Anna Tan's Blog, page 122

#atozchallenge: Kitkat

Have a break, have a Kit Kat.



Remember that slogan? So here's a commercial break for you:



Submissions for the LOVE IN PENANG anthology closes in 18 days. What are you waiting for?





P/S several FAQS answered here:

1. Yes, we do accept international submissions.

2. Yes, the story needs to be based in Penang, Malaysia

3. Yes, you will get 5 free copies of the book if your story is accepted.

4. Yes, there will be some form of monetary compensation (so says Amir) but I don't know what or...

#atozchallenge: Jelly bean

This is going to be a short post. I'm down with the flu and having a blinding headache.

Since my word for the day is jelly bean, here's some to cheer you up. Hope you get a good flavour. :)


http://www.jellybelly.com/Shop/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=98101

#atozchallenge: Ink

Harry had the worse handwriting in the world. Imagine a doctor in a hurry, and you'd get something that approximated Harry's writing on a good day. Imagine someone writing poorly in Jawi, and that would be Harry's writing on a bad day. It made his teachers tear their hair out and sometimes twist his ears, especially if he had used an ink pen, which resulted in multiple ink smudges all over the page.



The Inkwell (TM) advertisement caught his eye one day after he had emerged from his form teac...

#atozchallenge: Hammer

It was like using a hammer to kill a fly, or so they said. It didn't matter, she thought, as long as something died. It didn't help that she was sleepy and hungry and overall feeling extremely overwhelmed. There was no fly. But there was a hammer. And the hammer was gleaming in the bright office lights, enticing her.



She picked it up. It seemed to be almost humming to her, a soft simple song that resonated within her chest, magnifying her murderous impulses. It was mesmerizing. She tore her...

#atozchallenge: Gum

If there was one thing that really annoyed Natalie, it was stepping on chewing gum. There was that unpleasantness of the sucking feeling on the sole of your shoe when you first stepped on it, the embarrassment of unwittingly picking up stray pieces of tissue paper (or other kinds of rubbish that accumulated on Malaysian roads) as you tried to find a convenient place to stop and then the difficulty of trying to scrape off every piece of gum off from your shoe without tearing a hole in your so...

Selah

This weekend has been one of those kinds of days where you realise really random things.



Like for one, the teeny weeny little drummer boy is now... *drumrolls* taller than me and learning how to drive.



And for another, the reason I don't like this person is because I feel he treats me as a non-entity, just by the way he talks. Or rather, just by the way he excludes me from his conversations, even though I would say I have a vested interest in it.



Also, if you're really passionate...

#atozchallenge: Flag

They said to raise the flag. They didn't say whose. So I raised the flag I saw fit. I raised the flag of truth and righteousness, of justice and mercy and equality. I raised the flag of democracy, the rule of the people, elected by the people, for the people. I raised the flag of unity, of a nationhood and citizenship beyond race and religion, ethnicity and language. I raised the flag of meritocracy and fair dealings. 




Red, for the blood of the martyrs, killed by those who were...

#atozchallenge: Elevator

Oh, the things you do when you're stuck in an elevator alone, after calling for help of course. There's nothing to do but wait while the response team comes - you start to wonder if there will be a cute firefighter amongst them who might just strike up a conversation that would lead to a date (or maybe just some drinks first) and then you'd fall hopelessly, helplessly in love and get married.



After a while, that daydream fades away as the firefighters (or rescuers) take too long to arrive a...

#atozchallenge: Dart

She was sitting in the park reading a book when she noticed the young man staring at her from over the hedge.

"What do you want?" she asked, almost rudely, annoyed at being distracted from Dr Ransom's encounter with the Hross. She thought vaguely that he looked rather familiar - probably someone she had met before, or someone from her library?

"I was just passing by," he said.

She gave him a flat stare, then turned back to her book. Minutes later, she lifted her eyes again. "Haven't you fini...

#atozchallenge: Corkscrew

There were days when the hurt inside was too much to bear. It was on those days that she would sit at her dining table at dusk, staring at the lone bottle of liquor that someone had bought ages past and had never opened. She'd forgotten who or when. A past housemate, maybe, or a past boyfriend. But they hadn't had a corkscrew then, and she didn't have one now, and even if she did, she wasn't sure if she would be able to drink past the first sip. She never had.

Instead, she would sit, staring...