Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast—Or Six Important Things Before Lunch!

The Queen said to Alice in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, “Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”  What if the impossible things, weren’t all that impossible, but rather doable, and they were the six most important things to do to on your list, and what if you could accomplish them all, maybe not before breakfast, but before lunch.  Now wouldn’t that be a great way to start your day! You will have crossed off six important things (not minor tasks, but the stuff you’ve been procrastinating on for days, weeks, months), and now your afternoon is free of guilt.  In fact, you’re so excited by the possibilities you’re really on a roll and you’re anxious to see what else can accomplish today. 

Imagine if you did this every day, just think how productive your life could be, how good you can really feel about yourself, and what if some (if not all six) of these important things are actually taking you a step closer to your goals?  Even if you only managed to accomplish one of those important things that moves you toward your life goals (like drafting out an outline or a chapter of a book you've always wanted to write), that's still pretty darn good.  You worked it into a busy day. 

Most people start the day with good intentions.  You know what you need to do.  You may have even written it down, and you're all fired up, but then something comes up, an email that requires your immediate attention, some late breaking story on yahoo that has you concerned, some funny or fascinating YouTube posting that you can’t resist watching.  Then you get a phone call, and when you check your email, there are a few more items than need to be replied, and, oh, a long lost friend just sent you a message on Facebook!  An office colleague drops by to tell you about an exciting person they just met or relate their latest drama.  And someone really needs your advice or help with their deadline project.

Next thing you know its lunch, and although you accomplished a few things, they were not the top six on your list, they were a few at the bottom that only took a few minutes to clear, neither important nor urgent, just stuff on that list.  So you sort of feel good because you at least accomplished something before lunch.

   

Oh what a difference your day and your life could be if you just ignored everything that was not urgent, and you rolled up your sleeves and ploughed through, one after the other, those six important things that lately have been impossible to get around to.  But not today!  Today you’re focused, you’re disciplined, and you are absolutely determined not to let anyone else (not even yourself) sidetrack you from the tasks at hand.

When you accomplish what you set out to do, even those mundane tasks—like doing your taxes—that you wished would just disappear from your desk, your self-esteem rises and you feel good about yourself.  You even feel that just maybe you really can take on the world! 

Now isn’t that a whole lot better than feeling guilty because you, once again, by the end of the day, did not do what you know you need to do.  It’s right there on your list, with stars by them!  So now those same incomplete tasks will be waiting for you first thing tomorrow, along with everything else that you need to do, and the thought of that really makes you angry.

Don’t get angry and beat yourself up, just make a fresh commitment to yourself, that, by golly, every day from now on, you’re going to see if you can accomplish six important things before lunch, and just do them (no email, no Facebook, no phone calls, no personal dramas (yours or anyone else).  And maybe, while you’re at it, a few impossible things before breakfast!  Like waking up before the alarm goes off, humming instead of groaning, stretching and exercising, being grateful that you not only have a home to sleep in but also clothes to wear and food to eat. 

Also be glad that you’re alive and healthy and that you have someone to love (parents and children count), and maybe even someone who loves you (yes, pets count).  Instead of wishing you had someone else’s face or body or talent or all of their money; appreciate all that you do have in life.  See life from a whole new perspective, as a joy, not as a hassle.  If you think you have problems, and I’m sure you have your share, turn on the news to the latest disaster!  They got real problems!  Count your blessings!  Put it all into perspective.  

By now you’re starting to feel better about yourself, and once you have breakfast, you’ll feel energized to start tackling those six important things on your list.  Today is the day you’re taking charge of your own life!  About time, too, and it’s not even lunch!  Let’s really work up an appetite!
      -Borneo Expat Writer

*Update, the 20th 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 

Big Fish Small Pond, Small Fish Big Pond

I’m not sure when I first heard the Big Fish Small Pond or Small Fish Big Pond analogy.  I do remember it was in a classroom setting either in my high school, Newark Senior High (Ohio) or more likely at Miami University at Oxford, Ohio.  It made an impact on all of us as we debated the merits of each.  Each has its own advantages and disadvantages and each can lead to success.  Of course, some of us preferred another option “Big Fish in Big Pond”. 

I considered Ohio a small pond and right after graduation, after a three-month backpacking stint in Europe, I left Ohio for Colorado where I began working for K. Graphics or Kinko’s in Boulder, a cool place to live, where I met my first aspiring writers and editors, people with big pond dreams. Then I was offered a chance to be a manager of a Kinko’s in Madison, Wisconsin and made the leap to a much larger city.  Soon after, I began setting up stores in other cities, some small, some big, and in other states. 

Within the company, as a regional manager in charge of eleven stores in three states, I started to feel like a Big Fish, especially after giving a well-received presentation at the national Kinko’s conference in Santa Barbara, California.  When I left Kinko’s to try my hand at writing, three of the top six stores in the country were mine, and we had over 600 stores at that time.

The United States, by the way, is a pretty big pond.  But then I left that big pond for Malaysia, a much smaller pond.  Publishing my first books in Singapore and then Malaysia, I soon found out, limits your scope. The books don’t seem to get outside of those two countries, so it was impossible to break out of the small pond, whether you’re a big fish or not.

Some Malaysian writers, albeit based overseas, like Tash Aw, author of the Whitebread winning novel The Harmony Silk Factory and Tan Twan Eng’s The Gift of Rain, long-listed for the Man Booker Prize, showed us that Malaysians can gracefully enter the Big Pond of writing and even get nominated for major awards. 

Then Preeta Samarasan’s Evening of the Whole Day and Shamini Flint’s Inspector Singh’s series, both published overseas, attracted a lot of attention.  Even Shih-Li Kow’s Ripples and Other Stories, with a small pond publisher, Silverfish, was shortlisted for the 2009 Frank O’Conner International Short Story Award.  That was exciting.  And it showed that it’s possible to break out for other writers based in Malaysia, myself included.  It also got me thinking, why am I still a small fish in this small Malaysian pond? 

When Lovers and Strangers Revisited (MPH 2008), first published by Silverfish, won the 2009 Popular Star Reader’s Choice Awards, I began to feel like a slightly bigger fish. In 2010 my profile was raised when I was named "One of the 50 Expats You Need to Know" by Expatriate Lifestyle and then featured on the TV program Kuppa Kopi. The Expat also profiled me in their magazine. But still the reality is the Malaysian market is rather limited.  Other Malaysian authors constantly tell me, “You can’t be a full time writer living in Malaysia.”  

Still I kept submitting my short stories to overseas markets and entering my novels to novel contests in the US, and although some have met with some success, it appears I still have a ways to go.  Yet, I also feel I’m close to breaking out of this small pond of Borneo where I now live in Sarawak, which is even further removed from mainstream Malaysia, let alone mainstream USA, or mainstream the world book publishing market.

Getting one of my books, Tropical Affairs, reviewed in Europe last week is a step in the right direction, and so is having another book, Lovers and Strangers Revisited, getting translated into French. Having a French blog set up for Trois autres Malaisie with an additional French translation of “Transaction in Thai” has already made a big impact in my blog hits. This morning when I work up, my blog total for the day set a new personal record, a 32% jump over my previous best, and the bulk of those came from France.  France, by the way, is a bigger pond.

One of the disadvantage of bigger ponds is you have a lot more competition, and even if you are a big fish in your own small pond, once you cross over to the bigger pond, you start at the bottom again, as a small fish.  But a small fish that’s going somewhere, and that can be all the difference.  You’re a small fish on the move.  How far you go will be determined by your own belief system.  Do you feel you have what it takes to breakout in a bigger market?  In order to do that, you need to step up your game, and that is what I aim to do.  Step up my writing game.  I have to.  For me, as an American writer based in Malaysia, it’s time to take a serious look at those bigger ponds in Europe, which I first glimpsed all those years ago as a wide-eyed, fresh fish graduate seeing the big fishy world for the first time.

There are a lot of ponds out there, so where will you make your mark, as a Big Fish in a Small Pond, or as a Small Fish in a Big Pond?  Bear in mind, you can only become a Big Fish in a Big Pond by making that small pond to big pond transition, which is a lot easier these days thanks to the Internet.  Of course, there is no right answer.  Just ask yourself, what feels right for you? Whatever you choose, whether Big Pond or Small Pond, I wish you luck.

                     —Robert Raymer, Borneo Expat Writer

*Update: Here's a link to the intro and excerpts of LSR in French, and to four reviews of Trois Autres Malaisie in eurasie.net, Malaisie.org, easyvoyage.com, and Petit Futé mag.

**Here’s an update to the French blog about Trois autres Malaisie, a link to meeting the French translator Jerome Bouchaud in Kuching, and also to order a copy or recommend it to your friends, especially those who would like to know more about Malaysia or have an interest in Southeast Asia.

***Update, the 20th 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 

Two Brief Writing Interviews, One Session Holding a Toddler

Here are two interviews, my first forays into YouTube, split from the same impromptu session, back in 2008, after a reading in Kuching at Bing!  My website designers, Nic and Krista from Redbox Studios, were in town, so I asked them to attend  the reading and then roped Krista into reading something from one of her blogs, which she naturally blogged about. 

After reading an excerpt from “Transactions in Thai”, which has just been translated into French from Lovers and Strangers Revisited, Nic approached me about the idea for a You Tube interview for his website.  I was carrying Justin at the time, as everyone including my wife Jenny, was busy saying their goodbyes, so we found a quiet place alongside Bing!  As Nic asked me a handful of questions, I tried to think of suitable answers while hoping Justin cooperates.  Like any toddler, he can get restless and throw a tantrum pretty fast.  We both managed to get through it, in one quick take, and that was that.

Over the years I kept coming across various versions, some better than others.  Then today I realized that there were, in fact, two separate interviews, split from that one session, with appropriate headings and questions added in.  I’m sure I must’ve known about this, but at the time, I may have been distracted with marking exams, blogging The Story Behind the Story series,  and writing, with two small children clamoring for my attention to notice.  After seeing the different versions out there, I thought it’s about time that I post the two that Redbox Studios created for their website. 

Here’s the first “My Website Got Me Three Book Deal” (two books actually)  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Mo5Q13-Ob0&NR=1

And “Going Online Gave Me Tons of Publicity” 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EFeofDpFTk

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 

Expatriate Archive Centre’s Book Review Tropical Affairs—22 March 2011

Two good news for Tropical Affairs: Episodes of an Exapt’s Life in Malaysia. One, a book review appeared on Expatriate Archive Centre’s blog.  Expatriate Archive Centre, located in Den Haag, Holland, is also one of the libraries that I mentioned in a recent post. This is, unless I’m mistaken, my first book review outside Malaysia/Singapore!  (*correction, the original Lovers and Strangers by Heinemann Asia was reviewed by Asia Magazine in Hong Kong back in 1993.)

Thoughts on Robert Raymer’s “Tropical Affairs” Written by Amanda Potter

Narrative essays collected into a book are a little like the predecessor to modern blogging. Robert Raymer’s “Tropical Affairs”, a collection of previously published non-fiction narratives about his life and times in Malaysia, almost reads like one (in a good way). Through his years of essays we learn a little about Robert’s life as an American living in Malaysia for more than 20 years, sympathize with his struggles, and cheer in his successes.

Tropical Affairs collects essays from Robert’s own life through relationships, work, children, and hobbies and after 20+ years in his adopted country, it’s clear that Robert loves Malaysia and the people who call it home. The book is organized into a series of themed sections with a little something for everyone to relate to. Personally, I found the expatriate, writing, and “being myself” sections the most interesting, but parents and even movie fans will find entertaining and thoughtful morsels as well. Humor and candor play equal parts in Robert’s writing, reflecting the complex and multicultural experience of living abroad.

However, although the essays are interesting, often entertaining, and sometimes even inspiring, I was left wanting a stronger central narrative to carry the book as a whole. I had hoped to learn a little about Malaysia through Robert’s experiences, but without any prior knowledge of the region, the essays didn’t lay the groundwork for me to fully understand his encounters. In addition, I found the way the essays “time traveled” back and forth through is life to be a bit jarring; especially when there were two essays written about the same exact event but not placed side-by-side.

Ultimately I found “Tropical Affairs” to be best read by simply flipping the book open and selecting a story at random. Each on its own is sweet and filled with experiences that anyone can relate to. And I like the slightly provocative title which encourages you to have a short, fun affair with each story, but maybe not a long term relationship.

Robert Raymer is also the author of (the equally provocative) Lovers and Strangers Revisited, a short story collection about Malaysia. He writes for several publications and also blogs and maintains a website at borneoexpatwriter.com.

                                          *  *  *

The second good news, I just got the Tropical Affairs royalty statement, though not as high as I’d like it to be—is it ever?— but it did mention a second printing around June 2010.  That’s good because I recently added buy links on all my 2009 Tropical Affairs excerpt posts, which I accidentally left out.  Several of these, particularly on Indochine and Paradise Road, continue to be my most popular posts, maybe because of the cool costumes that I get to wear in the films. 

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 

Creative Writing Workshops—Comes to Kota Kinabalu

First workshop at Universiti Malaysia Sabah

  Second workshop, open to the public:

Using Critical Thinking Skills to Turn Personal Experiences

into Narratives and Short Stories

with ROBERT RAYMER

When: Saturday,9 April	Time:  2.00-6.00pm	Cost:  RM100
Who:  13-90+ years old	Where:  7th Floor, Wisma Anglican, Karamunsing
Next:  Email or sms your name, contact phone number & email address to.................

Contacts:         Jude Day – 014-3514298 / jude.day@gmail.com

                        Farida Shukoor – 016-8486874 / fshukoor@hotmail.com

Critical thinking for surprising results!  Jumpstarting ideas – creating stories!

You don’t have to be a writer – but you can inspire yourself to write!                                    

                                                                                           

Brainstorm and tap into your creativity – the results can amaze you!

Robert Raymer’s 4-hour Creative Writing Workshop covers the following areas:

How to organise a story – using colours, fears, objects, sensory details, what-if, festive occasions, unusual experiences, people and locations, feelings and emotions – things to avoid when writing – writing a story

Q&A Session

Robert Raymer will also bring copies of his books – so you can buy autographed copies!  Selling at Rm25 and Rm33 each. 

*Here's a link to Getting Started with Pre-Writing Techniques.

 

Organised by the KK Theatre Group, SPArKS 

** Here's a link to the actual workshop (with blog links from the happy participants).  If you wish to contact me for a workshop at your school or association, I can be reached at robert@borneoexpatwriter.com  






*Announcement latest workshops:  Writing Your Life Stories 

Workshop—Kuching! 23 June 2012 (with links to other 

workshops and writing tips!) and also a workshop in KK on 17 

June 2012!  

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 

 

A French blog for Trois autres Malaisie and a new translation for The World of Suzie Wong!

A French blog  for my upcoming collection of short stories Trois autres Malaisie  has already been set up by my publisher Editions GOPE for some advance publicity.  Here is the translation of ‘Transactions in Thai’ from Lovers and Strangers Revisited that's made partly available.  By emailing the contact given, the whole story is free.  So if you can read French, check it out.

*Update, the 20th anniversary of Lovers and Strangers Revisited, my collection of short stories set in Malaysia

**Update: Book orders for Trois autres Malaisie.   E-book orders.  Or recommend it to your friends, especially those who would like to know more about Malaysia or have an interest in Southeast Asia.

  

Here's a link to the intro and excerpts, and to four reviews of Trois Autres Malaisie in eurasie.net, Malaisie.org, easyvoyage.com, and Petit Futé mag.

***Here’s an update to the French blog about Trois autres Malaisie and my meeting the French translator Jerome Bouchaud in Kuching, and my involvement in a French documentary for Arte (June 2017) on The Sensual Malaysia of Somerset Maugham.

Also Editions GOPE is giving new life to Richard Mason’s The World of Suzie Wong by launching a new revised, unabridged French translation.  Chapter two, you may remember, takes place in Malaysia, in a rubber plantation.

French translations of The World of Suzie Wong and Lovers and Strangers Revisited  (Trois autres Malaisie) will soon be side by side.  I like that. The World of Suzie Wong was not only an international best seller, it ran for many years as a play on Broadway and in London, and the movie version won Nancy Kwan a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in the role of Suzie.  

 Is there a film version for one of my short stories in the making?  Or maybe my Penang-set novel The Expatriate’s Choice, now that I finished rewriting it for the Faulkner-Wisdom novel contest. First, I need to find a publisher and perhaps a French translation!  It just dawned on me that the opening scene for The Expatriate’s Choice begins on the ferry to Penang, and the painter Robert Lomax met his muse Suzie Wong on a ferry in Hong Kong.  Hmm...

                                                *   *   *

Editions GOPE: The World of Suzie Wong    (Extract from Chapter One and blurb in French)

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

 Ok, I admit I’m feeling a little disappointed that The Boy Who Shot Santa did not advance to the Quarter Finals of Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards.  I thought I would even make it to the semi-finals on the strength of the whole novel, knowing how much effort I had point into this and all the rewriting I did in the months leading up to it.  But it didn’t, so that’s a step back for me, a time to re-access….For those who did get through, congrats!  For those who didn’t, or didn’t even get this far, or are struggling to make their writing or their lives more successful, then this is for you (and a reminder for me).

In 2009, I was at T. Harv Eker’s Guerrilla Business Intensive seminar in Singapore eating lunch with four other people I just met, some from Singapore, Canada, Australia, and myself the lone American.  All five of us looked relatively successful judging from our clothes, our appearances, and the fact that we shelled out a considerable amount of money for this five-day event in Singapore, most of us travelling just to get here, from Kuching, Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong.  There was a pause in the meal and I caught their attention by asking a simple question, “What personal adversity did you have to overcome that led you on the road to success?”

I went first to set the tone and talked about my divorce and custody battle and a lot of fallout that transpired during that rather difficult time in my life. Another couple took turns discussing their own marital breakups, a business going bust, dealing with bouts of depression, one on the verge of suicide.  A woman then broke down and cried as she related how she was assaulted and battered by a boyfriend and ended up in the hospital.  Even now she is struggling with trust and intimacy issues in her relationships. 

Another, the son of a multi-millionaire, admitted that he had gone to prison because of excessive driving violations.  Singapore is rather tough in this area.  One of those violations wasn’t even his.  He was covering for his now ex-wife during a traffic accident, claiming he was driving when she was (and drunk at the time), so she wouldn’t accumulate excessive violations herself. He lost his driver’s license, and then with less than a week to go, he got caught driving without a license, and because of those additional points, he now had to spend two weeks in prison. 

Later, I spoke to his father and he said it was an important lesson for his strong-headed son.  He had advised him not to drive without his license and not to marry that woman in the first place; she was trouble and was always getting him into trouble.  Since their divorce, he had turned his life around and has his whole future ahead of him.

All of five of us had reached rock bottom in our lives, and the point that I wanted to make by posing the question in the first place, was that, despite those setbacks, or maybe even because of them, because we had been through all that—the shame, the indignity, the frustrations—we were determined to make a success out of our lives.  To turn it all around, which each of us gradually did, and found ourselves at the same place having lunch together during a break at this seminar in Singapore.

What personal adversity have you gone through that has in fact made you stronger, more determined to succeed?  Are you looking back, focusing on what all went wrong and blaming everyone else, or are you looking ahead to what you can still make right?  In life, we’re going to have our setbacks, our disappointments—some major, some minor—but it’s how we pick ourselves afterward that matters.  Life is often a series of two steps forward, one step back.  Learn from those ‘steps back’ and apply that knowledge for your next two steps forward.  So long as, at the end of the day, you’re determined to keep moving forward, that’s all that matters.  Just take all of your setbacks in stride and keep focusing on your goals.

That's exactly what I'm doing right now, itching to get back to another novel for another contest and considering other routes to publication to add to the three books I have in the marketplace and a fourth, a translation, on the way. The rules to publishing has changed drastically in the last two years (e-publishing is taking off and bookstores are closing) and it's time to explore these options for my next two steps forward.  

*Here's a link, to another writer who just broke out in a major deal.  

*Update: The Resurrection of Jonathan Brady just made Round Two 2012, so far (I included the pitch.)

**Update: The Resurrection of Jonathan Brady just advanced to the Quarterfinals of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award 2012!

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 

Libraries, a Wonderful Place to Find Your Own Books!

A friend introduced me to Worldcat.org where you can find books in world libraries, including your own. Just out of curiosity I punched in my name and after eliminating a few others with my name, including one who wrote about mining in several Western states back in the mid-40’s, I found some surprises, like Silverfish New Writings 4, that I edited, is in the University of Michigan library and the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies.  Tropical Affair is in National University of Singapore and as I blogged before in the Expatriate Archive Centre in Holland.

The Heinemann Asia version of Lovers and Strangers is in such places as Harvard, Yale, Cornel, University of Wisconsin-Madison and  Ohio University, as well as in two branches of the British Library.  Lovers and Strangers Revisited is in some of those same places, plus UCLA, University of California, Berkeley, University of Michigan, Columbia University, and of course the Library of Congress.  So is The Spirit of Malaysia, but since it’s new it has yet to make its way to the libraries yet and Trois autres Malaisie.will soon be in French libraries.

But right now I’m picturing some student in Harvard or Yale picking up that old version of Lovers and Strangers Revisited and thinking, wouldn’t it be cool to move to some tropical island and write books.

*Update: Expatriate Archives Centre just reviewed Tropical Affairs!

**Another update:  Someone at Ohio University did pick that old book and now they're adapting my short story "Home for Hari Raya" into screenplay and film! Also two short stories from the collection was taught there and I skyped with the students.

***Update, the 20th 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 

Got Some Writer Envy—Get Some Editing to Improve Your Own Writing!

Authors Yvonne Lee, Robert Raymer, and Adeline Loh at 2009 Popular Star Reader's Choice Awards

 

When I first heard that Yvonne Lee, author of Madness Aboard and Vanity Drive, had some incredible sales with her first book, The Sky is Crazy:  Tales from a Trolley Dolly, I felt a twinge of jealously—it’s human nature.  I was like, wow, how did she do it?  Another writer mentioned that she’s good at online marketing, and I thought, OK, I need to do more of that.  She is also good at going after the media instead of waiting for the media come to her, which is also smart.  (They made never come!) Ok, I should do more of this too!  Then she did something that really caught my attention.  She contacted me to help edit her next book.

That’s what successful writers do; they seek out those in the position to help them.

That’s what I did, too, when I first began to write.  I hired an editor to point out all of my mistakes in the short stories that I was writing, not knowing that I was even making any mistakes!  To be honest, I was looking for validation!  Brilliant—don’t change a word!  I learned an awful lot and realized I had an awful lot to learn about writing.  Gradually I transformed these early stories, draft after draft, into a collection, Lovers and Strangers (Heinemann Asia 1993).   

While revisiting my old short stories for Lovers and Strangers Revisited (MPH, 2008), I did it again.  I approached an editor friend and convinced her to edit my stories by hiring her!  And these stories had already been published many times!  Although there were no grammar mistakes or glaring errors, she did point areas in each story that needed to be tightened.  She questioned details, word choice, and any ineffective writing that needed to be reworked.  She pointed me in the right direction, but the rest was up to me, as I overhauled the stories.

Basically, I hired a fresh pair of eyes to catch mistakes before I send it to the publisher.  Of course, the publisher will assign you an editor, but usually they’re overworked and will mostly catch minor mistakes, yet many errors (and a lot of bad, lazy writing) will still end up in print!  Pick up most books published in Malaysia (and elsewhere, too) and you’ll see what I mean. 

Did my efforts pay off?  Lovers and Strangers Revisited did win the 2009 Popular-Star Reader’s Choice Award and now the collection is getting translated into French.

Yes, I know, hiring an editor will cost money, but consider it as a writer’s business expense or as an investment into your own writing.  I did.  You’re also investing into your education as a writer by learning from the editor’s corrections and comments.  This way you’ll be more aware of your own writing and less likely to make similar mistakes.  You will, in fact, become a better writer by learning how to make your writing more effective.

So what do you look for in an editor?  Other than price, consider the editor’s experience and publishing credentials.  Can they walk the talk?  Like many editors, I offer a basic line-editing service, catching any and all grammar mistakes and related errors.  For years I taught advance grammar to English teachers as part of their English Literature and Language Studies program.  I also line-edited my creative writing students’ work and did the same for published writers, too.  Unlike your average English language academic, I offer an advance editing service that takes you into the mind of a published author (and creative writing instructor), adding personal insights into your writing, whereby your word choices, your turn of phrases, and your writing style does matter if you truly want to be successful.  So does your organization, your transitions, your point-of-view, and your underlying story logic, especially in fiction and creative non-fiction.  Is your story plausible, believable, or full of gaping holes and question marks?

After I edited two sample chapters, Yvonne Lee replied, “You're so super efficient!  I love the way you gave me details about why certain phrases didn't work. Very thorough work in such short time.  A perfect teacher . . . . Really appreciate the care and time you had given to my work :)”  Notice the smiley emoticon that she added.  That made me smile, too.  This is exactly why she is successful.  She not only knows how to come up with good ideas, write and market her work, she’s not afraid to ask for a fresh pair of editing eyes.  She even shows appreciation, and that’s rare these days!  (Believe me, I’ve spoken to other editors!)  

Yvonne even made these comments after I caught her making some silly mistakes and couple of glaring non-grammatical errors that we all tend to make when writing in a hurry.  She wasn’t angry or embarrassed.  Maybe a little embarrassed . . . . I know I was when my editor friend caught my mistakes!  Bear in mind, I was paying her to catch those mistakes so they don’t end up in print!  

Far too many writers, on the other hand, get defensive and lash out at you!  "How dare you insinuate that my writing needs to be improved!  It’s perfect as it is!  Don’t touch a word!”  Editors at publishing houses hear this all the time, and it’s so frustrating for them . . . . They see the errors and so will their readers, but the writer is all ego!  These types of writers you really can't help; their egos won't let you!  But whether you own up to the criticism or not, or live in a state of denial, if the mistakes are there, it’s far better that I (or another editor) catch them than thousands of your readers!  

As for, Yvonne Lee, I’m impressed that after three published books, she’s still willing to learn from others so her future books will continue to be bestsellers.  That’s rather admirable, don’t you think?

And yes, I’m still a little envious of her sales and her publicity (then again she is a former stewardess and I’m not!).  After having gotten to know her and working with her, I feel she deserves it.  She’s also going places with her writing, and I find that very exciting and am glad to be a part of it.

Being jealous or envious of other writers won’t get you very far in your writing life, unless you use that as motivation to write better.  Bottom line:  if you want to be as successful in your writing, do what successful writers do.  A good place to start is to get some serious help with your editing to give your writing a lift, so you too can become that best-selling, award-winning writer that will be the envy of everyone else.  Myself included.  Good luck!

For those wishing to contact Robert Raymer for his editing services, please go to his website at www.borneoexpatwriter.com.

*Here’s also a link to The Story Behind the Story which contains the editing changes I did for my stories that led to their various publications. 


**And for Yvonne's marketing, check this out.

***Update, the 20th 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 

Elizabeth Gilbert: A new way to think about creativity

When I first came across this video by Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love at the TED conference a couple of months ago, I was mesmerized as I listened to her insights into creativity, how to deal with it, and how to put it all into perspective.  It also struck a chord.  Writers, artists, creative people of all kind, put far too much pressure on themselves to continually come up with something brilliant to prove their genius, and by doing do, often drive themselves if not crazy, then drunk or depressed or even suicidal.

The video is about 20 minutes, but it’s packed full of wisdom and humor as you watch her bounce on stage, dealing with the reality of coming to terms with her enormous success of Eat, Pray, Love.  As she puts it, everyone thinks she’s now “doomed” because her best work is now behind her . . . . I sure hope not because I recently bought her follow up memoir, Committed, A Love Story, about how US Immigration kicked out Felipe, the Brazilian she fell in love with in Bali, and how they both wrestled with this decision to get married after they swore their eternal love for each other, yet also swore not to get married.

I like how she takes on these big elusive issues. I believe you’ll enjoy her take on creativity in the above video.  I’m also reminded that, genius aside, you still have to show up every day to do your job, and yes it’ll still be a struggle, but you’re not alone, and if you’re lucky, you’ll have some mystical help along the way… 

Four Films: A Writer as a Film Extra, while based in Penang, Malaysia

Group shot from Paradise Road, Cannon Square, Penang. Glenn Close and Juianna Margulies from ER are kneeling at center. Photo by Robert Raymer

As a writer formerly based in Penang, Malaysia (and now in Borneo), I found myself as a film extra in four films, which I wrote about in Tropical Affairs: Episodes from an Expat’s Life in Malaysia and posted some excerpts in late 2009.  Three of these are in my all time top five blog posts and one is in the top seven for this month, thanks to the cool group photo above.  Some even consider this section the most interesting of the book because it takes you behind the scenes of four acclaimed films with A-list directors such as Bruce Beresford, Andy Tennant and John Boorman, and Oscar-award winning/nominated actresses, including Jodie Foster, Francis McDormand, Cate Blanchett, and Catherine Deneuve.  One film, even won an Oscar for best foreign language film, Indochine.  Indochine, a small closed set for the Christmas party scene, was my introduction to life on the movie set, followed by the larger racing boat scene, and then the films Beyond Rangoon, Paradise Road and Anna and the King, a truly magnificent ride.  Hopefully, I'll have more opportunities to be involved with films; even better if they are based on my work or the screenplays that I've already written. 

*Update, the 20th anniversary of Lovers and Strangers Revisited, my collection of short stories set in Malaysia

**Update: Book orders for Trois autres Malaisie.   E-book orders.  Or recommend it to your friends, especially those who would like to know more about Malaysia or have an interest in Southeast Asia.

  

Here's a link to the intro and excerpts, and to four reviews of Trois Autres Malaisie in eurasie.net, Malaisie.org, easyvoyage.com, and Petit Futé mag.

***Here’s an update to the French blog about Trois autres Malaisie and my meeting the French translator Jerome Bouchaud in Kuching, and my involvement in a French documentary for Arte (June 2017) on The Sensual Malaysia of Somerset Maugham.



Here is a collage of photographs from the films.  Some of these were even snapped by a couple of stars themselves. Here's a video clip from Indochine. I can clearly be seen seated at the table several times, but on the dance floor, maybe the back of my head...

Robert Raymer at center on the set of Indochine

Indochine: Catherine Deneuve rehearsing tango with Linh Dan Pham 

The Indochine Tango Dancers.  standing Robert Raymer, Joelle St-Arnoult, Angela and Lee Clark; seated Anni Nordmann, Andre Cluzaud, Laurence, Seibert Kubsch

Indochine, Joelle St-Arnoult and Robert Raymer danced the tango together  

Beyond Rangoon: Joelle St-Arnoult  and Robert Raymer as tacky tourists.

  

Indochine: Linh Dan Pham took this black and white photo of Siggi 

and me.

On the set of racing boat scene in Indochine.  Robert Raymer at left with Siggi
and friend on the footbridge that the French built at Parit, Perak.

Indochine: Robert Raymer with actress Linh Dan Pham

Anna and the King: Robert Raymer and the crocodile

Robert Raymer,with fake sideburns, on the set of Anna and the King

Paradise Road, Robert Raymer at left