November passed by really slowly at first, then in the last week it flew by and suddenly it was over. I started off the month trying to rush out two short stories – and I ended up writing “Two Figures in a Car” for Epigram Books and “One Last Time” for Fixi Novo. I spent time lengthening another short story, “The Ruby Case” for submission to a new publication next year.
November was the Singapore Writer’s Festival, and I attended the “Bright Lights Dark City” talk, where I was introduced to the genius of Japanese noir author Fuminori Nakamura. I bought a copy of his autographed book “The Thief”. I also took a picture with Malaysian poet and laureate, A Samad Said, which was a great honour for me.
In November, I started on my second novel and clocked in a total of 11,000 words for Nanowrimo. There was a writing session at Woolf Works followed by shopping and eating in Orchard Road. I also had a delicious birthday dinner at PODI, caught up with ex-uni mates for breakfast in Clementi and spent a Saturday with Penangites discovering Loysel’s Toy and Kki at SOTA.
During the time between writing and going out, I watched 10 hours of the Camelot series starring Jamie Campbell-Bower, Eva Green and Ralph Fiennes. I read two books; “The Abolition of Man” by CS Lewis and “Labor Day” by Joyce Maynard. The highlights of my month, though, came at the end – a trip to Ambon Island in Maluku with National Geographic Indonesia.
Soon after that I was off to Malaysia, caving in Batu Maloi, hiking up Broga Hill and white water rafting down Sungai Kenaboi. It was an awesome trip that ended with me discovering Negeri Sembilan and so much more of my own country. December descends and it’s back to reality before another break at Christmas. See you in the New Year!
Wan Phing Lim 