Blog Hopping

During a spare hour this afternoon while my oldest daughter was colouring, my youngest daughter was sleeping, and my wife chatting with her sisters on Whatsapp, I had a hop around the blog world, to check in on what my friends are up to today. I enjoyed seeing the variety of different friends I have and posts they displayed. Here's a run-down of what people are up to today:

FOOD

First up is Mary's food. Mary has a plethora of tasty recipes just waiting to be discovered!

PHOTOGRAPHY

My friend Doug takes some wonderful photos with well-explained captions, like this one:

TRAVEL

Follow Travelling Hawk as she takes you on a journey of Japan

EXPAT LIFE

My fellow-countryman, John, and I, really enjoy the Malaysian sun. Here he is in Johor Bharu:

PHOTOGRAPHY

Lotta from Sweden takes lovely photographs of the Swedish countryside

WRITING

Rosalind and I are both from Leicester, England. She's a really good writer. Today she wrote a reminiscing piece about a teddy bear and her grown-up daughter

HEALTH & LIVING

Andrea is busy tending her garden:

ABSTRACT PHOTOGRAPHY

Leovi is sharing more of his mouthwatering images

Hope you enjoyed that little blog hop around America, Europe and Asia. If you have a few minutes, go and pay a visit to any of these people who catch your interest. I'm sure they'd appreciate your visit!

Have a great day!

Novel

I'm certainly no professional, but I've been writing a novel on and off for around four years now. I love writing - it's the way I express myself - but I've never ventured further than poems, articles and essays.

I felt the need for a greater challenge and so I currently have over 60 chapters of a first draft in a blue paper folder which I review and add to from time to time. 

It all started whilst I was travelling back to Kuantan with my wife, from KL, when we were resting by the side of the highway. I suddenly had the idea for an entire novel , and that's where the book begins - by the side of the highway en route to Kuantan.

It's really inspiration that fuels my writing. I'm not able to sit down and just write every day in a scheduled manner. That sounds too similar to school and I didn't enjoy that! It only comes when a flash of inspiration arrives, when something triggers my imagination. I sometimes wonder whether my first draft will ever be completed.

Writing a novel is a daunting task, but I must say that I've come across some excellent blogs, who have provided some very helpful hints, tips and advice during this A-Z challenge.

Misha is a fantasy author who has finished her first draft.

N. R. Williams is selling her book entitled "The Treasures of Carmelidrium" for just 99 cents until the end of April 2011.

Paul Joseph has a well written blog and he's working on his YA fiction

Lynda R. Young gives writing tips on her blog

Margo Kelly is busy writing books

Rosalind Adam is my friend from Leicester, England, my hometown, and has published a number of books

What are some of your favourite blogs? Leave the link and I'd love to check them out!

English Essays

"eulogy" - a speech or piece of writing in praise of a person or thing




Essays

I attended English Martyrs R. C. high school in Leicester, England, and was blessed with a great English teacher, Ms. Fones. She is the one who fostered in me a real love of writing, in particular, essay writing, which we did a lot of at high school. I vividly remember writing essays about 'Pride and Prejudice', 'To Kill A Mockingbird' and 'The Merchant of Venice' for starters, all classic masterpieces in the literary sphere. That was particularly challenging as a teenager; now I write essays with my English students once a month about issues in Kuantan or in general, but they still find it just as difficult!

I make sure to actually write an essay of my own with my class, so that they can see that I too, am interested in the work I'm requiring of them. And once I've completed the task, I write it as a blog post. And I've been rather surprised to see that a lot of my essays have been quite popular on my blog in terms of pages visited.

So I invite you to peruse a collection of my essays which have been the topic of numerous English tuition classes in the recent past. I've totally enjoyed composing them. Writing gives me a way to express myself, and it is my biggest passion.

Thank you Ms. Fones for instilling this passion in me!

When choosing a career path, would one consider salary or passion as the deciding factor?

Explain five reasons why the Zenith Hotel will be good for Kuantan

What is your opinion of the role of elderly people in today's society?

Discuss the benefits of a train line linking Kuantan with Kuala Lumpur

Discuss the disadvantages of the Zenith Hotel

And finally, seeing as my word of the day is "eulogy", here is my eulogy of my terrific wife who last year graduated from Universiti Malaysia Pahang in the field of Chemical Engineering:

My great wife graduates from uni

(I know I've provided you with a lot of material to read in today's post - but I believe it's worth reading!)

Writing is how I feel I can most clearly and best express myself. How do you express yourself?