Anna Tan's Blog, page 113

Are you on God's agenda or merely faking it?

Now it came about when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold,a man was standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us or for our adversaries?”

He said, “No; rather I indeed come now as captain of the host of the Lord.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and bowed down, and said to him, “What has my lord to say to his servant?”

 The captain of the Lord’s host said to Joshua, “Remove...

Looking for answers: snippet

Shukri studied the boy who was studying him with wide eyes."You're Nadia's little brother, aren't you?" Shukri blew out a puff of smoke into his face.The boy barely flinched. "Not so little.""How old are you?""Old enough." "Hmph. And what do you want?""The truth." He folded his arms, staring up at Shukri hungrily."About?" Shukri turned his back to the boy, running his finger against the dusty titles on the shelves behind him."My abah. You knew him, didn't you?"Shukri's finger stopped on...

#bookreview: Triton and Entanglement by Dan Rix

Triton by Dan Rix
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What was supposed to be a relaxing holiday cruise soon turns into a nightmare when when everyone on board the Cypress suddenly disappears, leaving behind 5 frightened teenagers:

Cedar Edgerly - the overprotective brother.
Brynn Edgerly - the fifteen year old flirt.
Jake Carmelo - the hot young hero.
Naomi Delacruz - the girl who knows (almost) everything about the ship.
Sky Wilkinson - the girl who was taken.

They make an unlikely five, with instant antagoni...

To the guys who were protesting outside the Sacramento Memorial Hall

It was really strange to hear that there were protesters outside the Sacramento Memorial Hall Saturday night after the Jesus Culture Encounter. Maybe stranger for me because we don't have this kind of thing back home. They were holding placards and stuff and were preaching on the side walk which was even weirder because they were preaching Christ to the Christians.


Anyway, I was listening to these two guys because my friend Ciara had started to engage with one of them, and the other guy starte...

a whiney post about not being able to write. seriously.

I can't write.
I start with a few lines or a paragraph or so and then... nothing.
It's like my brain won't work.
It won't move on, it refuses to think.

WHY?

*wails*

I think. I think I need to start focusing. My head's been all over the place since December. The routine's shot since August, not like I had any firm routine... but it's just getting worse and degenerating into a puddle of... of... procrastination and laziness.
Gah.

The only thing I've been fairly consistent at is writing book reviews. Be...

#bookreview: Songs from the Phenomenal Nothing by Steven Luna

Songs from the Phenomenal Nothing by Steven Luna
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Songs from the Phenomenal Nothing is a hauntingly beautiful tale, told in the angsty voice of Tyler Mills, a seventeen-year old guitar prodigy, who has recently lost his mother to cancer. Now that it's just two of them, Tyler finds it even harder than ever to connect with his father, whom he thinks is as uncommunicative and unimaginative as he is creative. When Tyler finds his mother's journals, he discovers a world of bea...

Where did the new year go?

I suppose I was supposed to write a new year's post. It's expected, isn't it? And yet, we're 12 days in and I'm just sitting down to write (Happy birthday, David!) or rather, starting and giving up on writing.

It could have been the distraction of just having come back from Australia.
Or the distraction of New Year's Day. (duh)
And the distraction of having to pack.
And well, now the distraction of um, landing in America for the first time ever.
(hello!)


My manager came up to pick my colleague and...

#fridayflash: Let me feel you shine

She was staring off into the distance.
He cocked his head to the right, studying her features in the dim light, trying to remember when they'd stopped talking and why. It felt as if a silence had just descended over them, turning them to petrified humans, left to sit at the mamak for eternity. 
"It doesn't quite work that way," she said, startling him. "It's darker than that. Deeper than that."
"What do you mean?"
"It's like I'm falling into a black hole. An endless black hole. It'...

#bookreview: The Soul of the World by Joshua Silverman

The Soul of the World by Joshua Silverman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Soul of the World picks up two years after the events in The Emerald Tablet. Leoros is stuck on earth, trying to get back to Potara and at the same time convince everyone that he is not insane. Kem rules Potara with Shirin by his side and have declared both Atlantia and Dio traitors. Atlantia still searches for the elusive Leukos. Dio is a depressed drunk and Axios is caught up in the resistance. Then the Brotherhood of the B...

2013: a year in review

I suppose I need to wrap up the year somehow.

Work life
A major milestone of the year, I suppose, would be that I completed 7 years with KPMG... and left. (Read my farewell post here.) Clearing off the backlog and cleaning up the table was an accomplishment in itself!

A feat only accomplished once in a lifetime... Writing life


It's nice to close the year with a new book on the shelves and to know it's been doing quite well, all on its own. Okay, I shouldn't say "new book" as if I've been doin...