Tell us a bit more about you, where you’re from, and when you started writing.
I’m usually called Miguel, I’m from the Makati, Philippines. I started writing way back in high school.
What inspired your winning story? Why did that particular theme resonate with you?
“Stargazing” was a very rough concept, idea, back about 15 years back. Thinking as a patient being wheeled into an operating room, under the influence of various medicine making the patient rather drowsy or groggy. So, the patient is lying there, enroute, vision blurry, and the ‘clean’ lights of the ceiling can be imagined as stars.
It resonated with me, since I like, and am interested (another matter if I can execute it properly or well) usually in themes of the pursue of arts or sciences (medical included) and leading to a rabbit hole of madness. Then just do variations for there
What do you enjoy most about writing flash fiction, as opposed to longer stories?
I’m not really into flash fiction initially. I write more into short stories, and on average my word count may be somewhere within an 1800 – 2300-word count. I like writing which builds up on dread and the haunt; I’m rather wordy, and feel for the older writers who write in such a wordy, bulky way (though naturally they were way more effective in executing such style).
Still, ever since I kept joining this monthly contest, I gave me another view of keeping it short. So, I usually think up stories in very short scenarios; like within the story it only takes minutes or seconds when it transpires.
Why did you start writing in the horror genre?
My writings ever since were closely associated to horror. Something that isn’t supposed to happen or has very low possibility to happen, but is happening. I strive for a feel that is unsettling, where you can’t quite place your finger in it. A silent dread or a beautiful haunt. Something like a phenomenon which needs not be explained but just how it is reacted upon. Something that doesn’t scare quite outwardly but already lives in the subconscious of the readers. Perhaps it’s rather lofty to strive for but still worth to keep trying.
And many of those elements are usually associated with horror. In a sense, I would like to think of it as something like a bleak horror.
What’s the thing you enjoy most about being a writer?
I think being a writer, in a sense, is the conflict nature of feeling about it. It’s like an existential dread. Writing is both a passion and a self-inflicted torture. It’s enjoyable and depressing. It’s a crumbling life on ink and paper. And one could only hope it could outlive one’s own life.
Have you added any new authors to your favorites list recently?
Not really. But most recent maybe is “Enter Ghost” by Isabella Hammad
Anything special on your ‘to read’ list for this year?
Really trying to read for the year, but admittedly, still not as much as I hope. Part of the list would be “The Taxidermist’s Daughter” by Kate Mosse; “The Historian” by Elizabeth Kostova; and “The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner” by James Hogg. But maybe the target list might even be changing.
Do you have a set writing routine, a daily word count goal, or do you prefer a less structured writing process?
I try to write after work. Usually between 10pm to 2am.
What advice would you give writers who want to try writing flash fiction?
For new writers, flash fiction is a good place to start. People like doing social media post; that’s essentially almost like that already. It’s a 1st person POV, then tweak it to fit more into the genre you are going for.
For writers of longer pieces, flash fiction is a good ‘breather’. Or maybe not also really, in which way you look at it. It is a story which needs to stand alone and should be tighter. But one of the things I also found out about flash fiction, is that I have the whole world as an excuse not to explain everything. Just get a character and throw them smack down right in the middle of a scenario, in the middle of a timeline. It’s somewhat like a middle finger to storytelling where anything goes.
What can readers expect from you in the future? Any new projects on the horizon?
Am part of a couple of anthologies. Still trying to have my short story collection published as well. And am working on research again on a short story which I’m turning into a Novella.
Where can folks find you online?
Can check out substack.