The Story Behind my First Book

Looking back, I am realising that it was not the days, but the pivotal moments that changed the course of my life.

After working in the community sector for nearly four years, I reached a stage where I felt I had exhausted my purpose and decided to only work till the end of my contract, but I was still unsure of what new direction to take.

I still remember the moment,
sitting on my bed in introspection, suddenly noticing that nagging voice that had always been at the back of my mind, telling me to "Write!". I still remember deciding for the first time to DO something about my lifelong dream to publish my work.

I believe in setting small achievable milestones in order that we can fool our minds and give ourselves reasons to celebrate small successes, for the greater purpose of keeping us steadfast on that path towards that Bigger Goal.
In this light, I decided to start with a smaller project and pull together something I had already written, namely my poetry, and compile it into a collection that I would describe as a 'poetic autobiography', describing my life journey through my collection of poetry, written over the past 14 years of my life since I was a teenager.

To my own surprise, I managed to find, edit and compile my poetry book in a span of 2 weeks after that pivotal moment. In those 2 weeks, I immersed myself in reading and re-reading my poetry, writing and re-writing the introduction and other notes for my book, and finally researching how to get my book published and distributed by eBook retailers such as iBooks and Kindle. Thanks to my good friend Google, I learnt about a company called Smashwords that made the dream of publishing my book within grasp.

Nonetheless, there were bumps along the way towards getting my book finally published and available through eBook retailers. Regardless, that extra time to proof-read my book ended up being a blessing, as I made further revisions along the way.

Finally, on 28 December 2011, my eBook "Unveiling" was officially published through Smashwords.

Read a sample or buy my book from this link.