Elsewhere Things

Singularly uninspired this morning. Have been trying to get my messy house into some kind of order before my sister and her tribe arrive today, cleaning corners that haven't been touched for ages - probably not since her last visit! Hanging curtains is not my occupation of choice and has cut severly into my reading time, though I'm carrying around The Ghostwriter by Philip Roth, and reading Robert Lowell's poetry in bed and Julia Cameron's Letters to a Young Artist in the loo (the chapters are so short, I don't think I run the risk of piles, Visitor!)

Must also give up drinking Tesco's ground coffee which tastes great but is keeping me awake for hours, heart palpitiating like mad. This morning I feel like a zombie and will probably only come awake once I've had another cup of Tesco's coffee ... (Balzac died of caffeine poisoning so I'm in good company!)

(It didn't help matters that I went to pick up the mob at the airport - only to find I was there a whole day early. Attention deficit disorder!)

So while I cast around for something more exciting to blog - here are some of my favourite posts from elsewhere

Glenda Larke wrestles with the question of image and the author photo :

I look like the "before" shot for someone going on an Oprah makeover show for really desperate housewives. So how the hell is any photo of me going to help sell my books?

before plumping for a more casual look that resembles the Glenda we know and love. (I symapathise - I hate photos of me and the best look I might plump for is ... intereresting.) Worth reading too are her rants about the haze and the Malaysian culture of indifference to breaking the law. And of course her continuing articles about getting published.

Starlight made me go out and buy the Summer reading issue of O magazine (Oprah's venture), and I'm so glad I did because there are a number of very good articles on reading. I'm saving it to read on the beach in a few day's time (gotta do the whole tourist bit, right?). Starlight's really started something with her short-shorts challenge with several people posting on their blogs and others posting her blog. Among those to have posted so far are John Ling and Jerusha. I will get round to writing a short-short soon - promise. (On a beach, where there are no more curtains to hang!)

Our Ted, of course has a lot of interesting stuff. His post about what I said the other night in my writing class about reading 1,000 books seems to have touched a raw nerve and sparked a lot of discussion about "the bloke in bangsar". My take is love him or hate him (and I have very mixed feelings) he's still done more for the local lit scene than any other individual.

Ted also put up the pictures of the Hadiah Sastera Kumpulan Utusan (Utusan Group Literature Prize) award-giving ceremony which Cean (far left) sent to both of us. Here are the prize-winners for the Novel Remaja Bahasa Inggeris (English Young Adult Novel) category. (First prize winner Chin Han is seated far right and Su Ann, second-prize winner, is in the centre.) The novels are being published around September. Congrats again!

I loved Lydia's reworking of a fairytale for hopeless bookaholics!

And I can't help it, The Malay Male makes me laugh more than anyone else. I enjoyed reading about the highlights of his career with the tacky tabloid (before it became the waste of newsprint it is now after its new look).

There's so much good writing on the blogs. But not on this one today. Please enjoy your elsewhere trips while I recover.