Hi, I’m Liz!

I’m currently writing a space opera series. In my newsletter, I am sharing my fiction and documenting my journey of recovering from fiction writing burnout and publishing my first serial fiction online.

Free subscribers get:

• 🔔 Notifications of what I’ve written, reading and watching recommendations.

• 🤖 Selected fiction

• 📜Reflections about my creative practice and writing career. Will include tips, resources, and links to help you become a better writer.

Paid subscribers get:

Note: I will probably only launch paid options in 2023.

If you can support my work by subscribing either monthly (US$5) or annually (US$35), it will go a long way to enable the work I do here. As a paying subscriber you will get:

• 🚀Access to all fiction, essays and more

• ✍️Behind-the-scenes author notes or commentaries

• 💬Discussion threads where we can talk about writing issues, share Substack posts and more

• 🤫Private, intimate musings where I get really raw and honest, which I don’t publish anywhere

Alternatively, you can give me a one-off tip. Buy me a coffee!

The Distant Stars series

The Distant Stars series is set in a universe where humanity has broken off into several factions throughout the galaxy.

After decades of war, there is now an uneasy peace. The two biggest governments in this civilisation puts together a crew made up of people from different sectors. A few years ago, they would have been battling each other to the death. Now, they are shipmates on The Unity, travelling through a broken space filled with distrust and anger.

It’s supposed to be a mission to unite the people of the galaxy.

But not everyone wants peace.

Where I’m at with this series

I’ve actually written 2.5 books of this series. It’s half a book away from the completion of an arc. So be assured that you will get a finished story :)

However, you can purchase Heretics of Thran (a novella set in this universe) and Book 1: Shadows of Corinar from selected retail outlets. Please note that these books may be updated in the future :)

Meet the writer

There’s a little voice inside me that whispers, “no one will like what you write” or “no one is ever going to pay you for what you write”.

Do you have that same fear?

Despite having been a professional writer for nearly two decades, I still spend daily battling this fear. Tai Tales is my way of working through this.

Although I write fiction, I’ve never felt drawn to traditional publishing. The idea of pitching to agents and going through rejection after inevitable rejection didn’t appeal to me at all.

When indie publishing came along, I was delighted … until I realised how much work and money it’ll take to write, market and distribute the books.

A whole cottage industry has sprung up to teach indie authors how to beat the algorithms, produce fast and hustle to success. While many seem to enjoy this, I am stressed out and overwhlemed by this. My writing ground to a halt until I stopped completely.

There must be a better way, I thought. And that’s when I remembered how I used to write fiction. Once upon a time, in the 2000s, I published fiction online, chapter by chapter. I loved the community that came with this, the immediate feedback, the speed of it all. So, that’s why I’m serialising my fiction on Tai Tales.

My mission is to get the novels, memoir, novellas and short stories sitting unpublished in my hard disk out to you.

Besides writing this newsletter and a blog where I write about personal finance, writing and productivity, I work as a technical writer for a software company. Before that, I was a content manager and marketer for various companies and a journalist for 15 years for the newspaper, The Star. Have a look at my portfolio.

I live in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in a pretty apartment on top of a hill.

Grab a cuppa, snuggle into a comfy chair and join me.

Where I hang out online

Website | Mastodon