Big Bad Wolf Ipoh 2015 Madness!

First of all, Selamat Hari Raya / Happy Eid Mubarak!

I haven't been blogging much here but then again, I haven't been blogging much anywhere. For the whole of Ramadhan, I was busy with other projects. I planned to finish it before Ramadan ends but well, that didn't go as planned now, did it?

But the best thing is that Big Bad Wolf came to Ipoh early this month! It was their 2nd sale in Ipoh. Last year it was great, but it was way too crowded, not a lot of choices and the queues to pay were horrible. Fortunately, this year, they've improved a lot and the layout was better and more books!

I will do my full review soon in my other blog at www.totally-awesome.net

I just thought I'd write a quick post here mentioning the sale and to show off my stash. I went crazy this year and spent way, I mean WAY over my planned budget so Raya this year was... well... pretty much not celebrated. I've been completely broke. I also had to fix my car. Again, the full story will be at my other blog.

Book vs Kindle

Which one is better? Owning a book or Kindle? A lot of people hate the idea of owning a Kindle or any brand of ebook reader. I personally agree with both. Both have its own perks. 

Book collectors would definitely agree with owning books is better. Don't you just love the smell of a new book after you unwrap it? The feel of the paper and being able to hold it? I just love the smell of a new book. But I also have this habit of buying new books that will end up in my bookshelf for probably months before I get to read it. I currently have so many unread books that would probably take me a year or two to finish. Now the problem is, they take too much space. They also collect dust. 

But I also LOVE owning a Kindle. It's very convenient if you're travelling. It won't hurt your eyes like when you're reading on a tablet or phone. You also get to discover and read ebooks from independent authors, and get books that aren't available in printed version. There's no need to wait for a certain title to be restocked or reprinted. You can keep thousands of ebooks in your Kindle and take them with you. No longer do you need to hold super thick and super heavy book especially for people like me. I do my reading before bedtime while lying down comfortably. There's also no issue with lighting (for e-reader with built in light) so you can read in the dark. 

But of course, you can't smell it, hold it or get autograph from the author or resell it. But it's cheaper to buy.

So, do you prefer books over e-book readers, vice versa or prefer both like me?

The Struggle of An Unknown Writer

I'm sure writers, especially newbies understand the struggle to get their first work published. It's not easy to convince agents, editors and publishers that your manuscript is worthy of publication.

It's been a year since I started battling writer's block, procrastination, personal problems, lack of ideas, low self esteem and many more to become a published writer/author. I still have a lot to learn, no doubt about that. You don't stop learning until you die. I know sometimes my ideas are boring or stupid, my writing ends up very messy, my grammatical errors and typos are all over the place, but you learn from your mistakes to improve yourself.

Writers know that not everyone would like their work, same goes with filmmakers, musicians, actors etc. You have to prepare yourself to be bashed, insulted, and so much more. It's the downside of being in the creative industry.

And I understand that. 

There'll be people who'd just hate you for no reason. But you continue doing what you do for those who do like your work and would keep encouraging you, no matter how small that group is. Even if it's just for that 1 person. You do it from your heart because you want to share your passion. You want to tell your story to the world. You want to share your ideas.

But what happens when your work is published, it didn't turn out as expected? When you read your story after it's published, it turned out that the some sentences had been changed? And by change I meant things like 'correcting' a word that was initially correct, replacing it with one that don't even exist? Changing the tenses around? Screwing up the sentences completely until they don't even make sense?

As a writer, how would you feel? When your published stories probably had a few errors here and there initially but ended up sounding as if you didn't past elementary school? What's worse is that you didn't even get a chance to read the edited story before it's published.

I thought an editor's job is to polish a story, fix errors, typos etc.? Not adding more typos and grammatical errors? Why is it such a big deal? Because your own name is associated with that. Think of it as an actor doing a completely stupid low budget movie, and later couldn't get hired for a higher budget movie due to his 'past' mediocre work. Yeah. You get the picture.

So, a word of advice, get to know your editor beforehand especially if you're a struggling new writer. I have read a few horror stories where the editors sabotaged the writers' work completely either out of spite or to their advantage (because they want their own manuscript to get picked for example and don't want any competition). There are also writers who will sabotage other writers as well (like copying your ideas/story word for word). Oh yes, like this 17-year-old bestselling 'author'.

So what do you do?

Moving Stuff

I'm in the process of redesigning and moving stuff from my old blog to this new blog. Stay tuned!