When other little girls were dreaming about ponies, Erna Mahyuni was reading Tolstoy and figuring out the IBM PC. She eventually grew up to become a tech journalist, merging her two biggest interests – tech and writing. Along the way, she found the time to dabble in the performing arts. Erna is currently having too much fun as Editor of tech/lifestyle portal Goreng.my as well as being a columnist for The Malaysian Insider.

L&S: What sparked your interest in the writing fraternity?
EM: Writing is just an extension of my love for the written word. Both my parents loved books and though we didn't have much growing up, we had books and the wonderful Sabah State Library. I've been writing stories on a computer since I was seven years old and well, I'm still doing it now.

Sometimes you have to follow your star and listen to what moves you most - in my case, it's the intricacies of language and putting words together. With the right words you could inspire a nation, build a fantasy world that will outlive you or comfort the lost.

Words have power but it takes years and years to harness that power, something writers never stop working at. I like that in writing you can't ever put down your pen and say you had learned all you needed to know.

L&S: How would you best describe the theme of your columns?
EM: I wouldn't say there's a theme, really. Whatever comes out is the product of my mad mind. There's a lot of tongue-in-cheekness and I try not to be too serious because columnists who take themselves (besides everything else) too seriously are a dime a dozen.
I'd like to hope those reading my columns will be at the very least entertained and if I give them something to think about, that's a bonus.
In the end, if I think something matters enough to write about, I'll write about it. It doesn't have to be current, it could be just an everyday thing like parents who won't keep their kids from being nuisances in public spaces.

L&S: What inspires you in your writing?
EM: Life in general, really. Anything from current affairs to what my cat is doing right now could be fodder for a column. My best columns seem to be the ones where something compels me so much to write that I can't not write about it.

The piece that will probably follow me to the grave is the op-ed I wrote for Malaysiakini about the Allah Issue. Something someone here said about it angered me so much I had to say something. I wasn't so much angry at the person - she was just ignorant - but that there was so much ignorance about how the 'other side' lived.

When it comes to writing about East Malaysia, it's hard for me to be fair and unbiased as there is a lot of hurt and anger I feel about how things should be and the way there are now.

L&S: What are your thoughts on the online media in Malaysia in general? How has it developed so far and what do you see happening to it in the next 2 to 3 years?
EM: I think the online media has been great. It was high time the reigning media bosses got a kick in the rear for being too complacent. Online media has changed the game and forced its competition to prove themselves relevant.

What I don't particularly enjoy is the notion that when you're online, you can be sloppy with language. Across the board, writing standards have fallen because too many people join the industry thinking "If I blog, I'm already qualified to be a writer."

L&S: Advice for budding writers?
EM: Read. Vary your reading material. Read plays, poems, literature, manga, foreign news, local news. And live. Too many people assume writers just cook stuff up in their heads from nothing. Ernest Hemingway lived a heck of a life and that's why you feel that in his writing. A writer must learn his craft - grammar, spelling, basic editing and once you've got that down, it'll just be trusting yourself to write what you need to write.