Rabiah's Hijrah: Gedung Kuning & Kilat Senja

It's been two weeks since my last posting and I've been "sitting on an egg" ('mengeram' in Malay, or 'incubating', the process by which the mother hen warms her eggs so they'll develop from a fluid yolk into breathing, chirping, hopping, pecking, fluffy yellow chicks).

I've also re-read the Kite Runner by Khalid Hosseini to get ideas on developing characters and dialogues, spent hours at MPH and Borders at the Curve to study titles, by Asian writers, which have won literary awards.

In a way, that was both inspiring and intimidating since it made me wish that I had the benefit of a 'writers' support group' that would provide me with precious insights and encouragement. So, I googled for 'writing groups' but just found Sharon Bakar's and Silverfish's creative writing workshops which have limited places and specific time frames.

Be that as it may, while waiting for a writing coach to flutter down from 'writers' heaven', I'll continue with the background research so as to verify pertinent information. I found from a video on Kaki Bukit, which I will post along with those on Geylang Serai in the sixties, that the late Yusoff Latiff was not a passer-by but was a resident of Kaki Bukit.

And in surfing the net, I also found titles by two intrepid female writers, Hidayah Amin and Assoc Prof Hadijah Rahmat. It took Hidayah five years to compile her book and Hadijah 26 years to complete her research. But I'm not a patient 'mother hen' (literally 'ibu ayam' in a positive sense) who could wait that long to see my manuscript into print. Thus, I resolved to write and/or edit at least a page a day, insyaAllah!