50 Expats You Should Know

What can I say? I feel ecstatic and humbled to be named as one of the “50 Expats You Should Know” in the January 2010 issue of Expatriate Lifestyle (Malaysia).  (I'm at no. 42, alphabetical order). What a great way to start the New Year! Happy New Year to all! I guess my low profile in Malaysia is starting to rise, so I’m putting extra pressure on myself to deliver a novel, one of the reasons I’ll be leaving Unimas on 1 April.

Don’t know which one will sell first, The Lonely Affair of Jonathan Brady, 21 drafts and counting, and “almost finalist” in the 2008 Faulkner-Wisdom novel contest, or A Season for Fools, which was a short-listed finalist for the 2009 Faulkner-Wisdom novel contest. A revised copy has been entered for the 2009 Bellwether Prize and it’s been revised again for two more contests in 2010. Both books are the first in a two-three book series.

Then there’s the Malaysian-set Tropical Moods, a semi-finalist in the 2009 Faulkner-Wisdom novel contest, and a fourth novel in the works, also set in Malaysia, Girl in the Bathtub, short-listed finalist in the 2009 Faulkner-Wisdom novel-in-progress category. Four novels, four decent pedigrees, but which one will finally break out from the pack and deliver a first novel deal with a major publisher in the US or UK?

It’s been a long wait, but after winning the 2009 Popular-The Star Reader’s Choice Awards in fiction for Lovers and Strangers Revisited, and now with a new book out, Tropical Affairs: Episodes from an Expat’s Life, anything can happen. It’s a New Year, a New Decade! Wish me luck. Happy reading and happy writing to all!

* Here's the link to the actual article, my part.

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