Meeting Dark City 2 writers

It was such a joy to go around meeting Dark City 2 contributors, many for the first time. I was going around delivering books and cash/cheques, and met everyone for the first time. Chua Kok Yee. Jennifer Wan and Bissme are such fun and talented people. I also learnt things about them I never knew. For example, who'd ever have thought Jennifer Wan actually worked in my very same building? Who'd ever though Chua Kok Yee is such a young, cool-looking guy in an absolutely cool industry? Who'd ever thought Bissme is tall, dark and handsome?

I also made a boo boo and described Chua Kok Yee as a MU fan because his character in the Penalty seemed to keep placing bets on MU. He went ballistic of course and declared he's NOT a MU fan but a LIVERPOOL one. (cringes, please don't kill me). :) Mea culpa. It's just I got so into his character I immediately assumed he would bet on MU.

Besides, we got our first unofficial review from Lydia Teh, who called me when I was overseas last week to tell me she stayed up till 3 am reading the book. Blog about it, Lydia, I naturally yell over the phone! But she called to say she loved Chua Kok Yee's story, The Penalty, and my story, Signature Spa.

I've been told the book is already available in MPH 1 Utama, which buys directly from the distributor. I guess the rest will slowly follow suit once the POs are raised and the books transferred to the warehouse.

As for publicity, I begged Star for some and Sun will put out a review. Haven't approached NST yet.

Turning book reviewer

I've added book reviews recently to my ever growing plethora of stuff I have to write but can't find the time and energy to do. Bmmmm. This is my first book review in years, appearing in The Star last week. Book is courtesy of Eric Forbes, who didn't want to read chick lit so he passed it to me:)

Don’t judge by its cover

Review by EUDORA LYNN

A perennial chick lit reader is pleasantly surprised when she picks up what seems like her usual fare only to discover a novel that serves up something lost and unexpected.

THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HERE

By Cecelia Ahern

Publisher: HarperCollins, 496 pages

(ISBN: 978-0007258871)

I MUST confess I didn’t much like Cecelia Ahern’s explosive debut novel, PS, I Love You. It was a case of faulty advertising. You see, the cover had me convinced it was light-hearted chick lit in the vein of Shopaholic-meets-writing pad-because-I-can’t-afford-a-computer, which is what I usually like.

But the novel’s “damsel in extreme distress” protagonist turned out to be weepy, self-indulgent and totally dependent on her late husband’s every whim. Chick lit protagonists are supposed to be confident, liberated and spunky! And so, with a sigh, I gave up reading Ahern.

When a friend handed me There’s No Place Like Here from Ireland’s most famous First Daughter, I cringed, of course, expecting to meet women who stare vacantly into space, waiting for Prince Charming to bail out their plumbing.

But Sandy Shortt, the 1.8m tall protagonist of Ahern’s newest story, (paperback released in June) is a refreshingly no-nonsense, occasionally wisecracking ex-cop who now runs a missing persons agency. (She’s Shortt but she’s tall, geddit?)

Because of her height, Sandy always felt ostracised as a child. In addition, she has a predilection for losing things. An odd sock here and there. A diary. A ratty teddy bear. Even her 10-year-old neighbour, Jenny-May Butler, who under angelic curls turns out to be the class bully.

There’s No Place Like Here plays on the theme that your missing things have to go someplace. Why do socks vanish in the washing machine? Why is it that when you’re sure you’ve put your car keys in your bag, you simply can’t find them? And why is it people sometimes go missing and never turn up even though there is no evidence of foul play?

Sandy is determined to find the answers. She has spent her entire childhood trying to find the answers, turning her parents’ house inside out each time she lost an item, to the extent they send her for psychological counselling at age 14 with dishy shrink Gregory.

Then one day, on the trail of a missing person, the adult Sandy finds herself wandering down an unknown path in a forest and goes missing herself.

This is when, instead of conforming to expectations set up by the chick lit cover, the book moves firmly into Mitch Albom-The-Five-People-You-Meet-in-Heaven territory. Which is not a bad thing.

In the forest, Sandy stumbles onto a group of people who have been missing since the days of the Beatles (they are now appropriately aged). And they lead her to a place called Here, one village among many, all made up of thousands of missing people from all over the world.

“Here” is a place where everything goes when it’s missing – old socks, airport luggage, cell phones, trays of doughnuts, loose change. In Here, Sandy finds almost every Irish missing person she has been looking for her entire life. Save the one she is currently looking for.

If you’re looking for romance in There’s No Place Like Here, be prepared to be disappointed. There’s very little of it. Any relationship is bittersweet, more in the vein of enduring-the-test-of-time than the loin-engaging, heart-pounding ones of traditional chick lit.

Sandy is a strange heroine with many layers. She’s selfish with her relationships and her family, and yet, she’s dedicated to helping the families of the missing people she has vowed to find. She hates children, and yet is devoted to finding them when they are gone. She’s guarded, occasionally rude, and suspicious of people who are trying to be kind.

With unexpected turns and revelations of the human condition every step of the way, I found myself mesmerised with the pseudo-fantastical There’s No Place like Here. Ahern has done her missing persons’ research well, blending wishful fantasy with cold-blooded reality in skilful, very readable prose.

If you want something unexpected, this will be your cup of tea. Just don’t be fooled by the cover design.

Chapter from new non-fiction book

Meeting Lydia is always a breeze. She inspires me, simple as that. I was telling her all about my woes - got handbag snatched (RM 5000 gone altogether), bumped my car on a curb, my 2 maids did a Prison Break Indonesian style and ran away from my house, stealing 2 handphones, and she cheered me up completely.

And she's also a great font of information. Like she told me this was up in last Saturday's Star (as if I would notice, being out of town!)

This is actually an abbreviated chapter from my new book to be hopefully published by MPH next year. I'm going under the name Eudora Lynn for all newspaper, magazine articles and non-fic books under the same branding from now on. (Right Eric?)

http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2007/10/20/lifefocus/19112953&sec=lifefocus

Highway bullies

By EUDORA LYNN

It doesn’t pay to be too aggressive on the highway if you are a woman.

I would like to tell you two true stories, which might make you rethink the way you drive.

You see, I am an “efficient” driver, in the sense that I don’t believe we should waste more time on the highway than necessary.

Perhaps I should add the word “safe” as well, which means I intend to get to my destination as quickly as possible without a) breaking any safety rules, b) leaving a litter of mangled cars in my wake, c) having the blood of stray cats smeared on my front bumper.

Woe betide road hogs in front of me, especially if they are from out of state. They’ll merit at least a toot from my very loud, very annoying car horn. But it appears some male egos simply cannot take a female driver hooting at them.

I was driving down the extreme right lane of the Federal Highway when someone from behind hooted. In my rear-view mirror, a white van was tail-gaiting me. Naturally, I did the only thing we “efficient, safe and occasionally dashing” (ESOD, for short) drivers do – I swerved to the middle lane to let him pass, because there is nothing we ESODs hate more than being labelled road hogs ourselves.

I had a good look at the driver as he passed me; he had a strange tattoo curling down his left arm. He glared at me. Uh–oh, I thought.

I kept course. There was a car in front of him (this is where it gets nasty), and he swerved onto the middle lane, narrowly missing my front bumper.

Naturally, I was indignant and hooted loudly, angrily. After that, it went deathly quiet, as though a chill had descended. (Well, as deathly quiet as 5pm on the Federal Highway can get.)

He slowed down, causing me to slow down as well. Strangely, I didn’t panic. The only word going in my mind, and it really wasn’t a word, was “Hmmmmm”.

After a bit of going slower than 50kph, he sped up. I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding. I pressed on my accelerator as the road opened up in front of me. He was pulling away, and I wasn’t giving chase in any spirit of kiasu-ism, just easing my car into its natural 80kph speed.

My gas pedal went deeper as I stepped on it with my stilettos. My car’s engine whined and hummed. He was belting away fast, and I was closing in. And then suddenly, with a screech of burning rubber that must have smelt like a box of latex gloves which has just been microwaved, he dived to the right again.

Looming ahead of me was a large, slow-moving Pajero.

I slammed on my brakes with all the strength in my shoes. My brake pads squealed like a starlet who has just been publicly revealed to have silicone. My front bumper avoided hitting the Pajero, by just a nick.

Of course, this had been his intention all along.

Another hair-raising incident happened to a friend of mine driving from Kedah back to KL after a business meeting.

She had left Alor Star rather late, and it was already past midnight. The North-South highway was empty except for occasional cars and late buses.

My friend was maintaining course in her 4WD on the left lane, keeping well below the speed limit, when, suddenly, a car on the right swerved roughly into her path.

Now my friend is of a very patient disposition. She is not an ESOD. In fact, I would label her a CCANLTH (Cautious, Careful and Not Likely to Honk). But because this car threatened her very safety, she pressed very lightly on her horn to let him know she was there, so the sound that came out was “pin.”

The driver on her right was on his cellphone and probably hadn’t realised he had weaved onto her path.

When she pin-ned, he seemed shocked and immediately swerved to the right again, tires protesting like an anti-war demonstration.

My friend maintained her course and thought that would be the end of it. But it wasn’t.

The driver accelerated and nose-dived in front of her, and then slowed down to 30kph. Naturally, she had to follow suit. They maintained this charade for five minutes, and when she tried to overtake him on the right, he immediately blocked her off.

My friend looked frantically around. There were very few cars in sight. They continued on this crawl for 20 minutes. And then a lorry passed them on the right, horns blaring. Seizing this momentary distraction, my gutsy friend overtook the sedan on the emergency lane and settled once more into course.

Please, she prayed, let this be the end of it.

But again, it wasn’t to be.

The sedan driver, in full rage mode now, overtook her once again and tried to block her off. Pulse fluttering, she inched her car onto the right lane. He immediately followed, cutting her off. And then he did something amazing, even by Malaysian highway standards.

He screeched his car to a complete halt in the middle of the right lane.

Her heart going into standstill, my friend stopped her car. It was no use trying to overtake him anymore. It would only aggravate him further. This was a showdown. He was going to climb out and beat her up.

The two cars waited on the highway for what must have been only minutes, though it seemed a lifetime to my friend.

Where were the police? Surely someone must come to her aid? Would they find her dead body sprawled in a gutter the next day?

And then something clicked in her mind. Why did women always have to be victims?

Resolution settling, she revved the engine of her Mitsubishi Storm, put it into first gear, and floored the gas pedal. Fifteen feet, 10 feet – the sedan was still stationary, she winced and closed her eyes – and slam!

Her spine juddered.

When she opened her eyes again, the sedan’s boot had been compressed like an accordion. She reversed, set her gear into first again, and swerved onto the left lane.

Then she left, flying into the night without looking back, heart knocking at her chest wildly, and drove straight to the nearest police station in the next town.

Barging in breathlessly through the front door, she told two surprised policemen, “Help me! I drove here as fast as I could. Someone is trying to steal my car!”

For the next two days, she kept looking round her shoulder, waiting for her insurance agent to call to say someone has made a claim, but nothing happened.

I guess if you want to be an ESOD, you’ll have to look out for the AHs. And that is an abbreviation for a word that cannot be mentioned in polite society.

Received my copies of Dark City 2

Hi everyone, I got my copies of Dark City 2 today. For everyone who has contributed, please write to me so I can arrange when to pay you and give you your copies.

The book will be out in bookstores in 2 - 4 weeks (this is based on my experience).

I will be doing press and publicity for it in November, when the book is fully out in bookstores. Contributors, you may be called for interview and photographs :)

Juggling

Now that my life has settled back to normal (well, kinda), I'm reviewing what I'm currently doing.

1. I have a hectic job that requires a lot of travel - Damn, I'd rather be writing, but it puts food on the table. I totally intend to collect as much money as possible so I can retire early and write full time.

2. I have finished my house renovation. It cost me RM 90,000! Totally had to break so many FDs to pay the contractor, who bte doesn't wear yellow boots like Phua Chu Kang but blue crocs. (The real stuff, not the pseudo ones you get from Tesco.)

3. I'm currently rewriting my children's book, Billy Lang, to make it as perfect as possible before submitting overseas. That's my labour of love so I'm checking every comma, dotting every 'i', you get the drift...

4. After a blue period that would have spiraled Picasso into depression's depths, I now have two intelligent maids! To understand how I suffered through the last moronic one who finally ran away, please read my 2008 yet untitled non-fiction book.

5. I'm currently writing a non-fiction book for MPH on Malaysian life, as I see it. I had lunch with Eric Forbes and Janet Tay today after the LitBloggers' Club and I apologized profusely to them for being so 'rojak' in my writing. "I must admit I really wrote very quickly," I said sheepishly, "and dashed it off to you guys without my customary rewriting and rewriting for at least 10 times."

"Oh no," Eric said kindly, "it's not too bad."

"You mean the grammar isn't bad, but the format is all rojak," I insisted. "I dashed half a chapter off to Star Weekender the other day. The editor, who has never complained about anything I wrote before, actually wrote back this time and asked me if I had a point to it. So the moral of the story is that you cannot squeeze a book chapter into a newspaper article, but you can certainly expand an article into a book chapter."

Janet mentioned she was amazed at how fast I could write. And here I was thinking I was a snail - because I could only write 1 chapter a week without running into writer's block. (I never have writer's block when it comes to writing fiction, only non-fiction.)

So - is one chapter a week for a non fiction book considered fast? Or is it really (as I suspect) the pace of an amoeba trying to get from Petaling Street to the Arctic?

Update

I'm back....kinda!

So sorry for being away for the longest time. My house has been under construction for the past 4 months, my maid ran away and I've been awfully busy at work. Sorry for neglecting everyone and I will totally understand if you neglect me.

The editing of Dark City 2 is finally finished and I was at the publisher's to view the final draft today, down to the very last comma. So looks like it'll be out in the 2nd week of October.

See ya at the bookstores!

Taking a break from blogging for a while

Hi guys, will be taking a breather for a while. Been too busy trying to self-edit Billy Lang, finish the final touches on Dark City 2 and at work, budget season is on (busiest time of the year). Also travelling to US next week for a bit.

Will be back when Dark City 2 is out.

See ya guys!

How do you feel about chick lit?

I've always liked chick lit (and am in the process of getting Eric to read it). I'm currently reading a book that would make the literari out there cringe with derision: "How to Kill Your Husband" by Kathy Lette. It's a laugh a minute, social commentary, chick romp all rolled into one.

But you see, that's how I feel about chick lit. It has a lot to say about our society of women today and how we juggle work, boyfriends/husbands, friends, kids and everything else. Hey, Jane Austen wrote the chick lit of her time and the women there spent their days mooning over how to get husbands, just like we do today!

I particularly like the humorous prose of Marian Keyes, Sophie Kinsella (Shopaholic series) and Nisha Minhas. Read one of their books and study how they write humour. They have the ability to turn a very tragic situation (like Indian bride kidnapping) into something you can share and laugh about (but at the same time, commiserate with the heroine's situation).

So, 'fess up now. Do you read chick lit?

(BTW, MPH 1 Utama has a bookshelf dedicated to 'chic' lit, but I suppose chick lit is chic too.)

Being Edited

I'm buoyed by Eric's recent posts about Editing and how editors feel about receiving a good and bad manuscript.

Let's come from another persective: The writer's. How do YOU feel about being edited?

For me, being edited is a humbling experience, whether it's done by a conceptual editor or a grammar editor.

1. We realise our grammar, hyphenation, punctuation etc is not that great after all. Most of us tend to dispense with hyphenation, punctuation etc, thinking it has nothing to do with writing and that it's an editor's job. But in countries like the UK, they can just throw the manuscript out if we don't think of all the niceties.

2. We realise that our plot, or certain aspects of the plot, or character, is not as exciting as we think it is. Or that it doesn't make sense.

3. We realise we put in more words that we intended.

Several fanous editor and writer friends were very kind to edit the first 3 chapters of Billy Lang for me so that the manuscript is as perfect as it can be before I send it off. And even though I've rewritten them many times, it still is a humbling experience to be edited, and I'm very grateful for all of them who are looking out for me. As we writers/editors should be doing for each other to make our manuscripts as perfect as possible before we send it out to the foreign lit agencies.

As for Dark City 2, some of you were asking me, fear not! It's definitely on its way (July). It needs to be edited thoroughly (in the same vein again) before publication, and when the grammar editor and I are not happy about something, we go back to the author. A local book deserves the same editing and vetting scrutiny as a foreign book and we will not compromise on quality.

So how do you feel when you get edited?

Finishing a book....then comes the rewrite

Lydia was niggling me: "New update, please!" Yes, mam!

The reason for lack of frequent new updates? Yes, I've just finished writing Billy Lang. How does one feel having finished writing a 500+ page full length children's novel? The moment I finished writing it, last Tuesday, I immediately dove into the rewrite.

Which comes to the question. How much should you rewrite? When is enough enough? Sidney Sheldon has been known to rewrite 11 times for each of his novels. (Then again, Sidney doesn't really 'write,' he dictates to his assistant and she reads it back to him, then he crosses out what he doesn't want.) The rest of us struggling artistes have no assistant and therefore have to rewrite it all by ourselves.

I find rewriting a lot easier than doing the first draft. Most of the ideas are already there. Rewriting is actually for improved sentence construction, cutting out unnecessary sentences, words and passages that have nothing to do with the story, checking consistency of plot and characters and adding in foreshadowing to enrich the plot.

Ever read a book or watched a movie where a seemingly insignificant sequence is thrown in at the beginning, which comes into importance only later in the plot? Well, a lot of that comes in the rewrite.

Are you the type who shoots off his/her first draft and saves all corrections for the rewrite, or one who meticulously checks and crosschecks every page along the way, making sure it's perfect before you proceed? (Beware, the latter has been known never to finish writing whole books!)

Malaysia's fave fic titles and Tunku Halim interview

So it's out, Malaysia's favourite fiction titles. I must say I didn't have time for vote in this poll. But the top 10 favourite fiction books in Malaysia are:

1. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (holds a proud place in my collection)
2. The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling (read them all and loved 1,2,3,4 and 6.)
3. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (must get this one...I know, I know, I'm very low lit)
4. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (read this in Form 3 and didn't like it at that time. But love Colin Firth as Mr Darcy)
5. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (read this twice!)
6. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis (read Lion, Witch and Wardrobe and thought it too simplistic. But then, read it as an adult)
7. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery (loved the mini series!)
8. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (read it in Form 2 and didn't like it much)
9. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (read it in Form 2 and liked Beth the best)
10. The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger (must get this)

I was particularly stoked when I read this sentence in today's Star in the same article:

"There are no books by Asian writers in the top 10, but American-Chinese Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club and Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things are in the top 20. Other Asian authors whose work was listed include Chinese author Su Tong (author of Raise the Red Lantern), Indian writer Vikram Seth, Indonesian Pramoedya Ananta Toer Azizi and V.S. Naipaul. Azizi Haji Abdullah, Shaari Isa and Xeus are the only Malaysian authors whose books made it onto some lists."

I made it to some lists! This makes all that writing worthwhile after all!!!

In the same Starmag section, there's an interview with Malaysia's very own Stephen King, Tunku Halim, and he mentioned:

Malaysian books recently enjoyed: “Lydia Teh’s Honk! If you’re a Malaysian, Xeus’s Dark City, Adibah Amin’s This End of the Rainbow and the Silverfish series (that features local writers).”

Thanks, TH! I'm glad you enjoyed our books!

44 Cemetery Road is out!

Congrats, Tunku Halim!

I'm so stoked because TH credited me for inspiring this collection of his best, best works. I also got to see an advanced copy, and can tell you it's truly excellent. (I have an endorsement blurb for the book.) Tunku Halim, as one esteemed editor put it, combines literary elements with popular fiction, and does it with aplomb.

My favourite story is the one where TH does a semi-autobiographical account on his student life in the UK, with a dash of piquant bittersweetness, and of course, doses of horror - I won't tell you which, you'll just have to pick the book up to find out.

Bravo, Tunku Halim. Looking forward to your launch. (Can one attend a book launch in honour of the author who might be overseas?)

Hee hee, this blog is reviewed on Quill

I got reviewed on Quill, together with John Ling and Ted Mahsun's blog!! (How exciting!)

The blurb says:

"The blog is dedicated to the birth of Xeus's debut novel titled Dark City. It is indeed a celebration for Xeus's book as her blog displays the thunderous support and review snippets from fellow writers, local newspapers, magazines 
and bookstores.

One reading her blog would be engrossed in her ups and downs of realising one's dream to be a writer in Malaysia. She is not shy to share personal perspectives, so prepare to be thrilled with her credible entries. Not to fall behind in the rat race of the literary scene, make sure you follow her up-to-date entries on local fellow writers, gatherings for writers, promotions from bookstores and much more!"

Wow. What a blurb. I feel guilty already for not living up to it

For example, I've been guilty of not updating this blog enough. I've been reallu busy lately, because have you ever noticed how the words seem to fly when you are nearing the end of writing your novel? I'm almost at the end of writing Billy Lang, so the chapters are really flying, all loose ends are being tied, and I'm so anxious to finish it I'm averaging one chapter a day.

Which comes to the question: How many words can you write in 1 day? 1000? 2000? 3000? When does it all turn to mush and you fell like throwing up your computer and saying, "What I'm writing is crap! This will never get published!"

How much should we aim for without alienating our family and going mad?

Would I be selling you writers out if...

...I took on this deal?

Here's the scoop. A production house has been offered a deal by a prominent station to produce a series on 3o minute twisted tales, pretty much like The Twilight Zone 
or Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories.

They came up with a lot of their own story concepts for episodes. Then they ran out of ideas and stumbled upon Dark City, which is perfect fodder for episode material.

So I'm called to negotiate.

The working title of the series is 'Dark City', but it appears the TV station would like something more Malay. They're taking 3 episodes from the book. And this is the deal they're offering me:

1. No money for rights. I'd be credited. The reason being is they said they're working on a very tight budget, and intellectual property in Malaysia is very hard to argue anyway.

2. They're asking me to write the scripts for the 3 episodes for RM 1100 each.

3. If I refuse, they'd drop these 3 episodes and go ahead with their own ideas.

I've been talking to several people. There appears to be 2 camps of thought.

Advice from the First camp (consisting of book writers, some editors, some scriptwriters) - "It's good exposure for you. Take it. You can put it in your resume and brand your book with it.
Imagine your book (and the sequels) being printed with 'Now on TV' on the front cover. Wouldn't it be wonderful branding?"

Advice from the Second camp (consisting of some scriptwriters, some CEOs of production houses)
- "Be careful. We've got stung before. They (meaning the industry) took our concepts and gave us very little for it. Then they sold the series all around the world, and we profited nothing from it. They even took our ideas and rehashed them a little, so we cannot claim intellectual property being stolen. We understand that you want branding. It's your first time. But we can help you get in touch with other production houses we've worked with, those we are sure of. We can help you pitch to them. If you want to be a scriptwriter, they're always looking for more too.
"People in the film industry have a lot of respect for published book authors, esepcially those with bestsellers. "


So, my deadline to reply is Monday. What should I do? Should I give up this opportunity and wait till other production houses get contacted and market the Dark City series in its own right? (This affects anyone who has contributed to the 2nd book as well. You may see your works on celluloid, and you would certainly want me to get a better deal for you.)

Or should I go with this opportunity, because I (and we) may never get another one again. And the other production houses might not be interested?

Will this back cover entice you?

Dear all, need to pick your brilliant brains again :)

Would this blurb on the back cover entice you? Naturally, Kenny is designing something to portray all the authors' names as well as part of the back cover. Please comment on what you like about the blurb, and which sentences you would change. Are the sypnoses of some of the stories compelling enough to make you pick up the book? Should I change them?


BLURB

A youth is imprisoned in a swinging crate above the ground, the first obstacle in a Chinese box of puzzles he has to solve.

A 15th century boy meets the Angel of Death.

An attractive nurse accepts an indecent proposal.

A football gambling addict is captured by his creditors and made to go through a ‘Payback Chamber’.


14 different authors from Malaysia, US, Australia, New Zealand, UK and Switzerland come together to weave you 16 diabolically entertaining tales. Every tale has a twist, and every twist, a tale. See if you can spot the ending coming.


Praise for Dark City

"Why you should read this book: It's really good, that's why.”
The Malay Mail


“….Wow, what a read (Dark City) turned out to be….” Borneo Post

The 2nd Malaysian LitBloggers' Breakfast Club

Finally, it's Lydia's and my turn.

It was lovely to meet everyone again - Sharon, Eric, Kenny, Spiffy, Chet etc. And I can honestly now say I've met the great Kak Teh! Oh her birthday too. Yes, Kak Teh came all the way from England. There were some new faces as well, like Esther (did I get your name right?), who is doing an assignment on us bloggers.

She asked me, "Can one improve one's English by writing blogs?"
I said, "One can certainly improve one's writing. But your English has to be good to begin with, and that can only come from reading a lot of good English books. There are some blogs written in totally atrocious language!"

Kenny introduced Lydia, who spoke about writing Honk and its success so far. It's gone into 2nd edition printing. Congrats! I spoke mostly about editing and the common mistakes I find writers making, such as:

1. not reading the instructions carefully when submitting for a writing competition
2. telling too much, not showing
3. inability to take criticism, and hence, improve.

I spoke about the 55 odd entries for Dark City 2, and how I wrote back to each and every one of the writers, thanking them, praising them on what they're good at, and critiquing what they're less good at, and showing them how to make their stories better. Everyone wrote back thanking me for my critique, whether or not their stories made the final cut, except for 2. And I know I've hurt these 2 writers, that they were not able to take my criticism.

But criticism is a part of a writer's life.

I in turn have been criticised many times. Sometimes publicly in national newspapers with circulations of over 1 million. I have also been praised many times. It comes with the territory. If you're a writer, you 
will have to take both sides of the coin.

I also have been guilty of every sin a writer can commit. I tell sometimes, not show. I use big words for a children's book. My chapter titles are horrible. I am too verbose. Sometimes people can see the ending coming a mile away. Some of the stories are not exciting enough.

So what do I do from these critiques?

I learn from them. I try to show as much as possible, not tell. I tone down my language. I try to think of more inventive titles. When not writing a literary story, I try to tone down the descriptions and metaphors. I try to make my stories and endings as engaging as possible. I leave a cliffhanger at the end of every chapter, and indeed, every segment, with this in mind: "If I can make the reader want to go on for 1 chapter more, I have succeeded."

So what can we learn from this?

Open your mind as a writer. If someone doesn't like your story, it's not the end of the world. Learn from that someone how to make it better.

Vote - which cover do you like best?

Kenny has drawn 3 lovely covers for you to choose from. Now, which do you like best? The cover must grab your attention to the bookshelf, make you want to pick the book up and buy it!

Kenny will have this up in his blog as well. Great job, Kenny!

Obviously, the covers don't have the extended title of the book yet, but Kenny did mention it was hard to fit it all in. So some people have been telling me not to include the extended title (sorry guys! it's not artistically cover friendly!) And I wanted to fit in the names of some of the contributors, but again, not artistically feasible, so they'll have to go into the back cover.

The going price for a script

Blogging about this earlier, I mentioned that I'd heard the going rate for a Malay script is RM 45,000. Well, I discovered that's actually for a whole telenovella season. (Psssss......Deflating).

And why am I suddenly so interested in Malay scripts?

It all has to do with Lydia actually. She called me a coupla weeks ago, sounding very excited. "You know," she says, "a production company just contacted me. They read Honk! and absolutely loved it. They also read your article in the Star (the one about the reviews), read your book and loved it, and are interested in making your stories into a TV series for ________ (name of extremely famous station/service provider). They tried to email you but never got a reply. Are you sure your gmail didn't junk it?"

Now, I've had brushes with TV series before that didn't gel. So I didn't allow myself to get too excited.

Anyhow, I called the number Lydia provided me. Indeed, there was an interested production house. They'd produced a very successful series for NTV7. And Dark City's stories are right up their alley. They have been trying (so they said) to contact me for a month. They said there are at least 6 stories in Dark City that can be made into a 1 hour program. (Hmmm, I wonder which 6). They said they particularly loved Coup of the Century.

Naturally, I offered, "I can do the script for you! I know how to write a script!" (I don't know if possessing the script to the Matrix qualifies me in scriptwriting, but there, I had to put my foot in my mouth).

And then they told me it was going to be in Malay.

(Flip.)

I haven't written in Malay since sixth form. And the going rate for a script is actually RM 1500. I checked with Nizam Zakaria, who very kindly shared with me his script format, and he said that was actually a good price. The production company said they were going to negotiate first and contact me later.

Hmmm. I wonder if anything will come out of this.

So - would you attempt to write a script in a language you're not that good in for RM 1500 (for every 50 minutes of air time)?

Making light of a real life terrible experience

This is the story of what really happened to me after surgery. It's a writing exercise to see if I can make humour out of a truly terrible experience. It appeared in the Star today.

http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2007/3/3/lifefocus/16562106&sec=lifefocus

Post-surgery horror

By EUDORA LIN

Surgery? Piece of cake. It’s the post-operation complications you should be worried about.

Everyone I know worries about having surgery. Even if it’s what I call a self-induced procedure: nip and tuck, liposuction, Caesarean because you want your baby to come out squalling on that all-important, very auspicious feng shui date.

Before I went for my “involuntary” surgery, I had heard all the stories:

“When they inject the anaesthetic into your veins, it’s like a very cold deluge flowing from your hand to your neck, and when it hits your neck, you’re out.”

“They make you count backwards from 100 to 0, and when you hit 93, you’re out.”

And so I went in quite happily to take out a tumour from my salivary gland. Only it’s notthat simple; I’d have to take out the entire upper lobe of the quite extensive gland.

Despite echoes of that story 10 years ago about the woman who was awake but paralysed throughout her entire operation, feeling the excruciating pain of every cut, I was quite upbeat.

Fugue

The anaesthetist very kindly gave me a local anaesthetic before inserting the branula. (And I didn’t even ask for it, how kind.) And no one asked me for any New Year countdown. They just said, “Breathe into this oxygen mask” and before I knew it, a very pleasant fugue had descended in my brain and I was out.

The next thing I know, the nurse was gaily chirping, “It’s over.”

Everyone sounds absolutely cheerful in an operating theatre; maybe it’s all that laughing gas. There was no pain whatsoever; the whole thing was, in fact, quite pleasant and I spent the whole day dozing off.

And then I woke up, proper. After that, it was pandemonium. Murphy’s Law: If anything can go wrong, it will.

You see, there’s a checklist of complications that can quite possibly happen after surgery. Nothing to do with the doctors, it’s just one of those things that happen to hapless people . . . like me.

I woke up to find half my face paralysed. It’s a most uncomfortable sensation. You can’t blink or close your eye and you can’t smile. You can’t even open your mouth wide enough to bite into a burger. I’d read about this side effect for procedures like mine. Apparently, it happens to about 50% of people. But when you read about such things, you don’t think it would happen to you.

“I’m not a statistic,” you want to say. “Am I?”

“Uh,” I said, trying to wink and blink at the same time and ending up looking like a starry-eyed alien instead, “Will this get better?” In the mirror, my affected eye was acutely smaller than the other one, and the eyebrow was several notches lower. I resembled something a tractor had run over. Twice.

Night of the living dead

“Of course,” they assured me. “Your facial nerve was stretched during surgery to get it out of the way. Now, it’s very picky; it doesn’t like being stretched. Most people recover in two weeks.”

It was lovely to have my husband make a fuss over me. But on Day Five, my husband said, “You know, your swelling looks all huge and red, like a ripe tomato.”

I replied airily, “Oh, that’s just normal healing. You don’t know anything.”

On Day Seven, the “healing” popped and burst itself through four stitches, leaking pus all over my hair. I looked like something out of the Night of the Living Dead. I finally acceded to go to the house of my friend, a doctor, on no less than a public holiday.

“Why didn’t you come earlier?” she screeched.

“Didn’t want to bother anyone,” I said sheepishly, leaking pus all over her patio.

It seemed I had an abscess the size of a fist and it had to be drained. Twice a day. Squeezed out and emptied like a lemon. I had no pain surrounding the surgery, and this was the most painful part of the whole process.

I topped myself up with so many antibiotics and painkillers I gave myself diarrhoea.

After a week of milking, my abscess gave up its pulpy ghost. And then, to celebrate, I went out for a nice meal with friends. After 15 minutes of chewing, something trickled down my neck from my wound.

“Gakkk!” my husband jumped. “It’s saliva!”

Welcome to complication No. 203: I had saliva leaking from my wound. My friends were giving me surreptitious looks, no doubt thinking of decapitated monsters capable of spitting from more places than one.

When I finally went back for review with the surgeon, he patted me on the back. “Don’t worry, it’s all part of the normal recovery process. At least you can be assured it’s not cancer. Some people have more complications than others. I thought you’d said you read all about it on the Internet before the surgery.”

I said, “Gakkk.”

So now my wound has finally closed up beautifully. My nerve is recovering in stages – not in two weeks, but two months, more like. And if anyone again tells me they’re worried about surgery, I’d say, “The actual surgery was a piece of cake!” And refer them to this article.

Then again, it would’ve probably only happened to me.

Please suggest a title for Dark City 2 and win something!

I'm going down the Lydia way and using this blog for pitching competitions!

Okay, Dark City 2 has closed for submissions and I've received over 50 entries. I'm picking about 14 and writing 1 of my own. (Sigh, been putting that story off for over 1 year because of the research involved. Where am I going to find that chemistry professor? Anyone knows one?)

Anything left over which is really good will go into Dark City 3. (especially if the same writer sends in more than 1 entry). I'm trying to give as many people a chance.

So, please suggest a title for Dark City 2 and the winning entry will win a free copy. (I know it's not much, but it's the fun of participating, right? Hee hee.)

The title should be DARK CITY 2:____________________

(This is something in the vein of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King etc etc...you get the drift.)

Maybe even something to reflect the participation of so many authors.

Cool?

CLOSING DATE: 20th March, 2007.

Anyway, check out Kenny's new poster. Pretty cool, huh? Kenny's designing the cover for Dark City 2 as well, so he would need your title pretty soon.