About Me
I am a journalist-turned-novelist. I have written and published three novels: The Hantu House, The Sungei Road Gang and The Pandemic Files. The Hantu House, a supernatural crime thriller published by Penguin Random House SEA, was recently nominated as for a Readers’ Choice Award by Southeast Asia’s bookstore chain, Popular Bookstores. The novel has also been optioned to leading Singapore filmmakers, Oak3 Films and Juo Studios, for adaptation into a TV series. I was formerly a senior editor with Singapore’s national broadcaster, CNA, in a 20-year career in journalism and produced many TV programs, documentaries, live & reality TV shows and won multiple journalism awards in Singapore. I am currently also an essayist and have written and published many opinion and commentary articles in The Straits Times and CNA. Besides being an author and an essayist I am a travel blogger with my own website: iglobaltrotter.com
FACT TO FICTION, JOURNALIST TO NOVELIST: MY WRITING JOURNEY
“Fiction is the lie that helps us understand the truth. ” Tim O’Brien
“Fiction reveals the truth that reality obscures.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
And this is what I aspire to do with my fiction.
I love writing fiction. It frees me from constraints of only writing facts as a journalist. You can’t twist facts as a journalist. You can as an author of fiction. I can be as inventive and imaginative as I like. And the writing depends on how the creative juices flow. I am a journalist turned author now. I can be as creative as I want. I can play God the creator with my storylines. I can soar like an eagle with my imagination. I wouldn’t want it any other way.
Kill your own mother and get away with perfect murder – can you? Of course you can, if you are writing fiction that is. You can even assassinate the US president or fall in love with a ghost.
But in real life? Hmm… I seriously doubt so – and that is a fact. And that is what separates fact from fiction. But even with fiction you have to stay anchored to reality and reveal the truth as best you can – as Emerson says. Otherwise it would not be credible. And as a writer, you won’t be true to yourself.
MY JOURNALISM DAYS
I was formerly a journalist with Channel NewsAsia (CNA) in a career spanning 20 years, starting off as a news reporter and leaving as a senior editor. I wrote and produced news stories and bulletins, current affairs stories and programs, documentaries and a stock market challenge reality TV show. I also won multiple journalism awards.
For the more personal side of me here’s my social media links:
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