Tag: The Literary

The Phantom of Oxley Castle review

 

Firstly, I pre-ordered (?) well not really pre-order since it was in Local Books website, they just had to deliver it to me once it was released. This is the first time I bought from them online so yeah.

I want to say this is pretty exciting. RECEIVING BOOKS (that I paid for) that is. The packaging is bright purple in real life and it’s super cheery.

I might buy more books this way just cause of the packaging cause it’s cute for specific hard to find titles in store. You guys should try it with Harris Bin Potter.

Oh and prices on that website haven’t added gst in. I would have wanted a “GST included” price, so no cheated feelings or something at the cart.

I chose for the free gift wrapping because November is a book day for a lot of reasons and the wrapping is pretty good. Hit that “gift wrapping” button if you are definitely gifting it to a friend, whoever is the wrapper, it is veeeery nice.

Oh and we get a tiny “Word Search” puzzle card which is a promo of some books available on their site.

You can click to embiggen to look see the other side of that word search puzzle. Anyway, I unwrapped it and BEHOLD.

It is The Phantom of Oxley Castle by Liana Gurung and Chloe Tong, illustrated by Anngee Neo.

My review is going to be as a book reader and not some political website trying to find hints and meaning more than me when watching the latest Taylor Swift video.

Continue reading The Phantom of Oxley Castle review

Gadis Melayu Yang Terakhir

Ok.

Just a brief post, it’s about Nanowrimo. There’s still time if you want to join it.

By the way, my story is going to be in English, the title is just somewhat of a pun reference thingy.

Here is the start:

The history books said that Singapore was a sleepy fishing village.

That was a horrible lie.

I had no idea where I was but I knew I was somewhere in Singapore. Or rather, Temasek. I only knew this because either this was a very elaborate period set or that I went back in time somehow.

I know, one might think I am sounding utterly too calm for this but I assure you reader, I am not. On the exterior I am such a cool person but on the inside I am wondering what the heck did I do to deserve this.

And that’s how you know that you don’t really have to have quality when doing Nanowrimo, just write the story out first.

Ok, that’s it for this post. GO JOIN if you want to.

Are you Singaporean?

The tents!

“Are you Singaporean?” a middle aged Chinese man asked us.

We were in queue to get our books autographed by a writer at the festival. “Uh, yes?” answered Max who actually wasn’t. And he should have proclaimed his Malaysian-ness to all instead of answering for the majority of us if we would have known what would happen next.

The man continued with, “Did you know this festival is by tax payers money?”.

I turned around, facing towards the start of the queue, my backpack towards him with the sudden need to see how many was left in line. My other friend, Raven looked into her bag as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. That left Max and Jo to face him.

Why. Why was this happening.

Continue reading Are you Singaporean?

Being Fictional

Golden Shoe Complex

Last Saturday’s Nanowrimo write-in was at Golden Shoe complex. BECAUSE IT WAS DEEPAVALI AND THE SHOPS WERE CLOSED.

AUUUGH.

But it was one of the most effective write-ins ever because:

a) No food or distractions

b) You had limited battery

c) No internet (unless you plugged in your own)

The coming Saturday’s write-in should be at the usual place though so I don’t know if productivity will be as much as when we had nothing, heh heh.

Continue reading Being Fictional

Ken Liu’s coming to Singapore!

Meet the author - Ken Liu

Yes, Ken Liu’s coming to Singapore in September! Don’t know his work or want to read one of his stories for free? You can check his Paper Menagerie out! It’s also part of Read Singapore this year.

So the important dates would be:

  • 4 September , 7.30pm – 9pm: The Paper Menagerie
  • 7 September,  2pm- 3.30pm: The Writing Life : Science Fiction and Fantasy  or 5pm- 6.30pm: Comparing Notes: Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy
  • 8 September, 3pm – 4.30pm: Author Reading at Origami Exhibition

We’re going on the Saturday sessions. Especially if you’re Nanowrimo-ers COME ON SATURDAY. He has done Nanowrimo before too and well, it’s always great to meet up with others who have done it while meeting an award or rather AWARDS winning author at the library.

This is all free but if you want to register to just ‘chope’ seat here’s the info:

Registration Info: All sessions are free, but seats are limited.

To confirm your seat, kindly email readsingapore@nlb.gov.sg

1) Your Name 2) Title & Date of Session/s 3) Contact Number

See you guys there! I’ll be going to the 7th September sessions.

Under One Sky writing workshop

Hey ho! There’s a writing workshop for the Under One Sky competition! It’s like preparation for the competition if you haven’t tried out writing short stories before.

Here’s the details! Fyi, it’s free.

Creative writing (short story) workshop!

Date: Sat, 3rd August 2013
Time: 10am- 1pm
Venue: Woodlands Regional Library, Programme Zone

This workshop will focus on the techniques needed for writing short stories and give participants room to experiment with ideas.

Below is the programme outline:
• Appreciate the unique features of a short story
• Brainstorm and develop a plot for a short story
• Apply basic writing skills and techniques to formulate a short story
• Write a short story inspired by another work of literature
• To have a basic draft of a short story by the end of the workshop

This workshop is open to only 40 participants aged 13 and above!

Please register at library e-kiosks or website http://golibrary.nlb.gov.sg Should the programme be fully registered and you would like to be placed on the waiting list, please email your name and contact number to readsingapore@nlb.gov.sg

Participants are strongly encouraged to submit the short stories produced in the workshop for the Insight: Under One Sky Competition, organised in collaboration with Read! Singapore.

If you have any queries regarding the workshop or the competition, please send it to us at insight.competition@gmail.com

More details about the competition or the workshop can be found here.

NEW WORD ORDER PRESENTS WESLEY LEON AROOZOO

itiswesley

ANYWAY. My pal Wesley’s having a session at the Arts House this weekend. Y’all know where the Arts House is right?

LOCATION: Living Room (that’s the second floor of the Arts House)

Date: 16 March, Saturday

Time: 7.30pm.

Here’s the details from the Arts House site!

Genre: Literary Arts,New Word Order

Presented by The Arts House

Better known as a filmmaker, Wesley Leon Aroozoo’s first stab at writing for the stage resulted in a provocative story about loss, searching and accepting one’s own demons. Bedok Reservoir was inspired by the spate of drownings and suicides in Bedok Reservoir and delves into a dark side of Singapore not openly discussed. The play and novel version of the story was recently published as a duo print in which the endings are different. Not a bad accomplishment for someone who almost failed his ‘O’ Levels English and could not get into a junior college.

Join Wesley as he discusses his journey to becoming a published playwright and author as well as why he channels his creativity through so many different outlets.

This session is moderated by Ghazali Muzakir, a filmmaker and theatre practitioner.

Here’s a trailer of his play!

So if you’re free this Saturday, come over and attend his session! Fun fact: If you check out his channel with his other trailers, you would notice it is called ‘moomeow’. Moomeow is a character from one of his short films that had a lovely musical presence about a scientist and well, a cow cat.

Support local artists! Woooh.