REVIEW | Just do it - an inspirational author shares her tips

REVIEW | “Just Do It!” was Liew Suet Fun’s playful dare to the 25 people gathered for tips on writing at the Perak Academy held last month at the iconic 1, Lasam Road, in Ipoh.

Liew (above) reminded her audience that everyone has a skill to express in art, music, singing, craftwork or writing. She urged them not to ignore that inner call.

It is so tragic and wasteful, she said, in the final lap of life, to sigh “I wish I had”.

After decades in advertising and public relations, she resigned to focus on what she always pined to do - write poetry and celebrate her hometown, Taiping. Her mother’s demise after an extended illness made her question life’s purpose and priorities, and she quit her job to write full-time.

Next year will be 20 years since that life-changing decision.

“Committing to a writer’s life requires discipline. I began by writing 500 words every day,” the scribe confided.

She has authored 20 books, initially commissioned by institutions like the United Nations Development Programme, Forest Research Institute Malaysia or corporations, and her work in Kuala Lumpur gained her a wide network of clients.

She self-published six books, including those on Taiping and the Larut Hills.

Local perspective

Of particular note is her 2022 book “After Long Rainy Afternoons”, which chronicles the discovery of tin when the Malay chief Long Jaafar’s elephant Larut emerged from frolicking in the swamp, sparkling - leading to the mining rush which boosted Taiping as the economic powerhouse of Perak.

She overlays history with contemporary personalities for a local perspective and forward-looking directions.

Her 2019 book “Beguiled on Larut Hills” gives voice to the forgotten families of caretakers, gardeners, cooks, and general help, of the 10 bungalows on Bukit Larut (Maxwell’s Hill) who had diligently ensured efficient service to residents and visitors.

Liew managed The Nest @ Maxwell, a 19th-century colonial hill station that served as a recreation space, with her Kelabit husband Peter Matu from October 2016 to November 2019, when a freak storm triggered landslides, preventing vehicular access to this day.

She also read several poems to show how ordinary life experiences can be turned into thoughtful poetry. Poetry does not need grandiose themes.

Among them was “Name”, which addresses our adoption of Christian names socially and at work, to make it easier to be remembered. “Unknowing” dwells on the betrayal of love that leaves us to savour the disloyalty of wandering hearts, while “Balik Kampung” links the yearning for “the becalmed sleep of childhood”.

For her prose reading, Liew describes her late mother’s meticulously tailored and much-cherished clothes.

First, she retained them as sentimental memorabilia to compensate for her mother’s absence. Then she realised the physical material is not necessary for the “tightly woven remembrances” regardless of the flow of time. She let go.

Cyril Pereira, former publisher of Asia Magazine and operations director of the South China Morning Post, edits data journalism for China Daily in Hong Kong.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.

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