Chief is my first novel in the last 10 or 12 years.
I've been writing for as long as I can remember. However, most of what I've written so far has been for my eyes only.
My first "novel" was written when I was an awkward, sticky-thin (I wish I were sticky-thin now...) nine-year-old. It was called "Hetty Brown's Diary". It was about this girl who discovers her aunt's diary (couldn't bear to kill off her mom or gran) in the attic, and through its pages, discovers who her aunt really was, and even comes to identify herself with her aunt (Hetty B.) and ends up needing therapy. So what happened to it? When I was a (somewhat) wiser 15-year-old, I came across my manuscript (written in a notebook) while tidying my room (which I do once every decade or so). I forgot about the cleaning, and sat and read the whole novel. I was so embarrassed and ashamed of what I'd written that I grabbed a pair of scissors and chopped my way through the notebook until there was enough paper in the waste bin to fool mom into thinking I'd done a LOT of tidying and cleaning.
The second novel I attempted was called "The Daring Dozen" and was written two years after I wrote Hetty B. The name itself proves that I was reading a lot of Enid Blyton at the time. That I was certainly older but by no means wiser when I wrote it can be ascertained from the name of the book's chief character - Yakov Androvsky. I made it up. He was courageous, honest, honourable, resourceful...perfect, and I had a crush on him. The "Dozen" he led consisted of 11-year-olds from all over the world, who lived in the same village, and had all kinds of adventures during their summer holidays, as they tried to earn money to visit an amusement park. There was Victoria, Eileen, Sergei, Graham, Wasim, Kepler, Courtney...I've forgotten the names of the rest, but I think that the names of several tennis and cricket players of the time featured among the dozen. Anyway, halfway through writing, Yakov hooked up with Eileen and I killed him off in a fit of jealous rage by throwing him under a train as he tried to save a four-year old, and made Graham (my second crush) the hero. I regretted killing Yakov the very next day and decided not to continue with the novel. I threw away the sheets a few years ago.
I moved on to write a set of short stories (at age 16) - not fiction, but real-life incidents that happened to my grandparents and parents during their younger days. This is still with me, and I still like what I've written. Someday I will muster up enough courage to send it for publication.
Then followed a romance novel during my stormy teenage. I refuse to give more details. People whom I actually see everyday might be reading this, and I couldn't face them if they knew I wrote a novel with steamy scenes. I'll just say that 1. the hero is based on someone who really exists and 2. therefore it will never see the light of day.
My university days saw me write several opinionated articles and features, some of which saw publication in class/local magazines. Some were too radical and were disposed of promptly.
Incidentally I won prizes at school and inter-school and university levels for poetry, essays and short stories. And no, they've never been published and will probably never be. I have to find a lot more confidence, courage and self-esteem before that happens.
And then, I joined a national news magazine as Sub Editor. In three years, I built up quite a few bylines, including a couple of cover stories and a bunch of features, book reviews and health stories. I had no time to delete what I wrote, as the editors would grab them as soon as I finished for revision and printing.
And my latest project/novel? That is CHIEF. Watch this space for more details. All will be revealed at the right time.
I've been writing for as long as I can remember. However, most of what I've written so far has been for my eyes only.
My first "novel" was written when I was an awkward, sticky-thin (I wish I were sticky-thin now...) nine-year-old. It was called "Hetty Brown's Diary". It was about this girl who discovers her aunt's diary (couldn't bear to kill off her mom or gran) in the attic, and through its pages, discovers who her aunt really was, and even comes to identify herself with her aunt (Hetty B.) and ends up needing therapy. So what happened to it? When I was a (somewhat) wiser 15-year-old, I came across my manuscript (written in a notebook) while tidying my room (which I do once every decade or so). I forgot about the cleaning, and sat and read the whole novel. I was so embarrassed and ashamed of what I'd written that I grabbed a pair of scissors and chopped my way through the notebook until there was enough paper in the waste bin to fool mom into thinking I'd done a LOT of tidying and cleaning.
The second novel I attempted was called "The Daring Dozen" and was written two years after I wrote Hetty B. The name itself proves that I was reading a lot of Enid Blyton at the time. That I was certainly older but by no means wiser when I wrote it can be ascertained from the name of the book's chief character - Yakov Androvsky. I made it up. He was courageous, honest, honourable, resourceful...perfect, and I had a crush on him. The "Dozen" he led consisted of 11-year-olds from all over the world, who lived in the same village, and had all kinds of adventures during their summer holidays, as they tried to earn money to visit an amusement park. There was Victoria, Eileen, Sergei, Graham, Wasim, Kepler, Courtney...I've forgotten the names of the rest, but I think that the names of several tennis and cricket players of the time featured among the dozen. Anyway, halfway through writing, Yakov hooked up with Eileen and I killed him off in a fit of jealous rage by throwing him under a train as he tried to save a four-year old, and made Graham (my second crush) the hero. I regretted killing Yakov the very next day and decided not to continue with the novel. I threw away the sheets a few years ago.
I moved on to write a set of short stories (at age 16) - not fiction, but real-life incidents that happened to my grandparents and parents during their younger days. This is still with me, and I still like what I've written. Someday I will muster up enough courage to send it for publication.
Then followed a romance novel during my stormy teenage. I refuse to give more details. People whom I actually see everyday might be reading this, and I couldn't face them if they knew I wrote a novel with steamy scenes. I'll just say that 1. the hero is based on someone who really exists and 2. therefore it will never see the light of day.
My university days saw me write several opinionated articles and features, some of which saw publication in class/local magazines. Some were too radical and were disposed of promptly.
Incidentally I won prizes at school and inter-school and university levels for poetry, essays and short stories. And no, they've never been published and will probably never be. I have to find a lot more confidence, courage and self-esteem before that happens.
And then, I joined a national news magazine as Sub Editor. In three years, I built up quite a few bylines, including a couple of cover stories and a bunch of features, book reviews and health stories. I had no time to delete what I wrote, as the editors would grab them as soon as I finished for revision and printing.
And my latest project/novel? That is CHIEF. Watch this space for more details. All will be revealed at the right time.
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