Being an avid reader all my life, no fiction has fascinated me more than the 2 latest and most popular fantasy fiction “Lord of The Ring” and of course, “Harry Porter.”
For as long as I’ve lived, I do not remember having the passion for writing…, until recently, thanks to JK Rowling. I remember when I had to move to Penang for 4 years to do my degree, and with my best friend Mooi reminding me to write back as often as I could, I went up north with a truly heavy heart. One becoz I never liked writing, in fact, I hate writing (just no patience for it) and two becoz I have never had to leave home for such a long period of time in my life, and being so far away from home alone.
Needless to say, I missed home like crazy when I was there, and not having my best friend around the neighborhood for me to barge in anytime to story her my day’s encounters nearly drove me up the wall (my best friend stayed 1 road away from mine). Being a lazy writer didn’t help matters. Then one day, I was at the student club, when I saw them initiating a student campaign. I saw this paper posters that they went around pasting on the notice boards in campus. It’s just a plain big piece (double A3 size) of white paper with the USM logo and banner at the top. It gave me an idea. I went up to them and asked for a few pieces.
Each day when I got back to my room, I’ll take out the poster, pen a few lines (if I don’t have much to say but just to whine) or a paragraph (the most, if I have something more to share), and what I did was, I will ensure each paragraph or each line is accompanied with some pix (some are drawn by yours truly, some are actual pix) to elaborate my point. Example, for the purpose of an assignment. I went to the library and lugged back 4-5 thick books on nothing but snakes, pored over them in my room until I got a phobia of them (the image of the snake skin now sends the chill down my spine). The worst was a picture of a white snake. To elaborate my point, I tore off that pix from the library book (uuh… did I say tear? no I did not….. ), folded it and pasted it in the poster where I wrote abt my assignment and my developing fear of snakes. When I finished writing on 1 piece of the poster, I’ll fold it up and post it to her in an A5 size envelope. So in one sitting, she’ll be able read a snap shot of my...., what, 2-3 weeks happening of my campus life in that 1 poster, with many pix attached sometimes. Not bad, eh?
Anyway, where was I? I forgot….. Oh yes, JK Rowling...
After having watched Harry Porter, I went and googled about the writer in Wikipedia, out of curiosity and to my surprise, read about her “rags to riches” life story. Can you imagine, she was practically living on welfare at one point of her life before she progressed to a multi millionaire within a span of 5 year. The story of Harry Porter was conceived whilst on a train trip from Manchester to London and was perfected and completed through a marriage divorce, a period of clinical depression, a period of mourning over the loss of her mom, and having to look after a daughter, etc. And against all odds, she made it through them all.
The 2008 Sunday Times Rich List estimated her fortune at £ 560 million ($ 798 million) ranking her as the twelfth richest woman in Great Britain. The Harry Porter books that she wrote gained worldwide attention, won multiple awards, sold more than 400 million copies, and been the basis for a popular series of films. Her books have been translated into 64 different languages!
My, what admiration I have for this woman – JK Rowling
10 more days to World Cup.. yeeehaaaaaa...........!!!!
Blog name – carrot head and applemint
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