DAY THREE: Wallowing in Self-pity.

WORD COUNT: 700 words

Didn't do any writing yesterday because I got sidetracked by the latest episode of Doctor Who. (The one with the Cybermen, goddammit why does it have to be a two-parter!?) With that in mind, I resolved this morning when I sat down with MS Word loaded, to write as much as possible to make up for yesterday.

Unfortunately, today I was sober enough to realise that what I wrote the day before was utter and complete rubbish! The direction wasn't where I wanted it to go, the characterisation was off, the details of the scene were wrong, wrong, wrong! What the hell was I thinking?

So I started again from scratch, and this time I've got the story plodding along to where I want it to go. (I think.) Because I spent most of the time wallowing in self-pity and cursing how stupid a writer I am, I ended writing only 700 plus words... 300 words short of my daily goal. Sigh. And that's not counting what I owe from yesterday. Looks like I'll have to somehow make up for it these coming few days. Hopefully the weekend will be a productive one for the novel.

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Lesson: Commemorative Covers are Lame.

Well, I got the first day cover that commemorates the 35th anniversary of the establishment diplomatic relations between China and Malaysia that I mentioned a couple of posts ago. Except that it's not a first day cover, it's a commemorative cover, which is a slightly different beast. I guess I should read the news article properly next time! The difference between the two is that first day covers are specially-designed envelopes stuck on with specially-designed stamps, and marked with a specially-designed postmark. A commemorative cover is a specially-designed envelope... and that's it. All in all, it's an unremarkable affair, especially if you're used to well-designed first day covers (not that Malaysian first day covers are well-designed... but I digress). Oh sure, a commemorative cover has a stamp printed right on to it but that's just like an overglorified aerogramme. Lame. On the whole, what a disappointment. I haven't been collecting first day cover

HOWTO: Get Rid of Silverfish

The bane of every book collecting person: the Silverfish. DUN DUN DUNNNNN!!! How to get rid of them? If one book has been infected, place it inside an air-tight plastic bag along with some silica gel desiccant. The silica gel is important to get rid of moisture, because you will now place the sealed plastic bag with the book in it inside the freezer. Leave it in there for a couple of days so that those bugs catch their death of cold. If you're feeling particularly paranoid, (like I usually am) feel free to leave the plastic bag in there for a week. If they're not dead, then you might likely have an infestation of zombie silverfish , which is out of the scope of this blogpost. But what if a whole colony of silverfish decided to invade your whole bookcase? Then you have to make sure you're ready for war. Place a generous amount of silica gel (or if you can find it, diatomaceous earth) behind your books at the back of the shelves so that moisture levels remain low.

Send me to Clarion West! - My crowdfunding effort.

I just launched my crowdfunding page to help fund my Clarion West trip on GoGetFunding and I am nervous as heck. Anyway here's a link . Any help or support much appreciated even if it's just to share the link around. Thank you so much!

Ted Mahsun

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