Kampung Kreepy

It's time to celebrate the giant sea serpents of myth and lore. National Sea Serpent Day is an unofficial holiday to commemorate a sighting in August 1848, when passengers and officers on the HMS Daedalus saw what they described as a 60-foot-long sea creature with a maned head in the South Atlantic.  Other famous sea serpents include Nessie the Loch Ness Monster, and Chessie, a 30-foot-long snake-like sea creature that supposedly inhabits the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia and Maryland.  According to various eye witness accounts, Chessie has flippers, a horse- or crocodile-like head, and a serpentine body that is as thick as a telephone pole.  Chessie was first spotted in the 1930s. Sightings of the monster spiked in the 1970s and 1980s. Chessie was even reportedly seen in the Potomac River in Virginia’s Westmoreland County in 1978.  Do you know of any other famous sea serpents?  By the way, there may or may not be a giant serpent in my Geomancer’s Apprentice urban...

Some of you may know that Diyu is the Chinese version of Hell. Diyu is a subterranean maze with several levels or “courts” that dole out punishments for various types of sins. Meng Po, the goddess of forgetfulness, resides in Diyu’s 10th court.  Meng Po waits at the Naihe Bridge (the Bridge of Oblivion) to serve her five-flavored soup. Once a soul is ready to be reborn, he or she must drink the soup before Meng Po allows them to cross the bridge and leave Diyu.  The souls permanently forget their past life as well as their experiences in Diyu once they ingest the soup. They will thus get a fresh start free from the burdens of their past existence. The new life will be shaped by the karma the souls accrued in their previous incarnations.   Meng Po prepares the soup from herbs she collects from ponds and streams in the realm of the living. In some variations of the mythology, Meng Po was the former Lady Meng Jiang who could not reincarnate because of her grief over her...

  Did you know that July 10 is Grace Sherwood Day in Virginia Beach, Va.? Grace Sherwood, the so-called “Witch of Pungo,” was the only person to be convicted of witchcraft in Virginia through the test of ducking in water.  Starting in 1697, the midwife and healer was accused by her neighbors of “bewitching” their livestock and cotton crops. She was also accused of shape-shifting—turning into a black cat. In response, Sherwood brought defamation lawsuits against her accusers. The court didn’t make a finding of witchcraft, and Sherwood lost her defamation cases. In January 1706, new allegations were brought against Sherwood by a neighbor who claimed Sherwood caused her miscarriage. A jury of 12 “ancient and knowing women” appointed by the court found two “witches’ marks” on Sherwood’s body. Such marks could range from a mole to skin discolorations. The court ordered that Sherwood be tried by “ducking.” In this test, an accused witch was bound hand and foot and thrown into water ...

To everyone who is celebrating: Have a great 4th of July!

Meet Raymond Soong, one of the fathers in The Geomancer’s Apprentice urban fantasy series.  Raymond is father to Junie, the underdog ex-barista who is training to be a geomancer. Besides being a loving and protective father, Raymond loves to make up his own sayings.  Junie calls it his Confucius complex. Nonetheless, she takes her father’s sayings very seriously. One of her favorites?  “Preparation is the gateway to success.”

There are all kinds of mothers in my books. The intelligent and hypercritical Elsie Tham, the bitter jilted Har Ping, the overprotective Stella Soong … There are also mothers in Joss Paper , my collection of horror short stories inspired by Southeast Asian folklore. An unconventional relationship can be found in “Legacy.” The story revolves around a woman, Emily Conti, who travels to Singapore to claim her inheritance, including the luxury condominium that her late father left her.  I won’t say more for fear of spoilers, but here’s an excerpt ... From the story “Legacy” Emily took off her shoes. The marble floor felt like heaven under her sweaty, cramped feet. She poured herself a glass of water and wandered around the condo. There wasn’t much else to see. There were two bedrooms in addition to the living room and kitchen/dining room. The master bedroom had a picture window similar to the one in the living room, as well as an attached bathroom. There was a second bathroom off the l...