FHM.com.ph

You visited this part of the globe thrice in the past five years. We need to ask: What keeps you coming back?
I love you. I really do. I initially knew absolutely nothing about the Philippines and all I knew eight years ago was that I keep getting emails saying you have to go to the Philippines.

So when people from Fully Booked run into me in Comic Con one day and said “Can we bring you to our country one day?” I said yes because I know there are readers out there who want to meet me.

It took us about two years to organize. So I came out here in 2005, oh my God! These are my people! I mean the level of enthusiasm with which I was greeted, the intelligence and also the sort of frustration they have.

Frustration in what sense?
I keep meeting smart, talented, creative people here who felt they have no outlet, who felt they have been denied a voice.

People keep telling me that they love people, science fiction, fantasy, horror but no national awards were covering it and stuff like that was why when I left the Philippines the first time I thought to myself, I want to do something, I want to give something back to this place and so that was why I started the competition.

And that for me is incredibly delightful. Watching what the competition has done I’d promised myself the next time I come back that I would actually going to take a holiday and bring my fiancé and the kids with me.

You know, this is my third time in the Philippines and I haven’t even visited a beach? So I’d do that. One of the things that fascinate me about the Filipino readership is that you are incredibly literate.

You have a growing literacy; you are a people who are comfortable with words and very comfortable with technology. Also, one of the things I love is that you are completely up-to-date.