About the Blog

Welcome;

If you’re reading this, then you have stumbled across my fledging blog of questionable content and even more questionable intent. Doubtless you have several questions, the first two of them being: “What the hell is this?”, followed rapidly by “What am I doing here!?” Well frankly, I’ve no idea what you’re doing here either. But as for what this is, well; this place will, hopefully, become my dumping-ground for stories, articles, opinions and thoughts of mine which, as the blog-title might suggest, are 100% untouched and unpublished, except for on here, that is.

“Very well”, you think. Your next query is “Who are you, anyway?”

Ahem. I am the blogger of this delightful mess of words and ideas. I’m a 22-year-old (at-time-of-writing) university-graduate from Melbourne, Australia. My name is Shahan Cheong. Here’s where I’d pause momentarily, were this a spoken exchange, to give you time to wrap your tongue around my name. It’s a Chinese name, not an Indian one (which some people think it is, for some reason) and it’s mine. My two chief interests are writing and history and if you hang around here long enough, you’ll soon find this place filling up with such delightful pieces of text concerning famous events, not so famous events, famous people, not so famous people and perhaps strangest of all, famous or not so famous objects (items, things, doohickies, call them what you will) from history. You’ll also be treated to any and all works of fiction or creative non-fiction which I write, and which I have deemed suitable and safe for perusal by the global population.

Your next question is: “What kind of stories and history-related…stuff…will I find here?”

My interest in writing centers around fiction and creative non-fiction, specifically historical fiction or non-fiction. History is full of stories and we need only be aware of them to enjoy them. Of course, some stories locked within history are pretty boring or unappetising in their present format. I like to take those stories, twist them around a bit and write them up fresh. Hopefully, you’ll like the results. Writing has been a big part of my life, ever since I discovered how to use a pen, and learnt that paper could be used for other things than making fans, toy boats and paper airplanes which crashed more spectacularly than the ‘Challenger’ space-shuttle hit by a nuclear missile. My story-writing days started in school, as far back as I could remember. My first real attempts at writing a decent story, however, didn’t start until about the age of 10 at least. Now I look back at some of my older stories, written while I was at school, and bemoan the horrific nature of my mind. Did I REALLY…REALLY…REALLY…write…THAT!? Oh Lord. Horrible, horrible, horrible stuff. Author of the acclaimed and controversial ‘Harry Potter’ series, J.K. Rowling, once said that you’d hate a lot of the stuff you first write. Boy, she wasn’t kidding. But my writing has improved a lot since then, I’d like to hope, at least. Roald Dahl, writer of such classics as “James and the Giant Peach”, “Matilda” and “The BFG”, said that writers had to be persistent, humble and determined. They also had to have a natural ability to write. Hopefully you’ll look at all my stuff and think that I have that ability too.

My interest in history wavers, waxes, wanes, comes and goes like the tides, like migratory birds. It varies like the wildly, erratic, wildly-vibrating needle on a seismograph. Suffice to say, anything from the medieval period up until the 1950s (and if you’re lucky, beyond that), is generally of great interest to me. I might be writing about castles and knights one afternoon and the Industrial Revolution the next evening. I don’t consider myself an expert on any of these areas, I just consider myself an all-round history buff with a ‘deep interest’ (or ‘obsession’, pick whichever word you will) in history. Furthermore, I find myself more interested in the nitty-gritty, tiny-winy details of history which most people probably don’t think of. Yes, the big events and big people are all fascinating subjects, but I find myself also delving into what I call ‘everyday history’ a lot more frequently than I do, into other aspects of it.

I don’t think I need say much more here. Stay tuned for more ramblings or articles and even the occasional story.

Yours,

Shahan.