General, The Reading Life, The Writing Life

4-in-1 Bedside Table Book Review: Atwood, Nemirovsky, Lumix GM1 manual, Urban Decay leaflet

Guess which one is the hardest to read? #whatimreadingrightnow #bedsidetablebooks #margaretatwood #irenenemirovsky #shortstories #urbandecay leaflet. Correct answer is: #lumix #gm1 #manual A photo posted by @ivyngeow on Feb 1, 2016 at 2:11am PST Is “Manual” and “Operating Instructions” two different things? By the time I am writing this post, I have read all already, except …

News, The Writing Life

London launch of “Hungry in Ipoh” at Knight Webb Gallery, Brixton

My short story called “Funny Mountain”, in the Hungry in Ipoh anthology, will be launched at Knight Webb Gallery in the heart of Brixton, London – birthplace of the legendary David Bowie. From Amazon’s product description: “Hungry in Ipoh compiles 15 short stories based on Ipoh—a city in Malaysia famous for its delicacies. These are tales about different …

Literary places

Frugality, Imagination and the Vintage life: Roald Dahl’s village, Museum and Story Centre, Great Missenden

Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre is set in the tiny village of Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire where he lived for 36 years. He was also buried in the village. I took a train from Marylebone with the family on a bright October day in 2015. We enjoyed a surreal vision of a horse on the ceiling: It …

General, Literary places, The Writing Life

How do you write and what is your advice? Writers share their routines

Pen and ink – essential, and essential I write anywhere using my gold fountain Sheaffer pen using royal blue ink. I am not being pretentious. I just can’t write without this pen. And yes, maybe I’m superstitious. The ink is very smooth and I need smooth-flowing ink to be able to think carefully. I hate scratchy blotchy dried-up …