 book at a time but I can mix graphic novels or single-issue comics with prose books. I only started with audiobooks last year and I’ve discovered them to be very convenient to listen to while I’m driving around. Listening to audiobooks made me appreciate the spoken quality of words and that, as a writer, it is important to also consider how your sentences sound like when they are read aloud.   

Persepolis is an autobiographical graphic novel written and illustrated by Marjane Satrapi. Persepolis refers to the capital of ancient Iran. The novel starts in 1980 during the Islamic Revolution in Iran. Marj is the 10-year-old protagonist who experiences severe upheaval in her life because of war and religious extremism. I started reading Persepolis because of the current crisis in Israel and Palestine. At first, I sympathized with Israel when Hamas attacked and took Israeli hostages. But after Israel declared all-out war against Hamas and used brutal and inhumane tactics against Palestinians, my sympathy toward Israel has turned to disgust and disappointment. Disgust because Israel has transformed into the same monstrous regime that inflicted the Holocaust and untold suffering toward the Jewish people, whose descendants now populate the Jewish homeland which they also share with Muslim Palestinians who have lived in the area since ancient times. Disappointment because Israel is capable of great mercy and compassion, considering the ties its nation has forged with the Philippines and other countries that sheltered European Jews who fled the German invasion during World War 2.

Ghost by Alan Lightman is about David, a middle-aged former banker who now works in a mortuary. After an encounter with the supernatural, he begins to question the world of cold reason and hard logic he has lived in all his life. 

Ghost is the third book I’ve read by Alan Lightman, who’s a physicist and educator. I adored the worlds he created that defied the laws of physics in Einstein’s Dreams. Because of how much I enjoyed Einstein’s Dreams, I read Good Benito, which is an introspective book about middle age, depression, and recovery compared to the imaginative flights of fancy found in Einstein’s Dreams.

Victory Road by Salman Rushdie (audiobook) narrates the rise and fall of the empire of Bisnaga whose birth is conjured by the seer Pampa Kampana from thin air. Bisnaga becomes a mighty city and then a famous empire that soon becomes beset by infighting, intrigue, succession wars, and religious intolerance.

This is the first book of Salman Rushdie I am reading and–by the time this Q&A is published–have finished reading. I previously bought his other books but never got around to reading them, mostly because I had the impression that his books were difficult to read. But now that Victory City has opened my eyes to the lyrical beauty and clever imagination of Rushdie’s works, I am looking forward to reading his other books which I have in my collection. 

We’ll surely check these out! And in Philippine Genre Stories, which among the published stories do you like the most so far? Why?

“Differential” by Sharmaine Galve and “Selda 34” by Joseph Nacino. 

“Differential” because it is unflinching. My only complaint with the story is that I wanted to read more, which is a good complaint for a story to have.

“Selda 34” because of how seamlessly it transitions between several characters which is difficult to do in a short story. Also the action scenes are amazing, giving the piece a cinema-like quality. This story would be great adapted into a comic or film. 

Thank you for appreciating their stories! So, besides the tips you previously shared on writing, what other guidance can you share with storytellers out there?

If you want to improve as a fictionist, learn from other types of writing and other writing forms across different media and genres. I first started writing fiction in high school but I was dissatisfied with my storytelling ability and prose quality in my first few stories. In the middle of high school and then in college, I turned to journalism by joining my school’s news and print organizations. Journalism, I thought, would improve my storytelling by teaching me how to present information and communicate effectively with the reading public. 

After college, I became a news reporter and features writer in BusinessWorld. As a working journalist, I learned the value of researching your subject and became familiar with techniques in exposition, providing proper context to a news development, and learning the language of certain industries, disciplines, or fields of art. For example, I once had to interview a jeweler so I had to learn all about jewelry. In another example, I once had to attend a wine-tasting event so I had to read up ahead of time and learn about the different elements in wine from texture, flavors, smell, and how to properly sip wine. 

I’ve worn many hats as a writer and tried many different kinds of writing over the years. I’ve written scripts for videos, advertising material, and comic books. The techniques I’ve learned from the different types of writing I’ve done have enhanced my fiction writing and my skills as a storyteller. Learn and be open to learning new things. Explore and wander outside your comfort zone. Know that whatever knowledge you accumulate, you won’t retain all of it, but what matters is that the knowledge that you keep–from first-hand knowledge to personal insights–will enhance your character, not just as a writer, but as a person and how you interact with the people around you and how you experience life. 

It is not enough to be well-read. It is better to be well-experienced. It is not enough to be knowledgeable. It is better to be insightful. 

As William Shakespeare wrote in his play, Hamlet: “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” Don’t rely on past knowledge and experience. You can always learn more. Be curious. Be passionate about new experiences. Seek new horizons.          

Thank you again so much, Miggy, for always being open to share, and we are really happy to have you back in 2024!

I am also happy to have another story published in PGS Online. It is always an honor to be published alongside other writers I enjoy reading.