Who am I, and what am I doing here?
My name is Shahan Cheong. I’m a university graduate in his twenties and I’m from Melbourne, Australia. I studied a Bachelor of Arts in Professional and Creative Writing at Deakin University, majoring in history, from which I formally graduated from in April of 2010. I’m currently doing a Master of Arts in Writing at Swinburne University.
My passions in life are reading, writing, playing jazz piano, fountain pens and history. I have a great love of all things historical, old, antiquated and just plain not-used-anymore.
My life’s ambition is to become a published fiction-writer and while I realise right away that this is almost impossible (becoming a published writer, let alone a successful one is damn hard!) it’s all I’ve ever wanted to be. Well, except when I was six and wanted to be a bus-driver. But apart from that momentary lapse in vision, a writer is what I’ve wanted to be my whole life. Hopefully this blog’ll help me there.
I hope that you will enjoy my blog and that you’ll post plenty of questions and encouraging comments.
Cheers!
Shahan.
Yvonne said,
November 21, 2009 at 12:12 AM
Hello Shahan I enjoyed looking around your site and was particularly interested in the account of the ‘Black Death’ Which will be referred to and have some significance in the novel I am writing. It is a fictional novel that begins with a particular problem faced by one of the main characters in the present day in the west of England that flits backwards to a storyline that had the answer to this problem in the 17th century. It therefore will have modern day elements, historical elements and as one of the historical characters is falsley accused of being a witch there is also a supernatural element and there are mysteries in the storyline that do not get revealed until the end of the novel. I might be looking for Beta readers when I have finished it if you are at all interested. It would be useful to me for someone with some historical knowledge to be able to cast their eye over it, in order to spot if there are any enormous gaffs in it. It might also be interesting to see what someone of a younger generation would make of it, I am 57 by the way, my two daughters are older than you and I also have a grandson.
I have a humorous poetry and blog site as below if you are interested. However I have found that some of the humour does not travel well outside of England so various comments or votes are welcomed.
I did think that your site might be a little better with a greater use of more sub categories in order to find things more easily.
http://onnecar.wordpress.com/
scheong said,
November 21, 2009 at 12:37 AM
Hi Yvonne,
Thank you very much for your comments. I’d be very happy to read over anything you might think fit to send to me. Let me know when you would want to send me excerpts, etc, of your story and I’ll be happy to look over it and give an opinion.
I’m glad that you enjoyed yourself and that you found some useful information. I am updating this blog regularly, so be sure to check back every few days.
And yes, I know my site COULD do with better categorisation. I apologise. I’m constantly editing stuff as I go through the blog each day and that includes trying to categorise things better so that people can find it.
Yvonne said,
November 21, 2009 at 12:13 AM
Oh almost forgot would you mind if I posted a link to your site on my blog
scheong said,
November 21, 2009 at 12:37 AM
No I don’t mind at all. The more exposure the better.
Pedro from Historum said,
January 29, 2010 at 11:34 PM
Most excellent. I see you have worked very hard at putting this blog together. You have a nice writing style and your eye for history has a focus that I like. I have no doubt that some day you will be published. I will watching the book stores for your work.
Ravenor Bullen said,
February 21, 2010 at 3:31 PM
Thank you for your post on The Fedora Lounge. I’ve enjoyed looking through your blog. I live i Surabaya and am also interested in anything antiquated, especially the colonial period.
scheong said,
February 21, 2010 at 7:17 PM
Hi Ravenor,
You’re welcome. Glad you like my blog. More stuff always on its way.
Sarah said,
April 9, 2010 at 10:59 AM
I stumbled upon your blog for a 10th grade project information, and I am intrigued by your postings. Not only has it helped me with my project, but your writing almost has a sense of humor to it that I find hilarious. Since you want to become a writer, have you thought of posting any of your short stories on here? I would be very interested in reading them!
scheong said,
April 12, 2010 at 6:25 PM
Hi Sarah. I’m glad you’ve enjoyed my writings. Unfortunately, university time-constraints means that I’m unable to add to my blog as frequently as I used to. You can find a couple of my short stories under the “CREATIVE WRITING” area of my blog.
A Bertillon said,
April 15, 2010 at 12:35 PM
Hey Shahan, ’tis A Bertillon here from HN. I stumbled across this site from the link in you signature there and have been slowly browsing through all the excellent articles you have posted here.
I wish to add a huge: “Thank You!”, for all your efforts, both here and on HN!
scheong said,
April 15, 2010 at 6:59 PM
Hey Bertie, thanks for the visit. I hope you enjoy reading all the stuff I’ve put up here, and you’re very welcome.
inkdip said,
August 28, 2010 at 12:53 AM
Hi Shahan, very nice blog and very interesting. I especially like the old slang words =) I think “gaslighting” and “squiffy” are older terms…the latter meaning drunk, but the former…no idea. I think it means to trick.
Off to read more =)
EFF from HN said,
September 13, 2010 at 12:08 AM
Hey Shahan, there’s a lot of great stuff you have here. Particularly, the medieval and WWI sections. Keep up the excellent work!
Molly said,
October 2, 2010 at 1:56 AM
hey i would really like to use one of the photos that you have on one of your blogs as a reference for an illustration that i am doing for my illustration class. It would be awesome if you could email me back and we could talk about it. thanks
Bart said,
November 4, 2010 at 11:34 AM
Shahan,
Wonderful blog. I fell upon it via the FPN. You are definitely added to my must read list. Carry on.
Bart
scheong said,
November 4, 2010 at 4:47 PM
Hi Bart! Thanks. I do intend to add more articles about fountain pens and writing sometime in the near future. Check back every week or so. I usually update my blog every one or two weeks. What is your FPN username?
Bart said,
November 28, 2010 at 11:43 PM
Shahan,
I go by my middle name, Barnett.
Talk to you soon,
Bart
Susan said,
May 3, 2011 at 4:49 PM
Hey Shahan, I just want to thank you for creating this wonderful website. You have NO idea how much this has helped me with my history stuff. Thank You!
)
scheong said,
May 4, 2011 at 8:17 AM
Thanks Susan. History has always been my chief passion (that and breathing). Still cooking up new ideas and hope to have more stuff up soon.
Genevieve Graham said,
May 24, 2011 at 12:49 AM
Hi Scheong
Loved your bodysnatcher article. Very cool.
I am an author of historical fiction (published by Penguin US in Jan 2012) and am trying to research men’s clothing in 1748 or so, in South Carolina – a farmer, or wrangler or something non-”civilized”. What I need to know is whether he might have a pocket in his shirt.
Thanks so much. I’m looking forward to browsing a ton more on your site!
scheong said,
May 24, 2011 at 12:43 PM
I doubt it. In the 1700s, your shirt was your undergarment. On top of that you wore a waistcoat and topcoat. So no, your shirt wouldn’t have had a pocket, not like today.
Kenneth W. Whitney said,
July 26, 2011 at 7:10 AM
Hi Scheong,
I was there, walking on the beach that morning (Im 88 years old)with my younger brother(now deceased) Pt. Pleasent NJ. My daughter ask me to write a Bio several years ago. I wrote stories about happenings as a method of telling them about my younger life. I was 15 at the time this tragedy occured. Thought you might like to hear about some other heros in this affair. This is what wrote in my Bio. I’m an engeener not an english major. Good luck in your studies..
Whit In 1938 Rich and I were walking on the beach during a Northeaster (The wind direction with rain and wind for usually 3 days) when we noticed a ship about 5 or 6 miles off the shore line that was surrounded by smoke. Shortly thereafter Dad came running up the beach and told us that he had just heard on the radio that a ship by the name of Moro Castle was on fire and life boats were coming ashore in Sea Girt. We all went back to the house and Dad drove us to Sea Girt (about 5 or 6 mile north). We reach the turn off for the beach and found the coastal railroad gates had both been broken off and further when we reach the beach there were several hundred cars and it was closed off. We turned around and drove back to Point Pleasant and headed toward the ocean inlet that was called Manasquan Inlet. Our house was at the South end of Point Pleasant while the inlet was on the North end. The sights we saw will never be forgotten.
Back of the inlet on both sides of the river were a number of fishing boats for hire to go out into ocean on daily trips. Most of these boats would only take two or three persons out for daily tours and would only take them out when the weather was calm as the inlet was dangerous during bad weather. The reason it was dangerous was the fact that on both sides of the inlet, about 200 feet apart there were jetties made of 4 to5 foot rocks protruding about a quarter of a mile out into the ocean. This was necessary to keep the deep channel open from the river to the ocean.
We stayed around for about three hours watching these small boat go out empty to see them come back with people hanging all over them. The Coast Guard had a larger ship in the inlet to help the smaller ships get in with their precious load to the safety of the river. Ambulances were lined up along the road and were constantly going and coming as the small boats were emptied the people they had pulled out of the ocean. As soon as the small boats were emptied they turned around and headed back out inlet for another load. These skippers were brave as they took their small boats through the narrow inlet in very bad weather as they went to rescue those in the sea around the burning ship.
Peter Hanchett said,
December 28, 2011 at 1:21 PM
You Sir are a great inspiration for the history that you share, and a writing style both informative and entertaining. Cheers to you
Linda Jonasson said,
January 26, 2012 at 4:05 AM
Your blog is interesting! Being a history buff, I particularly like your blog posts about the Boston Molasses Flood and the British Workhouses. I like to blog about American, British and Canadian History. I am also a writer who dreams of getting published. I’ve written a children’s book about my great-grandma, who was born in a British Workhouse, called “I’m Just a Home Child”. I’d be interested in reading any other articles you write similar to the Boston Molasses Flood. Good luck with your publishing dream!
scheong said,
January 26, 2012 at 9:14 AM
Hi Linda, thanks muchly for your comments. I write a lot of articles about forgotten history of various kinds. Browse through my blog and take a look. Thanks for visiting! I update roughly once a month to once a week (depending on how much time I have and what I have to blog about).
Sky Lee said,
January 30, 2012 at 8:47 AM
this is HELPFUL!!!
royclarenz said,
March 28, 2012 at 5:01 PM
Hello, Scheong, I found your blog when looking for some context for an obituary in today’s Times (London) on Countess Jellicoe, who has just died in her 90s. She had been a socialite in Shanghai before the Japanese invaded in 1937. She had known my mother (a White Russian, now deceased) who had escaped from Moscow in the Revolution, travelled first to London and then to Shanghai; and lived in the American Concession. My mother was interned by the Japanese in 1941, along with my father (British) and brother (born in Shanghai in 1941). She always spoke glowingly of the pre-war Shanghai and the high-life enjoyed by those in the International Settlement. Fascinating to find your description of it, an element of that city’s history I had not fully understood. Keep up your great work – you have a natural talent. Best regards, Roy
scheong said,
March 28, 2012 at 5:33 PM
Thanks, Roy. Modern Shanghai exists largely thanks to the foreign concessions that made up the International Settlement. Before they arrived, Shanghai was a TINY little city.
The Settlement, as it was sometimes nicknamed, was one of the biggest western expat zones in Asia, along with Peking, Hong Kong, Saigon and Singapore. It was notorious for being a haven for all kinds of vice and underground culture, and it was very open to all comers. Russians immigrated to Shanghai in the 1910s during the Revolution, as you know. British, Jews, French, Germans and Japanese made up most of the rest of the Settlement, as well as, of course, a heavy smattering of local Chinese.
No name provided said,
April 30, 2012 at 12:43 AM
I posted a comment on your Jack The Ripper page. You are a very thorough writer and clearly put a lot of effort into your writing and presentation. I will visit again to see if you are requesting more info. Good luck with your writing career!
laura said,
May 1, 2012 at 1:31 AM
Hello Shahan, I have just dipped into your blog whilst researching Sherlock Holmes. Found the article about Victorian death rites interesting. I have some jet and live near Whitby in North Yorkshire where a lot of it was and still is made.
Good luck in your dream to be a writer.