People enjoy the exotic, but not too exotic. People enjoy the familiar, but not too familiar. Reconciling these twin desires is the overriding concern of the modern-day fiction writer. A story where everything is formulaic, from characters to plots to setting, is predictable and boring. A story where everything is exotic and unfamiliar is disorienting, […]
Looking Back on 2020, Looking Forward to 2021
2020 shook up the entire world. Yet somehow, my writing, and my blog, saw modest growth. For years, on days when I didn’t post anything, my blog saw a daily visitor count in the single digits. Now it has broken into the double digits on silent days. Visitor counts on days where I do post […]
Confessions of A Keyboard Monkey
I wear many hats. As a writer, I’m Singapore’s first Hugo and Dragon Award nominated writer. As a blogger, I co-founded The Online Citizen and sparked the rise of citizen journalism in Singapore. Martial artist, soldier, husband, son, student, coach, I’ve been many things to many people. As myself, I am a keyboard monkey. The […]
Hiroshima, 7 Decades After the Bomb
November, 2018. My wife and I were on our honeymoon, touring the largest and greatest cities of Japan. Having visited Tokyo and Kyoto, we were now in Osaka, the final leg of our trip. There was so much to see, so much to do, but we made time for a day trip to a city […]
Sane in a Crazy World
We live in a crazy world. A world filled with outrage, manipulation and deception. A world where spin doctors and professional liars hijack your brain to further their agendas. A world where politicians and tyrants divide people against themselves. A world where advertisers and influencers manipulate emotions to earn megabucks. A world that is getting […]
Going Bright
This world is a dark world. Open a newspaper and see for yourself. Murder, genocide, civil war, assaults, rapes, kidnapping, sex trafficking, corruption, on and on, and endless litany of crimes high and petty. Any outrage, if any, will last until the moment a celebrity opens her mouth or the media moves on to the […]
Towards 2020
In January, I set out to write a series. Comprised of one short story and five full-length novels, it is a post-cyberpunk saga set in the world on the brink of a new technological epoch, titled SINGULARITY SUNRISE. Yesterday, I wrote the last word on the last page of the last book. The first draft […]
Life Recalibration
At the age of 12, I knew I wanted to be a full-time author. The dream lasted me through my schooling years and into my twenties. Not a day passed when I would not think of that goal. But now, eighteen years on, it’s time for a reality check. And a recalibration. I have written […]
On Christian Buddhism
Some time ago my attention was directed to a series of blog posts from the Social Pathologist titled ‘Christian Buddhism’, in which the author compared Christianity and Buddhism while discussing modern-day Christianity. Drawing material from renowned Christian apologist G. K. Chesterton, the author writes a scathing critique of modern Christianity. Unfortunately, he built his arguments […]
9 Deaths in Peacetime
In the past 16 months, 9 servicemen in the Singapore Armed Forces have passed away. The latest death occurred on 23rd January, when Corporal First Class (NS) Aloysius Pang was struck by a moving howitzer barrel during a maintenance operation. The following are my thoughts, first penned on Facebook. — The purpose of the military […]