‘Circum’ – ‘Scum’: Small Difference? “My husband cannot come to kenduri because in our kampung, we have scum session,” said this gentle lady I was giving a lift to. She was very helpful to our family in the last few days as she had been assisting with the housework. She explained that she needed to return home early because her niece was getting married in the evening and she wanted to attend the...

Listen and Learn (You are free to reprint this article in any media as long as it remains in intact and the byline below the article is included.) Ladoo was my little much-loved dachshund who died in March 2013. In the aftermath of her death, I was surprised by the number of people who contacted me to convey their condolences. Perhaps, I hadn’t expected so many people to understand my bond with ...

Showing Off Isn’t Always Bad (You are free to reprint this article in any media as long as it remains in intact and the byline below the article is included.) In my role as a contributor for the newspapers, I come across a multitude of people during my assignments. My experiences have been generally positive. However, one experience stood out and it was with a man who refused to reveal his age, ...

The Stuff of Stories – Goals, Motivation and Conflict (You are free to reprint this article in any media as long as it remains in intact and the byline below the article is included.)   When creating a plot for any story, the building blocks of this element are the characters’ goals, motivation and the conflict they face. Goals are necessary to avoid the situation where your characters wander ai...

Success in a Niche Market (You are free to reprint this article in any media as long as it remains in intact and the byline below the article is included.)   Many successful people speak about being leaders in a ‘niche market’. What this means is that they found a group of people who are willing to invest in their products and services. If you desire being a leader in your niche market, you need...

5 Steps to Make a Cover Image In a previous post, Rohi suggested I share the steps I took to make the cover image for Ladoo Dog. I thought this was great idea and that it would be an easy post to write. I can’t believe that although it’s been barely 3 weeks since I created the cover image, I had difficulty recalling the exact steps I took. Nevertheless, I’ve written out a rough guide for this po...

The Semantics of Democracy [This essay was written last year, after the revolution in Egypt. It seems apt to post it now, seeing how Egypt has elected a new President.] *** In the wake of the dramatic political events in the Middle East in February 2011, there are many who wonder if some countries there will now embrace democracy. Indeed, since the revolution in Egypt, there is analysis of how ...

E-publish and be damned IN an article called ‘ Kindle: How you can make a million writing your own e-book’, Andrew Wilson shares his ideas about e-publishing. I’m guessing there’s more to the amount of work he did than he’s letting on. While it’s wise to read the whole article, what I’ve done is to condense his words to get a gist of the whole thing:

It Is Very Hard to Write about Happiness On the New York Times website, two authors ask this question: Is it harder to write about happiness than its opposite? They discuss the difficulties in writing about happiness. Having ghost written a few biographies in the past, and working on fiction, there is no doubt in my mind that it is very hard to write about happiness. This is particularly the cas...