Category Archives: Updates

And I’m not talking about the world.

Today should have been the last day for our read-along of Nabokov’s Lolita. However, my co-host Vishy and I have decided to postpone it to next weekend, so if you’d like to join us, you still can. I have to admit I did finish the book but haven’t written a review yet – it’s hard to think about marshalling my thoughts into coherent words to express the beauty and perversity of this book at this time of the year.

I did however, spend some time in the kitchen for a traditional potato salad. My Thai writing still needs a lot of practice but I think you can guess what I tried to say with those butchered gherkins.

This year I’ve managed to read 50 books (not counting one which I abandoned halfway through). It’s been a good reading year and I discovered a couple of very interesting series, but more about this in a future post, next year.

Happy New Year to everyone, may 2015 be full of great surprises and amazing books!

The first Sunday of October I went to Bangkok International Literary Festival – “Reaching the World 2013” at Bangkok Art and Culture Center. The event was organized by The Asia Pacific Writers Organization and was held from 3rd to 6th October. It included an international conference on Creative Writing & Literary Translation: Teaching & Practice, hosted by Chulalongkorn University, and a literary festival in conjunction with Unesco’s “Bangkok World Book Capital City 2013” on the last day, Sunday the 6th.

I only made it to the festival, which lasted from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m, and stayed for two of the events. One was called Masters of Invention and the participating authors were (from the brochure): Sunjeev Sahota (On Granta magazine’s 2013 list of “Best of Young British Novelists), internationally acclaimed Burmese author Pascal Khoo Thwe (From the Land of Green Ghosts), and rising American star Krys Lee in conversation with Rebecca Hart.
The other event was A Writer’s Life. Every Day Creative? with Bernice Chauly, Eliza Vitri Handayani, Cristina Hidalgo, James Shea (poet) and Philip McLaren.
I enjoyed them very much and I took some notes from both events and put them together into a list. From the mouths of the writers, to the paper:

Finding time to write
• I’m stealing time – I go conferences and skip courses so I can stay in my hotel room and write. I also write while having lunch.
• I can’t afford moods, I’m working on four autobiographies at the moment.
• I am a single mother, I wrote my book after 10 p.m., when the children had gone to bed, until 4 in the morning. I did that for two years to finish it.

On the process of writing
• I type my poems on a typewriter to slow down the process then transfer the work on the computer.
• I strip away the whole process of any romanticism and just write.

How do you feel about writing?
• Writing is a pleasure. I write every day. Constructing the sentences, looking at words closely, it’s a very enjoyable process.
• Writing poems gives me pleasure but it’s also the most painful thing that I do.

Where do you get your ideas?
• Real life
• I run every day, I get great ideas while running. Murakami’s book, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, was mentioned.
• A friend asked me to write his autobiography. He practically handed me his journals and asked me to write it.

When do you feel your work is ready to be shared with other people?
• I show my work in raw form only to my closest friends. My refined work goes to my other friends.
• Sometimes I post my writing on Facebook to see people’s reaction.

On criticism
• Beginner writers overwrite like crazy. It’s like they have to prove something to the world.
• I sent a story to a publisher once and it came back with “cut by 2/3”. I did that and was grateful for the advice.

On being published
• I sent my manuscript to six publishers. One of them agreed to take it on.
• I was taking writing classes and my teacher showed my work to some people in the publishing industry. I didn’t even know about it until they told me they want to publish it.

Advice for new writers
• Read
• Do selective reading – look at the authors you like, analyze the sentences and their rhythm. Take notes.

On writing a certain amount of words or for a certain amount of time every day
• That helps you become less self-conscious.
• Not everything you write will be great but you may be able to excavate something good out of it in the end.

Dealing with writer’s block
• I’ve never had it. Writing is pleasure.
• Do things that have nothing in common with writing. Exercise.
• I read people who are better than me.

Living off writing
Only one of the six writers at the last event said he writes full time. The others have jobs (full-time or part-time) mainly as professors at university.

The atmosphere was relaxed, there were questions from the audience (I didn’t ask any, I was too nervous) and the authors seemed nice enough for the most part. While many of the things being said were not exactly new, there was one thing that I felt was a little unfair. “Beginner writers overwrite like crazy. It’s like they have to prove something to the world.” That they overwrite might be true, but perhaps this comes from not knowing how much to cut and how much to leave on. Beginners, remember? I bet every writer would love to be able to produce just the right amount of words for their work.

While searching the net for details about Murakami’s What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, I found an interesting interview with him from October 2005. Here’s a little excerpt:

“Before I became a writer, I was running a jazz bar in the center of Tokyo, which means that I worked in filthy air all the time late into the night. I was very excited when I started making a living out of my writing, and I decided, “I will live in nothing but an absolutely healthy way.” Getting up at 5 a.m. every morning, doing some work first, then going off running. It was very refreshing for me.”

You can find the interview here.

Have you ever been to a literary festival? A writing workshop? Please share your thoughts.

Eggs, colorful eggs… that’s one of the things I like about Easter. I wanted to make some dyed Easter eggs but with none of that special dye to use, I took a friend’s advice and tried food coloring instead. With a little help from Google I prepared the dye and let the eggs soak in it for a few hours. The result is far from perfect (my mother was much better at this) but I had fun and in the end that’s all that matters. 🙂

Happy Easter!

It goes something like this: every morning I tell myself that it’s a new day, new beginning, new opportunity to finish the story I started a while ago, new…..you name it. Then suddenly I remember I have to do a dozen little things, like laundry, cleaning the house, giving the dogs a bath or even trying out a new recipe, yeah, you name it. My laptop sits on the desk all by his lonely self and if it could speak or at least give me a look, I bet it wouldn’t be a nice one.

Maybe I’m too relaxed and my mind cannot take that much silence and sitting around the house. I can blame the Songkran for that. I just hope it’s going to be over by tomorrow, when I may be brave enough to venture outside and into the wide world (or maybe just to the supermarket) without being drenched in water as it is the custom here during the Thai New Year celebrations, or Songkran by the local name.

Back to my story, or should I go have a snack, read a book or watch a movie ….you name it. Ah, here we go again!

I’ve been away for a short holiday, on a beautiful island with elephants, coconut trees and roller-coaster roads. I’ll be back soon with a story and pics!