Before I prattle on, please note my look of abject glee in the photo below.

That’s the look of someone who had a fabulous Monday. My story in an actual book, yo.

Rumour has it that the book is already available in MPH 1 Utama. No word on when it’ll arrive in Kuching, but look out for it. I’m only halfway through but it’s a collection of wicked wicked stories and I spent my lunch hour being very entertained.

This is not a review. My actual review will be out in my usual column in a few weeks, but to be fair, I won’t be talking about my own story. But there’s plenty to talk about with the others!

HEE!

*look of abject glee*

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Dark City 2

Some of the tips are quite extreme minimalist, but a lot of them made sense. I have to say that if I wasn’t willing to let go of widgets that show my visitors what I’m currently reading/listening to, I won’t have gotten rid of much! But it led to a blog makeover. I updated and added some pages, and I’m quite pleased at how it looks now.

Nanowrimo
I’m committed. I have the bare bones of my story laid out. My characters are talking to me, which is an important point. I can’t write if they don’t tell me what they are up to!

Yes, I do refer to my characters like they’re real people.

My Nanowrimo profile is here. I’m not sure if I’ll be posting the story-in-progress in public. It was a lot of fun back in 2002, but I didn’t have any delusions of publishing that story anywhere else. If you’re interested in following what’s likely to be a very bad first draft, leave a comment with your email or email me. I’ll let you know where to access to story if I put it up.

If you choose to accept, I expect cheers of encouragement all through November. I also accept donations of fuel (chocolates and other forms of empty calories).

Happy Halloween!

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The State of October

My 30th birthday is next week. Have you gotten your bubble solution?

I updated my Nanowrimo profile, but I don’t yet know if I will be doing it. I felt like it two days ago, but today I’m not bothered with a lot of things.

Nanowrimo is where you write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days. It happens every November.

My first year was in 2002. I wrote a crazy story about how an ordinary girl living in an unnamed Caucasian country got embroiled with modern day wizards. It was online and updated everyday at midnight. I left it up until my old domain name got de-registered (another long story).

It was fun and insane and had cameos and inside jokes. I’m not putting it back up because I cringed the last time I reread it. I’m not sure if that one’s hitting the rewrite pile. It was done to see if I could. I did, which is perhaps why I didn’t see the point in a repeat performance. I’m like that in most aspects of my life.

In 2002, everyone who found out I was doing it thought I was crazy. Last time I checked, everyone is doing it. When everyone starts doing it, I know it’s time to move on to something new.

The only reason I’m considering it this time is because my fiction went places and sent me to places this year. If I’m on a roll, then I might as well get on the most obvious and probably last bandwagon this year.

But I’ll see how I feel when the time draws near. I still have a lot of things happening to me at this time, and when that happens, I don’t think of my future beyond the next 24 hours.

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Nanowrimo, I don’t know.

The winners together with DiGi’s Director of Strategy and Corporate Affairs Tunku Alizakri Raja Muhammad Alias (far left), writer Dina Zaman (2nd right) and composer/singer Mia Palencia (far right), who form part of the panel of judges. Not pictured are Jerome Kugan and Sharon Bakar.

I knew I was short-listed before leaving for my holiday, so I have no words for how much it rocks to actually win. The prize for the top 6 includes an all-expense paid trip to the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival next month, which I’m thrilled about, since it promises to be heaps better than the KL LitFest.

We also got a MotoKRZR K1 mobile phone each. Is anyone else missing the memory card and cable? Or is it not supposed to be in the package? My dad reckons Motorola pulled a fast one on the organisers.

With the plaque, which my dad immediately put on the wall in our living room.

Last but not least, the short-listed stories got interpreted into visual art. Mine was done up as a banner by Saiful Razman. You can see all 16 pieces at The Annexe in Central Market. These pieces will remain on public display till 19 August. Exhibition hours are from 11.00am to 7.00pm. If you can’t go or are not even in KL, you can see the top 6 on the Apostrophe Gallery website (under Gallery).

With Tunku and the artist, Saiful Razman.

This is turning out to be a good writing year for me. I got a story accepted into Dark City 2, went to the KL LitFest, and now getting picked as a winner and heading to my second writers festival this year!

I have to say again that it’s an incredible coincidence that I happened to be in KL. We nearly went home on the day of the event (which we didn’t know was going to happen at the time), but decided to take advantage of the fact that I didn’t have to get back to work until Friday. I think a lot of people were surprised over the fact that I’m actually not based in KL.

The other unexpected surprise that night was meeting Reza Salleh, who was running around behind-the-scenes quite unaware that I had a brief fangrrl moment when I spotted him.

Did I mention I had a great trip?

(All photos were taken by my bro, who stalked me like the paparazzi all night.)

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Apostrophe Gallery Short Short Story 2007

AMP
It’s like myspace music, except less annoying! It’s off to a good start as Asia’s music resource, serving as a hub for musicians to meet other musicians, and for music lover to discover new music. After creating a profile, you can add songs to your playlist. Here’s my profile and some of the songs I’m listening to.

ElectroCity
I’m so addicted to this game. It’s like SimCity with an environmental message and quite easy to grasp after a few trial-&-error games. Sez the website:

ElectroCity is a new online computer game that lets players manage their own virtual towns and cities. It’s great fun to play and also teaches players all about energy, sustainability and environmental management in New Zealand.

Dark Cities collide
Remember that anthology my short story was accepted into? Astro is launching the Dark City TV series tomorrow, but hold your applause… this is not related to the original book. As usual, Sharon Bakar has the story, so I will just direct you over to her entry.

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Notes from all around