Immaculately researched, Dawn has an encyclopedic recall of all the people, places and mores of the time when Singapore was a nascent colony on the edge of the world. -Think
Check out the blogspot of a publication which will be out soon, Love and Lust in Singapore, here. It’s an anthology of short stories about loving and lusting in the Lion City and carries two of my stories: Filial Piety and I Got You, Babe. Enjoy!
The First Draft Screenwriting Programme is an initiative funded by The British Council, Sinema and the MDA in Singapore aimed at bringing scripts from beginnings to industry-ready scripts over a year. We are 12 people on a mission. To write great scripts and see them made into feature films. Click here to find out more about this programme.
I have received a second Script Development Grant from the MDA/ Singapore Film Commission for a screenplay set in Little India. It’s a classic romcom set in the crazy musical era of the Swinging Sixties.
My third novel in the Charlotte Macleod series, The Hills of Singapore, is with Monsoon Books. This is forms part of what will, with the fourth tome, be the Straits Quartet. The National Heritage Board is involved with this book and with the fourth.
A children’s picture book is in publication. Its a book about a little Singaporean boat and his adventures with the cast of characters he meets on his travels – friendly and not so friendly. The design work is great and I am very happy with my Kuala Lumpur publisher who is backing up the story with great images and pushing the envelope to get a really high quality Asian-based kids book. Hoping a website will be up when things start to really get going!
24 October at 4.00 pm at Heartlands Book Club
I am talking about The Red Thread at the Heartlands Book Club at Bukit Batok Community Library.
21 October at 11.00 at the National Museum of Singapore
I am giving a lecture on “Singapore 1800s: Blending Fact and Fiction into Creative Storytelling” to the docent training team there.
I live in Perth and in Singapore. I love both these towns. There’s no question that Singapore has served as an inspirational impetus to igniting an old passion – creative writing. Like a lot of women‚ perhaps‚ it has taken a long time for me to get going! Virginia Woolf most famously wrote that in order for women to create “they need money and a room of their own” In 1929‚ when Woolf wrote this‚ she was trying to understand how women could produce great works of literature. What seems obvious now – that‚ unlike their male counterparts‚ women were routinely denied the time and the space to produce creative works – was a revolutionary assertion at that time. In the light of what women had to overcome– household duties‚ child rearing‚ financial and emotional dependence on husbands – it recast the accomplishments of women in a new and far more favourable light and forced people to realise the harsh truths about their society. Of course life for the creative single woman is very different now. But even in 2008 I am not sure that all that much has changed for women who are wives and mothers – and also want to write. Time and space are still hard to get hold of. Let’s not forget‚ though‚ that writing can start at any age. The great Catherine Cookson began writing at 44‚ Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin at 40. So though the years have accumulated far faster than I would wish‚ they have led me to this city at a time when I have both ‘money and a room of my own’ the selfless support of my husband‚ children who are in my heart but also in another country‚ and the time to follow the passion. My first book‚ The Red Thread‚ grew out of time spent guiding the Peranakan Museum in Singapore. Wandering among the artefacts of the Peranakan lifestyle and gazing at the old wedding photographs‚ a germ of an idea began to grow about the life of a young man‚ almost fresh off the boat from China‚ marrying into such an alien world. Tending this little germ was a wonderful journey of discovery‚ about the lives of all the different peoples of the past‚ about Singapore’s rich history and about what I could do. So if you are a reader‚ happy reading. If you are a writer‚ happy writing. If you want to write to me about women‚ writing‚ books‚ passions‚ space and time‚ please do. Dawn Farnham