Writer Joseph Anthony Montecillo will debut his first collection of short fiction, In the Blood and Other Stories, at a launch event tomorrow (Nov. 24) at Palm Tree Abbey.
The event, scheduled from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., will include a program with limited seating on a first-come, first-served basis and a book signing open to all attendees. Copies of the book will be available for purchase at a discounted rate.
Published by the University of the Philippines Press, the collection collates fourteen of Montecillo’s short stories released over a decade of writing. This is the first time the stories have been collected into a single volume. All the stories had previously been published in anthologies such as the Philippine Speculative Fiction series or magazines such as Philippines Graphic or The Sunday Times Magazine.
Included in the collection is the titular story, “In the Blood,” about a mother trying to keep her sons from following in the steps of their serial killer father. In “Pressure and Release,” the stress of an EDSA traffic jam finally overwhelms an everyday bus driver. In “The Forgotten Bones,” a man who lives in a cemetery has an unexpected experience between the rows of tombs.
“I’ve been fascinated by horror for as long as I can remember,” said Montecillo. “It’s always appealed to me, and it’s no shock that my work moved in that direction through the years. I hope that this collection makes for an exciting addition to the long tradition of horror here in the Philippines.”
Montecillo made his first professional fiction sale at the age of 12. In the time since, he has published over 20 short stories, many of which feature dark or macabre subject matter. Outside of his writing ventures, though, he regularly performs as a stand-up comedian around Metro Manila.
For Montecillo, the connection between the two is natural.
“I’m far from the first comedian to work in the horror field,” he said. “Both deal in instant feedback and the goal of leaving an intense and immediate sensation upon the audience. They go hand in hand in a lot of ways, and sometimes that comes across in a few stories in the collection.”
In the Blood and Other Stories is now available for purchase from UP Press’s on-campus and online stores, as well as their stores on Shopee and Lazada.
