Lovers and Strangers Revisted wins Popular-The Star Reader's Choice Awards 2009 for fiction!

Accepting Award from YM Professor Diraja Ungku Abdul Aziz bin Ungku Abdul Hamid, former Vice-Chancellor of Universiti of Malaya

The proud and slightly dazed  Robert Raymer standing between nominated writers Yvonne Lee (Vanity Drive and The Sky is Crazy) and Adeline Loh (Peeing in the Bush).

On stage with Kee Thuan Chye and the representatives of other winning authors, many of whom were outstation. Luckily I decided to fly in from Kuching for the day.

*Update, the 20^th anniversary of Lovers and Strangers Revisited 

Here are links to some of my author-to-author interviews of first novelists:

Ivy Ngeow author of Cry of the Flying Rhino, winner of the 2016 Proverse Prize.

Golda Mowe author of Iban Dream and Iban Journey.

Preeta Samarasan author of Evening is the Whole Day. 

Chuah Guat Eng,  author of Echoes of Silence and Days of Change. 

Plus:

Five part Maugham and Me series

Beheaded on Road to Nationhood: Sarawak Reclaimed—Part I 

Pop Club (Popular Books) August 2009

Click on to read

Here are links to some of my author-to-author interviews of first novelists:

Ivy Ngeow author of Cry of the Flying Rhino, winner of the 2016 Proverse Prize.

Golda Mowe author of Iban Dream and Iban Journey.

Preeta Samarasan author of Evening is the Whole Day. 

Chuah Guat Eng,  author of Echoes of Silence and Days of Change. 

Plus:

Five part Maugham and Me series

Beheaded on Road to Nationhood: Sarawak Reclaimed—Part I 

Tropical Affairs - book cover

It's always a magical moment when you see the book cover for the first time. You never know quite what to expect so you just hold your breath and keep your fingers crossed it looks good. If not, like the original cover for Lovers and Strangers Revisited, which I immediately rejected, you pray they find a great replacement. They did! I loved it immediately! For Tropical Affairs all I had in my mind was the color blue; other than that I was open to all kinds of possibilities. A coconut on a beach, taken at eye level, with waves splashing around it...seems alive, fluid, a moment in time. Yes, it could be sexier or more romantic, but in doing so could also border on cliche and I wanted to avoid that.

But seeing the cover in a bookstore, will it catch your attention, prick your interest, and make you want to pick it up, if only to take a better look at it. While you're at it, will you take a peek at the backcopy to see what the book is about? And, hopefully, open the book to get an even better idea by sampling some of the pages. If so, then the cover has served it's basic purpose, so long as it hasn't misled you or offended you in anyway. Then all you have to do is take it to the counter, along with your other purchases...and eventually read it!

Here are links to some of my author-to-author interviews of first novelists:

Ivy Ngeow author of Cry of the Flying Rhino, winner of the 2016 Proverse Prize.

Golda Mowe author of Iban Dream and Iban Journey.

Preeta Samarasan author of Evening is the Whole Day. 

Chuah Guat Eng,  author of Echoes of Silence and Days of Change. 

Plus:

Five part Maugham and Me series

Beheaded on Road to Nationhood: Sarawak Reclaimed—Part I 

"The Merdeka Miracle" Going Places (Malaysia Airlines), August 2009

Short story sale 98 was a collaborative effort with two other Malaysian writers, Lydia Teh and Tunku Halim, whom I've yet to meet, written for the Merkeda issue of Going Places. (Finally got to meet Lydia in 2010 at the Popular Bookfest_. Click on page to increase the size.

Here are links to some of my author-to-author interviews of first novelists:

Ivy Ngeow author of Cry of the Flying Rhino, winner of the 2016 Proverse Prize.

Golda Mowe author of Iban Dream and Iban Journey.

Preeta Samarasan author of Evening is the Whole Day. 

Chuah Guat Eng,  author of Echoes of Silence and Days of Change. 

Plus:

Five part Maugham and Me series

Beheaded on Road to Nationhood: Sarawak Reclaimed—Part I