A Penny For Your Thoughts, Down The Memory Lane, Fairy's Tale, writing

Time Tempest…

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As I was searching for some royalty-free pictures for the cover of my latest novel, ‘Time Tempest’, I stumbled upon some Wallpapers, and these are some of my favourite.

This one made me think of Astrea, the fairy princess in my novel, Royal Masquerade. The only thing that differentiate the character of my creation is that Astrea has dark hair, not golden haired.

I like this one too… but somehow, it’s rather cold and emotionless…

The last two pictures are my favourite… if only they are royalty free. *SOBS*

Excerpt from Time Tempest manuscript:

“No! Big brother, stay with me! Wake up! Oh, God, wake up, big brother. Open your eyes, stay with me!” she cried out as she cradled him in her arms, desperately hold onto him as if holding him tightly to her bosom like that would sustain his life a little bit longer.

She’s not sure why she’s here, and what is going on, but the memory of last night gave  her a huge pang of regret. He left home, left her, and now, he’s dying in her arms. Again, he’s going to leave her, and this time, forever. It doesn’t matter if it’s not real. It seems real enough to her. His then warm body is now becoming colder and colder with every passing seconds, and his heart did not beat with vitality. He’s slipping away, and not knowing what to do, she embraced him tightly as she would a lover and cried her heart out in devastation.

“I’m sorry… I’m so sorry big brother. Don’t leave me. I’m so, so sorry… come back to me. I’ll do anything… anything…. anything you ask of me…” she murmured into his ears incoherently, hoping so much that he would wake up and talk to her.

“Don’t… don’t leave me. I love you.” she told him, but of course, he could no longer listen to her sob of a begging and a confession. She wants him back. It doesn’t matter if it’s those hurtful words that sprung out of anger or jealousy that he’ll hurl at her. It doesn’t matter anymore. She’ll take that a thousand times than have this; him, silenced in her arms, breathing what could be his last.

“What wouldn’t I give… what wouldn’t I give to bring you back?”  his body was so cold, and he didn’t seems to be breathing anymore. Ellinia was now grieving beyond words as she held him tightly to her own body and weep.

“I love you. More than you could ever imagine. Even if it’s wrong. I love you.”she murmured, and as if to witness her grief, she heard a sound that is similar to those of loud pendulum and ticking clocks echoing everywhere. She gasps at the familiarity of the sound. She heard this before when she was ‘dreaming’ about her and Zephyr. The only difference was that this time, it’s much louder and a lot more intimidating than the ones she heard before. The synchronization of the ticking clocks made a queer melody.

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A Penny For Your Thoughts

Maybe it will be fun…

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Maybe, it will be fun to see the world from a different angle. You see, ever since 2010 ended, I’ve been doing awful lot of thinking and loads of trips down the memory lane. While the year 2010 was quite a blast and was one of my happier and more fulfilling year than the ones before, it does have some… what do you call it… upsetting things that I could not get out of my mind. Things I wish I could forget but most probably will remember for the rest of my life.

Things that I couldn’t really confide in others because it’s bitter to the point that I am not sure if people would understand unless they were placed in the same position I was. Oh, well, I’m certain that some would understand, after all… I don’t doubt that there were many other women who were placed in the same position I was, by choice or by sheer, damnable circumstances.

There are things I wonder…you see… I feel somewhat detached… you know… crazy author kinda thingie. I just finished my 2010 novel, and I feel ridiculously empty and overwhelmed…VERY OVERWHELMED… I missed my characters and stuff, I sorta feel like an empty nest syndrome here but at the same time, I feel so worn out and exhausted and therefore, I decided to take a little break from writing until 14th January 2011.I kinda thought that a little break from writing would do me good.

But I am not quite sure if it’s a good thing or not… trying to be lay back abit is kinda hard… cuz when I don’t really get myself occupied, I started to thing about things… weird things…like… how is it like to be the other woman… or having an affair…or about… second chances… you know, that sort of things.

I don’t know what’s going on with me… really, I don’t. Mid- age crisis? I am not sure… I am not even a middle ager! Perhaps the not writing thing makes my head goes looney. Or maybe, I just plainly wonder how it feels like… after all, men do it all the time, no matter from what age or era they come from. They cheat on their wife and go to their pretty mistress with perfume behind their knees all the time, and I kinda wonder… wonder how it feels like to be in such women’s position.

It must be fun huh? Doing hanky panky things behind your spouse’s back… taking phonecalls and being sending secretive smses when your other half is not watching… or rejecting phone calls and lying to your spouse’s face saying it’s a wrong number or even telling them that it’s nothing… it’s just spam. It must be fun sneaking out and leave your spouse to deal with dirty diaper of messy feeding time too.

It must be really fun… being the other woman too… you see…you can wear like a tart and get complimented by it, and you don’t have to clean up after the guy or cook for him or deal with the nasty, shrewed, mother in law.

It’s part of the package of being a girlfriend to a married man or a mistress to a married man. Being a kept woman is nice, I guess, and I suppose everyone loves to be appreciated. It’s even nicer that we get to spend men’s money and he won’t complain about it being expensive or over budget too.

I guess that is why some women goes after married man and place a ‘single, but having an affair with a married man’ label on their forehead. It’s nice. All you need to do is inspire the man to have sex with you… have fun with him… listen to him and not nag(cuz you don’t actually have to, you don’t have to give a damn since you’re not exactly living 24/7 with him)…and you don’t have to clean or actually look after him cuz it works differently when you’re a mistress or a kept woman.

*sigh* maybe it will be fun exploring such world…so I think… this year… I’m going to get out of my comfort zone abit and write about such men and women instead of the fairy-tale like stories where men are handsome and rich and impossibly faithful and loving spouse, because the truth is…there is no such things.

Things get really, really boring at some point and men started to take their wives for granted after two or three years of marriage. And things gets even more worst and mundane with the arrival of those red, wriggly things that requires a lot of house-training. Yes… reality is… marriage equals to mundane and boring after some point, and many people wonders what it’s like to have an affair. Men wonders and look for an affair most of the time… they have an affair most of the time… and I kinda wonder how it would be like to be the other woman instead of you know…the victim of an affair.

Affairs… might be messy, but they might give you some sweet feelings and stuff… so yeah… 2011 is gonna be quite an adventure for me, cuz I’m stepping out of the box and write about such women instead of the disgustingly romantic men that does not, and will never exist. Okay… this year… I’ll be writing about “Bitching 101”

Anyway… not that I’m encouraging extra-marital affairs, but my advice to single men who wants to seduce married women into an affair: Never ever say your mother is an angel… or how you adore your mother… that’s a complete turn off, trust me… such things… such respect and such admiration towards your mother, just works on single, naive women not on an already married woman. And another thing…unless you’re prepared to learn how to cook instead of eating out and clean up after yourself…don’t ever think of seducing a married woman.


Cleffairy: Having responsibility and playing house is not part of the deal when you have an affair with a married woman or married man for that matter.It’s a huge turn off and disgusting. Having an affair is all about NSA, is it not?

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A Penny For Your Thoughts, writing

From this day forward…

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Dear all…

From this day forward until 1st Dec 2010, please do not be alarmed if you don’t see me around online. If you don’t see me around, that doesn’t mean I’m dead or I’ve been abducted by aliens for experimental purpose.

I’ll be on a very dangerous mission… I’ll be attempting my yearly novel writing challenge again. Yes, I did it again. This will be my 6th year attempting to write a novel with at least 50,000 in just 30 days. So please do not… uh… disturb me… unless you want to give me $$ or you intend to ask me out and feed me with yummylicious food.

Yep, yep, I’m participating in NaNoWriMo again this year. But instead of just being a normal participant, I’m a volunteer too this year (which means, triple the fun, triple the work). This year around, I’m a Municipal Liaison for Elsewhere in Asia Region for NaNoWriMo, and I’m praying very hard that I won’t screw up.

After all, the folks in that region are depending on me for encouragements and I know some believe I’m some sort of a super hero as well. LOL. See the pic below? Well, that’s my special web badge, awarded by the people in Office of Letters and Light. They’re for ML only. 😀 (Okie, I feel like Fairy in Gotham City already… all right!)

I can imagine my old readers rolling their eyes somewhere out there. Yeah… I’m on my mad fairy mode again. Those who don’t know what I’m talking about… well, I’m talking about NaNoWriMo.

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. It’s is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-words) novel by midnight, November 30. (But every year, I have a personal goal of hitting 100,000 words… so yea… I’ll be quite a monster every November each year)

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It’s all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.

So, exactly what do you do for this crazy literary event? Here is what:

What: Writing one 50,000-word novel from scratch in a month’s time.

Who: Everyone who is crazy enough to answer this challenge.

Why: The reasons are endless! To actively participate in one of our era’s most enchanting art forms! To write without having to obsess over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from our novels at parties. To be able to mock real novelists who dawdle on and on, taking far longer than 30 days to produce their work.

When: You can sign up anytime to add your name to the roster and browse the forums. Writing begins November 1. To be added to the official list of winners, you must reach the 50,000-word mark by November 30 at midnight. Once your novel has been verified by their web-based team of robotic word counters, the partying begins.

Okay, enough crapping, folks. Remember, if you don’t see me around… please don’t mourn for me yet, thank you very much. Oh yea… wish me luck. 😀


Cleffairy: Goes off to stock up on her tea, junkfood and cook some food so that she can conveniently reheat during her little adventure. 😀

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A Penny For Your Thoughts, Down The Memory Lane, writing

When two worlds collide…

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What’s the 5 most horrible thing that could ever happen to an author?

1. Plagiarism

2. Author’s block

3. The world in the book and reality collides, and strange things that’s supposed to happen only in the books started to happen.

4. Falling in love with the characters that he/she created and started to believe that they are real, and the worst thing is the author would sometimes mistakenly address the people around them as one of the characters he/she created.

5. The main characters started to be overshadowed by the supporting characters, and the supporting characters started to take the lead and rocking the entire world inside the story.

This entry is going to sound rather queer but please bear with me, because right at the moment, I’m experiencing no. 3, 4. and 5. I’m not quite sure if that is normal. It’s a tad too much, isn’t it?

I know no. 1- 2 is pretty common among authors, and if you’re an author/someone who exercised writing regularly, you would probably complain about it at least once in your lifetime, and you could easily find a forum or a discussion board on how to solve that particular problem by merely Googling it.

Call me weird, or even lunatic, but I think writing is an acceptable form of Schizophrenia. Only through writing, unleashing a few characters in one body is acceptable. It is not only acceptable, but an author would be considered good at what he/she is doing if they are able to unleash a few characters on empty pages and make the characters believable. Yes. It is definitely an acceptable form of Schizophrenia.

I have no scientific explanation for what I’m experiencing at the moment, as  I am not an anti social. I go out to chill and relax pretty often with my friends and family, and I swim at least once a week as well too. It couldn’t be that I have ‘no life’ that my brain had been forced to believe that that world and the people that I’ve created is real.

My only logical take on what I’m experiencing is probably that the brain is a very powerful programming device that could program the body to believe in almost everything and make things happen, including the queer and the impossible or that my brain is quite tired that it has difficulties shifting from one world to another. I don’t know how I’m supposed to deal with no. 3 and no.4. Perhaps it is just a temporary insanity, and as long as it doesn’t ruin my life, I suppose, I can deal with it.

But I definitely know how to deal with no. 5. When the main characters in your story started to be overshadowed by the supporting characters, and the supporting characters started to take the lead and rocking the entire world inside the story, all I can do is make the best out of it and use the unplanned change of event to my advantage and just write. Sky is the limit, and creativity knows no bound.

Cleffairy: Life is just like having problem no.5. When certain things started to overshadow another, and certain chain of event started to occur and confuse you, all you can do is not dwell on it. Instead, just make the best out of the situation, and use it to your advantage. Wouldn’t you agree with me on this?

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A Penny For Your Thoughts, Cleffy's Pillow Talk, Fairy's Tale, Product review, Time Heals What Love And Reason Cannot, writing

Bedroom furniture

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Sleeping is a pleasure. Making love is a pleasure. And as an author, I often describe bedrooms and bedrooms furniture in the house or mansion of my protagonists with pleasure and extensive details so that my readers would be able to imagine how the bedrooms and the bedrooms furniture in the story looks like.

They’re often romantic and suits the character’s personality. They’re often sky blue, white, a contrast of black and white, or even glaring red, but never pink. Pink is too girlish for the strong characters in my books.

In Royal Masquerade, my most recent romantic- fantasy novel, the main characters, would spend their time in the bedroom every now and then. Fights, quarrels, making up were the scenes that’s usually played in the bedroom.

The characters too, would often have breakfast in bed, surrounded with luxurious bedroom furniture, but of course, they don’t dine in their bedroom day in, day out. That would sound lame and overdoing the romance between them.

Breakfasts, lunch and dinners were commonly done in the dining hall of their Mansion, the Darklord Mansion. I didn’t put much emphasize in the dining room furniture, though. As the dining room furniture serves it’s purpose where various monster fights ensues, and at some point of the story, dining room furnitures  were destroyed beyond words. Yes, it is safe to imagine that in Royal Masquerade, there are falling chandeliers as well as rampaging serpents in the dinning room, but I can assure you that there would be only romance and heated arguments in the bedroom scenes.


Cleffairy: Dreams are not only for sleeping.

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Fairy's Tale, Giveaways/freebies, writing

Masquerade@Irenelim Fashion ep.2

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This is the continuation of the previous story. Click HERE to read it.

And so, with the help of Astrea’s guardian cat and the beautiful good witch, the fairy princess finally made up her mind to choose the Rosette Neckline Silky Dress With Waist Tie from Irenelim Fashion online boutique after pondering on which dress she should wear to the masquerade.

Earlier on, she didn’t really know which dress she should choose, but in the end, a sense of deja vu washed through her when she saw that dress. It’s actually the same dress she wore back then when she was in her own realm. It was not sexy…it’s just plain and demure, almost fairy-like.

The dress she chose features an organza overlay embellished with an exquisite neckline topped with rosettes. Romantic and innocent. It was just like the dress that she have worn when she first met the devil king in the times before her memories were erased by the evil sorceress. Something just tugged to her heart to get that dress, despite the fact that other dresser are much more sexier would get more attention from the crowds.

The dress was delivered to her just before the masquerade, and without further ado, she puts on the dress that came from Irenelim Fashion, and rushed to the masquerade.

Unlike Cinderella, Astrea were not late to the masquerade. In fact, she was punctual, and there was a crowd of horny ladies with sexy, revealing dresses who lusts after Narcissus, the one whose heart actually belongs to her.

After five minutes being in the masquerade, Astrea felt uncomfortable with the snickering around her. The people who were attending the masquerade said she was too plain, and a girl like her shouldn’t be attending such a posh event hosted by one of the town’s most eligible bachelor.

Narcissus who was in his human form, on the other hand, were completely bored with the mortals’ antics and wondered to himself why humans are so lusty and vain. For a the briefest moment, he contemplate on destroying the humans who attended the masquerade. It was completely an eyesore for him to see the mortals antics.

Then he caught a glimpse of something familiar. A petite figure that stood in front of a door, contemplating to leave and she resembles his fairy princess. His heart skipped a few beat before restarting with a resounding thud. That’s her! That’s Astrea, the love of his life, his Queen, the one who vowed to love him til her soul is no more and she was about to walk away from him before he could even have the chance to get close to her. He couldn’t be wrong. He could recognize her anywhere, despite the fact that she hid her face beneath the masquerade mask.

Alarmed, Narcissus made way towards her in order to stop her from leaving the mansion, but much to his chagrin, the mortals who were attending the masquerade began to flock him, thinking that they will have a chance with him as long as they danced with him.

Feeling insufficient and self conscious, Astrea turn around to leave, but the good witch appeared out of nowhere and stopped her from leaving. The good witch told her that she would regret if she leave, and that the love that she craved for all this while is just a few steps away.

Astrea laughed, almost mirthlessly at the witch’s words. She told the witch bitterly that nobody would ever want a plain girl like her. Finally escaping the mortals, Narcissus finally managed to get to where she was standing, just in time to hear the conversation between Astrea and the beautiful witch.

“You could never be plain, princess…” Narcissus said as he held a single stalk of rose in his hands and offered it to her.

“Would you honour me with a dance?” he then asked her, bewitching her completely. Absent- mindedly, as if under an enchantment, she agreed, earning gasps of disbelief from the people around her. Envious whispers were on air, but both of them take no heed of it.

They dance the night away in each other’s arms, never wanting the night to be over and wishing that time could just stop for both of them.

The witch who was present at all time watched thoughtfully, hoping hard that they would end up together.

So… ladies and gentlemen… did they end up together? Did Astrea’s memories return to her and did Narcissus managed to win her heart all over again? Only time will tell, but for what it’s worth, thanks to the efficiency of Irenelim Fashion online boutique’s crew, the fairy princess managed to go to the masquerade without hassle. You might want to check them out… who knows you’ll get yourself a magical time of your life with a little bit of their help?

Cleffairy: This is just a teaser. In the real Royal Masquerade, Narcissus never did pursue Astrea that way; by hosting a masquerade. He hired her as a live in nurse instead, and they were already in a relationship when they attended a masquerade. Do note that this is not a paid post, but rather a creative review of Irenelim Fashion products and service. Kindly head over to their webbie to find out more about them.

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