Anna Tan's Blog, page 82

Coexist: preorder is available!

So an update on the writing front! (Since I don't do much of those)
Today I got my dad to print out my final final copy of Coexist so I can do a final read/proof before uploading it to Smashwords and Amazon. Well, he actually printed it Friday night but I came home late and didn't realise that he did until he told me. So I technically "got" it today. Goal for Monday: READ THE WHOLE THING WITHOUT DYING. (Of embarrassment or excitement, either one.)
And! The final cover has just arrived in m...

#fridayflash: A new beginning

Julian hated new beginnings. They tended to emphasise how much he had failed in the previous task. Instead of hearing "look, you get to start over" all he got was "look how many times you've already failed." Because if he hadn't failed, he wouldn't have to start anew, would he? No. He would just have continued building on his successes and become even more successful.

A new year was always a new beginning, so he always felt depressed at the start of the year, wondering how and why the last yea...

#bookreview: Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho

Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I am probably superbly biased in rating this book, because, well, Zen Cho.

I first read one of Zen Cho's works when she submitted to my anthology, Love in Penang. My first reaction was WHO IS THIS PERSON AND WHY HAVE I NOT HEARD OF HER? I have read several of her online works since then, but also, being a picky AND distracted reader, I have yet to get round to her award-winning Spirits Abroad. (I should! I will!) Sorcerer to the Crown ("SC...

#musicmonday: Make Us Ready | Harvest Bashta

A prayer for the new year.

Sign up to host COEXIST!

So I'm gearing up for the new year and one of the first things on my schedule (besides the upcoming Easter play) is the launch of Coexist.

Coexist , in its first incarnation, was the 2014 A to Z Blogging Challenge, where I wrote 26 pieces of flash fiction about fairy creatures from A to Z. It's gone through a few rounds of edits, sent for beta reading, been re-written a few more times, retitled a couple of times and now... now I think I'm almost ready to let go of it. In my head, all I nee...

2015: a year in review

This year has been crazy, both in real life and on the blog.


I don't know where 17K views came from in August because I don't recall that I actually did anything special in August. April spikes are always from the A to Z Challenge and sometimes November is NaNoWriMo, except I flunked out of nano this year.

Wait. Total pageviews for the year is almost double last year's. What's going on here? (96K vs 53K). Okay, I suppose I was a little more consistent with my Wednesday #bookrevie...

#bookreview: The Cyborg Chronicles by Samuel Peralta

The Cyborg Chronicles by Samuel Peralta
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The problem with rating an anthology, of course, is that every single story is written by a different person and it's incredibly difficult to give a general rating to such a diverse collection.

Anyway, I'll try.

Foreword - Samuel Peralta: I thought this would be a foreword, but no, it reads like a short story!

The Regular - Ken Liu: I've only read one story by Ken Liu before (The Paper Menagerie) and thought that a brilliant piece o...

Lazy pasta for lazy people

I'm only writing this post because I just made pasta for dinner, being too incredibly lazy to go out and find something to eat, and because I remembered that someone once told me (when I told him/her - I forget who) that this would be an invaluable resource for lazy people worldwide!

Well, I can only hope.
(Also, I am totally procrastinating.)

Well, the only things you absolutely need to make lazy pasta are:
1) a microwave,
2) an electric kettle,
3) a microwaveable bowl,
4) quick-cook pasta and
5) pr...

#bookreview: Grudging by Michelle Hauck

Grudging: Birth of Saints Book One by Michelle Hauck
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Colina Hermosa is under siege, and in a last ditch manoeuvre, Alcade Julian Alvarado sends his two sons and some of their pelotón on a secret mission into the swamps to seek help from the witches, their traditional enemy.

Ramiro, his younger son, wonders why he is in this elite group, seeing that he is only a bisoño, yet to earn his first kill and be counted as a man. But when the mission falls apart tragically, he has...

#musicmonday: He is Born! #Christmas

And look! It's finally a Christmas song!

We'll be singing this at our Christmas Eve show this Thursday. See you there!