When There's A Will

My husband is trying to write a book! To those who know him well, this piece of news deserves to be aired over "Ripley's Believe It Or Not". Yes, bizarre as it may sound, he is actually very serious about it.

It all started when there were talks of bringing Chin Peng back to Malaysia. He was dead set against this proposition and felt the urgency to voice out his thoughts and what better way to do this than to blog. It was a readily available and easily accessible medium but it posed a few problems for he was unsure what a blog was in the first place.

Starting from zero, he bull dozed his way and managed to post his first entry on the 20th June 2009. He was hugely excited over this "masterpiece" and went about promoting it aggresively. Friends, relatives, everybody who happened to cross his path were not spared. Even my friends, some of whom he had never met before, were boldly reminded to visit his blog.  He stopped at nothing and as if that was not bad enough, he even  told them to leave their comments after reading his article. Of all the nerve!!!

All his efforts in selling his blog, going about it with such blatant crudeness and determination, has paid off. Like all bloggers, he now has his own group of followers. What started out innocently as an outlet for expressing his thoughts  has escalated into a full-fledged passion superceding even golf.

So, when friends suggested that he should seriously consider writing a book, he jumped at the idea and there was no stopping him. I suppose he was already secretly toying with the idea long before it was put across to him but was waiting for some form of assurance before venturing into it. For someone who used to resort to writing only when it was deemed necessary and even then,  would religiously stick to his "short and sharp" format, I find this change of heart incredulously interesting. He would frown upon my style of writing as awkwardly long-winded and boringly detailed. Hmmmm, may be, but it is better my way than his "short and sharp". "Short" ....yes, but the "sharpness"  not only cuts off the frills but also the facts, unfortunately!! To think that someone who used to be very sceptical of "The pen is mightier than the sword", dismissing it as outdated and unfashionable, he has proven against all odds, that when there's a will, there's a way.

The book is still in the making. I don't know whether it will eventually materialise but with the conviction and commitment, it would be a shame not to try and make it a reality. He has been giving his all ever since he got started on it and typical of a military man that he was, I am conveniently roped in as a proof reader!!!

The objective of writing this article is just to highlight the fact that I now have my hands full, proof reading his manuscripts at the expense of putting my blog temporarily on hold but as always, to quote his uncomplimentary description of my  "awkwardly long-winded and boringly detailed" writing, this got me carried away so far. There must be some truth in his assessment of me, after all. Point taken.