I’ve been a plotter, I’ve been a pantser. But at the end of the day I realise I am just a plantser and would like to reject binaries. All stories are different. The way you write each one is different. Sometimes the planning comes first. Sometimes the impulse comes first, like an earworm or an … Continue reading Lyceum Notes: On Being a Plantser
I get why Watermyth is a hard sell. It’s a postcolonial portal fantasy with DEI; a Muslim mermaid; more Malaysians and Muslims (from different diasporas) than you can shake a stick at; a mish-mash of superdiverse cultures on a mythical island that has a diaspora composition that is majority Global South, apart from the autochthonous … Continue reading Syncretic Storytelling; or Why Watermyth is a Hard Sell
So I had this thought percolating in my head all day and felt the urge to put it down here. When I first read The Fellowship of the Ring I was 13 years old and I fell into the tale of the Bagginses and The War of the Ring. Frodo was 33 and Bilbo was … Continue reading Writing Fantasy for the Not-So-Young Adult
Mitski’s song has been playing in my head all day since I opened my parcel from Barnes & Noble. It arrived ahead of schedule and I got emails at each stage of the delivery telling me when to expect the book. I’m really impressed! I thought they only delivered to North America but I got … Continue reading “My Love, Mine All Mine”
Here’s a caution I’ve repeated more than once and which seems necessary now since the publication of Watermyth. Now, this caution may not be true of all authors but it’s certainly true of seasoned authors who spend a lot of time and energy constructing multiple worlds, nuanced characters with a multitude of viewpoints. Essentially, do … Continue reading A Necessary Caution