Poetry is the unexpected stranger …
I’m drunk with stars. My nephew, the artist and poet, is visiting with his family. We’ve been indulging in artsy-fartsy conversation, talk that makes me feel drunk with stars. Poetry is … A word picture, my nephew said. Or a frame of words with room for interpretation, I replied. We tossed the definitions back and … Continue reading
It’s Sunday: Tiger Moms and Cubs need rest too
On the 7th day HE rested. I need a rest. So does my kid. It’s been a little too much – the travels, the back-to-back meetings the week after, all those posts I just had to get out about the trip, the extra coaching I’ve had to give Youngest (who didn’t learn about words till … Continue reading
6 MEKONG DISHES I’LL MISS
Every 16th day of the Lunar New Year, Heart Guy and I travel to his family home in the Mekong Delta to commemorate his mother’s death and celebrate her 96 years of life. This year, he’ll be going on his own as I’ll be at the Irrawaddy Literary Festival in Mandalay talking about As the … Continue reading
MORE MISSIVES FROM KATIE AND ZOONG: FATHERS ARE LIKE BIRDS’ FEATHERS
Living in cramped quarters in the city, most children in Singapore don’t have many opportunities to interact with wild life. This was so even when I was a young child. Back then, chancing upon a bird’s feather would be a big thing. Believing in magic, we’d hide these found treasures between the pages of our … Continue reading
Stepping out of the box
I’m stepping out of the box. The last three nights I’ve had nightmares. They were all related to one of my two WIPS’s – the one about a detective solving a series of ritual cannibal murders. I needed saving from my own imagination! Youngest was the rescuing hero. Digging around the store-room under the staircase … Continue reading
If You’re a Vietnamese Woman in Singapore then You Must Be…
Actually you’re NOT. You’re Monique Truong – An award winning American writer and you’re discovering something new about how an American woman of Vietnamese descent might be perceived in this Little Red Dot you’re visiting for the first time. In the first of this series on Vietnamese Artists in Singapore I interview Monique Truong, the award-winning author … Continue reading
A SINGAPORE THANKSGIVING MENU
We don’t eat turkey … Not because we’re vegetarians unfortunately. Unfortunately just because I can’t cook it well and our oven’s too small for the gigantic bird we’d need for all our guests. Anyway for us, it’s the gathering of people that matterFirst things first – the people who’ll be there By and large boat … Continue reading
A Singapore Thanksgiving – Should we be content with small blessings?
This is a city of small blessings Some say this with disdain. But what’s not to love about buses and train systems that more or less work, even if they’re stuffed to the gills; water that comes out of the faucet drinkable; drains that drain 360 out of 365 days a year. In November the rains … Continue reading
Elegy – July 4th in Alaska
We went to Alaska for the summer. It’s beautiful country. For someone from Singapore, too big to grasp. We had time, so much time. And space. In the space/time between one national park and another, as the snow capped mountains and the midget pine trees rolled past our glass domed train, this story surfaced. It’s fiction … Continue reading
Reader and Writer - Praying Woman - Gardener - Foodie 