The Chinese character fu (福) in the shape of the upcoming Year of the Snake, and which means “good fortune”.

Each New Year–no matter if it’s the Lunar or the Gregorian calendar–people look forward to a “new” start, a time for resolutions for the better even if, in fact, this so-called beginning is just a man-made construct, and nothing is stopping anyone from starting anew at any time. In facing this new beginning, I find it amusing the way we all consult our astrological signs–Eastern, Western, again it doesn’t matter–for what is to come, whether our fortunes are good or not, and what we should do to come out “okay” at the end of the year. 

Victor Fernando R. Ocampo is the author of the International Rubery Book Award shortlisted The Infinite Library and Other Stories (Math Paper Press, 2017 ; US edition: Gaudy Boy, 2021) and Here be Dragons (Canvas Press, 2015), which won the Romeo Forbes Children’s Story Award in 2012. His play-by-email interactive fiction piece “The Book of Red Shadows” debuted at the Singapore Writers Festival in 2020. 

His writing has appeared in many publications including Apex Magazine, Daily Science Fiction, Future Fiction, Likhaan Journal, Strange Horizons, Philippines Graphic, Science Fiction World and The Quarterly Literature Review of Singapore, as well as anthologies like The Best New Singapore Short Stories, Fish Eats Lion: New Singaporean Speculative Fiction, LONTAR: The Journal of Southeast Asian Speculative Fiction, the Philippine Speculative Fiction series and Mapping New Stars: A Sourcebook on Philippine Speculative Fiction.

He is a fellow at the Milford Science Fiction Writers’ Conference (UK) and the Cinemalaya Ricky Lee Film Scriptwriting Workshop, as well as a Jalan Besar writer-in-residence at Sing Lit Station (2020/2021).

You can Visit his blog at vrocampo.com or follow him on your socials at https://beacons.ai/vrocampo 

by Victor Fernando R. Ocampo

Opathan | Danghus | Thursday

It was a gentle late-afternoon, pink and gold like a burden of beach roses. Tala was helping her grandfather harvest sweet potatoes with their small pod of harvester baskets. A carillon of bells pealed somewhere in the distance. The seven-year old quickly squatted down, excited and wide-eyed, as a swarm of floating air jellies suddenly streamed overhead, their amorphous, opalescent bodies twinkling like stars. Just seeing them made her heart sing with joy at the sheer awesomeness and wonder of existence. 

Her grandfather’s loud chuckle broke her reverie. “They descend from the ocean every night,” he teased, “yet every time it’s like you’ve never seen them before.”

“Lolo,” she asked, mildly irritated at her elderly companion, but still careful to use the ancient Filipino honorific for grandfather, “have you ever seen the ocean?”

“One day soon I will, my child,” he whispered, his voice hoarse as an old rocket engine, as the two of them filled a floating basket with the fattest, most purple sweet potatoes. “Any time now I will have to return to her, to Mother Ocean.”

KEITH SICAT is a filmmaker and comic book creator behind “OFW: Outerspace Filipino  Workers” which has proven to be a deep conceptual well for his pursuits in speculative fiction. His films have screened internationally with notable works including award-winners “Rigodon”, “Woman of the Ruins”, and “Alimuom”.  Also working in  animation, he was the script consult for the first 3D CG animated feature in the Philippines  “RPG: Metanoia” and helped develop the first Japanese-Filipino anime co-production “Barangay 143” with TV Asahi that is on NETFLIX.  He is also the Program Director of the NETFLIX supported short film lab iNDIEGENIUS which aims to give more opportunities to young regional filmmakers. 

He published his first short story, Ewa and the Song from a Distant Star, in Philippine Genre Stories, February 2023. 

by Keith Sicat

Aguirre wondered if these purple hints of violence on his knuckles matched better with his three-piece pin-stripe suit than his gaudy new belt buckle.  Coming from a brief black-site assignment outside of the Mega Manila Bio-Dome doing what used to be his favorite part of the job, he pondered if age was catching up with him.  

Roughing up dissidents was a young man’s game. Perhaps this was why the buckle was bothering him; the relentless reminder that he’s been downing too many premium off-world lagers.  No wonder he was eager to get his hands dirty again, catch a sniff of his former glory as a field agent.  Fisticuffs were fun!  Getting promoted to his glorified desk job meant the utter drag of wrapping your head around schemers and charlatans of all sorts.  The equations were so much simpler in the field; survive or die.  In this world of etiquette and fancy cutlery, you couldn’t assess whether you were actually surviving or being set up for your final meal.