Apostrophe Gallery Short Short Story 2007

My holiday in Thailand couldn’t have ended on a better note when I blew into KL in time to be announced as one of the top 6 winners of the Apostrophe Gallery Short Short Story contest, organised by Digi and Klue magazine.

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.)

Notes from all around

I’m working on a more substantial post but it’s taking some time because I have to dig for URLs and info. In the meanwhile, here’s a couple of other things that’s distracting me.

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.

Contest: Win Robert Raymer’s “Lovers and Strangers – Revisited”!

Robert in his home office. Photo by Georgette Tan.

Update: Please be sure you reply to this post or email me your entry at tarlia[AT]gmail.com!

Robert Raymer, featured in PostMag today, revealed during his interview that he writes 15 hours in a week and keeps track of his hours in a logbook. He logs in and gets down to business, and logs out whenever he steps away from his desk – even if it’s only to get a drink or go to the bathroom. It’s a method I might try myself, anytime I peel my ass off my lazy zone.

I’m interested in the techniques used by writers to stay on track because I have a problem staying on track. In the years of claiming not to be a morning person, I discovered (to my chagrin) that I do my best writing before lunch and under threat of deadline. In fact, I’m already procrastinating by writing this post, but since I’m off today, I feel entitled to do some writing that is not related to work.

In the middle of the last sentence, I had to pause to hit snooze on my alarm clock. Say hello to my method of staying on track. I have 15 minutes before it goes off again.

While learning to manage my time, I found that I lose a lot of it when I get hypnotised by a game or with blog-surfing. Before I know it, “5 minutes” became “what do you mean it’s 4am?” I have to acknowledge that while I can’t go cold turkey on my distractions, I can learn turn my weakness into a form of reward.

When I know I have something more important to do, I set the alarm on my mobile phone to beep every 15 minutes so I am reminded of the passage of time. For example, it’s already gone off four times before I finally started writing this post. I want to finish it before my 15 minutes it up because I have other things to move on to.

Once I’ve done some actual work for at least 15 minutes, I allow myself to wander off and check mail, raid the fridge for a snack or something… until the next beep goes off to remind me that I’m should get back to work.

Does it work? So far, yes. You’re reading this post, aren’t you? I’ve only put this off for a week.

“But how can anyone get anything done in bursts of 15 minutes?” you ask.

For me, the bursts of 15 minutes add up, while allowing me to indulge in my love for playing while getting a bit of work done. I can play all day, but I do need to earn a living. I may move at a slower pace, but at least I’m moving. Time management is one of those things where you have to find something that works for you.

Which brings us to my first ever contest: How do you get things done? You just read about what I do to keep myself on track. Now it’s your turn.

Up for grabs is a signed copy of Robert Raymer’s “Lovers and Strangers – Revisited“, a collection of short stories set in Malaysia and Singapore.

It is a book I think everyone should read if they’re interested in a glimpse of Malaysia, or if they live in Malaysia. This guy sees things that I don’t, and hey… I’m the one who was born and raised here.

But that’s not all you get. I’m also throwing in the Devil Bookie, a bookmark for people with a sense of quirky. According to the info page (see for details), this item is currently not in stock. Even if it is, it’s only available in Kuching. Hell, look at it… it’s cute! How can you resist the implication that the road to hell is paved with books?

How to join

1. Write a post (200 words or longer) talking about how you keep your nose on the grindstone. Your post must be something written for this contest, meaning it has to a new post published after 20 May 2007.
2. Mention this contest somewhere in your entry and link back to this post:
   • http://www.georgettetan.com/2007/05/20/contest-win-robert-raymers-lovers-and-strangers-revisited
3. One entry per blogger.
4. I’ll be monitoring trackbacks, but reply to this post or email me at tarlia[AT]gmail.com to make sure I get your entry!
5. Deadline is 3 June 2007, 11:59pm.
6. You don’t have to be in Malaysia to join. I will ship this anywhere because I’m nice like that.

How to win
Winning is all by luck. I will pick a winner at random, because I don’t need the headache of picking a “best” entry. As I suggested above, there is no “best” way of time management.

I’ll be listing every entry in a future post so you guys can go see what other people wrote.

Why are you still here? Go write something.

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