Tunku Halim’s Creative Writing Course

I managed to steal time over last weekend to attend Tunku Halim’s Creative Writing Course at MPH 1-Utama. An alumni of Sharon Bakar’s lengthier 6-week writing course, I attended Tunku Halim’s to get reacquainted with the creative writing process and to find out first-hand from a pulished fiction author, what the writing process is like.

Tunku was slimmer than I expected, and friendlier. I didn’t get to stay until the end of the class but still found the experience worthwhile. The class was interactive with the author making us write after each section of explanation (setting, characters, etc). Characters was a particularly useful introduction to creating your own characters, and I do believe that I have a glimmer of an interesting “hero” to grace the book that I shall write one day in the future (maybe when the yuppie side of me is ready to retire). He also showcased writing samples from local writers like Karim Raslan and Dina Zaman, an excellent move.

The participants ranged from 14-year old students to more “mature” writing hopefuls, including a legal professional who would be writing up his family history. It was a good mix of people, and the writing that was read out was equally diverse and interesting.

You do not actually hope to learn all there is about writing through a one-day workshop (at least, I hope none of the attendees were expecting that). I wanted to touch base with the writing muse and coax her out of her sulk if I could. She smiled a bit, I think, but is not yet ready to come out of hiding. Which is fine, because I wouldn’t know where to fit her, n the midst of the work-family-MBA juggle. It’s good to know she’s still around, though.

I got a signed copy of Tunku’s 44, Cemetery Road, for my son, who loves horror stories. I’ve read the first story and appreciate the sparing writing style (the ending was a bit too predictable perhaps for someone who grew up on a diet of Stephen King). It’s also refreshing to have a horror story rooted in your own traditions an superstitions.

Tunku will probably have sparked many a hopeful fiction writer’s fire which can only be good for the country’s writing scene. MPH should host more of these brief writing workshops – maybe a series that focuses on specific aspects of writing like dialogue, beginnings, endings, plotting, etc.

Filed under: Writing

Hmmm…Microsoft and Obama?

This is a non-sequitor post but..

If you type in the URL address: office.microsoft.cm,* Barack Obama’s official website will display. The URL remains even when you click on the links within the site (I did not click on all, however) although the page will display the relevant sub-pages. .cm is the domain code for Cameroon.

I am not sure why this happens but a Google search threw up an interesting story on “The .cm domain scam”. I am not too familiar with how the domain business works so will leave it to you to draw your own conclusions (I have my own speculations). I can only say it was perplexing to expect a Microsoft Office page and to have Obama’s election results appear instead.

On the website itself, I visited both Hillary’s and Obama’s and must say that both sites are beautifully designed with rich content; both politicians are making maximum use of social media tools such as blogs, networking sites, podcasts to communicate their policies and update supporters. Our politicians should perhaps take note.   

*This is what happens when the letter ‘o’ on your keyboard decides to be sticky and rebel

Filed under: Tech