Kid, Jakarta & Rules for `Writing

Here are over 400 rules for writers from 40 writers

I like Philip Pullman's rule: 

“My main rule is to say no to things like this, which tempt me away from my proper work.”

Sing Lit Station Prose Bootcamp 2018

Sing Lit Station’s second Prose Manuscript Bootcamp was held from 3-5 August 2018 at 3A Jalan Kubor with campers, Hidhir Razak (a novel "Kemunting"), Aleithia Low (a creative non-fiction text "Written By Light"), Jocelyn Suarez (a novel "The Literature Historian") and Annabel Tan (a short story collection "Potted Jungle").

I was honoured to be a judge at the camp with Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Wena Poon.

Well done to Tse Hao Guang on a very well organised event, and a big thank you to all the panellists. At the end of the weekend the other long listed writers joined the camp.

Images from the last Prose Bootcamp in 2016 are here.

On 18 August at 2pm a reading will be held at Sing Lit Station where the four campers will read from their work.

Lombok

Details on how you can help victims of the Lombok earthquake are here at the Jakarta Post

Boys, Jakarta

... Listening to Karaindrou: Eternity and A Day

Rima, Mongkok, Hong Kong

The Turkey City Lexicon is a manual tailored for science fiction writing workshops produced during the birth of cyber punk in Texas in the '70s. 🦃😁🦃

You may find it useful ... or your stories may be dead before they’ve even hit the floor. 🦃😳🦃

I am putting together a version for Singapore and South East Asian writers.

Can you think of any suggested additions, especially those relating to Singapore & South East Asian stories? 🤪🤓🛀

Kid, Jakarta Selatan

On the power of photography

“I don’t need a picture of the daughter no longer breastfeeding or the toddler pounding her fists in a cage either. There are enough photographs now. We can see the reality and the need to act.

Yes, migrant children also slept in cages during the Obama administration. Yes, there are problems with making the plight of children the primary justification for immigration justice.  

But right now, photographs seem to be catalyzing political action in a way they do not often do. And it is time to be the grown-ups.

And then, demand immigration justice and foreign policies to ensure that no one—of any age—ends up in a cage.”

Reading the Pictures

A teenager at two years old

Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

Walt Whitman, excerpt from Songs of Myself from Leaves of Grass

Clarissa's Rainbird's launch

On 10 March 2018 the Singapore edition of Clarissa Goenawan's Rainbirds was launched at The Arts House by Math Paper Press.

Clarissa was a member of Writing the City and will be appearing on 21 July 2018 at Writing the City at Sing Lit Station at 3A Jalan Kubor. I hope to see you there - where I will be talking with Clarissa about querying agents and the publishing process. 

For more details about Writing the City we have a Facebook page here that you can join