Archive for January, 2007

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I came across a post on BoingBong which collects together strange names of towns suck as Fucking in Australia and Dildo in Newfoundland - read more here.

Our most common response to such words is shock, horror and giggling. Some people use it regularly to indicate their subversiveness. Others because they are angry and these words seem to represent the extreme of verbal aggression.

In the recent Big Brother racist row, there was a huge hoo-ha when the Indian actress was allegedly called a “Paki”. In trying to defuse the situation, the TV producers confirmed she was actually called a “cunt”. The message seems to be: A racist slur is evil but a misogynistic one is fine and dandy….??!

All this talk of provocative/ abusive language reminded me of a 78 page academic paper by a law professor, Christopher Fairman, on the legal implications of the word fuck, simply entitled “Fuck”. You can download the whole treatise from Stanford Law School here. Or read a summary on the Social Sciences Research Network here. He analyses the impact of the word in different contexts and why it raises such a kerfuffle. A fascinating read if you have the stamina for all 78 pages!

Photo: thanks to blo#gstream.com

Following my invitation last week to Fusion View readers to send in photos of their gardens, regular reader Di from Durban sent in two pics of her garden in the heat of the African summer. How gorgeous to be able to splash about in your own private pool in the middle of January….

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I’m a gadget freak and I just love any new technology that’s clever and innovative - and useful. Dulwich Picture Gallery have a great new initiative, using PDAs (handheld digital devices) to enable visitors to interact with the beautiful Baroque art in its collections.

The PDA connects via wi-fi in the Gallery to a selection of art “trails ” that will take you to different paintings. There are questions and fun tidbits of information to discuss and debate with your friends, making the whole experience of visiting this art gallery interactive and very 21st century. That great innovator Leonarda da Vinci himself would have approved!

Here is a video of Ingrid Beazley*, E-Learning Programme Developer, talking to me about the DiGit Art Trails at the Dulwich Picture Gallery. I met Ingrid giving a demo of the PDAs at the Gallery this morning and asked her spontaneously to tell me about them, capturing it on my mobile phone and uploading it onto Fusion View within an hour of getting home - I just love the wonders of modern technology!

You can hire a PDA at the PDA desk when you go to the Dulwich Picture Gallery at weekends. It costs £3 on top of your entry ticket, which is pretty good value. To find out how to get there, click here. To find out more about the Gallery, go to http://www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/.

*Ingrid is also Chair of the Friends of the Dulwich Picture Gallery.

Disclosure: I am involved with the Friends of the Dulwich Picture Gallery as member of their film club team, GalleryFilm, and I am also helping them with their social media strategy. The Friends support the work of the Gallery by their annual subscriptions which in return give Friends discounts on Gallery events. The Friends also raise funds for the Gallery through active volunteer activities - for example, all profits from the film club go to the Gallery. To find out more about the Friends, click here

We’ve had traffic chaos and tragedy in the UK in recent weeks because of freakishly high winds. The photo below is from the BBC news website. Click on it to go to their site where there are other photos of chaos on the roads and elsewhere around Britain.

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It was so exciting to wake up and find the world all white with snow yesterday morning.

Here are some pics from our garden, taken by Angie, who was so thrilled she ran outside in her bedroom slippers.

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I was inspired to put these pics up by Fusion View reader Mel who sent me some of her frost photos just after Xmas.

Wouldn’t it be fun to see what other gardens look like this week? Since Fusion View readers live all over the world, it would be great to take a global tour of gardens during January here on these pages.

I’d love it if you took some photos of your garden this week and email them to me [ym at yangmayooi.co.uk] or send me a link to your flickr account - maximum 3 pics. Please feel free to add a short note about what drew you to those particular scenes or views or objects in your garden. If I like the pics, I’ll post them up to share them with our Fusion View community. (Copyright will remain with you.)

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I received a query from TK in response to my Writing Tips. TK asked: once a story is ready, who should a writer contact to get it published?

In some ways, the easy part is the actual writing of a story. Getting it out there and into publication is the challenge. So where do you start?

Novels

If you’ve written a novel and want to get it published in the UK, the first step is to get a literary agent. You can find agents listed in the Writers Handbook and the Writers & Artists Yearbook (both published annually - so get the most up to date ones). They will act on your behalf in submitting to publishers. This gives you the strongest chance of getting your work noticed by a publisher. For a more detailed insider’s view of what a literary agent does and how they can help you, listen to my podcast interview with a UK literary agent Lucy Luck - click here.

If you’re trying to get your novel published in Malaysia, I believe that the way you do it is submit it direct to the publisher. Eric Forbes, the books editor for MPH Books in Malaysia, gives useful guidelines at his blog - click here.

Short Stories

If you’ve written a short story, you should try and get it published in magazines and journals first before hoping for a book deal in the UK. It is much more difficult to get a collection of short stories published in the UK than a novel - especially if you have no track record of published work. Readers here tend to prefer novels so that is the primary market. Check out magazines and journals in the Writers Handbook and the Writers & Artists Yearbook and submit your story to them - make sure they are interested in short stories first, obviously. Payment is likely to be minimal. Once you have a published body of work, then you could try to get a publisher to put together a collection - the editors of the magazines you have published in may be able to suggest the best route for that. I do not have any experience of trying to publish a collection of short stories but I suspect that the process is the same for novels - ie to get a literary agent first.

There may be publishers who are actively looking for short stories to put into collections arranged by theme and featuring a range of different writers. You could try to seek those out. I do not know where or how you would find them but the Writers Handbook and the Writers & Artists Yearbook may be good places to start. Also literary / writing magazines and journals may publicise or advertise such ventures.

I believe that it may be easier in Malaysia to get short stories published in book form as that is the primary local market. I have no personal experience of this process but you might like to check out Ted Mahsun’s blog at http://tedmahsun.blogspot.com to see how he’s got his stories published - Ted is a regular Fusion View reader and commentor based in Malaysia, who is a great example of a tenacious and focused writer. For ages, he has been writing stories, sending them out for publication, getting rejections, picking himself up again and keeping writing. Last year, he had his first two stories accepted for publication and is starting to make a name for himself as a book reviewer, too.

Other Countries

These tips focus on the UK as that is my area of experience and I’ve mentioned Malaysian opportunities for publication based on what I’ve gathered from others.

If you have any tips about the publication process in other countries, please do add a comment or email me (see the Email Me link on the sidebar).

Or, if you have anything to add to what I’ve said here that could help emerging writers, do get in touch as well.

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Photo: thanks to wrtehereinfrance

Here’s your chance to own a piece of genius. The Tate has set up an appeal to stop a major Turner painting from going to an overseas buyer who has paid £5.8million to buy the painting. However, there is a temporary export ban until 20 March 2007. The Tate are trying to raise enough funds to keep the painting, The Blue Rigi, in the UK with an innovative new media campaign, offering the likes of you and me the chance to “buy a brushstroke”.

You can “Buy a Brushstroke” by clicking on a small square on the painting - or as many squares as you like and it will calculate the amount of your purchase for every click you make. Or if you prefer not to give in to your consumeristic, acquisitive urge, you can make a regular donation online as well! Find out more at The Art Fund.

As a global, fusion sort of person, I am ambivalent about the nationalistic tone of such campaigns to save great art “for Britain”. On the other hand, as someone who enjoys and appreciates art, I can understand why anyone, any group, any country and any nation might not want art that was made in their country by one of their own to go outside the “tribe”. Who does art belong to? Should it belong to anyone?

I’ve been reading “The Gift” by Lewis Hyde about the commoditisation of art and its impact on creativity, culture and society. A very simplistic summary goes something like this: Creativity is a gift. Creativity makes art. Art is a gift. Once you capitalise a gift (as in “being a capitalist”) by buying and selling it, what happens to the creativity? Does it become the servant of capitalism? Can you be still truly creative? (I haven’t got to the end yet but what I want to know is: if you don’t engage with capitalism as an artist, how are you going to pay the bills?)

Let me know what you think.

In contrast to last week’s film “Real Men Knit”, for those of you guys who prefer the smell of gasoline in the morning to the click of knitting needles, here’s how to make art with a chainsaw.

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What’s my image?

As a writer, I have been pitched into the public eye almost to my surprise. The trait of a successful writer is someone who can sit alone in a room for hours on end for as long as several years in order to complete a novel - and you have to like that solitude. Sometimes, I used to stay in my pyjamas all day and when the heating broke down in my flat, I sat in a sleeping bag with several big sweaters on, a woolly hat and fingerless gloves. And then my book was published and I was sent off in limousines and on business class flights to literary events, book signings, radio interviews and television appearances in London, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. I had to chat entertainingly about my book and myself and wear make-up and smart clothes and pose for photo shoots. All in the interests of raising the profile of my book. This was what the public out there saw, never knowing about the pyjamas and woolly hat…

I made it up as I went along, overcoming my natural stammer and worrying that my clothes looked smart enough and that I didn’t have lipstick on my teeth and most of all, hoping I didn’t say anything I would regret. After a number of years, I think I’m kinda getting the hang of it now but I still have trouble with lipstick…(as a hopeless tomboy, I always seem to smear it everywhere!)

So I was really curious to go to an event they organised by the City Women’s Network on How to Create and Maintain Your Image. Had I been doing it all wrong? Would they share some secret tips to make it all a bit easier?

Authenticity

First up was Aliza Blachman O’Keeffe, Executive Coach. Her message was for businesswomen and professionals but I found it applies equally to writers. Be your authentic self, she said, and it will be a strong foundation to build your image on. You can discover who you are by developing self-awareness and getting structured feedback from friends and colleagues. Authenticity builds trust in all your relationships, whether personal, business or in the public eye. Authenticity helps you to have confidence in who you are so you can perform with integrity in your own personal style. Hmmm, so this lipstick thing - if that’s not my authentic self, perhaps I can ditch it at last? And maybe I needn’t worry too much about being ultra smart provided I can be smart enough on occasions to be let into the Reform Club. And the fact that I sometimes spend all day in my pyjamas doesn’t have to be my dirty little secret…

Four Questions

Next was Jane Atkinson, image consultant, whose clients included the late Princess Diana. She was elegant and charming and it was intriguing to see her with the third speaker, Stuart Higgins who used to be the editor of The Sun, the tabloid that is known for its scandal hunting of celebrities, notably Princess Diana - whom it was Jane’s role to protect, of course. They were both amusing and witty about their professional enmity, Jane saying that she liked him better now that he was no longer at The Sun.

Given her experiences of the media from that unique perspective, Jane advised anyone looking to raise their public profile in the media to ask themselves four key questions. (i) Why do you want a higher profile? (ii) Who are you trying to reach? (iii) Are you prepared to face the bad with the good? (Once you’re in the public eye, there’s no going back!) And if the answer is yes, to all the above (iv) What is your message? Let’s see…. For me (i) I want my writing to have a higher profile so I can have a greater opportunity to communicate with people (ii) I’m trying to reach people who are interested in books and writing and who share my interest and curiosity in cross-cultural lives (iii) This is a tough one. I’ve had my share of bad reviews, like any writer, and it was a painful shock at first. Now, I take the view that everyone has their own opinion and their own preferences and I can’t expect everyone to agree with what I say or like what I say. But it can still sting, what can I say? (iv) And my message? It has to be: Hey, isn’t life interesting? Isn’t every single person’s life interesting and worth something?

Jane’s final word was a warning. Be careful - the media is difficult to work with and it’s not going to be what you think it’s going to be.

Papparazzi

Stuart Higgins, media consultant (ex-editor of The Sun) also peppered his advice with words of warning. And coming from him, I think you have to heed that warning. The media is mostly run by chauvinistic, ageing men, he said. Sport, sex and scandal sell papers. Women are not treated well. (But then, as one CWN member pointed out in the Q&A, neither is anyone else in the public eye!) Once you step into the public arena, you are public property and fair game. So, sometimes, it’s worth knowing when to shut up. Princess Diana was a master at handling the media while Camilla preserves a mystique by not engaging with the media - both successful strategies reflecting each woman’s different styles and personalities. On a hopeful note, he did say that the media does like to report on achievement stories, offbeat stories, stories that capture the imagination so there is opportunity for a good story to get out there.

I have to say his stories made me laugh but also made me worried. I started to have flashes of being hounded by paparrazzi taking photos of me in a bikini in a compromising situation on a yacht off the coast of Barbados, of coming out of nightclubs and being caught vomittig copiously onto the pavement. And then of course I snapped out of it and thanked my lucky stars that I had chosen to be a dull, quiet writer instead of a rock star, princess or football player.

Google yourself

Finally, Neville Hobson, new media guru sketched out the new frontier that is the blogosphere. From a show of hands, it looked like only a very small percentage of us blogged though a larger group listened to podcasts and read blogs. If you are reading this, then you are probably comfortable with the world of blogs and aware of the growing power of bloggers. For example, in the news today, I read that a blog campaign to remove Starbucks from the Forbidden City in China drew so many supporters that the palace museum is likely to take some action to encourage Starbucks to move outside the walls of the World Heritage site. This illustrates nicely the point that Neville was making that you - or your business - may already have a profile on the internet that you cannot control - like Starbucks in this instance - and it is worth finding out what it is (google yourself!) and considering carefully how you respond to it. Surveys show shifts in trust away from government, corporations and the “suits” to “people like us”. Thirtysomethings and younger folk receive news, information and entertainment on their mobile phones and on the internet. Many people look to peer opinions and recommendations online rather than to traditional sources of authority. Having an internet profile that you control eg through your website or blog taps into this audience. A blog with your authentic voice can build trust over time. But it does take commitment and an ease with writing online content and may not be everyone. Whether you blog or not, it is important to be aware of and to engage appropriately with net content about you.

In the lifetime of Fusion View over this last year, I have been aware that blogging has really taken off in a huge way in Malaysia and Asia - even among those who are not necessarily computer geeks or college students. Housewives, grannies, professional people and those who are over thirty all thrive online. Whereas in the UK, I get the sense that it still tends to be twentysomethings and computery types while the other groups are still taking their time to catch up. I wonder why that is. Anyone have any thoughts? For me, I love connecting with a fascinating range of people from all over the world through my blog and I’m enjoying writing more than when I sit down in a room all alone with my novel!

The New Me

So the evening helped me think about what my objectives are in engaging with the media, traditional and new: which is that I love being part of an interesting cross-cultural community, sharing ideas and writings. And what makes up my authentic self that I am sharing with you now: which means I will throw out the lipstick….

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For photos from the event, see my flickr account - click here

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On Saturday 24 February, I will be joining the inauguaral Breakfast Club for LitBloggers in Kuala Lumpur. The event is run by MPH Bookstores and will be at MPH Bangsar Village Phase II from 10am - 11.30am. MPH have invited me to speak about how blogging has helped me with my writing and give tips on how to get published in the UK. If you’re in KL that day, do come to the event and say “hi”. The other litblogger will be poet Sharanya Manivannan and I am looking forward to meeting her and hearing about the poetry scene in KL.

Eric Forbes, MPH’s book editor, has put up more details on his blog - click here.

How did this come about?

Well, just before Christmas, I made plans to go back to Kuala Lumpur for a week at the end of February. I emailed Sharon Bakar who blogs at www.thebookaholic.blogspot.com to let her know and ask if she would like to meet for coffee. Sharon is originally from the UK but has been living in Malaysia for over twenty years and is KL’s creative writing guru. I came to know of her through the global literary blogging community and we’ve been in touch via email and keeping up with each other’s blogs.

Anyway, Sharon suggested to MPH that they might like to involve me in an event and they emailed me to invite me to the Breakfast Club. I am thrilled to have a chance to meet readers, bloggers and other literary types at their event - and it will also be the first time that I will be seeing Sharon in person. It’s going to be a fun morning so I hope you can join us.

I hope also that they lay on a lot of coffee for the Breakfast part of the club - I’m arriving from London late the night before and I’ll need the caffeine to blast away my jet-lag!