Hello, friends. Today, I thought I'd share with you another snippet from my work-in-progress, Monsoon Season. This scene takes place in November 1945. At this point, the Second World War is over (Japan surrendered in August 1945) and the British have resumed their control over the colony of Malaya. The temporary government is called the British Military Administration (BMA), but it's more … [Read more...]
Arrogance and folly
Hello, friends. Earlier this month, I started writing Part 3 of Monsoon Season. I'm trying to be less secretive about my work-in-progress, so today I'm posting an excerpt from this week's work. It might make the final cut; it might not. The speaker is Chen Liling, a young Chinese Communist guerrilla in Japanese-occupied Malaya. April 18, 1945 Here is a measure of how long we’ve been in the … [Read more...]
A scene from Monsoon Season
Hello, friends. This is hardly breaking news, but I'm still bashing away at Monsoon Season, aka the Novel that Might Never End. It's supposed to be in three parts with a frame narrative. Part 1 is 50,000 words long. I'm now midway through Part 2 and it's sitting at 43,600 words. I really must do something about this - and I will, soon, but not until I've finished Part 2. Having spent some time … [Read more...]
“pungently hostile”
Friends, I have a dilemma. I'm currently reading Christopher Hale's Massacre in Malaya: Exposing Britain's My Lai as part of the research towards Monsoon Season. It's a very compelling book. I haven't yet got to the part about the Batang Kali Massacre (to which the title refers) but my inter-library loan copy is already feathered with post-it notes. I am very keen to see how his argument … [Read more...]
On re-reading
Hello, friends. One morning last week, as I was still waking up, I had a moment of intense clarity about my work-in-progress: its shape is wrong. I need to restructure the first third of the novel. As I'm less than halfway through a first draft, I did not welcome this insight. Indeed, I spent a couple of days squinting at the corpus-thus-far-assembled, giving it a poke here and a jab there, as … [Read more...]
Hmm.
Hello, friends. I'm halfway through a novel by Paul Scott called The Chinese Love Pavilion. I know, I know: SKETCHY TITLE ALERT! Don't worry: this is, and will remain, a PG-rated blog. Mostly, it's research for my novel-in-progress (which is set in Malaya during the Second World War). The Chinese Love Pavilion (another suggestion from my well-read friend Mary Alice Downie) takes place … [Read more...]