Racism, sexism, xenophobia; it’s important to know both a person’s good and their bad — Recently I wrote an article on how Enid Blyton enthralled and shaped millions of childhoods through her vivid depictions of mystery and intrigue. I spoke about how she inspired me, and many others, to pen our own stories and become authors ourselves. That was Part I. Part II will cover…

AKA the scary type of sad — By now we all know what depression is. It’s a mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest, also known as anhedonia, over a period of at least two weeks. Insomnia, loss of appetite, loneliness, lethargy, an upset stomach, and headaches are some of the…

She’s probably responsible for turning hundreds if not thousands of children unto the path of fiction-writing in whatever form — Hundreds of years ago, when I was a young boy, I was unsullied by the dank pincers of cynicism. My mind was imaginative, inquisitive, open to wonder and frolic. And one of the reasons behind that was the woman who created the two characters depicted above: Enid Blyton. Since I…

I’d forgotten how caustic and biting it can be — This headache was a non-factor three years ago. I was used to it. It was an eternal, omnipresent phenomenon. Amid panic attacks that raised my pulse to one-eighty, crippling loneliness, and the near-constant barrage of suicidal thoughts, the headache was a lesser evil. Then my problems seemed to abate. Over…

Censoring runs counter to the accurate representation of everyday life — I’ve been an avid reader for eighteen years and a writer for four. Before taking up the proverbial pen myself I never paid attention to reviews. I saw a book, I read the blurb, I liked it, I bought it. But these days I read reviews of my own novels…

And replace them with extended scenes with subtle exposition — I’ve been a published writer for four years. But I’ve been a reader for eighteen years. Every observation, every piece of judgement, every point of criticism I’ve made across the hundreds of books I’ve read has gone into my own writing. One point of criticism I’ve consistently made is how…

And what to do if you have them — I recently wrote an article on recurring nightmares. While researching it I came across a term known as parasomnia. I knew not what it was, I knew not what it meant. But I did know it was one scary word. My mind immediately jumped to paranormal activity and I read…

In some ways, it’s even better than John Wick — I’m a fan of action movies, specifically those involving hand-to-hand combat and minimal shaky cam usage. I discovered this fondness upon watching the genre-defining John Wick and its sequels. Since then I’ve been constantly on the hunt for movies that capture that tone. My latest discovery is an Indonesian action…