The setting for Saltwater Spirits, while inspired by midcentury Nusantara, is ambiguous. This means I do not clearly situate a specific time or place for the story. In this blog post, I will reflect on why I intentionally wrote it that way.InspirationFirst, let’s look at the inspiration from midcentury Nusantara.The [...]
In Saltwater Spirits, we follow a spirited young woman named Norma. The name functioned as a placeholder name while I worked on the manuscript for three years. It is the name of my Nenek, my maternal grandmother. As time wore on, I couldn’t bring myself to change it no [...]
She appeared to me out of nowhere. I don't remember the exact circumstances - I might have been on a bus, or it might have been a dream. All I know is she popped into my head and didn't leave. A woman with black hair staring out unto the [...]
The inspiration behind the cover for Saltwater Spirits was to illustrate the story inside it — crossover fiction inspired by midcentury P. Ramlee Malay movies, mystery novels, and stories about the supernatural I heard growing up as a kid in Singapura. My cover designer Jazmin Welch, founder and creative [...]
Hello there. Allow me welcome you to my little corner of the Internet. My name is Syahidah, and I’m a writer and author. I’ve always been a writer. As a child, I would write in my journal about what I ate for lunch that day. As a teenager, [...]
