A few years back when I’d first arrived in Vietnam, and was still very new to writing, I produced The Four Deaths of Taylor Ngo. Set in a jazz bar in Ha Noi (and, yes, based on a real jazz bar in that city that boasts impressive musicians, the thick haze of cigarette smoke, and a beer-marinated floor), the story was rejected around 20 times, and re-written that many.
I’m pleased that the story has finally found a home. And a good one, too – Lontar: the Journal of Southeast Asian Speculative Fiction. As pretty much everything I write is set in Southeast Asia, this journal had been one I’d aspired to get a showing in. Like most journals, Lontar is doing it tough, so if you have a few spare bucks you should do yourself a favour and check out an issue.
Unlike other journals, it is the only SF mag based in and dedicated to Southeast Asian fiction. Nearly all the writers are from the region, with the occasional exception of those outsiders like me who live in the region. If you read speculative fiction to expand the mind, see the world in a different way, and discover ancient mythologies you’ve never known. Well. Might be worth having a gander.
