Adventures in Sushi-land: Days 2 and 3

Japaaaaaaaaaaaan! I simply cannot get enough of it. Seven days is way too short to visit all of Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe, and Kyoto. Already, I miss Japan's weather (15-degree heaven), its cleanliness and tidiness, the graciousness of its people, its vintage architecture (because the land is mostly owned by the people so the government can't do much upgrading works) juxtaposed with its bustling subway stations and streets.

Growing up, I was fed a regular diet of Japanese drama and music (J-pop was huge in the late 90s! And who can resist the likes of Takuya Kimura and Takeshi Kaneshiro?), and the allure of Japan had never quite faded.

And being there at last, I wasn't disappointed in the least. Everywhere you go, everything is in order. It's like an OCD's safe haven. And every shot looks like something out of a postcard. Want proof?


Day 2: Yokohama and Tokyo

Right from touchdown at Haneda Airport

To Odaiba Park in Tokyo

The Rainbow Bridge

Where a mini statue of liberty stood

And then later at Asakusa Kannon Temple in Tokyo

Elementary school students all wear caps as part of their uniform, be it blue or yellow. Too adorable!

Citizens are staunchly law abiding. Japanese hate to be an inconvenience to others, which explains why they never litter and always clean up after themselves. You can hardly find a filthy washroom or litter on the streets. Everything is as neat and well-groomed as the people themselves, who always take the effort to dress up.

Yamashita Park in Yokohama

The Hikawa Maru ship

Back at our hotel, where our room had this cosy little area partitioned from the sleeping area.

Dinner in a random diner in a shopping mall.

Day 3: Tokyo Disneyland!

The hotel we stayed in, Art Hotels Omori, was all decked out and ready for Halloween.

Tickets to Disneyland!

Japanese babies are unbelievably adorable. I couldn't resist snapping a few sneaky pics of them, especially this curious little tot who sat next to me on the Wild Safari ride.

Carousals! Majestic castles! Happy children with candy floss and hotdogs! I know it's commercialised fun, but there's just something about amusement parks that get me excited like a child on her first voyage to Neverland.

The lovely Belle and her adoring fans

 

This little girl didn't want to let go of Belle! She hugged her for the longest time and had the happiest smile you've ever seen.

Yep, still holding on.

Peterrrrrrr! Those who know me also know of my strange obsession with Peter Pan. (I didn't write a whole novel inspired by the character for nothing.) Alas, we didn't manage to go on the Peter Pan ride because it was closed for renovation. I did, however, spot this cute little fan  roaming the park grounds.

This Donald had major swag going on.

Settling for a quick dinner before leaving Disneyland.

Our flight was a night flight so Day 1 was pretty much gone. But Days 2 and 3 definitely left a great impression. 

Up next, Mount Fuji and Matsumoto Castle! :0)

a few loose ends before flying off to sushi-land

One more week to Japan, and I'm scrambling to get as much work done before I leave - which explains my absence from this blog. From year-end projects at work to editing Neverland (yes, again) and planning for the next novel, Before I Remember You, to preparing a script for the Singapore Writers Festival panel (you know, just a brief outline of what I'm planning to say so I don't seem like an utter fool up on stage), I'm swamped!!

In the meantime, here's something that's been keeping me busy at work: ZALORA Community!

After a whole year of planning and writing and executing (back-end is waaaay more complicated than you'd think), after months of soliciting help from service providers and the IT team and coordinating with everyone in all the eight countries ZALORA is present in, after all the frustrating glitches and back-and-forth emails, this baby is finally born and ready to roll!

Not sure if I've explained it before, but Community basically a fashion/beauty/lifestyle/entertainment content site curated by in-house content managers at ZALORA (including me - I oversee all eight countries but I mainly handle the Singapore site). It's called Community because the content comes from a community of writers, in-house and external - bloggers, freelancers, anyone with the passion for trends and the ability to write a grammatically-sound and engaging article.

I'm super excited to grow this site, so if you're keen on contributing, send us your samples (all instructions can be found in the Our Contributors tab) and we'll take it from there!

Meanwhile, Neverland is calling. Will I ever be free of that magical place? Do I even want to be free of it? I want to live there! (And so does my critique partner - hi, Jenna! If I haven't said this already, I love my crit partner.)

Okay, back to the fourth round of edits for Neverland! And hopefully by the time I get back from Japan, I'll be ready to start writing Before I Remember You - just in time for NaNoWriMo!

Have a great evening, everyone! :0)

#ReadingList for October!

To read:
 
1. Two Years Eight Months and Twenty Eight Nights, by Salman Rushdie

Is this magical realism from Salman Rushdie? FINALLY.

2. Six of Crows, by Leigh Bardugo

If you haven't read the Grisha trilogy by this amazing author, do yourself a favour and pick it up from the bookstore today. Aside from Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy, it was one of the most richly imagined, vividly narrated YA fantasy stories I have ever read.

Needless to say, as soon as I heard of this spinoff set in the Grishaverse, I wasted no time in adding it to my to-read list. High-stakes heist? Sign me on! Plus, I read the sneak preview chapters of the book the Leigh shared, and it was everything I expected AND MORE. It's just mind-blowing, how she manages to come up with such intricate plots supported by stellar writing.

3. The Demon in the Wood, by Leigh Bardugo

Speaking of the Grisha trilogy, here's another story set in the Grishaverse. This prequel reveals the Darkling's past - back when Grishas were reviled and persecuted - that shaped him into the misunderstood villain he later became.

I can't say I have a soft spot for the Darkling, unlike a lot of other fans of the series (the cocky but charming Nikolai is more my cup of tea, along with sweet romantic Mal). But the Darkling isn't evil for the sake of being evil. He believed in his cause, and for that his backstory is worth reading. Besides, more from the Grishaverse - what's not to like?


4. Glass Sword, by Victoria Aveyard

HAVE YOU READ RED QUEEN. Go read it. Now.

While I wouldn't say I was completely, incorrigibly and incoherently smitten with it like I was with the Grisha trilogy of the DOSAB one (Laini Taylor is indomitable), this series by Victoria Aveyard is definitely a masterfully written piece of work. I'm not a fan of dystopian fiction by any stretch (which is why I'm not on the Hunger Games or Divergent bandwagon, sorry!), but this one drew me in with its high-stakes plot and unusual premise. All those twists! Be prepared to have the rug pulled from under you at any time.

So yes, sign me up for the sequel.


Currently reading: 

Magonia, by Maria Dahvana Headley

I've always been entranced by stories set in the sky, among the clouds. It's why I love Studio Ghibli's Castle in the Sky and Howl's Moving Castle (the latter a movie adaptation of Diana Wynne Jones's book) so much. And how dreamy does Magonia seem! Can I sail away to that kingdom in the sky already?


And speaking of books in general, here's the loot from the National Library book sale today!

I know, I know. As an author myself, I should be supporting other writers by buying their book first-hand and not at these secondhand book sales because none of the proceeds go to the writers for all their efforts. But in my defence, some of these, like Silksinger by Laini Taylor, are already out of print (trust me, I've looked everywhere for it).

And, you know, as long as people are reading and getting to know new authors, this is not an entirely bad thing. Right??

So Round Two tomorrow! Hope your weekend is a bountiful one too! :0)


Were you at the NLB book sale today? What titles did you get? Share your loot here - I'd love to hear from you!

It's time for #PitMad again!

Image from Middle Grade Mafia

It's harder than you'd expect, writing pitches no longer than 140 characters that are supposed to summarise your stories and entice agents to ask to read the full manuscript. But here's the final product for BLOOD PROMISE, NO ROOM IN NEVERLAND, and UNTIL MORNING:

#PitMad #YA A changeling struggling with her hunger for human souls forges an unlikely alliance with a long-lost fairy prince to stop a war.

— Joyce Chua Xiu Wen (@joycewrites2509) September 10, 2015

 

#PitMad #YA What starts out as make-believe adventures in Neverland escalates into schizophrenia for 17 y.o. Gemma who lost her mother there

— Joyce Chua Xiu Wen (@joycewrites2509) September 10, 2015

#PitMad #YA Lexi’s search for an elusive nocturnal painter ends when she finds herself trapped with him in her dreams after a car accident.

— Joyce Chua Xiu Wen (@joycewrites2509) September 10, 2015

#PitMad #YA When her brother is captured, April struggles to curb her craving for human souls, until she steals a dead fairy prince’s magic.

— Joyce Chua Xiu Wen (@joycewrites2509) September 10, 2015

#PitMad #YA Gemma, who lost her mother in the imaginary Neverland when she was 8, has to revisit it to find out what happened to her mother

— Joyce Chua Xiu Wen (@joycewrites2509) September 10, 2015

#PitMad #YA To save her brother, a changeling teams up with a fairy prince to stop a fairy-human war, where changelings are used as pawns.

— Joyce Chua Xiu Wen (@joycewrites2509) September 10, 2015

#PitMad #YA Gemma's search for her estranged parents brings her back to Neverland, where a terrible accident left her memory in pieces.

— Joyce Chua Xiu Wen (@joycewrites2509) September 10, 2015

#PitMad #YA Lexi meets Night in a dream when she falls into a coma, only to find that he is the elusive painter she has been looking for

— Joyce Chua Xiu Wen (@joycewrites2509) September 10, 2015

Just a couple of hours into PitMad (it started at 8pm and ended at 8am for me because time difference is not on my side) and there were already more than 400 tweet pitches. Can you imagine the total number of tweets in 12 hours?? How is an agent supposed to sieve through all that? The odds are high, but good thing there are some agents who tweet the following:

If I don't star your #pitmad tweet & you think we'd be a fit PLEASE query. There are over 20k tweets flying around (according to Twitter).

— Carly Watters (@carlywatters) September 10, 2015

So writer friends, did you #PitMad? :0)

Will I see you at Singapore Writers Festival 2015?

Back in late July, I received this lovely email from the National Arts Council (organisers of Singapore Writers Festival):

Upon which I proceeded to squeal, do a celebratory dance, and share the news on Facebook (thank you all for your kind words!).

I'm not allowed to disclose the full details yet, but I've just got the date, time, and venue confirmed! It sounds a bit obnoxious to say this, but mark your calendars for 8 November, 4.30pm to 5.30pm at the Asian Civilisations Museum, because that's where I'll be speaking with other celebrated writers (can't reveal whom yet, but I promise you'll love them!).

Watch this space for the full disclosure of details! I'm so crazy nervous but excited to see you guys there!! :0)

Confessions of an INFJ

This is kind of random, but I've been talking to a few INFJs lately (we make up just 1 percent of the population), and it's been so nice to find people who get you, get your weirdness, and are coasting right on your wavelength.

Some common things INFJs hear are:

"You hardly ever go out!"

"Man, you're boring."

"Why don't you ever want to do anything?"

"Are these the few friends you have?"

And really, it's not like that.

It's not that we hate company; we just need time to be alone every day. It's how we recharge.

It's not that we don't want to spend time with you; we just don't need to be with you all the time. Some space and distance isn't a bad thing. 

It's not that we hate going out; we just need a purpose for doing that. I've found myself aimlessly wandering the streets just because I went out for the sake of going out. But it felt completely meaningless and unstimulating. I've got more things to do at home - blog, read, write, scroll through Tumblr...

It's not that our social circle is small; it's just that want to focus more on every person in our lives. We regard personal relationships very seriously, so we want to know that the people around us are worth spending time and energy and effort on if we're going to invest so much emotion in them.

It's not that we don't want to open up to you; it's just hard for us to lay ourselves bare to someone who might decide not to care and/or walk out of your life the next minute, or after they realise what a neurotic bag of weirdness we are.

Sometimes, I wish I didn't feel so much, and am able to get over the hurt after listening to a song or something.

Sometimes, I wish I didn't over analyse things to death, or wear myself thin worrying about every little thing.

Sometimes, I wish I were an ENFP, so maybe things would be easier. I would find it easier to fit in, move on faster from things that bum me out, and internalise my emotions less.

But thank goodness for other INFJs. ENFPs may be super fun to hang out with, but I think at the end of the day it's the INFJs who really get you.

Fellow INFJs, do you feel lonely in a crowded world?

kicking off august with a bang

Been crazy busy at work last week with the setting up of our magazine community, so here's a quick update of what August has been like so far:

 Saw the derp lord, who was in town promoting his new movie:

Dove headlong into a book sale:

Met up with old friends:

 Got into the mood for the nation's 50th anniversary:

Then joined 200,000 people around the bay area to watch the National Day Parade:

The weather was breezy and cool - perfect for a parade.

The grounds were hella muddy where we were, but who cared really?

A nation built with love becomes a home. Happy 50th, Singapore. Thank you for everything you have given us. #sg50 #happybirthdaysingapore #recordturnout #broughtmetotears

A photo posted by Joyce Chua (@jcxw2590) on Aug 9, 2015 at 5:53am PDT

  

The Black Knights - or, as my friend Melissa put it, the lead guitarists of the Singapore Armed Forces.

The crowd was definitely left gaping in awe.

What's a parade without some fireworks to top it off?

It was one of those you-had-to-be-there kind of moments. Having so many people around you singing along to the National Day songs you learned (way back) in school, the camaraderie and feeling of togetherness was so palpable I couldn't help but tear up. I had already gotten emotional at this video tribute to the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew earlier on:


But when everyone sang along to the NDP classic, Home, in unison the floodgates broke loose. I sang with tears streaming down my face, and found that I wasn't the only one. This girl my age next to me was in the same state. It's funny how emotional you become, standing in the midst of such an outpouring of love and pride and gratitude for a country.



 How has YOUR August been so far? :0)