DISCLAIMER

All rights reserved to the authors whose stories were featured in this book with the exception of a few whose works are widely available in the public domain.

We publish stories that are considered to be literary classics or considered part of contemporary literature. This book contains works from Filipino authors, some of which whose works have been awarded The Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature and have been named as National Artists. Works from other authors are also included. 

These works have been previously published or featured in literary magazines and journals and literary sites.

Short Stories will be published in this book on a weekly basis, depending on availability. For those requesting specific short stories please leave a message. 

FOREWORD 

"If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking." - HARUKI MURAKAMI

Our generation is a very informed and multi-faceted one. The advent of the internet has not only broadened opportunities for literature to flourish and reach wider audiences but also has inspired a new generation of readers to become writers. We cannot deny that despite the proliferation of smartphones and distractable content there's still a handful of people who continue to read. Books have morphed into e-books and printing rates continue to go up. From the pages of book series and the fandoms that share their adoration for the work a generation of writers pick up the pen and write.

There has been a recent debate over whose works are generally considered the best. Genre Fiction or "fiction of the masses", or "escapist fiction" is everywhere and people seem to can't get enough of its familiar tropes, storylines, and themes. In fact, it is genre fiction, with its accessibility, relaxed prose, and familiar universal themes that invoke a sense of familiarity in the reader. In Genre Fiction, says Lev Grossman, "You leave behind the problems of reality — but only to re-encounter those problems in transfigured form, in an unfamiliar guise, one that helps you understand them more completely, and feel them more deeply."

It's no surprise that this reimagining of our real-world predicaments has made genre fiction's power to bring us closer to home from a world far so distant and fictitious so effective to make us turn a page. Genre fiction influences us to reimagine ourselves in that distant world, whether that would be in middle earth, a galaxy, far, far, away, or somewhere down the street and be there. This reimagining of a vivid world where we fill in the shoes of characters is what makes attaches Genre Fiction to the reader. We feel what the character feels and see the world from another perspective. The actualization of our fantasies derived from that world? Fanfiction. 

Literary fiction on the other hand seeks to completely analyze and enhance our perceptions of the world and closely examine the social forces at play.  Literary fiction writers are scribes recording the human condition of the times. While journalists can give the facts, these writers make us immerse ourselves into that world and make us experience firsthand the zeitgeist the book encapsulates. Literary fiction prizes style, insight, and characters whose lives and inner thoughts, passions, fears, and worldview have been exposed for us to see. 

Despite their varying differences, both kinds of fiction continue to mesmerize and enthrall readers. The problem here is where both types of fiction remain stubborn to their ideologies and continue to bash one another, duking it out for supremacy. Literary fiction writers bash genre fiction authors for their lack of originality, cliched tropes, and lazy writing (and their snowflake attitudes among writer clans and groups, according to some). Genre fiction authors continue to be disenchanted with the literary establishment due to their rigidity and their out-of-touch approach that the masses cannot comprehend.

This is why this book has been compiled to give the readers of today access to literary gems that have continued to delight readers and inspire them to write better stuff. This is filled with many short stories some familiar some new that will fully imbue the reader with the rich literary tradition of this country and bring it to the present and make the future read.

The better solution, rather than degrading one another is to rather encourage writers and readers to view literature as a record of a generation that illustrates what it means to be human. Literature's sole purpose is not to make money or to make readers cringe over oversaturation but rather to take on things in a different light and explore the unknown. What our readers need is not to be belittled over their tastes in books or reading Wattpad but rather introduce them to stories that will refine their palate. There's no doubt that stories are influential enough to change a person's life. 

I hope that you would enjoy this book as much as I did. 

"The Things We Read Eventually Influence The Way We See The World, And Soon, Make Us Write What We Know."