010: Retrospectives and Returns
(A little late again. Mea culpa.)
To the new subscribers who joined at the end of December and the start of January, I swear not every edition of this newsletter is going to have a big announcement.
... That said, like the one before, this edition has a big announcement, albeit one that you've probably already seen on my social media. But first...
Support my work
Work-Life Balance – the multi-award-winning prose/comics hybrid co-created with Benjamin Chee
You can also get the Work-Life Balance bundle, which comes with the book, a mug, washi tape and more
Worlds Apart: A Conversation About Mental Health – a comic co-created with Nurjannah Suhaimi
HANTU – Spotify channel for the award-winning narrative series, Ghost Maps, and the talk show, Dead Air, both of which were co-created with Kyle Ong
An incredible comeback
Tales From Incredible Tales is a retrospective podcast produced by HANTU and Mediacorp. Kyle, myself and our excellent co-host, Raihan Yacob, chat about the cult classic Singaporean horror anthology series, Incredible Tales, with special guests—including Utt, the series' host across its thirteen-year run.
Kyle and I had previously sat down with Utt for our own podcast, Dead Air. The three of us had such a great time that we all agreed we needed to work together again in some capacity. As fate would have it, here we are, reunited almost a year later.
As much fun as we had on Dead Air, this was definitely a greater pleasure. We got to hang out with Utt a whole lot more, and even had a wonderful conversation over dinner about creativity and craft.
We also got to see just how hardworking and professional he is. The man was feeling under the weather for a lot of our shoot—yet, not only does it not show in the final product, but he remained just the sweetest guy on set to everyone in the crew.
We've got ten episodes this season, two of which are already out now. The first one is with Utt and the second's with another previous guest on Dead Air, Hafidz Rahman.
Chapter one
I'm stepping away from freelance work and cutting back on a lot of other projects over the next five months—to focus on finally finally finally finishing my novel.
August was the last time I touched the manuscript, when I rewrote the first thousand words from a first-person perspective. This month will be spent rewriting the rest of the 21,000 words I completed in Norwich, with March till June dedicated to hitting 80,000 words.
It was that residency in Norwich that really helped me create the blueprint for how to get this done. First off, I knew I needed my own space, so I'm renting a hot desk in Keppel. That also means keeping (more or less) office hours for my writing weekdays.
Another lesson I learned in Norwich was that a daily routine is important too. I'm still trying to figure out what that looks like for now, but I'm giving a morning walk from HarbourFront to Keppel a shot.
These first two days have been about warming up though. A lot of my mind's still locked in freelance mode, so I've found it really difficult to shake off the cobwebs. (Hell, I'm writing this portion of the newsletter on Monday morning 'cause I needed some way to kickstart my day, instead of jumping straight into the work.)
Don't worry though. I promise I'm being kind to myself. I knew there was no way I'd make the switch without missing a beat, so I'm taking it slow—and what's truly surprising is that I'm actually okay with taking it slow.
If you want to keep track of how I'm doing, I'll be posting a monthly update on Instagram Stories.
Animated attention
Felicia Low-Jimenez, head honcho of Difference Engine, appeared on CN938 last week to chat with Melanie Oliveiro about everything that's going on with the publisher. One of the things she spoke about was the Work-Life Balance animated series—how the deal came about, how Ben and I will be involved, and when we can expect to see it. You can listen to her interview here.
Ben and I also spoke with another news outlet last week. You can expect that interview to be out by the end of this month.
Look at this cutie pie
Links and things
This excellent video about Carl Barks had me in tears by the end.
I didn't know anything about Neil Kulkarni, a music journalist who passed away recently, until Kieron Gillen wrote at length about him in his newsletter. He linked to a couple of Kulkarni's articles and posts. The one that got my attention was his interview with Marilyn Manson, which included this brilliant bit.
Taken from Kieron's newsletter
I read the full interview and loved it, particularly because—when you consider what's been revealed about that absolute piece of shit—it's refreshing to see someone mostly not buying into his hype during the peak of his popularity.
After that, I devoured more of Kulkarni's stuff including his cleverly hilarious reviews of The Stone Roses' self-titled LP and Kula Shaker's K, as well as his love letter to the Wu-Tang Clan.
As Kieron put it when I @'ed him on Bluesky about Kulkarni, there's thirty years of him to look at—and I'll be devoting a decent number of hours this year doing just that.
Let's wrap things up
All right, that's it for now. As always, support my work.
And I'll see you in a little less than two weeks.