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I grew up on Penang Island off the coast of Seberang Prai. At age seventeen I left for Kuala Lumpur and, some would note, rarely return.

In my last job at The Edge Communications Sdn Bhd (June 2008 - April 2010), I helped with some of the articles and listings in the culture and lifestyle sections of the now-discontinued Off The Edge magazine.

Previously, I wrote user guides, training material and the like at a software solutions company for eight years. My constant dabbling in HTML, CSS and a bit of Javascript helped a lot when I packed much of my documentation into a web-based help system, with the help of the FAR HTML software. I also participated in systems testing, and did some debugging work on occasion.

After listening to too many complaints about my dead-end career path, freelance writer Alexandra Wong shoved contact information for English-language daily The Star up my nose and showed me how to write a proper job-seeking e-mail. My first piece, a review of Lee Su Kim's A Nyonya In Texas, was published in December 2007.

Since then, I also have:

  • Around fifty book reviews, several food-related articles, and one review of a stage production in the country's biggest English language daily The Star;
  • Several articles in the now-defunct MPH's quarterly Quill magazine;
  • One book review in (the probably defunct) CSR-centric webzine CSR Digest;
  • Two articles at local food web site Fried Chillies;
  • Shared a byline for two articles in the online news portal The Malaysian Insider, and wrote several opinion pieces and some book reviews there as well;
  • Wrote some more book reviews, food reviews and opinion pieces for The Malay Mail Online;
  • Shared a byline for a piece and wrote another in MAS' airline magazine Going Places;
  • A number of articles in the now-defunct Off The Edge magazine when I was with The Edge, where I also:
  • Covered The Edge/Bursa Malaysia 2009 KL Rat Race with several other (ex-)colleagues.

After an unsuccessful period of "self-employment", I've returned to full-time employment with MPH Group Publishing as the books editor, where I'm desk-bound and edit and proof manuscripts for most of the day. I also help out with any writing or editing assignments that occasionally drift my way.