The above image was downloaded from Freepik with a free license. The image was created by Pikisuperstar.
The Year of the Fire Horse (2026) is nearly upon us as we shed the last bits of skin from the Year of the Wood Snake (2025). The older I get, the more aware I am of the cycle of years. The decades have piled on and, taken as a whole, is a burden most heavy and overwhelming. To avoid such weight, discipline is needed in approaching the three tenses we exist in: the past, which provides the memories from which we learn and grow; the future, unknown and so easy to find despair in, and therefore must be faced with hope and determination if we are to go on; and the present, as in living as wholly as possible in it, and taken in moments, in scenes, in chapters.
In stories.
We are the stories we tell ourselves and each other.
From July 2022 up to present time, after that first hiatus of several years, Philippine Genre Stories contributed to the hosting and sharing of these most recent tales. In doing so, PGS kept to its original intent of being a publication where Filipinos can safely tell their genre stories without rancor or judgement. And just like when PGS started out in its print form and then when it first evolved into a webzine, the wealth of submissions was amazing. As before, yes, PGS published established veterans, and they continued to show the way with their craft; their stories reflect their years of experience and sharply track their growth and changing observations of life through their stories.
But ever since the start, PGS has been partial to the new voices. The publication has made it a point to actively seek out fresh stories from new, young writers because in this world that is slowly going to become theirs (as it once, for us older ones, slowly became ours), their voices will only become stronger and matter more. PGS wants to be one of these venues where they can safely tell their stories as they engage with their inherited milieu.
That is not to say that we older ones have nothing to say anymore. Rather, I believe that we are at our best when we respect and listen to each other, accept other points-of-view, ways of telling, and not outright dismiss any new ideas. Paraphrasing the Popper Paradox, the only thing we should dismiss are dismissive attitudes, the kind that looks down on others simply because they read or write outside what these self-proclaimed Messiahs put forward, alongside their self-uplifted and pretentious agendas; or because these others are perceived to be lesser which, I believe, reflects more the character–or lack thereof–of the ones exhibiting disdain. The Popper Paradox warns us that if a tolerant society tolerates the intolerant, then the intolerant will eventually destroy the tolerant, so society must be intolerant of intolerance itself. This could very well apply here.
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And the readers! I cannot forget the selfish reason I set up PGS in the first place. I was looking to read genre fiction by Filipinos, having gorged myself on books and stories from outside our shores. As a reader first, I believed then, as I believe now, that the stories we can read about ourselves are as good as any from other parts of the world. The years have proven me right, and despite all the challenges of running PGS, I have been rewarded many times over with all the tales that PGS has published. I found genre stories by Filipinos, in spades. This is a gift.
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Mia Tijam with her book, “Flowers for Thursday”
I have saved the best bit of news for last. There would have been no second-wind for Philippine Genre Stories without Christine V. Lao and Mia Tijam. As those who took on the editing duties (Tin for the initial six months last 2022, and now the upcoming six as well; Mia for the thirty-eight in-between), they were the ones who handled the interactions with the new set of contributors, working with them to come up with all the stories on the site, ready for all to read. I did want to revive PGS before they came onto the scene, but handling both publishing and editorial duties at the same time, the way I did when I was younger, was no longer on the table. The energy and time it takes is far too much, having to take care of both the front and the back end. When Tin offered six of her students from her creative writing class for six months’ worth of stories, followed by Mia opening up PGS to submissions, and now, another six months coming from Tin as a nice bookend to this particular stint, it was a godsend. PGS came alive again because of them. Ending the previous Lunar New Year with Mia and then starting the new one with Tin feels so apt.
Christine V. Lao with her book, “Affidavit of Loss”
And there is one more person to thank: Dominique Cimafranca, who lives in the Visayas. It was he who set up the PGS site and made it user-friendly for me. It was he who set up the content management system and who makes sure that the domain name has stayed active for all these years. If I owe anyone for making sure the foundation of the site is steady so that an editor and publisher can do their magic, it’s Dom. His contributions cannot be taken for granted. Thank you so much, Dom. You deserve as much recognition as the editors.
Dominique Cimafranca
My thanks to these three go deep for being my collaborators. Conspirators. Allies. Associates. Partners. Ka-chismis. To them go the place of honor for how Philippine Genre Stories has been chugging along for the last several years and allowing me to concentrate on the publishing matters behind-the-scenes. Thank you, deeply, to all of you.
As I mentioned above, Mia’s last story under her editorial watch was last January 2026. Starting this February, Tinlao will take over again for six months and then…here’s one more bit of news: I think we have an opportunity here to give some balance to PGS. During these past years, we have covered science fiction, fantasy, crime, horror, all categories that certainly fall under the broad blanket of “genre”. But there has always been one genre, the most popular one in the country, that I never felt comfortable pushing because I did not feel particularly suited to it. That genre is romance. So, for the last five months of 2026, I am proud and happy to announce one more guest-editor coming in to handle five romance stories until the end of the year. I would like to thank Mina V. Esguerra for accepting my invitation to handle five romance stories from August to December. Thank you so much, Mina. These five stories are far from balancing the scales for the romance genre with PGS, but this is something I am so happy to have even in such a small but surely strong dose. I am very much looking forward to the romance story submissions under Mina later in the second half of the year.
Mina V. Esguerra with her book, “Kiss and Cry”
And then…I think it’s time for another hiatus. Time is needed to rest and recover, and we all have to refocus our energies on our other endeavors, both personal and professional. There is no timetable for when Philippine Genre Stories will be back, if at all, but, frankly, circumstances have changed. When PGS was first set up as a print digest years ago, there was a dearth of genre-related material produced by Filipinos, and very few places for them to go if they were. PGS was one of those venues that filled that gap. Now, I am so happy and proud to see so much Filipino genre-related material cropping up here, there, and everywhere, existing alongside the long-established social-realist works, and produced by so many creative writers and artists. The dearth is gone, so perhaps if PGS comes back at some undetermined time in the future, it will be more of a nice-to-have than a need-to-be-filled. The stories are out there, constantly being told, and that is more than good enough for me.
I’ll end with the usual mantra I have repeated multiple times: in the end, a story is a story is a story. No matter how a story is labeled–social realist, science fiction, fantasy, mystery, horror, crime, romance, etc.–these are tools to help book-sellers, librarians, and publishers categorize a book to make it easier for readers to find. For a reader who is interested in, well, reading stories, it really doesn’t matter. Once you find a book, if it resonates and captures your imagination, then labels be damned. The story, or at the very least, parts of it, meant something to you. That is what matters. I continue to encourage you all to read, fiction or non-fiction, both inside and outside your comfort zones, on any topic, in any language, by anyone from anywhere.
We are the stories we tell ourselves and each other. And the more tales we know, the deeper our understanding of who we are becomes, and we can only be the better for it.