H.A.F.D.

I have thought long and hard on this subject matter and decided that, what the heck, I am going to share this bit of news that I have kept secret for slightly more than a year now.

All great things started somewhere.

It might have started out as something small, something insignificant, something out of boredom, or something just for jest, but lady luck could change it to something big, something fantastic, something great.

Through sheer dumb luck, I had a brush with just that.

And this is the story.

I am not sure how many of you are aware of or still remember that I used to post a story called Harly Potter and the Heart-shaped Stone? (check the fictitious fiction category!)

The whole thing started in November 2007, when I was in transit Changi Airport to The States. I was bored, so I started scribbling.

Obviously it's just me trying to be funny with J.K.Rowling fantastic Harry Potter series. It was meant to be a jest, nothing serious, just passing time, you know.

However, I kind of got a kick out of writing the story so I became slightly serious about the whole thing. Had the storyline planned out, think of the funny names and events, that sort of things.

Will you believe me if I told you that publishers randomly surfed the net for blogs to read with the intention of hunting for potential author?

No?

Well, I didn't believe that either, until I was contacted by just such a publisher, that is.

It happened in February 2008, a few days after I posted the 6th entry. I received an e-mail from Google, saying a publishing company was requesting for the e-mail address I use to sign into blogspot. Google respects privacy so they didn't disclose my e-mail address to the company without my permission.

I gave my permission to Google, mightily intrigued and a bit excited by all that really. Two days later I received an e-mail from the publishing company saying they want me to write for them.

They like the Harly Potter story and want me to write something similar, but I have to change the name to avoid intellectual property infringement. And they want me to get rid of all those Manglish stuff and write with proper English.

Oh. My. Goodness!!!!

There are a lot more to that but I am not going to put everything down here. It's nothing big they say, just a small book to begin with to test the market reaction.

Still, my own book! Oh boy oh boy oh boy!

I cannot announce the publisher for the time being for legal purposes, but I can tell you it's a company based in the United Kingdom. After I got past my initial excitement I thought it probably was a prank so I searched the web for the company and found identical contact details as given in the e-mail, I called the company to check.

Just to be absolutely sure I wasn't dreaming I asked my UK friends to go verify and yes, there really is such a company and they really have me on their talent hunt list, whatever that is.

I never did explain why I suddenly stopped writing the Harly Potter story, now you know.

I guess I owe those who were following the story an apology. I cannot continue to post on the blog since I would be breaking my contract with the publisher if I did so. I sold out, sorry.

If you are really interested, go buy the book when it's out! =)

Long story short, my book will be around 250 pages long (last edit was 247), it has a few more stages to go before the marketing stage. I was told the initial batch will just be 100 copies and sold only in UK. I will get a copy, of course. =)

Oh, H.A.F.D. is the abbreviation of the book title, the current title anyway since it's still not set in stone but probably 80% sure it will be this one.

Want to take a guess at the current title?

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Happy April Fool's Day!

=P

If you believed this you would believe anything! =D