Rather overwhelmed with research (in a good way!) and working on two thesis chapters simultaneously right now. I borrowed a stack of books on the Gothic, memory and trauma as well as Yoruba myth and ritual. Spent a lot of time organizing my research the past couple of days, making sure I know where everything is, because I realized that I seem to have forgotten how to be methodical.

Here are some bits of information and notes for you guys, while I remember to post them

1. While organizing my external hard drives and research folders, I rediscovered a handful of things I wrote during the coursework segment of my M.A. in Literature. An academic review I did of Jack Zipes’s Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion is therefore now up at The Mythogenetic Grove.


2. If you like either Lost or Dollhouse, there are two threads/posts up over at Mythic Folk. While we have a chatroom that has spurts of being robust, with witty conversation and a good (albeit busy, since we all have lives) community, the blog is still rather forlorn. Do show it some love and participate or post since it’s meant to be a community blog rather than a static thing.


3. Via Mike Allen’s and Rose Fox’s blogs, I was made aware of the current situation with regards to a certain publisher. Not going to delve in detail on that, since I don’t know the full story beyond the blog posts. However, I will note that the author Brenda Halpin (Seamus Cooper) is giving away copies of Mall of Cthulhu on Scribd and she requests that if you read it and like it, do consider buying the Kindle edition on Amazon.com to support both this book and the sequel that she is writing. Thought I’d post it, since I’ve pledged this blog towards aiding endangered and independent writers (also indie/semi-pro publishers) whenever I can. Also, I like pointing you guys to cool (and legal) ebooks. Go read a cool book and support a writerly cause!(UPDATES: Here’s the response from the publisher concerned about the situation.)


4. Also, there’s an exciting new poetry semipro-market now open for submissions, the poet Rose Lemberg’s Stone Telling Magazine, dedicated to “boundary crossing” and “multi-perspective poetry”. Go show it some love, especially since there will apparently be an exciting first issue for fans of Ursula K. LeGuin.

That’s all for now, I have more Gothic literary theory to chew on. I’m in my happy postgrad place, ie; happily researching and writing while listening to neat folk music. Does that make me a unicorn? No? Well then, maybe you should Cornify me! I blame Staci Dumoski for this. Totally.

Gah. Stupid thesis chapter is confounding me. I’ve been staring at the bloody thing for the past couple of hours. Hate when that happens and you’re reduced to copy-editing and polishing instead of making substantial changes. A blog update seems to be good to break the stasis. So, some “good” news. Because I need to remind myself there’s good news in my world.

• I had a wonderful birthday with wonderful people, and wonderful food. This made me very happy.


• By my own personal standards, the paper I presented at Canberra was a “success”, in that it was my least flawed delivery, and I managed to answer all the questions well. I guess every conference I’ve been to has made me more sure of myself. Also, I think I have my conference paper presenting system down, and I can use this formula for years to come, hopefully improving on it. Last year, I realized that for me, it was more important to be a serious scholar presenting a fully written paper instead of just having nice slides or whatnot. I’ve stayed true to this. Public speaking is still terrifying, but I get over it by treating my audience like they were my students. That kind of helps.


• My abstract for Aussiecon 4 has been accepted, so I’ll be presenting there. I’m both elated and terrified. I think presenting a paper at my first Con is a good thing, though. Will give me some sort of structure and purpose.


• I also belatedly discovered that Said The Tree to the (Axe)Man is listed here. It’s for 2007. I’m utterly gobsmacked I’m listed in Locus Mag, no matter how obscurely. Granted it was my only print sale, but it’s a start, I guess.


• Speaking of print publishing, Cabinet des Fees 3, the print journal edited by Erzebet Yellowboy and Helen Pillinovsky is now out! I got a sneak peak, and I have to say, the stories are absolutely exquisite, so you should go get it now! Also, Erzebet has rolled out the new site and domain for Cabinet des Fees; there’s a teaser for the new section for Cabinet des Fees that I’ve been slowly working on this year with input from Erzebet, Demeter’s Spicebox. It’s going to be a “by invitation” project aimed at exploring lesser-known fairytale types, set in different locales around the world, and we’ve been making a wishlist of authors that we’d like to contribute.


• I have been reading books from the Hugo Voters Packet, finished reading Cat Valente’s Palimpsest over the week in Canberra, on my dopod. And, I love it. Yup. I was totally swept away by the story and enchanted by it. At its best, the intersection between worlds reminded me of both John Crowley’s style of fiction as well as Clive Barker’s Weaveworld, with some of the textual brutality of Murakami. Since the ability to be swept away by fiction when one is a jaded phd student in literature and drama can get a little strained, I’m grateful for small mercies. Next, The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi. I am also rather chuffed that I’ll be able to vote for the Hugos this year. It’s a moment of geekish pride, I think.


• Music recommendations that I have fallen head over heels in love with, both old and new: Belle and Sebastian, The Decemberists, My Brightest Diamond and Bat for Lashes. I’ve heard about the two former bands for years, but never got around to really listening to them, but they are now firmly part of my soundtrack for this year. I spent the whole day listening to The Decemberists singing “The Hazards of Love” an epic indie-folk rock opera with folkloric themes inclusive of Tam Lin. So good.


• I bought red clothing in Canberra for very reasonable prices. I’d been yearning for more crimson in my wardrobe and now I have it. Also acquired T.S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral at an open-air used books sale.


• I am now addicted to caramel cappucino. Wait, is that good news? :-/

That’s it for now. I hope I’ll have more good news this year. A fiction or poetry sale would be nice, but one has to submit for these things, before one gets either accepted or rejected, no? Maybe I should reserve one afternoon a week for this. I think I’d hate myself if I let this year go by without a single creative submission. For now, I’m going back to trying to add another paragraph in my thesis before I sleep. Despite all the good news listed above, I’m still whiny, angsty and more than a little neurotic. Sigh.

Last.fm says I should listen to Department of Eagles, Daniel Rossen (of Grizzly Bear)’s band. I think I should, too. This song just gave me my happy feeling back. Yay!

Other cool stuff: The tenth issue of Cabinet des Fées is now up and there’s a lovely selection of poems, short fiction and articles to read. I was very pleased to note that Erzebet had also acquired a nifty article about Shirley Lim and the Hang Li Po legend for this issue. There’s also a teaser for the project that we’ve been working on and which I’m really excited about, so hopefully I’ll get some time in June to finish writing the article for it. I’m also beyond thrilled to bits that not only did we (I feel a little goofy saying “we” within this context, given I’ve been a fan of CdF for so long!) get mentioned on Terri Windling’s blog, but my name got stuck in there as well. Brain. Cannot compute!

These are the things that are good for happy making. Because one must be happy in order to be productive!

Oh, more new music for me to explore, My Brightest Diamond. Lovely!

I’ve spent most of this weekend being a convalescent, keeping to flannelette peejays and coughing in an annoying fashion. However, I’ve also managed to do some creative writing, which is always good for the soul. Let’s face it; a happy Ninny is a productive Ninny. And a frazzled Ninny needs to write fiction and poetry in order to be happy. I think this is justification enough for me, and I am tired of being so overwhelmed by guilt every time I want to be creative, because I have deadlines hanging over my head and a thesis to write. This weekend I said enough was enough. I needed to be selfish in order to thrive creatively. Heaven knows, guilt hasn’t stopped anyone else. Anyway, I think working on my novel is far more productive than wasting time on social networking

Writing Updates: Saltwater Orphée has been returned to the back burners for now, as I’ve returned to working on The Apothecary’s Casket. Yes, I know it used to be The Apothecary’s Box and before that The Apothecary’s Seal. The title will likely change again before I start making proper and hopefully relatively flawless submissions. Realizing that the reason why I had been so intimidated by TAC was because of its relative intricacy, I perused two versions of the draft and found that the careful, methodical structure I made circa 2006-2008 really was better than the thematically stylized version of 2009. Granted, the writing of the newer version was better. The solution? Integration. Because I had so many scenes floating around and multiple structures, it took me the better part of Saturday, but I reached 61k. There will be months of editing, but I now have Page Four to help me, and I’m feeling positive about this for once. It’s a pretty handy, stripped down novel-writing software. I tried a couple of others but they were too fiddly and more oriented for the D&D kind of writer. I like my stories to have a more organic feel about them, though it doesn’t make me any less meticulous when it comes to storyboarding. I can be really, really anal.

On the subject of software, I’ve also tried a couple of the games on The Humble Indie Bundle. I enjoyed and love the storyline, music and graphics of Aquaria and Penumbra is also intriguing, although I have never fared well with the “eye of the beholder” p-o-v in games because of my astigmatism. There’s a couple of days left, so give these indie games developers some love. They’re allowing you to set your own price as well as pick how much their favourite charities The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Child’s Play Charity get. I think it’s a win/win situation and they’ve already collected half a million dollars, so hurray!
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So, there you have my weekend; instead of wasting time on bloody FB, I reclaimed a novel and even have a decent word count! I also did stuff with my Flickr account and reclaimed my Dreamwidth account as well. I drank a lot of tea, especially since I finally have a teapot which I found really cheap and which is quite adorably plain and played a couple of games, inclusive of a certain game slated for a Cataclysm later this year, mostly because I wanted to finish some quests before the topography of those areas changed. I am also sleeping regular hours, so I decided to compound this by having work-free weekends. This of course means that the Sunday night blues are in full force right now. But I am glad for a stay-at-home weekend full of productive play. I find it is important to have a life in balance, and as our schedules and rhythms shift, this balance will also shift. The best we can do is be kind to ourselves as well as to others. Although, I will add a caveat there; there are limits to one’s goodwill and patience.

Signing off for now. I suspect it’s time for an early night; tomorrow I return to my thesis’s Chapter Four. And run a few errands pertaining to paperwork. AND start drafting a conference paper. I also have a book to read for an overdue review, which I have to say, I am not enjoying because the narrative is making me twitch. And not in a good way. Snark-galore.

P.S.: For those of you who actually keep note of these things, I did submit the overdue chapter mentioned previously. Am now awaiting feedback on it, but will be working on another chapter returned with feedback. Then, write the conference paper. Then, more red-tape. Will probably start a new thesis chapter in June. Fingers crossed, since I also have another conference paper to write for coursework purposes.

Zee Avi, perhaps pulling off the YouTube coup many young indie singer-songwriters dreamed of, emerged in Brisbane this Sunday as part of The Happening, an event celebrating surf culture in art, film and music. I won a double-pass to this event via The Zoo’s weekly giveaways and managed to drag along one of my internetweb-buddies-who-made-theRL-transition, the multi-talented and ever-gentlemanly Scarlatti. It was a pretty good event, all in all. We were impressed by the art, and the music was also a good mixture of mostly acoustic stuff by up-and-coming folk and indie acts such as UK’s Neil Halstead, Malaysia’s Zee Avi, the American Matt Costa and Australia’s Will Conner. All four acts were a pleasure to listen to, but Zee Avi was the main reason why I wanted to go to The Happening, and apparently I wasn’t the only Malaysian with the same idea. I dubbed Sunday night “The Night the Malaysians Invaded The Zoo”; it was really surreal but also really fun to watch excited (and very young) Malaysian students meandering through the art exhibits, chatting each other up, hugging and laughing, as well as giving their indie songstress love and support. It was a good feeling and a good night, and I’m very happy to be able to feature Zee Avi on my blog. An Indie MALAYSIAN act, for once at The Zoo! Now, if only more of our homegrown talent would hit the indie clubs of other countries.

Ironically enough, the first time I heard of Zee, last year, was via WFUV.fm’s City Folk broadcast, as they talked about how her success was an internet phenomenon. But I would also chalk it down to songwriting talent, a voice that seems to be a blend of the classical jazzy stylings of artists as diverse as Billie Holiday to the most recent Madeleine Peyroux, to containing the hint of the rich, Malay vocal stylings which I associate with the smouldering songstresses of the 50s and 60s black-and-white Malay movies. The result are songs that are both simple yet melodic, with catchy, hummable ditties. More cynical people may perhaps not be so wild about the sweetness, but I enjoyed it because it wasn’t just sweet, the lyrics are a mixture of everyday colloquialisms as well as just a small bit of edge. This was echoed by her on-stage persona, a blend of sweet with a hint of scrappy, particularly when she was berating the noisy people at the back.

This may answer questions about why Zee Avi is succeeding where others fell short, and the secret of her appeal. She’s not just a dimunitive and demure songstress who writes sweet, jazzy acoustic tunes. This is a performer who knows how to work the audience; she kicks ass on stage with either an acoustic guitar and an ukulele, and her songs are a combination of street-savvy and irony, as is evidenced by the famous Malaysian-English/Malay tune “Kantoi”. I’m looking forward to seeing where her songwriting adventures take her, since this is only the beginning.