Progress

Woohoo! I made it to 3200 words. Another 1000 plus words and I should be arriving at the end of the story.

On the downside, I think my progress is a bit slow. I wish I could write faster. I was unable to write the past few days because I was busy with some office matters.

I realise that when I have a stressful day in the office with all the legal jargons and stuff, I can't write fiction well when I come home. My writing would probably be filled with grammatical errors ("more than usual" would be a more appropriate expression, I suppose) and the writing done hesitantly, almost forcefully and would not create a satisfactory result.

I guess it's the right brain left brain thingy and I find it difficult to switch well when I am tired. Well, I haven't done any research on this to support what I said so this is just one of my babbles to be taken with a pinch of salt. Add pepper if you like.

Cheers.

Projects

This evening I spent a bit of time on my current short story and made it to about 2,100 words. I'm happy with the progress because I'm reaching the minimum word count of 3,000 words and I still have stuff going before the ending. However, I will have to stop writing for the night although the creative juice is flowing because I have to be my other self tomorrow and go to work like a good girl.

I have another project for tomorrow and it's not a pleasant one. I have to scape out a flattened very dead lizard from the edge of the cupboard door in my pantry. It's starting to smell already. Ewwwwww.

Lord of the Flies

I spent time reading on the web and visiting some friend's blogs so I did not have time to write much.

However, I want to make this post because the book "Lord of the Flies" was on my mind today after last night's post. I read it for literature class in school and remembered getting sick each time I read it. Sick is too kind a word to describe my nauseatic feeling.

The feeling is so strong that it put me off reading the book again even now when I am much older.

Horror and Sci-fi

I love good horror or sci-fi stories. When I was small, I loved to read Edgar Allan Poe. I also read a lot of Stephen King. And I just loved "The Monkey's Paw" by W.W. Jacobs which gave me the most chilling creeps.

I was so greatly influenced by these horror stories I read that I wrote a horror sci-fi for my school magazine when I was twelve. I was encouraged by my English Literature teacher who thought I was quite good in English and Literature, to submit a short story for the magazine.

However, my story must have creeped her out because she said nothing to me about it after my submitting the story to her. Needless to say, it was not published. After that, I thought she was embarrassed to look at me straight in the eyes and whenever she did, she always had that weird look in her eyes, a reflection of her thoughts about me, probably.

New Year Resolutions

I can think of only one, which is writing-related. Maybe, more will come to mind later and I'll add to the list.

Add:
2. I may try meter in poetry. (Cue for an emoticon with bulging eyes and stuck-out tongue)

1. To spend more time on my writing, whether poetry or shorts. However, I may be concentrating on writing short fictions the early part of the year as I'm targeting to do some submissions to a local publisher and I'm behind schedule on my short stories for children, which I am supposed to submit to an editor. (Local poetry won't sell well here, children's fiction do.)

The short story I posted on my other blog was actually rejected by this editor who instead took another one which I felt was more ordinary. Well, I guess they know best what sells.

I write under a different name locally. I don't know why. However, this may change later when I am able to identify myself better.

Happy New Year!

Hope each of you will have a great 2007.

I was without internet access for a few days due to travelling during the Christmas holiday and the earthquake in Taiwan which disrupted internet services to Asia. I felt so disconnected with the world. That just shows how important the web is to me. As of now, internet services have been fully restored. Thank goodness.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061229/ts_afp/asiaquakeinternet_061229155301

Merry Christmas!

Measurement

Following from my previous post, a question arose as to why we must perceived to be answerable for our deeds in this world before we would do good deeds as opposed to bad ones.

I guess the easiest answer and first to come to mind is that it is human nature and we are humans after all. But there is another concept that come to my mind on further thoughts. Rewards and punishment form some sort of check and measure.

[I'll continue another day. Ideas are still conceptualising in my mind and not in identifiable language form yet.]

Heaven or myth?

Ten years ago, my sister who was working in another town called me and related to me the humiliation she suffered from a man whom she thought was interested in her. From what she told me he might have been baiting her to seek a revenge of sort. I was not sure exactly what happened but I understood from our conversation that he was leading her on to believe he loved her. When she approached him to seek a confirmation, he humiliated her by saying a lot of hurtful things. I knew she was deeply hurt as she was sobbing over the phone which was something she had never done before and never did again.

I remembered she asking me why some people never got punished for doing evil things and could continue enjoying life while she, a law and God abiding person, had to suffer so much in this world. She questioned if there was God. If there was, why did He not see all these?

I told her that those people would have to face judgement afer life and maybe burn in hell. She said that we did not even know whether there was a hell. I told her we would know when we die. She asked what if there was no hell after all? What if bad people never got punished in this world and we, good people, on the other hand, suffered in life tremendously and in the end, after we died, we found out there was no hell. In this case, we might as well do anything we liked, whether good or bad.

I asked her, “What if there is hell? Are you willing to take the risk?”

She was quiet for half a minute. When she spoke again, she was much calmer. We talked for a few more minutes and ended our conversation on a better note.

Life or Existence?

Life is an existence. Is existence life?

Existence is sustained by a number of incentives to live, such as health, comfort, money, love, luxuries and other lives around you.

Imagine if one by one these incentives are taken away from you, will your motivation to continue living also start to leave? Where is the line drawn and when will the ultimate straw erases this line?

(Not, I'm not suicidal. Just getting stuff off my chest.)