#bookreview: Triton and Entanglement by Dan Rix

Triton by Dan Rix
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What was supposed to be a relaxing holiday cruise soon turns into a nightmare when when everyone on board the Cypress suddenly disappears, leaving behind 5 frightened teenagers:

Cedar Edgerly - the overprotective brother.
Brynn Edgerly - the fifteen year old flirt.
Jake Carmelo - the hot young hero.
Naomi Delacruz - the girl who knows (almost) everything about the ship.
Sky Wilkinson - the girl who was taken.

They make an unlikely five, with instant antagonism between Cedar and Jake. And yet, stranded in the middle of the ocean with no one else to turn to, the five must work together to figure out what has happened to everyone else on the ship, and how they are going to survive on their own.

Triton's a pretty entertaining read but not quite a page-turner. Loosely based on a Bible story (part of the premise at least), it's quite a well-crafted story. The twisty mind-bending bit at the end is pretty nifty though, so maybe I'd give this one a 3.5.



Entanglement by Dan Rix
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I decided to read this because I'd just finished my review copy of Triton and I quite liked it. I'm not even sure when I got this and why. It was just sitting in my computer waiting to be read. (Was it a review copy? A free copy? A giveaway? Or did I buy it and forget about it? Hmmmm)

On his 18th birthday, Aaron Harper will meet his half - his soulmate for life. The thing is - Aaron's clairvoyant channel is scarred and no one knows what that means or what will happen. 29 days before his birthday, Aaron meets and falls in love with Amber Lilian, a mysterious girl who happens to share the same birthday as him. Are they destined to be halves? Or is Clive, Amber's violent boyfriend, really her intended half as he claims to be?

Dan Rix has some good stuff in here. The thing is - he starts off well and draws you into the story, but somewhere about the middle towards the end, it gets a little bit confusing (I felt that about Triton too, but it wasn't as obvious as here). It's not quite about the content/twist to the story that confuses you, but something to do with the way it's written; it suddenly seems to jump about too erratically.

Other than that, Entanglement was quite a decent read.

View all my reviews

To the guys who were protesting outside the Sacramento Memorial Hall

It was really strange to hear that there were protesters outside the Sacramento Memorial Hall Saturday night after the Jesus Culture Encounter. Maybe stranger for me because we don't have this kind of thing back home. They were holding placards and stuff and were preaching on the side walk which was even weirder because they were preaching Christ to the Christians.

Anyway, I was listening to these two guys because my friend Ciara had started to engage with one of them, and the other guy started talking to the rest of us looker-ons (watchers? spectators? audience?). I didn't say much at the time because I don't like confrontations and basically I wasn't up to forming much sentences at that time but this morning I was just thinking there's really a lot of stuff I could have said to them, so I guess this is it.

To the guy holding the placard: 

You kept saying that God hates sin and God hates sinners. You kept saying over and over again that you're a sinner, that you're worthless. And you kept saying that grace is good but there is judgement. There are people out there who believe only in grace and forget the judgement. I agree with you. I cannot help but agree with you, except for one thing. 

God does not hate the sinners. He hates the sin, yes. He hates it when we sin, yes. But he does not hate the sinners. Because if he did, Jesus would never have come. You want the Bible to back that up? 

John 3:16 says "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that WHOEVER believes in him will not perish but have eternal life." 

God loved the world. That means everyone, sinners included (which we all are). It doesn't say so that those who aren't sinners will not perish. It says whoever believes. 

Romans 5:8 says "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
Did you read that? While we were still sinners - if that doesn't show how much God loves us sinners, what does? You can't justify that God hates us so much that he died for us, can you?
Most of all, I'd like you to mull over Romans 8 and see how this impacts your view of your relationship with God:

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you[a] free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh,[b] God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.[c] And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit."

It doesn't mean we are perfect. It doesn't mean that we don't sin anymore. It doesn't mean that we won't be judged. But what it does mean is that we aren't being judged now for what we have done. It means you can wake up every morning and set your life right with God again, because His mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-24). And when the judgement does come, we can stand assured that Christ has paid for it on the cross. And if you have been pursuing him, following after Him, you would know that you have been made righteous because of what He has done.

Which leads to the other guy:
Everything you said, I agree with. Thank you for not jumping to conclusions about what was being said in the hall or not (The text was 2 Kings 9:1-10 and Matthew 6:6, since you were wondering) The thing is people speak in stories because that's the easiest way for truth to be disseminated. Jesus spoke in parables. What are parables, but stories?
I thought it pretty cool that that young kid was telling you an illustration we just heard that morning, though I think you got a little confused by the way he was telling it. Maybe the best word I can say to you right now is to maybe not watch what others say so much in trying to catch them out, in trying to prove them wrong, but just to listen to people with a heart of love and let God move you in the right ways.
Sometimes we try so hard to live right that we try to make others live right in our own eyes, we forget what Matthew 7 says - Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. The more we try to call out the faults of our fellow Christians, the more we fall under that judgement as well.
And yes, while everyone could do with a little more solid Bible knowledge and teaching, it doesn't mean that things you feel and experience should be totally discounted as well. Because, you know, everything you feel for the children in Africa is also a feeling, right?

I don't know if they will ever read this. (Probably not). But there, I said it.
If only sometimes my brain would work on the spot.
But I hate arguing, you know. And I could tell that everything I said would have been made into an argument and my brain would have exploded. 

a whiney post about not being able to write. seriously.

I can't write.
I start with a few lines or a paragraph or so and then... nothing.
It's like my brain won't work.
It won't move on, it refuses to think.

WHY?

*wails*

I think. I think I need to start focusing. My head's been all over the place since December. The routine's shot since August, not like I had any firm routine... but it's just getting worse and degenerating into a puddle of... of... procrastination and laziness.
Gah.

The only thing I've been fairly consistent at is writing book reviews. Because I've promised to write them. Oh dear.

*moans*

#bookreview: Songs from the Phenomenal Nothing by Steven Luna

Songs from the Phenomenal Nothing by Steven Luna
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Songs from the Phenomenal Nothing is a hauntingly beautiful tale, told in the angsty voice of Tyler Mills, a seventeen-year old guitar prodigy, who has recently lost his mother to cancer. Now that it's just two of them, Tyler finds it even harder than ever to connect with his father, whom he thinks is as uncommunicative and unimaginative as he is creative. When Tyler finds his mother's journals, he discovers a world of beauty, magic and secrets - launching him onto a harrowing journey of self-discovery and reconciliation.

I absolutely loved the voice Steven Luna gave to Tyler Mills - a very vulnerable and broken young man, hiding behind his pride and talent. Reading Songs from the Phenomenal Nothing was truly an phenomenally emotional journey - not too much and overbearing that you feel that Luna is overdoing it, and yet just enough for you to immerse yourself in Mills' world and feel with him. I think that was what made this book for me - being able to just identify, inexplicably, even though I have not gone through any of what Mills did.

I won this book in a giveaway at http://www.ManOfLaBook.com

Note: some strong language used.

View all my reviews

Where did the new year go?

I suppose I was supposed to write a new year's post. It's expected, isn't it? And yet, we're 12 days in and I'm just sitting down to write (Happy birthday, David!) or rather, starting and giving up on writing.

It could have been the distraction of just having come back from Australia.
Or the distraction of New Year's Day. (duh)
And the distraction of having to pack.
And well, now the distraction of um, landing in America for the first time ever.
(hello!)

My manager came up to pick my colleague and me up from the San Francisco Airport yesterday and we swung by the Pier 39 and the Golden Gate Bridge.
And today I visited the River of Life Christian Church for Ignite (the College and Young Adult service) at the cost of a $15 cab ride. Meh. At least I got a ride home =)

And see, that was me being distracted by telling you what I've been doing. Heh.

Maybe I'll just post the song I've been wanting to and forget about the actual post I was trying unsuccessfully to write.
Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.

#fridayflash: Let me feel you shine

She was staring off into the distance.
He cocked his head to the right, studying her features in the dim light, trying to remember when they'd stopped talking and why. It felt as if a silence had just descended over them, turning them to petrified humans, left to sit at the mamak for eternity. 
"It doesn't quite work that way," she said, startling him. "It's darker than that. Deeper than that."
"What do you mean?"
"It's like I'm falling into a black hole. An endless black hole. It's just falling, forever and ever and ever. I don't stop. My stomach's knotted up. I don't know if my eyes are open or close because I can't see anything. I can't ever see anything. Then I wake up."
"What do you do when you wake up?"
A half-smile wavered on her face. "I stop falling."
He tried to make out if she was teasing him, but he couldn't tell. She was staring into the depths of her tea, stirring the ice around with her straw. He couldn't quite recall how they got into this conversation - it was just one of those things that had happened.
"What do you do about it?"
She looked up at him. "What can I do about it?"
He paused, holding the words in his head, waiting for her to continue. Instead, she looked back down at her drink. "Have you tried praying about it?"
She sighed. "To what end? It's just a dream. Why would God care about something like that?"
"Because it's a recurring dream. Because you're losing sleep over it. What if... what if it's a vision or something?"
"What - I'm having visions that I'm falling into a black pit? Because that makes so much sense, you know."
"You don't have to roll your eyes at me."
"You don't have to be so holy about everything."
"I'm not trying to - " he broke off exasperatedly. "Look, you asked a question, I answered it the best I know how." He could see the lines on her face, the dark circles around her eyes.
She breathed out heavily. "I'm just so tired. I wish I could stop falling."

#bookreview: The Soul of the World by Joshua Silverman

The Soul of the World by Joshua Silverman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Soul of the World picks up two years after the events in The Emerald Tablet. Leoros is stuck on earth, trying to get back to Potara and at the same time convince everyone that he is not insane. Kem rules Potara with Shirin by his side and have declared both Atlantia and Dio traitors. Atlantia still searches for the elusive Leukos. Dio is a depressed drunk and Axios is caught up in the resistance. Then the Brotherhood of the Black Rose enter the scene, offering Kem immortality, and the stakes are raised.

The Soul of the World is a much tighter and smoother read than The Emerald Tablet, though it still has its issues, one of which was the never ending rerun of Dio's drunken episodes. Whilst it was gratifying to see the characters grow from the beginning of the book to the end, I personally felt there were one too many Dio-drunk and Leoros-depressed/emo scenes for me, especially since they seemed to ramble on about the exact same issue over and over again.

And then, as he did to me in Gardens of Ampheia*, he ended abruptly, in something of a cliff hanger. Well, maybe not as big a cliff hanger, but still an incomplete story arch, unlike the neat-ish ending we had with The Emerald Tablet. I suppose that's a given with middle books of trilogies? (Let's not forget Orson Scott Card did that in Earth Afire too.)

I guess we'll have to wait for the The Island of Shadows to see what happens. I'm expecting good things of it.

*Aside: While we're talking about this - check out Gardens of Ampheia. I'd say this is Joshua Silverman's best yet

I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

View all my reviews

The Emerald Tablet was reviewed in this post and Gardens of Ampheia was reviewed here.

2013: a year in review

I suppose I need to wrap up the year somehow.

Work life

A major milestone of the year, I suppose, would be that I completed 7 years with KPMG... and left. (Read my farewell post here.) Clearing off the backlog and cleaning up the table was an accomplishment in itself!

A feat only accomplished once in a lifetime...

Writing life


It's nice to close the year with a new book on the shelves and to know it's been doing quite well, all on its own. Okay, I shouldn't say "new book" as if I've been doing this regularly - Love in Penang is the first book I've published with Fixi Novo. If you count my self-published ebook Stories from A Place to Call Home from 2012, this is my second book released to the world!

Had a lovely surprise walking into Borders in Queensbay Mall last night and seeing it placed at number 8 on the list of top 10 fiction.
Based on Kinokuniya's weekly bestseller list (see pic on the left), Love in Penang is ranked at number 2 for the week. I don't know how long it's going to stay there but I hope it hangs on for a long while!

If you need a little help deciding on whether to get this (it's only RM19.90!) read these really lovely reviews from one of our writers, Fadz:
The generic version
The detailed version

Obligatory self promotion: You can buy Love in Penang from Fixi, Kinokuniya, MPH and Amazon.

If you've already read it, could you be so lovely as to write a review and post it on MPH, Amazon and Goodreads?

Other stuff that featured in my writing life was a rather dismal A to Z challenge offering as compared to a shiny new rather confused novel during Nanowrimo.

Blog life
I've become a little more inconsistent in blogging, what with work life and writing life going all sorts of ways, but it still amazes me that people. actually. read. my. blog.

Look at those numbers! There was a high of 7,561 views in May - how did THAT happen? The screen shot below is last year's statistics for comparison (post here).

Looking through my posts, it seems that I did more book review/tour posts than anything else in 2013. Number of posts have dropped from 134 in 2012 to 125 in 2013. I'm not sure why. Probably because I was so busy/distracted/confused. I think I should start blogging more regularly about more regular stuff, if that makes any sense.

Other stuff
I suppose if you're on facebook, you could look at my year in review there as well.
I had a great year-end trip to Melbourne and Tasmania (which was why I blogged less as well) and I'm still recovering from post-trip blues, trying to catch up with all the stuff I missed back here in Penang as well as trying to get ready for the new year.

I was probably a lot more organised in last year's posts... but well... I don't think I had so many year end events. Or at least I don't remember that I did.

Anyway, happy 2014!

Have a great Christmas!

#bookreview: KL Noir Red

KL NOIR: RED by Amir Muhammad
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I took a really long time to finish this one. Partly because I was busy, partly because... I don't know. Noir is maybe not my very favourite genre. I think I read this mainly because hey, it's local. Need to start reading local, right?
In terms of themes and language - let's just say these are mostly not for kids, ok? (Or the prudes like me.)

The stories I liked the most would probably be Rukun Tetangga by Preeta Samarasan and Mamak Murder Mystery by Marc de Faoite.

There's nothing inherently wrong with the writing in this... I guess it's just not my style.

View all my reviews

#review: Bookurve

Some time last month, Hossein wrote me a nice message telling me about this new startup, Bookurve.

It's basically something like Book Depository, but focused specifically on the Malaysian market. As Hossein says [sic]:

"As comparing to Book Depository, we all have tried the service and sometimes the book takes more than 6 weeks to reach to Malaysia and we even encountered missing book. We know that the reader can order through bookstore as well and again the service is not so good. We are just trying to give a better service while keeping the price as low as possible."

What this means is - you search for the book you want, and then you order and pay for it and it gets delivered to your house for free. Yay!

It's another one of those sites that link to your facebook account (everything's social nowadays, isn't it?) so you can check what your friends or other Malaysians are recommending, and you can add the stuff you're reading or the stuff you've bought to the social bookshelf as well. It's currently English and Malay books at the moment, but I'm told they're planning to expand to Chinese books as well.

Discovery lets you browse the bestsellers or featured books, selected by categories and language. I was looking for the search feature under discovery, but realised that the search function is on the home page. Duh.

So anyway, I randomly clicked on Ender's Game and this is what pops out:

Eh. If it's RM23 for a new book that's pretty good leh. (I mean you don't compare to BBW lah.)

And if shipping's only 1 - 3 business days, that's pretty fast!

The major bummer here is really the payment method. Offline payment, really? :(

You can find Bookurve on:

Facebook

G+

Twitter

Appstore

Okay - let's wait for Android apps, and online payments maybe. :)

More thoughts on #marryingmemusical and Christian theatre

I'd wanted to write about this a little last night too, but it was late and it slipped my mind by the time I got round to actually writing the review. 

It was just a thought about tragedies and the role they play as catalysts in theatre. The thing is, having some sort of family tragedy is so overdone in Christian plays. It's utterly predictable. 

You have the headstrong person heading to hell and nothing you try to say can change them but then someone dies or nearly dies and all of a sudden they (or the loved one, depending) repent and see the error of their ways and turn to Christ. 

Marrying Me almost had that cliche - except that they faked it. They created a fake crisis to try to make Stephanie get married. I liked the twist and the fact that they made us know it was fake, because if they didn't that would have made it such a boring generic show. 

Which comes to the question - will a tragedy of that sort really change someone? Or would it just be a temporary thing until that loved one really dies? 

MUST I get married? #marryingmemusical #review

http://www.klpac.org/marryingme/

When you reach a certain age (normally after 25) the few questions you tend to hear a lot are:

1. When are you getting married?
2. Got boyfriend yet or not?
3. Why no boyfriend yet?
4. Why are you so picky?

It's a presumed fact of life that you are supposed to get married. That's been the formula for the past hundreds of years, and it's supposed to be the formula for the next few hundred, never mind the fact that half the marriages now are ending up in divorce. As Auntie Gertrude (Chang Fang Chyi) says, "Everyone gets married for the wrong reasons."

Marrying Me is a hilarious look at what happens when Stephanie's mother and aunt get together and start planning to make her tie the knot. Stephanie (played by Stephanie Van Driesen), the headstrong CEO of SCOWL, an NGO to help abused women, absolutely refuses to get married... until her mother (Sandra Sodhy) mysteriously falls ill and says it's her dying wish to see her married. Who else can she turn to but her old flame, Tony (Tony Leo), who also just so happens to be Auntie Gertrude's son?

Stage 2 is a really small space, so it's easy to see everything that's going on (no faking due to distance, ha) - the cast of Marrying Me was gave a really stellar performance. This is the first time I've seen Stephanie Van Driesen act (I've heard her sing in the YES Academy 2012 show), and I thought she was superb as this very strong, intensely wacky, and yet immensely vulnerable woman. It was also great to see someone I've worked with before - Benjamin Lin - playing Stephanie's BFF, Leroy (was also totally distracted by the 'legalize gay' shirt!).

What I like best about this musical is how local it is. It's stuff that you instantly relate to like parents pushing you to get married, broken families, the tough relationships that sometimes happen, and the crazy mismatch of religions that we sometimes practice (a Catholic family that believes in palm reading?). Of course, never forget the witty asides on current affairs!

It's really a must-watch show.

P/S- Oh - if you're watching it in Penang, do check where you sit! It makes a bit of a difference, because it's theater-in-the-round so the "front" stage gets more face time, though usually they do face all corners. (And I happened to be in the corner Benjamin was facing... hahahaha!)

super mini update: nanowrimo and book launch

I IS THE DONE WITH NANO.

And now I have a literary fest to attend and a book to launch this afternoon.

I wish I could blog more but that will have to come later.

Love in Penang goes LIVE!

Okay, so yesterday was a really crazy day for me. Three things happened yesterday - it was Shaun's birthday (happy birthday, Shaun!) and I attended KPMG's annual dinner (as a guest, haha!) and Love in Penang launched its online sales!

So....

ISN'T THAT PRETTY?

Where to buy?

1. AMAZON!

2. Fixi's website (p/s yo, Malaysians! It's cheaper here!)

3. At Malaysian retailers near you!

Do drop by at our facebook page for more updates and come for our book launch on 30 Nov!

#nanowrimo update number 2

This is more or less today's starting point. It's still looking dismal, and looking at my schedule I don't feel I have enough time to catch up.

But... I will push on and try.

Also, because I'm weird, my story is now being updated on Wattpad at a pace of maybe 1 or 2 chapters behind where I'm writing. This delay is just in case I feel like changing some stuff here and there (which would normally be in the later chapters rather than the earlier).

There's also a Wattpad reader installed on my webpage here for your convenience. Wattpad also lets you read on your mobile device, with the code 29758100.

So to end today's update, here's another excerpt. (from a chapter not yet on Wattpad... lol!)

Song cleared his throat and looked at King Music. The royal couple broke their gaze, Music with a quizzical look on his face, Soprano with a slight blush. He nodded at Song, who nodded, and closed his eyes.

Fear gripped Song’s heart as he tried to listen for the Song. He cleared his throat again, licking his lips. The sound of the drumming fingers annoyed him, and he wanted to chew out the princess for being so annoying. A while passed before his lips parted again, and he started to sing. 

It started as a low rumble, like a grumble of pain, erupting into a blast of hurt. Struggling to control it, Song grasped at the stream, trying to direct where the song was going, but it was like fighting with a typhoon. A shrill whine soon appeared above the maelstrom - Soprano, fascinated by the rush of thunder was riding the wave. Eyes half-closed, Alto’s lower pitch soon joined in, adding minors and sevens into the mix. Tenor hesitated - this wasn’t the kind of song he had been expecting - but as King Music nodded at him, he also belted in his frustration and bitterness. In less than two minutes, it was over. As a Song, it was the most discordant and short piece to ever have debuted from the heir to the throne. But in a time where the talent seemed to be dying out, it was a welcome sigh of relief. 

“Thank you, son,” King Music said, tears streaming down his face. “After so many years, I finally have a successor.”

“A kind of strange song to sing for your debut,” Princess Alto sniffed, seemingly inspecting her fingernails. 

“I did what I could,” Song said tightly.

“We all do what we can,” Tenor interjected, trying to head off the argument. He scowled at Alto. She scowled back. 

“Well, now that’s settled - we can make the official announcement,” the King said, regaining his composure. He rose from his chair and walked forward to embrace Song. “Let’s go to the music room and work out a nice royal announcement song. Then we can get the arrangers to make it pretty for your Acceptance Ceremony.”

The two of them left the room. The Queen sat fidgeting in her chair for a while, but with a nod to Alto and Tenor, she left as well. 

“So - you think he’s the real thing?” Alto asked as soon as they were alone in the room. 

Tenor shrugged. “Maybe. That was a real Song. No faking it. Couldn’t you feel the resonance?”

A look of uncertainty crossed Alto’s face. She seemed determined to hate Prince Song. “Well -”

“It was curious, though, that he never once asked about Prince Bass,” Tenor continued. “Don’t you find that strange?”

“Well, not all the council is here. Maybe he assumed that Bass was not around.”

“When Bass was one of his closest teachers?”

It was Alto’s turn to shrug. 

#bookreview: Running Against Traffic by Gaelen VanDenbergh

Paige Scott spent her childhood shuffled between relatives who ignored her, and her adult life hiding in her crumbling marriage to wealthy David Davenport. When David suddenly thrusts her into a remote, impoverished world, Paige is forced to face the betrayals of her past - not to mention the colorful townies of her present. Unexpected friendships and her discovery of running propel her on a jagged and comical journey toward learning how to truly live.

---

Running Against Traffic by Gaelen VanDenbergh
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Paige Davenport had it all - a rich husband and an easy socialite life - until her husband drives her out to the middle of nowhere and abandons her at a ramshackle house. For the first time in her easy life, she realizes that 1) she has no true friends, 2) she has never appreciated all the good things in her life until then and 3) she has never actually really lived.

Running Against Traffic is a humorous story of how Paige slowly starts to pull herself together with the help of Deidre, Darnell, Al and Bryce - even if Al and Bryce need just as much help as she does! Paige was annoyingly useless in the beginning - I wanted to slap her silly - but grew over the pages of the book, even though she lapsed a few times.

Al was a conflict of sorts - one thing that bugged me a little was how VanDenbergh left so many questions hanging about him - like what was stopping Al from just sleeping with her? Was he just being gentlemanly? Did he have a problem with it? There were hints and strange conversations with Darnell, his brother, but nothing really concrete - or maybe I was too dense to pick it up. (Or was VanDenbergh trying to keep it clean? If she was, then she shouldn't have even gone there... lol. It felt confusing. Like, I'm going to have you two in compromising situations, but no, not sex. We can't have the two of you actually having sex.)

Overall, Running Against Traffic was a light, interesting read. True, some parts felt a little contrived, but it was an overall uplifting story of how even a spoilt young woman can rise amid challenging circumstances and make something of her life.

* I received a free copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

View all my reviews

---

You can pick up Running Against Traffic from AMAZON, BARNES & NOBLE or GOODREADS.

Gaelen VanDenbergh is a writer, runner, and compulsive list-maker who lives in Philadelphia with her family, a fat cat, and several fish. Her debut novel Running Against Traffic, was a Global Ebook Award nominee, a semifinalist in the The Kindle Book Review’s 2013 Best Indie Book Awards, a semifinalist in the Readers' Favorite 2013 International Book Award Contest, Indie Book of the Day, June 30, 2013, a 2013 Beach Book Festival Award nominee, and has received a four star review in InD’tale Magazine. When not writing, Gaelen enjoys reading, running races for charities, and spending as much time in Key West and the Adirondacks as she can.


You can find her here:
WEBSITE: www.gaelenvandenbergh.com
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/AuthorGVD
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/author.gaelenvandenbergh
GOODREADS: https://www.goodreads.com/GVD11


 GIVEAWAY–KINDLE PAPERWHITE
  a Rafflecopter giveaway

PSA/Wanted: Healthy Penangites

It's apparently Leukemia awareness month in my little world, so this is a little PSA/announcement/call for action/whatever you call it.

1. Stem Cell Donors Registration

p/s apparently we still need to make up the numbers to 100 before this drive/test can be carried out in Penang.
pp/s if you want to register as a donor, and you're in KL, you can contact Malaysian Stem Cell Registry (MSCR) Tel: +603-26162666

2. Donate Blood at Penang General Hospital

3. Provide support. Mentally, emotionally, spiritually.

First #nanowrimo check in

Okay, I wanted to check in more often, but I've been busy busy busy busy.
At any rate, this has been a good writing weekend, even if I'm behind.

Anyways, here's an excerpt:

He could feel the edges of a song rising in his head. A song of panic and confusion. A song of fear and failure. But even as he grasped at it, it fled out of his reach.

Why?

The rougher edges of his headache had dissipated in the fog, but it still felt as if bands of steel were holding him in his own head.

What’s going on?

He grasped the baton tighter in his hands, feeling reassured as it started to glow slightly. He closed his eyes and tried to concentrate.

Sing a song of confidence. Sing a song of faith.

But he couldn’t find it. The melody seemed to slip through his fingers, the rhythm stumbled over itself and the words seemed to be pulled right out of his throat. The baton glowed and sputtered in turn. He could feel his power and talent being sucked right out of him through the fingers that grasped the slender golden tube.

Drop it? Is it turning against me? Has it rejected me? Drop it? Maybe?

What are you doing?

His thoughts jumbled in his head and more than once, he wondered if there were someone else talking in his head.

The baton slipped out of his fingers.

What are you doing? Why did you let go? Would you so easily give up your one chance?
How do I know it is a chance and not a threat?
Find your centre, boy. Hurry. Find who you are.
Leave him alone. Let him find his way.
Pick up the baton; It’s your only hope.
Find who you are. Find your centre.
Who are you?
Who am I? I am…

The boy crumpled to the ground in tears. He couldn’t remember who he was. He couldn’t remember what he was there for. All he knew was that he was in a strange, terrifying place, with voices that argued against itself in his head. Something poked into him and he sat up, grasping the long, slender stick in his hand. He searched his memory, listening to the odd feeling in his heart that this was once very important to him, had been very important to him for a large portion of his life.

A surge of power flowed into his body and he gasped as it filled every cranny of his being: he felt as if he were on fire, as if hot gold flowed in his veins, as if he would explode if he did not burn up before that. The boy threw back his head and Sang.

The notes, soft at first, full of anguish and pain, dipped in confusion, soared into bittersweetness, running through the minors and grazing against the majors. Wordlessly, he sang – he sang pain into existence, sharp barbs that stung and bled; thick oozing blood that stained and would not be washed away. When he ran out of pain, he dipped into the depths of loneliness, the strain of always being together but always apart, the secret knowledge that he denied himself: that Beauty only wanted him for what he had, and not who he was, the knowledge that if he married her, if he pursued her, he would always be alone; her heart was not made to be shared. But what of his? He searched for the right notes, for the right swell, for the right flow to ride. He sang of comfort and contentment, of the pride of being, of the way he hid his heart, how he carefully held in his generous spirit and loving nature because it would never do, never ever do, as a Prince of the Land to fall in love with – with Cherry. Cherry, the sweet girl who had once brought his dinner every night without fail, who had once listened to him ranting without a word, who still managed smiled at him when he was exceptionally mean, who told him in the quiet of the night before he went to bed that he was an insufferable prick and his mother would be disappointed in him as a man, who he had dismissed without a word because she – he – she - his song softened as the tears flowed again, releasing the pride in him, releasing the pain and the hurt and the confusion, as he consolidated himself, throwing away the things that were bad, digging deep again for the boy he once was, and trying to become the man, the Prince, the King he would one day be.

Song opened his eyes.

A quick half-asleep update

Nanowrimo started on Friday and I have less than 2,000 words.

Mainly because I took a 18 hour train to Hua Hin on Saturday afternoon, before which I was up almost all Friday night and Saturday morning trying to fix edits for Love in Penang before I left (which I didn't manage to and have to continue tomorrow). And so I was sleepy all afternoon on the train, through a few games of Resistance, and then we had dinner during which I felt train sick, so as soon as they fixed up the beds I took an early night.

The bed was quite comfortable, but when I woke up in the morning I couldn't write either because I'm not that good at concentrating in moving vehicles.

Then it was Speed Bang on the train, breakfast, hanging out at the shopping mall because the sun was too hot, some rest and a few measly words, then Plearnwan, awesome seafood dinner and a little night market shopping and 2 rounds of Bang until 2AM.

There were only 7 places left on the train and there were 8 of us, so we spent a lot of time discussing how to get back home - but that was settled on Monday.

Monday started at 7-ish with the power going off and the water going off (all for short whiles, thankfully) and then searing hot beach with the after effects of a mini typhoon, where there were really strong waves and lots of washed up squid. I did not take pictures of the washed up fish.

(I apparently can't paste the squid picture here cos it didn't get sent to facebook, but you can look it up on instagram.)

Then it was lunch followed by drinks at Let's Sea, and then a slight pause in the afternoon to rest/wash up/play Speed Bang before dinner.
After dinner we waited at the bus station for almost an hour before our bus to Hatyai arrived, where I crashed almost immediately (at I think 9-ish pm? or maybe 10) and then we had supper at something like midnight and reached Hatyai at 8AM. Where we immediately hopped on another van (at 8.30am) to take us back to Penang where by the time we ta-paued lunch, I got home at 2pm.
And then I worked, because I was supposed to.
And now I'm going to sleep.

Good night all.
I am tired and cannot think anymore.

P/S. I had a look at the cover for Love in Penang. Too bad I can't share it yet :P