Ted Mahsun

Ever since I started this blog, I've had a somewhat loose tradition of writing an annual retrospective of the year that's passed. Some years I did not do it because those years were too depressing. Indeed, the period between 2009 to 2013, I consider some of my darkest years of my life. No permanent job, a very low paying job and sometimes no jobs at all, I was scrounging for money, on top of having a wife and baby to feed. (Don't worry, things slowly got better and I'm not fishing for sympathy. Just saying.) During those years, I barely wrote any of my own fiction, and the ones I did I wrote purely out of spite (See: Zombies Ate My Muslim . What was I angry at? The world.) 2014 was the year that everything turned around for me. I finally found a job where my employer truly appreciated my skills and so money was flowing in at a good rate again. In the meantime, to make some extra bucks, I had ghostwritten a screenplay (and half a novel based on said screenplay) and...

Was reading a local litblog of some repute today and at first I thought he would be reviewing a particular fantasy book but it turned out he just wanted to rant about the state of today's fantasy. About how today's fantasy novels seemed to be written for teens and young adults and none of them seemed to be written for middle-aged dads. Well, the answer to that is, well... yes . Fantasy is written for teens and young adults. From Conan to Tolkien to Martin. But then again, fantasy novels have always targeted teens and young adults. Sure, some of them have involved adult themes and imagery but let's not kid (heh) ourselves here, fantasy is, and has always been, largely a domain for the young and young at heart. The message of the rant implied that just because modern fantasy is for mere children , as it were, it automatically fails to challenge, intrigue, entertain, grab by the collars or refuse any reprieve. And the writer condemned this sweeping judgement upon modern ...

I had a lightning flash of an idea last weekend. It was the midnight of Sunday turning into Monday and I had wanted to go to sleep but suddenly there came into my brain a brilliant seed of an idea for a short story that I just had to sit down and write then and there. So I did. I hammered out a 3700 story about zombies. I don't usually like zombies. In fact, I hate zombies as a genre, but this idea seemed so good at the time I didn't want to lose the energy of the moment. When I was done, I reread it and I was pleased. It came out not-so-bad, if I do say so myself. Over the next few days, I rewrote it, gave it to some friends for advice on improving it and rewrote it some more after I got said solicited advice. My friends said they liked it and well, if they liked it, I suppose some other people out there would like it as well. At first I had wanted to self-publish the story on Amazon but something inside me said I should try submitting it to a certain magazine that I h...

In today's Mata Harian: Christians offer Muslims the use of 'Jesus Christ' by Yu See Lee GUNUNG RAPAT: In another twist in the controversial saga, Malaysian Catholics have offered to Malaysian Muslims the use of the words 'Jesus Christ' in return for allowing them the use of the word 'Allah' in their Catholic weekly, The Herald. 'This is our way of expressing gratitude, a way of saying "no hard feelings, eh, chaps?"' said a member of the church body who declined to be named. This has resulted in yet another controversy, this time among Catholics who protest the decision. 'We have been using the name Jesus Christ for centuries, even millennia. We called him Jesus Christ our saviour back when the Bible was only being read by the unwashed Hebrews,' said Yvette Yvangel. 'It's just not fair to let the Muslims have their way with it now." Many others are also dismayed with the decision, especially those who were vocal against...

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...

I have a little time on my hands again! Time to blog! Can't be bothered to continue where I left off the previous time because I don't remember I wanted to talk about now so I'll just mention something strange I saw in the online edition of a widely read national newspaper. The recent issue our esteemed politicians have gotten themselves in a fit concerns The Red Menace, more specifically, Chin Peng, leader of the ageing and no longer scary Communist Party of Malaya, and whether he can be forgiven and allowed to return home to our country to die. With that in mind, here's a screenshot of today's local news page of said national newspaper: Take note of the news items in the red boxes. While our benevolent leaders don't seem to want to forgive the communists closer to home, they seem to have no qualms with getting in bed with Chin Peng's sponsors. It all becomes even more weird when you take into account that the newspaper in question here is called " The...

While 2007 was awesome for me , 2008 was not. A lot of things did not go well for me and people close to me this past year, and I'm not even counting my writing failures yet. I won't go into my non-writing disappointments this past year but I will touch on my writing disappointments. Of the three resolutions I made earlier this year , I achieved none. No surprise there, really ... since when have I kept a resolution? But still! Pretty disappointing! I mean, I would have loved to have finished that novel and would have been blown away to be able to write 12 short stories, one for each month. As it stands, not only have I not finished the novel, I went and started another unfinished novel for this year's NaNoWriMo, and I didn't even finish that. I did write 5 or so short stories this year, but all of them are unfinished. Yep, 2008 was an epic fail and not a year I will look back on fondly. On the other hand, I did have more book reviews published this year than th...

And before long it will be the New Year. Hurray. Well, NaNoWriMo was a complete and epic fail for me. It wasn't all a loss though. I do have the beginnings of a novel that I'm pretty excited to continue writing, but for now I'll have to shelve it because I'd like to continue writing the novel I was working on before November ... which was really last year's NaNo project. Anyways, did you hear the news? Syed Alwi passed away. What a bummer huh? I enjoyed immensely his play "Alang Rentak Seribu" and regret I haven't seen any of his other theatre productions. Al-fatihah.

Crap. Has it been twenty days already? I don't think I need to say I'm seriously behind on my word count. It's not that I haven't been writing. I have. Lots of it. It's just that all the writing I've done this past month has mostly been of the speeches, essays, book forewords and book reviews variety. After all that, the last thing I want to do when I get home from work is to wrack my brains for a novel. In addition to that, the gallery I work for just held a HUGE event (I've mentioned this before I believe) yesterday, where People of Royalty came and graced us with their Presence. It was all a huge fuss and all so we were all understandably kept busy. It's true what they say. If you want to write a novel, don't have a writing job as your day job. You'll have written a lot during work, and by the time you get home, you'll be too tired to write anything for yourself. Having said that, I believe NaNoWriMo's not over yet. So there...

The Gallery had a buka puasa cum launch event yesterday so I left later than usual from work. Even stopped by Kinokuniya to pick up a copy of Murakami's Running Book. But if I had left like usual, I probably would have been on one of the trains involved in the collision near the Bukit Jalil station on the Ampang LRT line yesterday. The time and place of the accident is right about the time and place I would have been on the train if I hadn't gone home late. That is a very scary thought. (But not as scary as the thought that the Ampang Line has been becoming less and less reliable ever since RapidKL took over 4 years ago.) It was a really unusual scene when I got on the platform at Masjid Jamek around 10pm. I was expecting it to be more or less devoid of people, but what greeted me was a scene equal to rush hour at 6pm! Had to wait for the train for ages, and it only went on till Tasik Selatan. From there there was a temporary feeder bus service to ferry passengers to the ...

I just came back from Kinokuniya where I talked with one of the merchandising peeps and she told me they actually had Murakami's What I Talk About When I Talk About Running in the store the other day but it sold out. Sold out?! Already? Seriously, who stalks Kinokuniya for Haruki Murakami and buys up every new book of his? (Don't answer that.) Anyways, Kinokuniya is only bringing in more stock in next week which is hopefully when I receive my review copy. Yes!

In the first time he's actually done something I'm impressed with since he became Prime Minister, Pak Lah took a ride on the city's LRT : He said the existing services were not systematic, there were not enough coaches and coverage was not comprehensive, leaving many areas not serviced. "I just saw the plight of people using the trains to get to work every morning. They were jostling to get on board every time a train arrived. There appeared to be no system. "I'm not happy with this because the people are not getting satisfaction from riding the trains. This we must fix," he said. "I found the trains really packed with so many passengers. Some had waited for three trains and yet could not board. "There's no queue. People push their way in, women with children and old people are pushed aside," he added. I'm glad you've finally noticed, Mr Prime Minister, even if it has taken you four bleeding years to realise it. If...

Seeing as my country's government sees fit that me and wife starve to death, I don't think I will be buying more books in the near future. We were amongst the crazy people stuck in last night's crazy jam and spent an hour and half in the car in what usually is a five minute journey to the local petrol pump. Government says that they'll be reviewing the petrol price again next month. Not looking forward to going through that crazy rush to the pump again. Maybe next time I'll just resign myself and sit at home while muttering how cruel our PM is. Or read a good book. Or both. Anyway it all boils down to having less money to spend on books. Which makes me sad. For those curious, I am currently reading: Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses (interesting at first, but gets a bit tedious towards the end. Surprisingly I like the parts with Mahound more...I guess that might reflect something in me?) Jorge Luis Borges's Ficciones (very, very good; but not something to re...

Everyday is World Book Day, people! Go read a book already!

I'd just like to say, thank you, Malaysians, for doing the right thing. I just hope the people we voted for do their jobs as promised. At least we showed those arrogant morons who's boss!

The Bloke in Bangsar has announced that Silverfish New Writing is no more after the seventh book rolls out. Say what you will about Raman, but the New Writing series has been a large contribution to the local literary scene and its discontinuation will be a major loss. On the other hand, it's a perfect chance for another publisher to pick up the reins and fill in the vacuum left by Silverfish. A chance to start anew, with less politics and perhaps more focused on local writers, like what Amir Muhammad says on his blog : I feel the series should have stayed as a focus on Malaysian and Singaporean writers. It could have then become a reference point for writers and readers interested in this area. From the third issue on, it started to lack a distinctive character when too many foreigners started pouring in. But then again... who reads all this literary nonsense anyway? Surely not Malaysians!

Looks like PTS wants translators to translate the works of Jules Verne into Malay. Interested? Go sign up . I personally would love to see this project come to fruition, as long as the works are translated with complete and utter care. (There's also a Sherlock Holmes translation project ongoing of which I am keen on as well.) But I have to wonder. Will these translators translate Jules Verne's works from English? I doubt PTS will be able to find enough good translators to translate from the original French. If this is so, how true will the translations be to the originals? It's bad enough that some of the original English translations--which I assume PTS will work from since they are out of copyright and therefore free--are considered not up to snuff . Even Jules Verne lamented about the translations of his time, saying, "I’m not surprised that the translations you’ve been speaking to me about are bad ... But we can do nothing about it, absolutely nothing." Bu...

Probably my favourite quote from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows ! But I think Ron said it already in previous books? I forget. I've just only finished reading it... and I thank J.K. Rowling that my faith in her all these 8 years was not in vain. Thank you for such a satisfying ending. All these years, I've faced Harry Potter launch days with both longing and trepidation. Longing because, well, the obvious. Trepidation, not because of who might die, but who might spoil the book for me. Let's get this straight. I HATE SPOILERS. It doesn't matter if the book or movie doesn't really hold much interest in me, I just hate knowing something I shouldn't be knowing until I see or read the story myself. That's just me. Other people won't mind of course. For me, it's the thrill of enjoying the story, the hows and the whys. I enjoy finding out for myself both the means and the ends if the story, the cause and the effect, without finding out from an externa...

Next time a Malaysian politician talks, someone needs to do this . Viva la Wikipedia revolucion!

Dammit. Seems everyday now there's at least one new book or one new author that I discover and am intrigued about. This is dangerous because I seem to have less spending money nowadays. (Must be that wedding.) But I can't help it. I keep buying and buying anyway! It's become a daily habit of mine to browse my favourite litblogs, literary websites and LibraryThing, and it's always in those places I find something or someone new to read. I can't stop! If I stop browsing those sites... I'd feel all empty inside! Last weekend, I bought three China Mieville books that I'd been meaning to read for some time now. LibraryThing's Suggester's fault. And from there, I've been intrigued by the Gormenghast trilogy that Mieville is influenced from. And now I want to get those too! Dear oh dear. It's a never-ending cycle. The Curse of the Biblioholic.