Give It To Me Baby

I am taking part in the Donard Publishing short story competition with three stories. The competition is based on public voting system so please visit the website, read my entires and vote for them! Pass on the information to everyone you know and ask them to vote as well.

My entries are: #139 - The Purple Rose, #140 - A Touch of Gloss, and #141 - The Bullshitter.

Thank you.

Come Back To What You Know

It was wet and freezing when I arrived late at night in Stockholm, having lost one entire day of the conference. Over the next two days, the sun shone, but it remained freezing cold, and I sat through a number of discussion sessions and workshops and listened to papers presented by academics and writers from all over the world.

It was a real treat to be surrounded by all these wonderful, smart people and I was glad I could make it (thanks to Art, specifically, and Gulf Air for their support in making it happen). Even though I’m not an academic myself, some of the stuff that were brought to the table were eye-opening to say the least.

One of the questions that I found myself facing was: does my writing in English makes me feel colonized? A valid and important question, but one which had not crossed my mind before. I think it was simply because I was writing in the language that I felt a) comfortable with, and b) enable me to communicate with the masses. I will try to elaborate on that topic in a future post.

My only complain is that the conference programme was too congested and there was no breather between sessions so that by the last day, most people made their great escapes, which meant lesser audiences for the screening of Models of Success (which, I am happy to report, went quite well despite a minor technical glitch). The film received some positive feedback and encouraging comments, which was nice to hear.

Apart from the conference though, I enjoyed my brief stay in Stockholm. This was my first visit to Scandinavia and if I were to sum up Sweden in two words, I’d say ‘Efficient Beauty’! Everything was efficient, and, eh, beautiful. The old buildings, the subway (with different themes for every station), and my favuorite of all, the interior design. I’ve always heard of Swedish furniture and interior design and now I know why. Their use of space and bright colours is soothing.

The Swedes were also very nice people. Always helpful with a smile. One of my fondest memories will probably be the evening when what had started as a couple of bored people wanting to spend some time in the city, into a full-blown tribe attack to one of Stockholm’s hippest bars. (Does anybody know what a Noneckguy is!?)

It was a really rewarding cultural experience, in both the academic and social sense of the word. Check out some of the photos from Stockholm on my flickr account. I will be adding more soon.

I will also let you know about my brief stint in Frankfurt in another post.

The Long Goodbye

I am leaving in a few hours to Stockholm! The past week or so has been rather hectic as I ran like a headless chicken trying to put this trip together. I am catching the 1am Gulf Air flight to Frankfurt, where I will have a very lengthy layover for no less than EIGHT hours. Then I will fly, via Amsterdam, to Stockholm.

This is to attend a four day conference I was invited to by the Sodertorn University. Visit the website to learn more about the conference. I will hopefully get the chance to present my work during the event, but more importantly, the final day of the conference will conclude with a screening of Models of Success. This will be the very first time the film is shown in Europe, so hopefully it’ll go well and will receive positive response.

I’m also looking forward to spend a few days in Frankfurt with Karen, who I’ve not seen in months and who I dearly miss. I need the break. So, there probably won’t be any updates till I get back from the trip. Till then, stay safe and be good.

Stardust in My Eye

As shooting begins for the upcoming adaptation of Stardust – and especially with the emergence of these recent images from the location – I can’t help but feel overly excited. I got this way about Mirrormask when I first heard about it. But this is different. This will be the adaptation of my most favorite of Neil Gaiman’s novels. I love Stardust. I’ve read it at least twice. Which says a lot since I don’t often complete the books I start reading, let alone reading the more than once!

What’s worrying me more though is the fact that it has a “star-studded cast” – you get Robert DeNiro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Clare Danes etc – and is directed by Matthew Vaughn, of Layer Cake, a film I didn’t rate highly. But alas, Mr Gaiman himself has great faith in Vaughn and I’m sure (and hoping) that it’ll be a cracking film.

Come 2007, quick!

Something to Digest

The screening at the school went pretty well. The response we and the film received was positively encouraging. We had about 70 students and teachers, and a few quests, attend the screening at the school’s learning centre.

Following the screening, students and faculty members were asked to fill in surveys regarding the MoS film. The Q&A session, with myself, Art Jones and our young and bubbly production assistant Sarah Ibrahim, was very interesting and enjoyable as well.

Thanks again for the students of the Muharraq Secondary School for Girls and especially for Ms Naeema for being so enthusiastic and helpful.

In other news, on impulse I decided to enter the 75th Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition with my award-nominated story, The Red Hand of Ottoman. I’ve never entered a Writer’s Digest competition before. Results won’t be released before October!!! That’s gonna be a long wait.

You can also read my author’s profile and a new interview at Authortrek.

Life is a Song

It was brilliant.

The talk at the Muharraq Secondary School for Girls couldn’t have gone any better. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Once I got settled in, things flowed and I’m thankful that the response I got was very positive.

I started off by reading my award-nominated short story, The Purple Rose, and then spoke about my writing background and experience, including QuixotiQ, from how it started, to how it got published.

I’ve never been inside a school since I graduated from high school 10 years ago. I used to be sitting on the other side of the desk, on the receiving end. But there was no need for me to be nervous or anxious. Both teachers and students (about 50 of them) were pleasant and seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say.

The interaction during the Q&A session though was the most rewarding. I was impressed by some of these students and the fact that they seemed to have an interest in literature and writing. Afterwards teachers and students huddled around to get their copies signed and take photos and to chat.

So thanks to specifically Naeema for putting this together, and for students Sarah and Latifa, for helping out and looking after me (and for the lovely ‘purple’ rose they handed me at the end), and everyone else who had attended.

All in all, a wonderful experience that I’m more than happy to repeat in the near future.

In fact, I will be back at the same school this coming Tuesday for a screening of the Models of Success film. The screening will be followed by an open discussion with writer/director/producer Art Jones and myself.

Back To School

On Saturday morning I am supposed to give a talk on writing fiction at the Muharraq Secondary School for Girls. This will be my very first such talk. I’ve never stood in front of a group of teenage students and addressed them before!!! This is gonna be fun.

The ‘talk’ will mainly focus on my background, work experience and writing career and shed light on the elements of writing and suchlike. I will also be reading a short story or two throughout the event.

I’m actually looking forward to it. With some luck, I won’t screw it up.

Nature's Law

I haven’t really had a great deal of development on the writing front these past couple of months, something that I’m very disappointed with. Apart from MoS, I barely had the time, energy and frame of mind to focus on my other writing projects.

But it seems I’m finally getting my groove back. Over the past week or two I managed to get a little bit of fiction written. Notably the 903 words I put in on Buried in two days. I’ve not touched that in a long time, so it felt a little odd but comforting going back to it. There are still plenty of plot holes to fill. I’m just eager to finished the first draft of the manuscript, the last thing I want is to spend another five years completing this (my second) novel.

Other than that, I started a new story, aptly titled Pillow. I love the title, and I love the idea of the story. This would be my first proper children’s book and I’m hoping to have it illustrated as well. What I have in mind is a cross between Wolves in the Walls and Coraline, both Neil Gaiman children’s books. I wrote 909 words on that so far.

As soon as the MoS book is done and released, I will return my attention to the collection ‘Moments’ which I’m getting eager to publish. I know I know, I’ve been saying that for god knows how long! But it’ll happen, trust me. Have some faith. Be patient.

Silence Is Easy

We are in the proofing and editing stage of the ‘Models of Success: The Journey’ book and that’s proving quite frustrating actually. It’s going at a very slow pace and there are, let’s say, some style differences. But it’s interesting, to say the least.

I have no doubt it’ll work out fine in the end. Especially now that we’ve found a publisher who seems very interested and excited about the project. Al Maseerah Printing & Publishing House agreed to publish the book for us and after a very positive and fruitful meeting yesterday we are confident we’re going to have a pretty good result at the end of the day.

More details about the book and its publication will be released within the next few days so stay tuned. But if all goes according to plan, the printed book should be in our hands within the next two weeks!

The Gmail Saga Continues (and other updates)

You can now also read the follow up new piece written by Ingrid Marson at ZDNet UK about the mysterious disappearance of my gmail account, in which I am quoted that finding out what happened to my account from Google was ‘futile’.

A few updates…

Great news! It looks as if we’ve found ourselves a publisher. A potential publisher is very excited about the project and has expressed interest in publishing the book. A special announcement will be made as soon as all the details are finalized.

The copy for the Models of Success book has been completed and we are now moving into editing. Sam, Art and I got together tonight to work more on the layout and design for the interior pages.

The whole book should be ready to go to press by the end of the week. If things go smoothly, we should have the book released before the end of the month, in time with an upcoming conference in Scandinavia later this month. I will share details on that with you shortly.

Models of Success is now in CyberSpace! Log onto www.dreamfactorymc.com to learn more about the project, the film, the book and those involved. Sam has done a good job of designing and creating the website and there are tons of more features coming soon. So bookmark the url for future updates.