Ted Mahsun

Okay... I'm almost ready! Still writing the outline for my novel and am hoping to finish it by today. I'm also hoping that by writing an outline first instead of simply winging it like I did in previous years might actually help. Perhaps. I have a good feeling about this year's effort... but that could be the stale vegetables from the mamak's I had for lunch.

Where do writers write? And what do these mysterious places look like? The Guardian will show you , but those are for the famous ones. For lesser known writers, Martin Livings has a good selection of pictures . I think they're mostly Australian-based. UPDATED: Fixed link. My bad.

I've always been fascinated by Sabah. I like the fact that as a state, it's history is separate from that of Peninsular Malaysia. Most Malaysians, when they speak of Malaysian history, they're really just referring to the history of Peninsular Malaysia, and even then it's mostly a revisionist version of history, which I think dates from 1970. Malaysian history, in general, really just gives a cursory glance towards Sabah, merely skimming over the details. It's the same with Sarawak as well. But I dunno. Maybe I'm just seeing this from a West Malaysian point of view. I really have no idea what Sabahans make of Malaysian history. Maybe they just take in stride that Malaysian history is skewed to the Peninsular since that's where the Federal Government is. I was pondering this because today me and L went to the Sabah State Museum. I learned a lot today, from the Kaamatan Festival to the Dragon of Kinabalu (I didn't know these Sabahans kept a dragon! Very se...

I'll be leaving for Sabah for my honeymoon tonight. A friend asked me whether it's a bit late to consider this a honeymoon but I say any vacation with my wife is a honeymoon in my books! Anyways, see you when I get back! I'll write! I'm off now to buy an English-Sabahan Dictionary so I can communicate with the locals.

Well, it's that crazy time of year again, my friends! Early mornings and late nights, typing and/or scribbling away like nobody's business. Checking incessantly the word processor's word count; despairing that the daily word target hasn't been reached; despairing that ideas have all but dried out. Yes, the month of November is nigh, and that means it's National Novel Writing Month once again! We all know the drill but here's the lowdown: A participant of NaNoWriMo should write a novel in a month, or at the very least, 50,000 words of prose. Within 30 days. I failed to complete last year's NaNoWriMo challenge (managed only about 15,000 words)... or even the previous year. I wonder if I'll be able to make it this year? No idea, but I'm giving it a shot anyway! Last year, I tried writing a fantasy (with sf elements) novel , but this year I'll be attempting a young adult book instead. My idea concerns a bookish, nerdish and completely anti-social bo...

Kate Elliot over at DeepGenre has this to say for budding SFF novelists: First, if you’re not willing to work hard at writing, don’t bother. I am sure we can find the exception that proves the rule, but every writer I know who has been successful - however we are defining that term today, and I tend to be ecumenical in my inclusiveness, so let’s just assume that I mean in a pretty broad sense not limited to the pots-of-money sense and frankly just about every working writer I know will laugh sadly or even perhaps a tad hysterically when you ask her or him about the average annual earnings of working freelance writers - has worked immensely hard, turned or churned out a lot of pages in the journey through apprenticeship toward some level of mastery, and kept writing despite setbacks, rejection, cold feet, and those soul-sucking periods of doubt. By that I don’t mean quit writing for enjoyment. Anyone who wants to write because it pleases them or soothes them or excites them, should ab...

Definitely one of the most memorable reactions ever.

Creator of Calvin and Hobbes , Bill Watterson, reviews the new Charles Schulz biography in the Wall Street Journal : It's a strange and interesting story, and Mr. Michaelis, the author of a 1998 biography of artist N.C. Wyeth, paces the narrative well, offering many insights and surprising events from Schulz's life. Undoubtedly the most fascinating part of the book is the juxtaposition of biographical information and reproduced "Peanuts" strips. Here we see how literally Schulz sometimes depicted actual situations and events. The strips used as illustrations in "Schulz and Peanuts" are reproduced at eye-straining reduction and are often removed from the context of their stories, but they vividly demonstrate how Schulz used his cartoons to work through private concerns. We discover, for example, that in the recurring scenes of Lucy annoying Schroeder at the piano, the crabby and bossy Lucy stands in for Joyce [Schulz's first wife], and the obsessive and t...

Lat's Town Boy , my favourite Lat book ever, has now been launched in the US , following what I can only assume is the successful launch of its prequel, Kampung Boy . While Kampung Boy is fun and all, I am more attached to Town Boy because it takes place in Sungai Rokam (where I went to primary school) and Ipoh (where Lat went to secondary school). Sungai Rokam was (and still is, actually) a Malay housing estate developed in the '60s on the outskirts of Ipoh. I hope those Americans enjoy it; they seemed to have liked Kampung Boy quite a bit. That's all very well. Lat's books are probably some of the very, very few things from this nation we can truly be proud of.

Hoho. It's not always I get to reference Charles Dickens and the Transformers movie (the original movie, not the recent live-action monstrosity) in one sentence. So you may have heard that there's some sort of festive celebration that's going to happen this Saturday. Personally I can't wait for it. I'm not looking forward to the day itself, though I guess the rendang daging my mother might make (my brother doesn't eat beef) should make for some good eating. No, what I'm really looking forward to is the ability to drink coffee again. Whenever I feel like it. Oh, sweet, heavenly coffee. Manna from the gods! I miss you so!

If only I had one of these when I was a bachelor. Would've helped a lot. Via Urban Planning Blog .

Alike for those who To-day prepare, And for those that after a To-morrow stare, A Muezzin from the Tower of Darkness cries, "Fools! Your Reward is neither Here nor There!" --Omar Khayyam; translated by Edward Fitzgerald I keep wanting to write a fantasy story inspired by this. Perhaps one day.

Today marks the 50th anniversary of mankind's ascent into the Space Age. We owe a lot to you, Sputnik .

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!

Anyone who's grown up with Roald Dahl would know Quentin Blake's wonderful illustrations. The Guardian interviews him : Is there anything he can't draw? "I stay away from motor cars. And I can't do architectural drawings, really. What I want to convey is movement and gesture and atmosphere. I like drawing anything that is doing something. Dragons are good because you can arrange them in interesting ways across the page, get people to ride on them. I can't seem to keep birds out of my books." You can see them not only in his edition of Aristophanes' The Birds and his book with John Yeoman called Featherbrains, but in a grinning self-portrait featuring him dangling from a ceiling fan, pencils stuffed in his pockets, papers and birds flapping round. His grin is the still centre to the chaos.

This book review was published in The Star on 30 September 2007 . Th e print version comes with a 25% discount voucher for the book which can be us ed at Kinokuniya KLCC. Authors: Eileen Chang, Wang Hui Ling and James Schamus Publisher: Pantheon Books Hardcover: 311 pages ISBN: 978-0375425240 WHEN I read a while back that Taiwanese director Ang Lee was making a movie that had some of its scenes shot in Penang and Ipoh (and being an Ipoh guy myself), I made a mental note to find out exactly what movie he was making – then, like the forgetful dolt I am, I proceeded to forget all about it. Much later, I chanced upon the movie trailer online, and realised this must be the movie that Lee had shot on our shores. The trailer looked interesting, promising an intriguing cinema experience and it played to my fancy with its period setting and sensuous scenes. The movie, Lust, Caution, stars Tony Leung, Joan Chen and Wang Leehom and features the debut of mainland China actress Tang Wei. Based ...

Yes! I've got my mits on these two awesome newly-released books: Looks like I'll be overdosing myself on fantasy these coming weeks. Plus! You might want to check out tomorrow's StarMag ;)

I'm not sure if this book even needs an introduction. With all the fanfare the book's been getting, I think anyone with a decent Internet connection and/or reads Off the Edge should know what this book's all about. Heck, even the title's a dead giveaway. But here I go anyway. Malaysian Politicians Say the Darndest Things presents to its readers various quotes by Malaysian politicians that were said between the late 70s to earlier this year. Compiled by the incomparable Amir Muhammad, director of the infamous Last Communist that got banned last year, the quotes obviously aren't just any old random quote but are what Amir calls "Outrageous Quotes". Amir describes the Outrageous Quote as " something undiplomatic about gender or race, or it might smack of a certain ignorance of due process and rule of law. It would get civil libertarians in a twist, or a funk, or some other dance music-like word. Outrage would be expressed; a befitting response, you wo...

From the Guardian : "Otters are not trainable," [Gaiman] explains. "Dogs are trainable - if you want them to sit you train them and give them rewards and they sit each time. But otters... if they do something cool and you give them a fish, the next time they'll do something even cooler. Or they'll try to do something completely different. I think that most writers - or at least a lot of us - are otters."

Now that we're sending Muslims up into space, the West seems to be amused with the fact that our very own Muslim scientists have drafted up guides on worshipping procedures in space. Wired's got an article worth reading about the problems in facing the kiblat and how to find Mecca from space: Dr. Kamal Abdali, a cartographer who is also Muslim and who has written (.pdf) extensively on determining the qibla, favors the great circle route, but adds, "Prayer is not supposed to be a gymnastic exercise. One is supposed to concentrate on the prayer rather the exact orientation." He points out that in a train or plane, it's customary to start in the qibla direction but then continue the prayer without worrying about possible changes in position. But how does that work in space? Mathematically, Shukor would need to place both ISS and Mecca on the same imaginary sphere -- by either comparing the place on Earth directly beneath ISS with the real Ka'aba, or by project...