Firstly, Spore Con! You know what video games are, yes? Console games on PS3s, Xboxes, Wiis, etc. etc. Now think of analog gaming: boards, cards, you name it.

Spore Con is a celebration to analog gaming, which [...]]]> What an insane weekend! This is an extremely busy weekend, because for some reason everything is clumped together!

Firstly, Spore Con! You know what video games are, yes? Console games on PS3s, Xboxes, Wiis, etc. etc. Now think of analog gaming: boards, cards, you name it.

Spore Con is a celebration to analog gaming, which doesn’t necessarily mean just D&D or Warhammer 3K. Organised by the folks from Paradigm Infinitum, it’s a analog gaming convention with a side of other activities, including a talk on genre fiction!

The talk is conducted by members of the HSWG, and it’s completely free so there’s no excuse for you to not come! The talk is on Saturday, 28 May, at 11am. Find out more info at the Spore Con website.

Spore Con [website]
Date: 28 and 29 May 2011 (Sat and Sun)
Time: 10am – 8pm
Venue: Pasir Ris East Community Club

Secondly, a workshop by the HSWG! We’re doing a basic intro to creative writing workshop at the Central Library at Victoria St, and it’s also free. It’s exactly what it says on the tin: a short intro to creative writing, with a focus on genre fiction.

Introduction to Creative Writing
Date and time: Sat (28 May) 2pm-4pm
Venue: Multipurpose Room, B1, Central National Library
Cost: Free!

And lastly, because my friends will be there: Hooked On Flea! A flea market at Home Club, I have friends who have stalls there so go! Anyway, flea markets are great experiences even if you don’t end up buying anything. There are lots of pre-loved treasures waiting to be uncovered.

Hooked On Flea [website]
Date and time: Sat (28 May), 2pm-8pm
Venue: Home Club, 20 Upper Circular Road
Cost: whatever you end up buying

In other related news, look out for a travel post later this week. I spent 9 days in China and I can’t wait to tell you all about it!

That’s right, Happiness at the End of the World is available in stores now!

So far it’s only been spotted at the main Kinokuniya store at Takashimaya, but we expect that the books will hit other Kino stores and other bookstores soon. :D

You can find it here in Kino:

With GST it’s [...]]]>

That’s right, Happiness at the End of the World is available in stores now!

So far it’s only been spotted at the main Kinokuniya store at Takashimaya, but we expect that the books will hit other Kino stores and other bookstores soon. :D

You can find it here in Kino:

With GST it’s S$19.26, but you can get it for S$18 (inclusive of shipping) at the publisher’s website!

Aaand what is Happiness at the End of the World about? It’s a collection of eight sci-fi short stories centering around the theme of, well, happiness at the end of the world.

There are all sorts of genres in the book, ranging from romance to crime to fantasy. Everyone has their favorite, so go pick up your copy and find yours ;)

On Saturday was the kick-off party for the Singapore chapter of Nanowrimo, of which I’m proud to be co-Municipal Liaison for. It was also the launch of Happiness at the [...]]]> I don’t have many pictures for this, largely because I was too busy to take any! Quite a lot of the photos were by Nerwen.

On Saturday was the kick-off party for the Singapore chapter of Nanowrimo, of which I’m proud to be co-Municipal Liaison for. It was also the launch of Happiness at the End of the World, a collection of short stories revolving around the title theme. You can buy Happiness from our publisher, Two Trees!

Things started off really well with a gigantic cake box being delivered to my home. I was a little late because traffic was bad, but by the time I arrived at Earshot cafe things were already buzzing.

There’s quite a lot of thanks to go around, so I’ll try to fit everyone into my thirty-second speech :P

Thanks to: Seriously Sarah, Joelyn Alexandra, Nerwen, NotKieran (and family!), our long-suffering editor, publisher, typesetter and writer extraordinaire Rozen, Ziyang, Kiaace, Wena Poon, The Arts House, the National Arts Council, Singapore Writers Fest volunteers and staff, Singapore Wrimos, Hafiz aka ‘Zebra Preen’, HRH The Drama Queen Afiq, the boys who proved the cake was not a lie by finishing it (man slices!) and everybody else who came down to Earshot! :D

There were competitions and prizes given out, but everything went so fast and so crazy that I completely lost track. I had a heck of a time. I was so pleased with all our Undercover outfits – what with it being Halloween and all.

I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Rozen undercover as a tourist, winner of the Best Undercover competition

Joelyn Alexandra as Lady Una

NotKieran, in characteristic black

Nerwen as a vampire, Sarah as someone with pink hair, horns and an eyepatch

Afiq aka Baghead and Hafiz aka "I'm Ris Low on the inside" (he was wearing zebra prints underneath)

A Wrimo who came underneath book covers!

Wrimos signing in

Earshot got crazy crowded as I took this - more than half were Wrimos!

Ziyang reading his story from Happiness

Aaand we actually finished our cake this year!

My feet are killing me, but I had a good time at the Singapore Writers Festival Opening!

I was invited because I’m one of the MLs for the Singapore chapter of Nanowrimo, so today I went down to The Arts House! Nanowrimo represent! Also, I got to feel all literary and posh.

My feet are killing me, but I had a good time at the Singapore Writers Festival Opening!

I was invited because I’m one of the MLs for the Singapore chapter of Nanowrimo, so today I went down to The Arts House! Nanowrimo represent! Also, I got to feel all literary and posh.

The Arts House front porch

I was joined by Seriously Sarah and Raven Azure, which was good because otherwise I’d probably end up just standing in a corner trying to be inconspicuous.

My companions Sarah and Raven

And we were occasionally joined by the wonderful Wena Poon, who has got a wicked sense of humor. I’ve just read her article in the latest edition of Quill magazine – in the space of two pages, she references Shakespeare, X-Men, SimCity, Star Wars and the O-levels. But she’s more posh and literary than I am, so she mingled more!

Raven and Wena

But anyway. There was some mingling and drinking until just after sunset, when the opening officially started.

The first speaker was Emeritus Prof Edwin Thumboo, who is one of Singapore’s foremost literary pioneers. He is this year’s SWF Singapore Literary Pioneer, and the focus of an exhibition being held at The Arts House celebrating his career – his list of awards is longer than my arm, but suffice it to say that he’s one of the most important literary figures from Singapore.

Emeritus Prof Edwin Thumboo

Second speaker was Philip Jeyaretnam, who is also another big name in Singapore literature. He was heavily involved in organising both SWF 07 and 09, and it was especially nice that he named Nanowrimo as one of the events that start/end writing activities during SWF :D

Philip Jeyaretnam, Chairman of the SWF Steering Committee

And the last speaker was RADM (NS) Lui Tuck Yew, Acting Minister for Information, Communication and the Arts. Mr Lui thanked the sponsors and welcomed the guests from abroad.

Acting Minister for Information, Communication and the Arts, RADM (NS) Lui Tuck Yew

And then he opened the SWF officially by lighting up the giant installation right outside the Arts House, which you can see in the top picture! It is very cool.

After that was a reception. There were some demonstrations inside The Arts House as well as a movie screening, but it was quite crowded so we didn’t go for that. Instead we had food, which was quite nice.

They had a literal dessert shelf, which was a novel way of presenting the food. They had little slices of cheesecake, which was very nice, and marshmallows and pudding. There were waiters walking around with little finger food. There were cute little chicken pies, and I ate something strange with mushrooms. I’m still not entirely sure what it was, though we think it was beef.

Marshmallows in chocolate and graham crumble

There were all sorts of interesting food, like salmon wellington – spinach and salmon baked in a puff pastry. There was also Peking duck, rolled up in those little pancakes with sauce and cucumbers. My favorite and the most novel was the Hainanese chicken rice, which was made into little bite-sized pieces by making the rice into squat little cylinders topped with a bit of chicken. That was absolutely adorable to eat, but I don’t have any pictures.

Chef cutting up salmon wellington

I never know how to eat at such posh events, so in the end I was still hungry. Oh well. They had a very nice white wine, though.

But yes! The opening was very posh, and a nice start to the SWF. I’ll be going to quite a few events over the duration of the Fest, so watch this space for more pictures and stuff!

It’s that time of year again! This year, we’ll be merging the NaNoWriMo kickoff party with a book launch. :D

Happiness at the End of the World is a collection of short stories written by a few people who did NaNoWriMo last year, and will be on sale [...]]]>

It’s that time of year again! This year, we’ll be merging the NaNoWriMo kickoff party with a book launch. :D

Happiness at the End of the World is a collection of short stories written by a few people who did NaNoWriMo last year, and will be on sale at the party-launch.

There will be cake for everyone! :D

The Happy Smiley Writers Group (which I’m a part of!) is proud to present a preview of their upcoming novel, Bubble G.U.M. You may remember it being mentioned in our appearance in the newspaper recently.

You can download it from the Singapore Novelists website; [...]]]> I’m really excited to report this. Heck, I’m practically bouncing away!

The Happy Smiley Writers Group (which I’m a part of!) is proud to present a preview of their upcoming novel, Bubble G.U.M. You may remember it being mentioned in our appearance in the newspaper recently.

You can download it from the Singapore Novelists website; here’s a direct link:

Bubble G.U.M. Prologue (Maybe)
[Download]
40kb, PDF

It’s a PDF document, so you’ll need the Adobe Reader or similar program to open and read it.

The official launch of the book will be at the Singapore Writers Festival in October/November. It’ll be a joint event with the kick-off party of NaNoWriMo Singapore, so the timing is somewhat flexible, but it should be at the end of our allotted time slot! More details soonish!

You can also find HSWG on Facebook and Twitter!

Click to enlarge

Here’s a closeup of the photo:

I think it’s difficult to read because it’s kind of [...]]]> We were in the press! ‘We’ being the Happy Smiley Writers Group (aka HSWG), and the newspaper in question is the June 26 edition of TODAY. Our picture was there and everything!

Click to enlarge

Here’s a closeup of the photo:

I think it’s difficult to read because it’s kind of small, so click through for the text!

Mono magic by Eveline Gan

The write stuff

While most Singaporeans are caught up in the frenzy of the Great Singapore Sale, a group of six people have been holed up in a cafe, contemplating the end of the world.

Meet the Happy Smiley Writers Group, made up of five ladies and one gentleman. The group is so named because the members write stories with happy endings only.

The six met during the National Novel Writing Month, a global challenge that encourages aspiring writers to write a 50,000-word novel in one month.

Their latest project involves working on two science-fiction books, which they aim to launch in November. Called Bubble G.U.M and Happiness at the End of the World, both books revolve around the grim theme of Armageddon.

“Bubble G.U.M is a full novel set in Singapore in the year 2045. Happiness at the End of the World is a collection of short stories where the world has ended but, even then, there is still hope and happiness,” said the group’s spokesperson, Maisarah Bte Abu Samah.

The quirky theme, explained the group’s only male writer, Xiang Hao, came about because they were “trying to break away from the genres typically found on the local shelves, namely, exotic ghost stories and human interest fiction”.

Publication costs for both books will be entirely borne by one of the group’s members, Rosemary Lim. The 48-year-old freelance editor will also be editing the stories.

While turning over a profit would be a bonus, Maisarah said the team prefers not to dwell too much on its financial aspect.

“We like writing stories. It’s not exactly for financial benefit because we really want people to have fun reading them. Plus, it will give hope to other Singaporean would-be writers, who think it’s impossible to write something fun and exciting because they keep seeing limited genres being churned out by other local writers,” she said.

Besides trying to change perceptions about homegrown writers, time management is another challenge the group faces, said Lina Salleh, 27, a research officer by day.

“Most of us have day jobs or attend school. So, striking a balance between that and writing can be tough,” she added. Currently, the sextet meets up at a cafe every other weekend to discuss story ideas. Most of the actual writing is done at home.

Even though they would love to make a living by weaving imaginary tales all day long, simply writing stories isn’t a lucrative business in Singapore.

“Not many people think that one can make it as a Singaporean novelist. In act, most think it’s a waste of time,” said Maisarah.

But the group’s enthusiasm for writing won’t be waning anytime soon. “I really can’t stop myself (from writing),” said the group’s youngest writer, Viki Chua, 17, laughing.

Added Maisarah: “We’re not stopping at Bubble G.U.M and Happiness at the End of the World. Those two books are stepping stones for us. They’re instruments to tell people that we’re here and we’re going to keep on writing.”