Posted on 29 October 2006 @ 22:32 in Writing
I spent mine keeping mother company at the hospital. She’d come down with vomiting and purging; all the residents at GT Heritage caught it, beginning with Madam K who’d been in the hospital and brought it back with her, and infecting even two of the workers, one so bad she had to be hospitalised.
Two days after mother was hospitalised, she passed it to me so, yeah, I spent the long weekend sick.
Apparently, it was going around, and there was even an article about it in the New Straits Times.
What was it? Gastroenteritis, aka gastric flu.
So, no, I didn’t get to work on my NaNovel during the long weekend.
It’s three days to the start of NaNoWriMo 2006. A few months back, it hit me what my NaNovel will be about this year. I was so amazed I started writing up notes about the main character and her story. Then, the preparations got put aside. That’s how it’s always with me – start something in a fit of enthusiasm and then … nothing.
Actually, this year, I’m a little more prepared than previous years’ NaNovels. Apart from the characters, I have more than an idea of what the story will be about. I even have some situations, conflicts, etc.
Now that I come to think of it, I haven’t done much beyond the first burst of enthusiasm because I was afraid I would end up writing the story. And we all know, for NaNoWriMo, the actual writing doesn’t begin until the stroke of midnight on 1 November.
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Posted on 20 October 2006 @ 23:58 in General
It’s a long weekend here in Malaysia. Deepavali, the Hindu Festival of Lights, is tomorrow, while Hari Raya Puasa, which commemorates the end of the Muslim fasting month, is next Tuesday and Wednesday (a two-day holiday here). Sandwiched between the two festive holidays is lone Monday, which a lot of companies, including mine, have “declared” a holiday. For sure the Malaysian Government has declared it a public holiday for its employees (aka Government or civil servants), and many companies in the private sector are following, altho not completely, e.g., where I work, we have to take compulsory leave next Monday, meaning one day gets deducted from our annual leave. But I digress …
I don’t go back to work till next Thursday. What will I be doing all those days? I’ll be house-sitting … no, wait, actually I’ll be maid watching.
My sister and family will be away, leaving her new maid alone in the house. This new maid has said she’s not afraid of being on her own, but this new maid has also been known to spend her days watching TV and generally not doing what she’s employed to do. Imagine what she’ll be up to 24 hours a day unsupervised. So just to let her know she can’t get away with not working, there’ll be someone to keep her company during the day, and me to sleep over at night.
Should be interesting. Net access is limited at my sister’s house (no wireless router), and I can only read, or watch so much tv, at a stretch. Well, with NNWM 2006 just 12 days or so away, I should be spending some of the time doing prep work for my NaNovel. On my AlphaSmart Dana, of course.
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Posted on 14 October 2006 @ 22:16 in Writing
All those posts about AlphaSmart on NaNoWriMo’s NaNo Technology discussion forum have finally paid off. AlphaSmart has donated 25 Neo’s to the NaNoWriMo Laptop Loaner programme.
Read all about it here:
Breaking News: Wee Machines
Way to go, AlphaSmart!
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Posted on 12 October 2006 @ 22:06 in Reading, Writing
I discovered this book through either the Moleskinerie or Notebookism site, and immediately set about looking for a copy. It’s one of those rare, out-of-print books so I headed straight to my favourite rare book site, Alibris, found what I wanted and ordered a copy. That was more than a month ago. I almost thought it got lost on its way to me, but this evening, arriving at my sister’s, I found a brown envelope waiting for me. Yay! My copy of Howard Junker’s The Writer’s Notebook is here.
What drew me to the book is not just the opportunity to read about how writers work, but also to see pictures of actual pages from their journals. The book was mentioned in a discussion about contemporary obsession with how we write, or rather what we write with. This is one of many discussions at the NaNoWriMo site’s NaNo Technology discussion forum – participants discussing what they plan to write their NaNovels with. I, of course, am an active participant, telling the others about my wonderful AlphaSmart Dana. But I digress …
A total of 16 writers are featured in Junker’s book. I am only familiar with five of them – Kathy Acker, Dorothy Allison, Maxine Hong Kingston, Martin Cruz Smith and Gary Snyder. I read the Dorothy Allison article while waiting for dinner at my sister’s, and then started reading Maxine Hong Kingston’s on the way home – literally reading it while waiting for the lift at my apartment block and even in it, too.
I love seeing pictures of how writers work. A while back, I found and bought a copy of The Writer’s Desk – also from good old Alibris.
I only wish reading about how and where writers work, I am inspired to write better, or at least to write more.
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Posted on 9 October 2006 @ 22:32 in Personal, Stress Busters
First, I made a graphic of her name after writing it in NJStar:
Then I found a web site that paints Chinese names and made one for her, putting her name in a bamboo painting:
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