Thursday, May 24, 2012

So I was looking through my old stuff...

I was trying to organise the messed up files and folders that I hastily tossed them into years back when I first got my external hard disk. I doubt I'll finish anytime soon but anyway... I was reading some of the poems that I wrote when I was younger. Like, 5 years ago? Man, I was much more talented then than I am now. XD Sometimes the best works are birthed when you're in the most pain. My life has been quite smooth sailing in the past few years, muahahaha!!

Will I publish them? I'm not too sure, I would like to, but I don't really know where's a good place to publish these things (Apart from FictionPress XD)

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am ever so honoured and privileged to reveal that...

I Want To Be A Turk! is finally complete.

Well, at least part 1. It was a heavy burden lifted. :3 Now, to finish uploading the remaining chapters. I think maybe I should take a small break or something in the meantime.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

So I had a dream...

“What’s out on the patio?” I asked. I walked out of my hotel living room and stared in awe at the place before me. It was a large open area joining with the other rooms. Normally I could cringe at the thought of how there weren’t any boundaries between the rooms, but not today. The patio was for communal use, it stretched out before me in dark grey slabs of concrete. Around me, ivory pillars shot up from the ground like strong trees, curving in at the top to look something like the skeleton of a dome.

~*~*~

This was a place in my dreams, I kid you not. As soon as I woke up, I wrote it down hoping that maybe someday I can use it in my stories. The feeling in the dream was overwhelming, it didn't feel as grand on writing, heheh.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Book Review (1): The God Project by John Saul

Aloha!

No, today we are not going to talk about my fanfiction. Rather, we will be talking about book reviews from other authors. The last time I talked about someone else's book... happened to be my first in this blog too. That was Robin McKingley's "Pegasus" (which I'm still waiting for its sequel). Since then, I've read two more books (and am now reading through one of it).

For someone who hasn't read a book from cover to cover for more than 5 years... this is an achievement. So I hope that I'll have more opportunities to read :)

The first book that I've completed this year is 'The Warriors of Alavna' by Browne. I'll talk more about that story another time.

I would like to talk about the book that I've just finished. Literally, just a few hours ago. If you are wondering, I'm still reading 'Eragon'. I find myself slowing down that story to read the others first. I wonder why :/

Reading "The God Project" started because I mentioned in a post that I wanted to expand my reading repertoire. So I picked up John Saul (a recommendation from the Boyfriend, who said that it was his first novel... he has been reading Marvel comics till then XD) and began to read.

And two days flew by.

It was a little hard to pick up at first. You gotta understand that I am a very childish reader. I bloom rather late when it comes to reading. Not bad I struggle with reading, just that things aren't as appealing to me. I was reading Enid Blyton when I was 12 years old, when my friends were reading books from Goosebumps, Jeffrey Archer and Agatha Christie. I read Sweet Valley High (and Sweet Valley Twins!!) when classmates were enjoying books from Stephen King and Anne Rice. I started Harry Potter WAY too late (I started when Goblet of Fire was long published. I was around 13 years old then.) When my friends were tackling biographies and memoirs I was reveling in magic-ky stories. I still love magic-ky books.

But I digress. I was saying that it was hard for me to get used to the fact that I was reading such an 'adult' book (many would beg to differ that the book was hardly an adult book). However, once I kinda caught the essence of the story, I was hooked. I couldn't put it down. That feeling of not being able to function until the story is complete brings nostalgia of how I would spend hours in the afternoon pouring over books :)

I guess I've spent too much time already. I'm going to summarise my thoughts of the book into point forms.

1. Language
John Saul's language in this book struck me oddly familiar. Then, it dawned upon me that his writing style is like mine. Or rather... my writing style is like his. The variations of complex sentences, with simple sentences in between to make a point. The little extra information about each character and their background... Simply put, if I continue to hone my writing skills, I may end up writing like John Saul (in description).

Of course, I can never be half as good as these authors, but that doesn't mean that I can't hope :) John Saul's description is written more on the characters rather than the setting, which kinda isn't what I'm doing, but is something that I hope to improve :)

2. Unpredictable
As with horror-thriller stories, you will be expecting twists in the plots. However, what I love about this story is how you think you know how it's going to end, but it... doesn't. There were some people that I thought were the baddies but they were not. The awesomeness comes because in the end you realise that you were thrown another twist, just pages before the end. And well... the ending is chilling.

From the beginning to the end, I couldn't be sure what the end would be like. That, I guess, would be the hallmark of a plot with twists. I could blame it on my inexperience in horror-thriller stories, or I could give John Saul the credit... so I might as well be nice :)

3. Timeless
Being printed in 1982, you would expect the content to be blah. After all, it's 30 years since it's first printing.

To this, I give a resounding NO.

The technology and concept behind The God Project is an area that is constantly explored and examined - Genetic Engineering. I remember that when I was in high school/Junior College, my teacher first introduced that to me (Yes, I am a noob who doesn't read the newspapers.) and it was a little hard to stomach. Imagine the concept of genetic engineering... in 1982. Before Windows 95 were made, for all we know!

Absolutely timeless. The concept doesn't make me feel that the book is unrelevant and outdated.


Oh, now that I'm tired, I suppose I'll take a rest. So here it is, my (somewhat) short afterthoughts of 'The God Project'. I've received some recommendations on books to read, but I doubt I'll have time to read, though i'll try my best to get around it. Enjoy your week!

Disclaimer: Despite the official term, the above book review is not a wholesome and fully critical one. The book is merely reviewed and reflected on based on story writing skills and other literary elements.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Looking back

Okay, I'm not going to reminisce about "I Want To Be A Turk!"

I was reading my very first fanfiction, "Romeo and Juliet, FF8 style!" and I was quite amused at my own writing. Sadly, I was so embarrassed with my own writing that I revamped ALL my stories (forgetting to backup the older copies for laughs). As such, my oldest writing is dated 2008, which... isn't THAT old (considering that I've started in 2004).

Yes, lesson to learn (forever). Keep your old drafts for fun and laughter. I'm quite sad to say that none of my old writings are around, especially the one with "Be My Knight!" The first draft was absolutely hilarious and I was terribly ashamed to show it to anyone.

Anyway... regarding old fics? I plan to use them, but I have no idea when I will have the time to. If you remember, I have a dozen of plot bunnies waiting to be birthed and nurtured. Besides, in order for me to go back into the old fics, I probably would have to watch FF8 again. Researching on FF7 took me a (pardon my french) hell lot of time, and it was time I could spare because I was on a month-long getaway in China.

... Writing about all these makes me wish that I have more time to write. Oh well, I guess that I am a pretty disorganised person by nature. If I'm that determined to write, then I jolly well make time for my writing (instead of complaining).

Anyway, I've yet to post another chapter because I'm... ah... lazy :P It's really funny how slowly I'm writing when I was on my internship. When I was uploading Chapter 46 on the 20th of February, I was writing Chapter 57 or 58 (Yes, I am THAT ahead of my schedule). At the beginning of my 10-week internship I realised that if I were to stop writing and upload every week, I've enough chapters to cover. By the end of the 10 weeks, and now that I (should be) uploading Chapter 57, I'm still writing Chapter 60. From a 12 chapter gap, I'm back to a 4 chapter gap.

Well, my habit is that I'd like to keep a 3-5 chapter gap between my writing schedule and my uploading schedule (i.e. if I'm uploading Chapter 1, it should be because I'm already writing Chapter 3). It keeps me far-sighted in case my future plans can't be executed because of something that I've already published. Also, for new stories, it helps me assess if the story has potential to continue. For new stories, once I'm done with Chapter 2, I'll upload Chapter 1. Yeah, just an idiosyncrasy of mine.

Anyway, I'll like to complete Chapter 60 first before I upload Chapter 57. I should be done with Chapter 60, just that there are many fight scenes, and I dread them so much :( But I. Shall. Prevail!!

So be patient with me :))

In other news, I'm so excited that Diablo 3 is coming out! I never played Diablo 1 and 2, but the trailer for 3 looks nice, and seeing how everyone has been waiting for this game for YEARS, I guess it should be awesome :D