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This is the blog of Ian Rosales Casocot. Filipino writer. Sometime academic. Former backpacker. Twink bait. Hamster lover.
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Bibliography
The Great Little Hunter
Pinspired Philippines, 2022
The Boy The Girl
The Rat The Rabbit
and the Last Magic Days
Chapbook, 2018
Republic of Carnage:
Three Horror Stories
For the Way We Live Now
Chapbook, 2018
Bamboo Girls:
Stories and Poems
From a Forgotten Life
Ateneo de Naga University Press, 2018
Don't Tell Anyone:
Literary Smut
With Shakira Andrea Sison
Pride Press / Anvil Publishing, 2017
Cupful of Anger,
Bottle Full of Smoke:
The Stories of
Jose V. Montebon Jr.
Silliman Writers Series, 2017
First Sight of Snow
and Other Stories
Encounters Chapbook Series
Et Al Books, 2014
Celebration: An Anthology to Commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Silliman University National Writers Workshop
Sands and Coral, 2011-2013
Silliman University, 2013
Handulantaw: Celebrating 50 Years of Culture and the Arts in Silliman
Tao Foundation and Silliman University Cultural Affairs Committee, 2013
Inday Goes About Her Day
Locsin Books, 2012
Beautiful Accidents: Stories
University of the Philippines Press, 2011
Heartbreak & Magic: Stories of Fantasy and Horror
Anvil, 2011
Old Movies and Other Stories
National Commission for Culture
and the Arts, 2006
FutureShock Prose: An Anthology of Young Writers and New Literatures
Sands and Coral, 2003
Nominated for Best Anthology
2004 National Book Awards
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Recent Crumbs
Blogs I Read
© 2002-2021
IAN ROSALES CASOCOT
Tuesday, September 23, 2003
I
know my life. I refuse to be cowered into believing I'm a bad person. In that one instance of accusation, all of me rose to such clarity -- and for the first time ever, I found myself fighting for the dignity I finally know I possess. I've always possessed it, but have always wavered in believing it. But not anymore.
It was such a shock. To have all that come from somebody whom I thought loved me, to whom I
bared my life ---
warts and all,
every little secret out. One cannot win an argument with somebody all too set in thinking of you the way one gossipmonger can paint your whole life. All my 28 years tainted in a second because of a purple tongue.
That I'm a whore.
That I'm a tattle-tale.
That I'm a monster.
That last one bit me like a snake.
(This is how it is to die, I finally know.)
My story will end somewhere else, far away from this small, sad place. It cannot contain me, not all its gossip and so-called friends.
I used to live for no other reason except to taunt myself into believing I can never really be happy without something, or someone. That was my tragedy as a creature of hope. But I know now that there is so much more to hope than being tragic.
This is the chronicle of one person's search for the good in life. To affirm that all is still well in a world which is so easy to believe as something depraved. (I refuse to believe in that kind of world. Life is too good.) And to dance, like the tango dancer, with love, betrayal, and
finally, resolution.
That is how life should be.
And know that if you're reading this, I consider you a friend I can trust. Nobody else, except five people, know about this secret spot.
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
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