With the conclusion of Joseph Nacino’s set and this, tomorrow, the beginning of F.H. Batacan’s, she is the last of the PGS guest-editors.

This little experiment began a year ago with some hopes and more trepidation. Being the reading advocate that I am, the biggest thought on my mind was, and still is, “Would people visit the site and read?” I think that to a certain extent the answer is “Yes”, and I give credit to the names and reputations of my guest-editors. Their story- and author-choices, as well as their own talent in telling tales, carried PGS for well a year. I’m grateful to them, and to their writers, for what they’ve done.

The end of this first calendar year brings to a close the guest-editor project. I don’t wish to bring to others the same responsibility I brought to them these twelve months. Well, not yet, haha. Perhaps it may be worth another go in the future, if there would be those willing to take on a guest-editor stint. But once F.H. Batacan’s four stories are done, the editorship returns to me for the foreseeable future.

This is as good a time as any to remind you all of the call for submissions I made some months ago, the purpose of which is to find new stories for PGS (enough maybe for another year? I should be so lucky. In truth, I’m actually confident that I will be). I have no guest-editors with their names and reputations to carry Philippine Genre Stories, this brand of Pinoy genre fiction I’ve created, but I do have the hope and confidence that the stories of the Pinoy authors out there who will submit, will.

Again, my thanks to the guest-editors, and my constant, constant thanks to all PGS readers. Let’s all keep on reading, folks. And it’ll be my turn to see you all in a couple of months. Cheers!

Joseph Nacino takes over as guest-editor for this next set of four tales, which, if one were to categorize them, would be: alternative myth/reality, science-fiction/horror, crime, and fantasy/action/adventure. The alternative myth/reality work brings together Philippine national heroes with our country’s legendary strong man; the science-fiction/horror tale brings us viruses and zombies in Makati; the crime story involves murder (natch, hehe) and a cover-up in more ways than one; and the fantasy/action/adventure piece has stunts galore. A most diverse set of tales, these four. They start tomorrow! Enjoy!

A reminder: Here’s a link to the call for submissions and reading period! Send in your stories, please! Thanks!

PGS Online will be open to fiction submissions by Pinoy writers for reading and consideration from January 1, 2012 to April 30, 2012. Click here for more details.

My grateful thanks to Nikki Alfar–whose set of stories have just concluded–for putting in the time and effort in editing her writers’ works, and then sharing one of her own. I hope you all enjoyed reading her set as much as I have.

The end of Nikki’s set marks the halfway point of this little experiment with PGS Online, of bringing genre stories by Pinoy writers for you to read through the web. With four guest-editors now done with their four stories each, that’s sixteen here on the site (for those keeping count), enough to fill a full physical anthology.

Comparing my previous experiences with a print-product and this online one, I must say that it’s easier to keep a consistent schedule by going digital. The many steps involved in bringing stories out in physical form–from layout, illustrations, stripping, plating, printing, color-checking, binding, cutting, to distribution–certainly can’t compare to the more straightforward use of a website’s content management system and worldwide presence. It still takes some time to do, make no mistake, but it is something less people can manage, versus the many more needed to produce the physical digest. It actually feels quite empowering. Having said that, the temptation to produce a physical product is still there; I don’t think it’ll ever go away.

To end the current year and to usher in 2012, our next guest-editor is a fresh name to the site: Alexis “Exie” Abola, multiple Palanca winner and English professor at Ateneo de Manila University. As with the others before him, I’m thankful that Exie agreed to take the time to guest-edit a set and to share one of his own stories on PGS. His set begins on December 15, 2011, and with his editorial sensibilities he brings a fresh perspective to genre fiction for PGS.

As a bonus for this holiday season, there will be an extra story on December 25, 2011. I had written on the PGS blog before how I was considering publishing stories in Filipino and not just English. Well, I’m happy to announce that, to give this a try, PGS will soon have a translated version of PGS contributor M.R.R. Arcega’s “The Magic Christmas Box”, which was first published in English in the print-version of the PGS Holiday Issue. “Ang Mahiwagang Kahong Pamasko” will go live on Christmas Day. My thanks to M.R.R. Arcega for agreeing to this; she’s one of our local writers with the high-skill to write stories in both English and Filipino. I hope PGS readers will receive this translation well. If so, I’m looking to extend this into 2012. Please leave your comments and let me know how you feel about this.

Many, many thanks to all the readers of PGS for your support. Please do keep on reading PGS Online, and any other book or story (digital or not); reading is a good habit to keep. Here’s hoping PGS Online will succeed in reaching more readers into 2012 and beyond. Thank you, everyone. Enjoy your holiday season, and Happy New Year to you all!

For this next set of tales–the third set, for those of you keeping count–I’m happy to have four former PGS contributors returning with their newest work, all of which will be published over the next couple of months.

Dean Alfar is the guest-editor for this set, and he brings with him writers Elyss Punsalan, Alexander Osias, and Vincent Simbulan. All of them have seen publication in previously released print issues of PGS (to see which issues, just click on their names for the links). I’m proud to have them all back.

Eight stories in, and I’m pleased with the progress of PGS online. It feels good to know that as far as plans go, the site will be able to provide genre stories even up to the early part of next year. And looking at the bigger picture, I’m particularly pleased that–based on what I’ve seen, read, and heard through blogs, social-media or through meeting fellow readers–genre tales written by Pinoy fictionists are being read, and more importantly, accepted by fellow Pinoys, particularly younger ones. A part of me would like to think that the print version of PGS played a role in that, and that the online version is continuing that role. This is giving me a lot of hope, since it feeds into my goal of PGS helping develop people into regular readers for the rest of their lives. Of course, full credit for this actually goes to the readers themselves, since it’s their imaginations that is fueling their own desire to read and enter various worlds through reading, worlds of Pinoy creation, and worlds created by non-Pinoys as well. It’s all good.