2nd novellette on Smashwords~!

Hi guys! Just wanna share this piece of good news with you…after weeks of procrastination, I finally managed to upload my novellette, Rain Skies: Lull before Storm, on Smashwords. You can download or read it online for free so do head on over to the site and leave a review or two if you like (or hate) it!

If you find the cover leaning towards the manga-ish, that’s coz I also intend the story to be adapted into a manga series as well. The cover is done by a member of my AMWC club, szelin. You can check out her Spirit of Tooth comic series at the FunicsValley.

Thanks in advance!

A couple of updates

Haven’t been blogging here for almost 2 months now coz I’ve been really really busy. Anyway I have moved The Chic Revolution from WordPress to Blogger as I want to be able to run ads on it as well as write advertorials for products and services targeted at the recessionista. Do drop me an email if you think your products or services are a right match for the blog. =3

I’ve also set up a new blog at Happy Dates. I’ll be posting on interesting date ideas that my bf and I have tried out so couples in Singapore may be inspired to experience new things instead of the usual movie and dinner.

So yup, that’s about it for now. If you wish to discuss possibilities for advertorials and ads, do get in touch with me at lilian.writes[at]gmail.com.

The Last House on the Left

Just went to catch the movie “The Last House on the Left” and although it was supposed to be a violent film that leaves its audience trembling, I was, perhaps not surprisingly, left unimpressed by this remake of the original movie.

This remake is directed by Dennis Iliadis and written by Carl Ellsworth and Adam Alleca. Wes Craven, who was the original director and writer of the original TLHOTL, joins as producer. I haven’t exactly watched the original movie but upon reading the wiki on it, I deduced that it was a movie that reached deep into the audience’s soul and genuinely scared them. The bad guys were gleefully manic and the parents were grimly revengeful. It was a classic that invited controversy over its violent and sadistic scenes.

The modern remake was by comparison, a much tamer version. In fact the movie left me feeling empty and bemused. Sadie, who was one of the bad guys, looked sympathetic at Mari’s plight at times and threw the entire movie out of sync. That, and it feels as if the violence were an afterthought, instead of cruel deliberation.

I don’t know about you guys but this story leaves a weird taste in my mouth. =x

A Singapore Taxi Driver’s Diary

I was reading through the various tweets on Twitter today and came across a really interesting Re-Tweet or RT (a code on Twitter that lets your followers know you are re-posting someone’s tweets) by Joe Augustin.

It was a link to an online diary by a taxi driver who had a PhD from Stanford but is now driving a taxi to make a livelihood. I highly recommend this blog if you’re looking for something interesting to read. We’ve all taken taxis before and we all have experiences where the taxi driver chats incessantly despite our very obvious signals indicating our reluctance to talk.=x

I have had a few experiences where the taxi driver simply refuses to let me sleep. But I guess the taxi uncles are lonely. Imagine driving for the entire day while your passengers come and go. You hardly see your family coz you have to earn enough to pay off the rent for the taxi, petrol etc. Life is hard. Sigh.

But anyways, this PhD taxi driver makes for a relaxing yet entertaining read as he describes his various encounters with different passengers.

Here is an excerpt that I find particularly enlightening:

According to my yet to be verified theory, when people ride with a taxi driver, many of them tend to drop their masks they normally wear on other social occasions. They don’t bother to pretend to be somebody they are not. They don’t pretend, for example, to be more gracious, or more cultivated, than they really are, as they would when they are on their jobs or in other social functions. The reason for this is multifold. Aside from the fact that some people regard taxi drivers as the lowest form of life in the society, placed roughly at the same level as their maids at home, one obvious reason is that a ride with a particular taxi driver is a chance encounter that is unlikely to be repeated, excluding, of course, the commuters who use taxis regularly. The chance of randomly picking up the same customer on the street for a second time is much rarer than hitting a triple 7 on a slot machine.

Nice. =)

I hope he writes more and maybe compile his writings into a book or something.

Publish your own love story in a booklet!

Many of us rack our brains for an innovative yet thoughtful gift we can give to our loved ones like our husbands, wives, girlfriends and boyfriends, so why not give them your love story nicely printed in a booklet for keeps?

You can Publish Your Own Love Story (PYOLS) as a short story or a short comic detailing the important milestones of your relationship. It can be about the day you first met, your first present from your significant other or even your first fight!

You can also include photos so it makes the little gift all the meaningful.

If you’re keen on exploring such a gift option for your loved one, simply email me at lilian.writes[at]gmail.com for a FREE quotation.

Samples will be uploaded for your viewing pleasure later.

Looking for a columnist? I’m your woman.

I’ve been giving some thought to writing a column for quite some time and this desire grew even more after I’ve had a chance to read a number of books by Ellen Byerrum in her Crime of Fashion mystery series.

The books were fairly entertaining but what held my attention the most were the fashion columns that were written by the protagonist, Lacey Smithsonian (no relation to the museum… =x )

You see, Lacey has the job of penning 2 fashion columns: Fashion Bites and Crimes of Fashion. In Fashion Bites, she covers what she considers are derogatory fashion trends to the woman on the street. And in Fashion Crimes, she writes about prominent people who dress oh so wrongly for the right situation. Or a murder that just so happened to be tagged “Fashion disaster”.

Lacey’s writing is sharp and full of wit, never wavering in what she considers well-deserved sharp knocks on the knuckles of fickle fashion. Most readers who encounter Lacey confess to be her ardent fan and I couldn’t agree more. Although Lacey does hate her beat and wants nothing more to be moved from the desk that had already claimed the life of the previous fashion writer.

And we know what a certain Law (forgot which one exactly) says, the more you hate something, the more that something will stick to you. How true. =x

Well, I’m up for column writing if you like my way of stringing sentences together in topics like sub cultures (e.g. cosplay) and casual games for the modern lady. Just pop me an email at lilian.writes[at]gmail.com. =3

PS: I seriously think someone like Ms Lacey Smithsonian should be a regular feature in our local newspapers. Most columns I read are…well…so run-of-the-mill. =x

Thiea & Edius’ lurrrve song

More from the other blog.

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I found a lovely song by Toni Braxton. This is a rather old song, sang back in the 1990s.

I’m thinking it’ll make a nice song for Thiea & her love (Edius).

Hehe…

Regrettably, I’ve never been able to come up with a song for Yvi and her boyfriend…mainly because I haven’t really written to the point where Yvi meets HIM yet. And so…although I pretty much have an idea of what her bf is going to be like, I find it quite a challenge to name a song for their union.

Think icy prince to Yvi’s flamboyant fiery nature. =x

But I’ll try. I think. =x

Lucian & Rain

Yet another post from the other blog. =x

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Who’s Lucian?!

That must be the first question running through your heads when you see the post title. Okies, so I was imagining that someone is actually eager to know who this chap is. LOL.

Anyways, Lucian is in short Rain’s lover. He’s sort of in the picture (coz he’s like lurking around the edges while Rain and gang have their adventures) & he’s very important to Rain so I thought, why don’t I give them a theme song? I was just listening to this song titled ‘First Love’ which was the theme song for this great Japanese drama called Majo no Jouken (it’s about the tragic love affair between a teacher and her student) and I thought it is a really really sweet song.

Lucian is Rain’s first (& only) love after all. XDDD

“You’re always going to be the one in my life…” & so the lyrics go. Nice riiiight. There’s the Utada Hikaru version & there’re the English versions. I believe she sang the English versions too…I think.

First Love by Utada Hikaru
Once in a while
You are in my mind
I think about the days that we had
And i dream that these would all come back to me
If only you knew
every moment in time
Nothing goes on in my heart
Just like your memories
How I want here to be with you
Once more

You will always gonna be the one
And you should know
How I wish I could have never let you go
Come into my life again
Oh, don’t say no
You will always gonna
be the one in my life
So true, I believe i can never find
Somebody like you
my first love

Once in a while
You are in my dreams
I can feel the your warm embrace
And I pray that it will all come back to me
If only you knew every moment in time
Nothing goes on in my heart
Just like your memories
And how I want here to be with you
Once more
yah yah yah

You will always be inside my heart
And you should know
How I wish I could have never let you go
Come into my life again
Please don’t say no
Now and forever you are still the one
In my heart
So true, I believe I could never find
Somebody like you
My first love
oh oh

You will always gonna be the one
And you should know
How I wish
I could have never let you go
Come into my life again
Oh, don’t say no
You will always gonna be the one
So true, I believe I could never find
Now and forever

Source

You can listen to the song here.

Songs for Thiea, Yvi and their respective lovers coming up in the next post. =3

Music to my ears…

Here’s part of another post that I wrote on the other blog listing the songs I would love to have as theme songs for the leading ladies in my Rainy Skies WIP novel.

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The reason for this post is coz I want to post something in relation to my novel-WIP, Rainy Skies. In a nutshell, my novel is about this young woman named Rain Eveil. She is what people would call a Mage but in my world, she’s known as a Magian. She has two bosom buddies who’re namely Thiea Bey and Yvi Weil.

I won’t reveal much about these ladies but I can say these three are very much different in character and they’re certainly not the weak emotional ladies you erm…find in erm…a lot of animes these days. I’m sorry, anime fan as I am, I really really dislike women who fall apart without a man’s help. Like seriously, help yourself first.

Ahem…anyways, I’ve more or less decided on the theme songs for the ladies so I’ll post them here for your listening pleasure. See if you can spot their characters from the songs. =)

And yes, most of them are Japanese songs. So sue me for listening to too much Jpop/Jsoul/JR&B. I’ll provide the English translation in the next post.

1. The power trio’s theme Song – Glitter by Ayumi Hamasaki
2. Rain’s theme song – Anytime (FREETempo remix) by Koda Kumi
3. Thiea’s theme song – Lean on me by Home Made Kazoku
4. Yvi’s theme song – Love, Joy (English version) by Heartsdales

There, enjoy the music! =)

ps: I would love to put the players here for your convenience but something about wordpress seems to prevent me from putting any html on post or sidebar. Grrrrr.

My novels @ a glance…

I’ve decided to cut down on my number of blogs. Again. =x And so…what is going to follow is a post that I once had on the other blog. =x

The post will be edited for length. Heh.

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I’ll be updating the below list as I go along which could take a loooooooong time. For now though, I only have one self-published book and I’m currently working on another.

Anis the Unchosen

This story is set in Singapore where Anis Ng, a girl of about 16 finds herself thrust unwillingly into a brand new world that’s scary to say the least. She meets a fiery-haired guy one night and from then on, her life changes in ways that even an imaginative girl like her could never visualise.

You can buy or preview my book here.

Yes, it was never published by a respectable publisher. This novel was originally meant to participate in the Writers & Illustrators Initiative that was held in Singapore about a couple of years ago but it wasn’t selected. So for want of place to deposit my novel in, I decided to put it up for sale at lulu.com

Forgive me if it’s not much to your taste or if the entire book just sounds plain wrong but I’m damn proud of it coz it’s the first…(alright so I completed my first novel in secondary school but that’s beside the point) first novel I ever completed and published. =)

Rainy Skies (working title)

I’m currently working on this novel amidst my super busy schedule. It’s another fantasy story that I mean to mangalize with the help of a friend I met on a forum. You can preview her works here. I think she’s pretty good, so does a number of my friends as well. But you draw your own opinion. If you like her work, do drop her a note of encouragement coz we artsy people love to be praised. XDXD

Once completed, I hope to get it published. Whether self or approaching someone who’s willing to take a look, I don’t know yet. But at least before I reach a certain age. Yeah, there’s a timetable for this book and it’s staring right at me in the eyes.

*goes into panic mode*

PS: I’m now halfway through the book. =x I am still working on it.