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Posts Tagged ‘Singapore’

Singapore Sojourn Part 4

Posted in A writer's life, am wrinting, Creative passion, research, Steampunk, Travel, Trying to focus, tagged , , , , , , , , , on June 14, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Time flies when you are having fun. Cliche I know. Today is June 13. Black Friday.

I’m about to head out to find a post office with my daughter-in -law. We have been out a little bit. We were going to go to the botanical gardens but it was too hot for me so we ate a late lunch in a cafe after a head/hair spa, which was simply amazing.

Me after the head/hair spa.

The day before we walked around the Gardens By the Bay and the highlight was Shake Shack where we had some lemonade with chips and cheese. So naughty and so yummy.

We met up with my son at Marina Sands mall where we checked out the Apple store and had dumplings. I am still keeping up with the pool walking in the morning. Be it rain or shine or cloudy. I wait for storms to stop though. The other day I saw this tiny yellow bird eating nectar from the flowers. When I looked it up I discovered it was a sunbird. Imagine nature thriving in amongst all these tall buildings.

Marina Bay Sands, a city scape and the round building is the top floor of the Apple Store.

Writing wise, I have had to revise my word count goal. I thought 30,000 words was reasonable for my time here and I was writing a novella. Well it is now 40,000 words and I’m currently at 36,000 words and I still have a week before we leave for China.

The story is still coming on strong, with new scenes popping in all the time. Yesterday I spent way longer in the pool than intended as I use my lap count to gauge my time. However, I lose count all the time because I start thinking about the story and characters start talking to me and then I come to and forget how many. Was that lap five or six? Over an hour later I’m upstairs realising I did about 20 minutes more than I wanted to.

The story is coming in different time periods so I know there will be a lot of restructuring and tying things together. I usually write in a linear fashion but this memoir is different and how things are popping up in my imagination are too. Weird but fun. Writing in Singapore is great. I found this great book and it has been really useful. There’s more research to do as well. National Library and the National Museum but I’m getting a picture of the layout. I also have to research a bit about 1840s Calcutta as some of the story takes place there.

I’m also learning a lot about Aunt Prudence as well. She is way more interesting than I thought she’d be, with some hidden talents.

Guess what! I think I may have a new character and spin off series in the offing but no spoilers.

On today’s agenda I think we are making homemade dumplings for dinner after we to to the post office. We have a bbq planned on Sunday, which will be nice.

I’m off to China for 12 days next Friday.

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Singapore Sojourn Part 3

Posted in A writer's life, am wrinting, asian-centric fantasy, Australian author, Creative passion, Cry Havoc series, fantasy, Feminism, General excitment, magic, research, revision, Victorian, victorian paranormal, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 6, 2025| Leave a Comment »

I am a week and a bit in.

I have managed to use the pool every morning. Although this morning it was raining and storming. After dallying on my phone for a bit, there was no thunder and less rain so I did my pool work. Maybe a bit shorter than normal.

In other news, my four weeks in Singapore is going to be less than I thought because we are heading to China for 12 days not 8 so I need to connect with people faster than I had originally thought.

I met up with Dev. No photo sorry but we plan to meet up again and do a writing date. I need to get to the library and art gallery and museum again to research. Although I have found some references on line.

We met with Joyce Chng the other day. She gave me some books of hers that I have started reading about female sword makers. You had me at female and swords! Fireheart is YA fantasy. Here is a local link.

Today though it’s Friday and my daughter-in-law and I are going to have a massage.

On the writing front I have been writing for a week, pretty consistently. There was one day I only tinkered with some words as we went out to meet Joyce. Today though I forced myself to write more than normal. My hands ache a little. The Prudential Light is at 20,000 words. It’s going to need revising because it’s coming out quickly and I’ll need to add bits in as I research them and also craft the story more. Sometimes I just throw down the story, plot, characters etc to see if there is a story with a beginning, middle and end. Then during my revisions, I add things like descriptions, emotions and thoughts. I can usually do something in three run throughs but some take many drafts.

Aunt Prudence is in my ear, telling more and more of her story and the characters are adding bits that my phone notes are filling up. I think I have a nice story arc going. If I can finish this first draft while I’m here then I’ve got something to go on with.

The China trip is going to blow my mind, I know it.

I’m going to miss my writing buddies. Meet Siri.

This cat’s name is hard for me to pin down.

I hear different words, I think it’s Moguai but it’s Siumoguai so I was close and I’m not totally deaf!

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Singapore Sojourn Part 2

Posted in A writer's life, Creative passion, Cry Havoc series, research, Singapore, Steampunk, Travel, tagged , , , , , , , , , on June 3, 2025| Leave a Comment »

On Sunday we went to Raffles for high tea and it was fab. The building is elegant and the food was delicious. Expensive yes but for me worth it.

The Grand Lobby

We got there a little bit early so amused ourselves outside.

This is an historic fountain made of cast iron.

This is the view from the courtyard looking up to the main building.

My food tray. There were also three different scones after this. My daughter-in-law took the photo of me below.

And lastly, from the front of the hotel, you can see the little stained glass motif of Raffles.

Otherwise, I’ve been researching and have started working on The Prudential Light. Aunt Prudence has been in my head and fighting to get out. The story just started pouring out of me, faster than I can write. However, I’ve put the brakes on and have gone back to revise the beginning because I think I finally have Aunt Prudence’s voice and that’s such a joy and a better idea how to structure it going forward. Hopefully that will save a massive rewrite and restructure at the end.

I’m currently at 11000 words and at this rate it may be a short novel rather than a novella. Because you know I’m fleshing out scenes and I haven’t got to the good bits yet. I need to visit the library and the museum in the city. However, I am able to set part of the story here in Singapore as it is not too early as I thought when I calculated how old Aunt Prudence was and key events in her life.

Overall, I think, I hope at least, that The Prudential Light will be a heartwarming, beautiful story. Let’s see if I can land this one.

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Singapore Sojourn Post 1

Posted in A writer's life, am wrinting, research, Singapore, Submissions, weather, writer's journey, tagged , , , , , , , on May 31, 2025| Leave a Comment »

I am in Singapore, where it is hot and humid and very different.

It was my plan to blog everyday but that’s going to be tedious because I am going to write a lot while I’m here and the bulk of my plan is to hang with my son and daughter-in-law and then go on a side trip to China. I’ll be heading home in early July.

We have made a few plans so far. Catch up with writer friends. Going to the Fut Tak Chi Museum, which was an early temple built in 1820 just after Raffles opened up Singapore. Part of my research for A Prudential Light. Then we are having afternoon tea in the Great Lobby of Raffles because why not.

For a start I wanted to share some photos of the condo we are staying in. It’s huge, lots of apartments but it also lovely and has a metro across the road.

There are contemplative spaces or just nice surroundings for a bbq.

Lots of fish

And more pond views

And then there is the swimming pool, which I have been to every morning. That makes two so far. I just walk in the pool.

I’ve also seen a few of these dark frangapanis.

I’d show you a picture of my hair, which is very frizzy due to humidity but I don’t want to scare you.

I think being out of home give me time for thinking about things, about life and home and my partner Matthew but also time to be with people I love too. I think I always feel that way when I travel, feel the distance and wanting all the people I care about be they family or friends to be near. Life isn’t like that though.

On the writing front, Aunt Prudence has been in my mind a lot. I have done some planning. My daughter in law helped me pick a name for my character and I did a bit of research on early Singapore. Lots more to do. Now I just need to start writing.

On the submission front my middle grade fantasy appears to have lucked out on two markets. My Regency romance similarly, although there maybe a week or two left to run.

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A home: feels like a whirlwind

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on March 7, 2024| Leave a Comment »

We’ve been home exactly one week.

I was telling Matthew that I haven’t found my groove yet. I’m currently grooveless.

Last post was from London. I don’t think I’ve ever walked so much in my life. Even using the tube and so on, there’s always a walk and those steps add up. This was a good thing because it helped with the weight gain. Lot’s of nice but expensive food to be had in London.

We also discovered the river bus (ferry), expensive but so much better than being crammed into a tube train. And there was coffee.

Biggest takeaway was how to ordinary people live-it’s so expensive. And why are there so many obviously wealthy people.

After two weeks in London we went to Malta for about five days. Why Malta? It was on a list of the possibles (Spain, Ireland, Italy) but what it had in it’s favour was one flight direct, warmer and dryer than the UK, cheapish flight and lots of accommodation to choose from. We loved Malta. We stayed in Sliema, with views of the beach (St Julian’s Bay I think) and we did tours as you do. Not quite warm enough for a swim for me. We even took a day trip to Sicily, which was awesome. It’s only 52 Nautical miles from Malta. Next time, more Sicily and Malta. Also, did my fan girl, Montalbano, visit to his police station. I didn’t pay to go in, just took photos.

Next stop was one night in London and the Hilton Heathrow Terminal 4 and then Singapore. We stayed with my son and his wife and my grandson in their apartment. We ate crab! Thanks Taamo! and did the Night Safari and the Amazon experience. Again more walking. We also did the Gardens by the Bay, which was lovely but Singapore is humid and hot. We caught up with some writing friends, Dev and Joyce and ate lots of yummy food and swam in the condo pool, well I walked in the pool, which was lovely and huge.

Sadly, all good things come to an end. We came home. For a few weeks we had started thinking about home, what we wanted to do, changes in our habits we wanted to make and thinking about our lovely granddaughter who started school while we were away. Nothing hurts more than those heart strings and she sent us messages that made us almost weep.

I started work on Monday (Day job) and today was meant to be a writing day. Alas, dr appointment, tradie, pool walking, Genius appointment because my phone is chucking a wobbly, and then meeting friends tonight, I can’t see where I’m going to slot even a solid hour in.

I am doing a novel crit group thing so I have at least finished this month’s novel and just need to write up my feedback. I guess that’s what I’ll be doing today because that’s not hard.

Jetlag I’ve been okay. I think the stop over in Singapore helped me adjust to Australia again, although I do zone out and get fatigued.

Weight I’ve lost 2.5 kilos since I’ve been back. Most of that would be fluid retention from the flight. But I found this neat and free calorie food diary thing and that’s helping me keep track.

I’ve also am trying a new self mantra. Instead of looking in the mirror and criticising myself, I’m going to say “Hey gorgeous. You look fantastic. You’re awesome.” I’ve read about two celebrities that I really admire and both have talked about how they have hated their bodies (Winslet and Thompson) and how every woman is unhappy with her body. I think this is mostly the body norms that are thrust at us constantly. For years I’ve had body dismorphia and I’ve hated how I looked. Now I’m going to accept it. That doesn’t mean I’m letting myself go. I get sick if I put on too much weight so I’ll keep my goals but I’m going to stop the negative self talk. Try to at least. Not easy.

Next post I’ll put up some photos. I’m currently backing up the phone so can’t right now.

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