We almost missed this book launch.
M1 was eager to go to this one because his teacher, Vincent Simbulan, was launching an anthology of dragon stories written by a pool of authors including himself. But when we went to Shangri-la Plaza Mall last March 26, there was no such event!
Thanks to a heads-up by Dom Cimafranca, my online contact who happened to also be one of the authors, I found out that the launch was for March 29 (not the 26th) in the mall. So much for date mix-ups!
A Time for Dragons (under Anvil Publishing) is a collaboration consisting of 17 short stories and 1 essay by Filipino writers who, as stated in Anvil’s website, “aim to present the dragon in new and inventive ways, and to renew and refresh the dragon for a more sophisticated and mature audience”. Vin Simbulan mentioned that unlike other parts of the world where the dragon is often depicted as an evil being (including in the Bible), Asian dragons were depicted as heroic, gentle creatures. Even the cover of the book was truly a work of art. It was awesome! And when we met the illustrator, Andrew Drilon, who did the cover as well as all the illustrations inside, I remember thinking how young he was. Truly gifted!
Here is the book’s Table of Contents to give you a flavor of what is inside.
