Happy Halloween and an announcement!

Happy Halloween! (And Merry Beltane to the Southern Hemisphere folks!)

And an announcement!

I am happy to announce that I am now a verified Radish author. And the story I will be serialising will be a dragon racing YA fantasy. The serial launches on 7 November.

You can check it out (and subscribe!) at DRAGON PHYSICIAN @ RADISH

 

A wee update and an interview…

I had a story acceptance yesterday which made me happy. I could end October with something happy-making. However, as the day went on, my mood went down and I was crying. The stresses of the past two weeks had caught up.

Then, this morning was ok. I was back on my emotional feet. Making bread and pumpkin soup for All Hallows. I made three banners for something I hopefully announce…

And here’s an interview I did with Joelyn Alexandra. Writing is not just writing, but there are many venues a writer could explore.

Happy All Hallows’ and Samhain Eve!

Happy Samhain and Halloween!

Signed up!

So after talking to the acquisition associate, I have now signed up as a Radish writer.

Fingers crossed

If things work out (*fingers crossed*), I will be writing and posting serialised fiction at Radish.

Samhain/Halloween Card Draws

From 22nd to 31st October, I will be having Samhain/Halloween Card Draws using a deck of my own design based on Southeast Asian/Peninsular Malaysian fauna. If you have a pressing question or something which you seek clarification or affirmation, you can have either:
1. One-Card Draw – $5.

2. Three-Cards (Past-Present-Future) Draw: $10.

Payment is via Paypal.

If you would like to have a session, please drop me a message.

Pleasantly surprised and chuff…

... to have STARFANG listed as one of the recs for awesome space opera. 

It has been a harrowing week, mood-wise – worried about my eldest (exam week), anxiety over finances and assorted things. Plus desktop and mouse dying. So, it’s good to end with a high note.

#saferLIT: Making the lit community safe

Some indie lit pubs believe in putting out “edgy” and “quality outsider literature” while in reality, their work is a hot mess of predatory misogynist and sexist violence couched as “art”. How can these pubs still allowed to exist?

These indie pubs exist, because unfortunately, we can’t stop them and it’s technically a free world where any dude could just establish an online lit mag and brand themselves as EIC for soliciting predatory and sexually violent literature couched as “art”.

I just skimmed through one… and I couldn’t continue. Even the titles sickened me. How could readers derive joy from reading poetry that promotes sexually assaulting someone? Or a story about voyeurism. And always… always about the male gaze.

The horrible realisation is that these EICs, poets and writers are someone’s spouse, brother, cousin, friend at the pub, colleague at work, dude you meet at the supermarket or at the gym. Would their bosses know? No.

The same principle applies to the trolls who harass the vulnerable, the marginalised, women, POC online. THEIR LOVED ONES DON’T KNOW. Now, for us in the lit community, we have to be careful and aware of such indie pubs. As EICs, we already specified no sexual violence.

Men, if you are reading this, it’s time you betray your gender and LOOK OUT FOR PEOPLE AROUND YOU. Just don’t let this sort of attitude and behaviour slide. If you stay silent, vile literature where women are preyed upon, assaulted will still continue.

If you stay silent, it means that you are complicit. Don’t be taken in by excuses like “It’s just a joke!”, “It’s just in my imagination” and “It’s just a sexual fantasy.” Fantasy sometimes become real.

We need to stand up against such pubs, their poets and writers. If we are so keen about anti-harassment in the community, we have to walk the talk.

And…

After another enormous chunk of earnings was deleted… I have finally bit the bullet, bought the Gold membership and yes, you can now start supporting me on Kofi. Starting at $1, you get essays, illustrations and sneak peaks into stuff I am working on.

 

 

PSA: Shifting to Kofi

I am going to shift some of my content to Kofi, since my Patreon earnings have been cut (not that I have a large support base anyway!).