Looking for a job

Who wants to employ a 40+ woman who’s a conscientious, diligent and responsible worker? She has worked as an Executive Secretary, an administrative assistant, encyclopaedia sales rep, freelance writer and is the author of two books with a third in the works. Though she last stepped foot into an office ten years ago, she wasn’t exactly out in the wilderness either, having worked from home for a good part of that decade. Her professional qualifications are in the secretarial, administration and writing discipline.

Yes, the desperite housewife is desperately seeking a job. It would be nice if she could get into the publishing, broadcast or training industry but she won’t discount others either. Anything she can do, she will do with one proviso, location must be in the Klang Valley.

Any leads? If you have, she would appreciate hearing from you at tehlydia@yahoo.com. Thank you.

P/S : Of course the desperite housewife is also actively seeking jobs beyond the blogosphere but she decides to post this ad here because she knows there are many kind bloggers and readers out there who would not hesitate to lend a hand if they could. She wants to avoid a situation of someone telling her “If only I knew you were looking for a job, you could’ve have joined me or so-and-so who’s looking for a such-and-such” AFTER she has secured a job. Seriously though, can beggars be choosers, she wonders.

Four is perfect

When I started a family, I had always imagined that I’ll quickly get all the child-bearing done with as soon as possible. Thus I had two children one year after the other. A boy and a girl. Perfect. I didn’t have to try for another one. Those early years were quite hectic as caring for two young children a year apart is something like having twins, though not as difficult.

MPH E-book forum

Well, it’s over and done with. MPH’s Hi-tea with local authors. I’m rather surprised that the forum was the main agenda. The topic was “Virtual Books” and its impact on the book industry in the future. The question is, will people prefer to buy and read without holding a book in years to come?
The function kicked off half an hour late to wait for attendees to show up. Among them was Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam, Lillian Too and Dato Lawrence Chan and of course some of my favourite people like Yvonne Lee, Xeus and Sharon Bakar.

How are babies made?

Have you ever been asked by your kids how babies are made? How do you answer them? When my kids were pre-schoolers, I used to have a stock answer. I opened up Childcraft, a set of kiddie encyclopaedias and flipped to the page on how babies are made.
“First daddy put an egg in mummy. See this picture, the egg is just a dot. Then it grows to become a baby in mummy’s womb (pointing to various stages of the foetus development). After nine months, the baby is born.”

Hi-Tea with Local Authors

 

MPH has been running a “support local authors” campaign every August since the last three years. This year is the fourth do. I have never been to this function before. This year however, I will be attending as a moderator for the forum on e-books. I have emceed children’s concerts with a ballroom full of attendees. I have been a panelist for a conference with hundreds of mothers. And of course I have spoken at my own author-appearances. But moderating a forum with distinguished authors, aspiring writers and readers in the audience? It’s my first yet and I can tell you the jitters has already set in.

Author appearance by Xeus

Here’s your chance to find out who is the mysterious Xeus, the author of Dark City. She is a very talented writer with two columns under her belt. I have not read Dark City yet but reviews have been favourable. However I have read her writing in the local press so I know she can write. By the way, Xeus doesn’t earn her bread and butter with writing, she holds a full-time job which requires her to travel frequently. Yet she’s so prolific she puts me to shame with my meagre output.

Go meet her at MPH One Utama this Saturday, 26 August at 1.00 p.m. She will be sharing some tips on how to get money from writing. She will tell you her experiences in writing Dark City and how she earned money from writing it.

1st Bloggiversary

I didn’t think this blog would make it to its first anniversary. Well, it did. Exactly one year ago, I published my first blog entry. In the span of one year, this blog has had a few make-overs, shifted house once and a couple of times it was in danger of being sent to Blog-o-Grave. (Please excuse the mixed metaphors.) Still I plodded on, encouraged by a small circle of readers.

Advice from UK literary agent

Yang-May Ooi, author of The Flame Tree and Mindgame has put up a podcast interview with Lucy Luck, a UK based literary agent. Hop over to Fusion View to listen. It’s very informative and as Ted says, Yang-May is a good podcast host.

Thieves must go to school

I tell my children, “You must study hard so that you can get a good job. Do you want to be a road sweeper, garbage collector or construction worker? You’ll have to slog hard and work under the hot sun. It’s not easy.”

Adibah Amin’s Intro

My editor, Eric Forbes, has asked Adibah Amin to write an introduction for Honk If You’re Malaysian. Kak Adibah has kindly consented and she wrote such a beautiful introduction that I am truly touched. Never in my wildest imagination did I dream that her words would one day grace the opening of my book. I used to read her column As I Was Passing in the NST back in the seventies when I was a mere teenager and now this. I am bowled over.

MPH Publishing will be reprinting her collection of articles As I Was Passing (Vol 1 and 2) end of this year. If you’re her fan, make sure you get both volumes.

Buckets of Writing Advice

Whether you’re an aspiring writer or an established one, it’ll be good if you head over to Eric Forbes’s blog for a mega-dose of writing advice.

He has reproduced the talk he gave at the Writers’ Circle’s June meeting in an entry titled WHAT TO WRITE AND HOW TO PUBLISH WHAT YOU HAVE WRITTEN? (Aug 10)

In another entry (Aug 8), he wrote IS THERE REALLY A MARKET FOR MALAYSIAN FICTION IN ENGLISH?

BAD ENGLISH SAYS SO MUCH (Aug 7)  had him ranting about the manuscripts with atrocious English.

The weekend is almost here and Eric can cold-storage all those manuscripts with bad English that he has to deal with, and curl up with his favourite books.

Book Reviews on TV

Do you know there’s a book review program on TV? It’s called Resensi. (Ted knows, Sharon doesn’t.) Now if you flip through the TV guide, you won’t find any such program listed. That’s because Resensi is part and parcel of the Selamat Pagi Malaysia program aired on RTM1.

I know because I appeared on the show (live!) way back in December 2004 shortly after the release of Life’s Like That. I was interviewed by Sayed Munawar, the personable talk-show host who made me feel totally at ease though my palms were clammy and my stomach knotty.