Ivy Ngeow offering SIGNED FIRST LIMITED EDITIONS of Cry of the Flying Rhino

London-based Malaysian author Ivy Ngeow just posted on her blog where you can order SIGNED FIRST LIMITED EDITIONS of her 2016 Proverse Prize winning novel, Cry of the Flying Rhino.  She also posted links for regular orders to Amazon and Kindle (US & UK).   
 
Soon they should be available in Malaysia.  I heard they were already out in Select Books in Singapore.

Recently I had interviewed Ivy about her writing and publishing her first novel and crowdfunding her second novel, Heart of Glass, due out in early 2018.

Congrats again for winning the award and delivering her speech in Hong Kong, which I posted on my blog about my receiving her novel set partly in Borneo here in Borneo where I live.

            —Borneo Expat Writer

 

Meeting French author and translator Jerome Bouchaud in Kuching

Jerome Bouchaud and Robert Raymer in Kuching

The plan was to meet Jerome Bouchaud, translator of Lovers and Strangers Revisited into Trois autres Malaisie and author of Malaisie - Modernité et Traditions en Asie du Sud-Est, at The Junk at 7pm.  According to Lonely Planet “A long-time favourite with visitors and Malaysian celebrities—whose pictures line the staircase—Junk offers superb sophisticated Western food with Italian bias amid a collection of endearingly eccentric, well, junk.”  They should add, “cool” junk, including some collectors items and antiques that will keep you mesmerized as you wonder about the premises, both upstairs and down, along with generous portions of great food.  I thought Jerome would like the place, just in case we ran out of things to talk about, not that I should have been worried. 

After arriving early to beat the traffic, I was dismayed to find The Junk closed on Tuesdays.  At a loss, I texted Jerome and suggested Khatulistiwa Café on the waterfront, a relaxing, open-aired venue, a great place for watching people as they stroll along the waterfront, also a safe first-meeting place that’s easy to find.

Jerome, who I just blogged about two days ago Gearing Up for the French and was in Kuching to update a French travel guidebook (not his own, but another that he contributes to), had one advantage over me, he knew what I looked like from my book, website and blog, while I had no clue, other than hearing for the first time that morning a cheerful sounding voice.  He turned out to be tall and handsome—no doubt excellent qualities for translating—with a cheerful disposition, alert eyes, and a quick sense of humor.  I liked him right away. 

From the moment we shook hands to nearly four hours later, we spoke in a rapid fire conversation, pausing to eat our respective though different beef noodle soups, as we exchanged writing and marketing ideas, our writing experiences, and how we both came to be writing in Malaysia.  

He also told me how he stumbled upon my website/blog, while actively looking for expat writers in Malaysia (which he also did while living four years in China).  He then recommended Lovers and Strangers Revisited to Editions GOPE, who had contacted him via a mutual friend, looking for an expat writer in Malaysia for their new Asian series of books, that I blogged about in February, after the deal was confirmed and contracts signed.

By the time we departed, both of our heads were spinning with ideas, after tossing back and forth viable and rather helpful suggestions, seeing the potential.  This is what every writer needs, especially those expats in far-flung locations like Borneo (me) and Langkawi (him), a kindred spirit with similar writing goals who is putting himself out there, walking the talk and producing books.  Yeah, we’re far from famous, but we both know that if we keep at it and keep producing good books, success will be there.  

Plus now we share a similar fate, having joined forces to take my Lovers and Strangers Revisited and turned it into our Trois autres Malaisie.  Yeah, I wrote the original stories, but Jerome translated them to appeal to a French market, and for that—and for recommending me in the first place—I’m eternally grateful.

*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 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 

 

Some Tropical Island Novelists -- Not a Bad Path to Follow

Recently I blogged about two American writers in Borneo and that got me thinking about other western writers who either lived on South Seas islands or wrote about them, which reminded me of a book that I picked up in Hawaii four years ago after attending the Maui Writers Conference.  Since I had been writing on Penang for twenty-one years and was in the process of moving to my second island, Borneo, the heavily discounted book seemed to be speaking to me, Mad About Islands, Novelists of a Vanished Pacific by A Grove Day.

On the back cover was a photo of the very man who lit up my imagination to go off to some tropical island and be a writer, Norman Hall, after I read his autobiography.  He along with Charles Nordhoff set off for Tahiti and they found a story that had been waiting for them to write for 140 years, The Mutiny on the Bounty.  They turned the Bounty story into a trilogy.

Herman Melville, author of Moby Dick, spent three years roving the Pacific Ocean and wrote several novels about islands in the South Seas.  Jack London also did some island-hopping as did Mark Twain, who spent some time on Hawaii writing assignments for a newspaper. Later it was reported that he had written a novel set on Hawaii, but either the manuscript got lost or more likely parts got incorporated into another novel.

Somerset Maugham’s Moon and Sixpence is patterned on Paul Gauguin’s life in Tahiti.  The Trembling of Leaf featured several island stories, the most famous of which is “Rain”.  He also spent a great deal writing about Southeast Asia, including Malaya and Borneo.  Joseph Conrad wrote several South Seas island novels including Victory and Outcasts of the Islands. Almayer's Folly, is even set on the east coast of Borneo.  

James Michener wrote the Tales of the South Pacific, which was turned into the musical, South Pacific.  Of course, the most famous book about an island has to be either Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe or Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island.  Stevenson is even buried on the island of Samoa. 

For me, one of the novels I’m counting on is The Expatriate’s Choice, set on Penang, which also involves a treasure buried by the Japanese.  Since an earlier draft has done well in the Faulkner-Wisdom novel contest it gives me hope as I re-enter a heavily revised version (with a new title--the previous title was Tropical Moods) at the end of this month.  Then there is The Boy Who Shot Santa now in Round Two of 2011 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. For a writer, especially one living on an island half way around the world, hope is not a bad thing to have.

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 American Writers in Borneo

Ok, I admit when I first heard that there was another American writer in Kuching, I thought, well that’s going to be confusing!  “Hey, have you met that American in Borneo?  In Sarawak?  In Kuching? You know, the writer?  The one that just published a book?”  I’m sure he feels the same way about me.

Shortly after Tom McLaughlin contacted me via my website, I saw his book, Borneo Tom at the airport in Miri. I also checked out his website and read quite a few of his blog postings.  Right away, I liked what Tom did.  From the outset he made up his mind to bypass the typical agent/traditional publisher route that could drag out for years (and never have a book); instead he self-published his blog series about his life and adventures since moving to Borneo and crafted it into a rather nice book.   

First, he invested in setting up a professional website, hired an American publicist.  He found his own editor (before he knew me) and also an illustrator.  He knows success will take time, but he is laying down a good foundation.  More importantly, he got his book, full of fun illustrations, into the marketplace fast.  He is not only working with book distributors to get his books into bookstores throughout Malaysia and beyond, but also takes orders from his website and even offers free gifts as enticement.

  

After agreeing to meet, I suggested that we exchange books, which we did in October/November 2010 at his place by the river front.  Although at the time Tropical Affairs was my latest book, I thought he would appreciate Lovers and Strangers Revisited, since he had recently married.  I directed him to the story “Mat Salleh”.  

Then we met again when Han, a poet from KL, came to town in January 2011, hoping to meet some other writers, and again in February.  This is turning into a monthly affair.

Since Tom and I are approaching publishing from different angles (I’m publishing and writing mostly fiction and recently began earnestly seeking the services of an agent to bring my work, my novels into larger markets), we can learn from each other to see what works, what brings in the desired results.  The publishing industry has changed so much in the last two years, bringing more challenges to writers, but also more opportunities (e-books/e-publishing).  The more we discuss and keep abreast of these changes, particularly the opportunities that are now available to us (even though we’re based on the other side of the planet in Borneo of all places), the better we can position ourselves, our writing, our books, our marketing efforts.  More importantly, we can bolster our confidence and nudge one another to try new things and keep focused on our writing goals.

Although Borneo, in terms of the publishing world of USA/UK, is a bit off the map, other American writers do occasionally pass through the region.  For example last year, after a couple of near misses, I finally met with Paul Spencer Sochaczewski, author of The Sultan and the Mermaid  for my first author exchange of books with a fellow American in Borneo as a way of introduction, a tradition I wouldn’t mind keeping up.  In addition to publishing several other books, including a novel, Paul and Tom have two things in common, both are former Peace Corps volunteers in Sarawak and both have a passion for Alfred Russel Wallace. 

After reading what both have written of Wallace in their respective books, I’m now intrigued.  I had been meaning to read The Malay Archipelago when I first discovered it 25 years ago in the small bookstore that used to be just to the right of the entrance of The E & O Hotel in Penang before it was renovated.  I spent an awful lot of time in that bookstore (dreaming of my own books) and even mentioned it in my yet-to-be published novel The Expatriate’s Choice (several major chapters are set inside the hotel, including the climax.) 

The edition I finally bought last week wasn’t the Oxford University Press that I was seeking, but a Stanfords Travel Classics (Beaufoy Books), with an introduction by the Earl of Cranbrook, who I also, coincidentally, just missed in Kuching in 2009.  We had spoken twice on the phone but somehow the date of his flight got miss-communicated and conflicted with a night class that I was teaching.  Not long afterwards, I did finally get to see him, via the documentary The Airmen and the Headhunters, a fascinating account of the rescue mission of several American airmen shot down in Borneo during WWII. 

Americans (and no doubt American writers) have been coming to Borneo for years.  One of the first, Charles Lee Moses, even owned what is today Sabah, north of Sarawak.  In 1865, Moses, the United States Consul to Brunei, obtained a 10-year lease for the territory of North Borneo from the Sultan of Brunei.  However, the post-Civil War United States wanted nothing to do with Asian colonies, so Moses sold his rights to the Hong Kong-based American Trading Company of Borneo, who eventually sold it to the North Borneo Chartered Company.

So for now, Tom and I just happen to be two American authors based in Borneo, though I have a feeling there are a few others out there in other parts of Sarawak, Sabah, Brunei or the Indonesian side, Kalimantan.  I do know several American writers used to live here.  Some have contacted me.   If  you're an American writer passing through Kuching, bring a copy of your book along so we can exchange them.

             -Robert Raymer, 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

Two Sides to Every Story: An Encounter with a Spirit-Part I

Living and writing in a different culture gives you the chance to experience the world from a different perspective.  Of course, it’s what you do with that perspective that matters.  Either you try to understand it, learn from it, or you dismiss it entirely.  Two nights ago, my wife took her mother, a Bidayuh, home after visiting us for most of the day.  Before they even arrived home my wife suspected something was wrong because her mother, who was riding in the backseat, didn’t respond to a couple of questions.

Then when they reached her village in Quop, her mother, who was clutching one of her hands, had no sense of balance; it was as if she had suddenly gone limp.  While helping her out of the car, which she never had to do before, they both fell.  She was also speaking gibberish; my wife couldn’t understand anything that she was saying. With the help of her brother-in-law they took her to the hospital where they conducted several tests, including ct scans, cardiovascular tests, ex-rays, and blood samples.  After several hours she finally could speak normally again.  The doctors concluded she had a mild stroke, but it wasn’t severe enough to admit her.

The following evening my wife was chatting online to her cousin in Kapit; her cousin’s mother was on the phone talking to my wife’s mother at that very moment. My wife’s  mother was telling her cousin’s mother that she had been attacked by a spirit.  She said her hand suddenly started to hit her so she had to clutch it tightly to prevent it from hurting her. She was also trying to speak but the spirit wasn’t allowing her to speak.

Now before you start rolling your eyes, I asked my wife, where did her mother feel this ‘spirit’ came from, since she had been at our place. Our place, as far as I know, doesn't have any spirits.  I hope not.  As it turned out, late that afternoon, they had visited a sprawling nursery that sells flowers and plants.  The owner was telling my wife’s mother how she hurt herself.  She said she was out back when a spirit shoved her from behind.  She said no one else was around.  She insisted she didn’t slip or fall; she was shoved, and when she landed, she broke her wrist. 

After buying some plants, leaving some in the trunk to take back to Quop, they came back to our place, had dinner, and my wife drove her home. By then, she was not looking herself, as if she had been wiped out.  I just assumed that she was tired since she's in her late 60's.  Did this spirit follow her from the nursery?  Did it enter her body?  Then before they even reached her place, just a few kilometers away, she had this “stroke”.

Was it a stoke or did a spirit disturb her?  Or was it a combination of both?  After hearing of this other "encounter" at the nursery, and being highly susceptible herself because of her beliefs that these spirits really do exist, had she worried herself  into a stroke? Again, this is all about your perspective on a different culture.  My wife’s cousin’s mother, by the way, does have some experience in this area. She has a son who was found trying to strangle himself by a huge split boulder not far from my wife’s family home, close to St James church, the oldest Anglican church in Southeast Asia, and the adjacent graveyard.  Spirits have been sighted by that split boulder; people still go there to seek four-digit numbers.  Her son was taken to a bomoh, a witch doctor/healer, before he was taken to a doctor. The family and relatives concluded he had been possessed.  Why else would he try to strangle himself?  The doctors, called it a seizure. After that incident, he has never been the same, in and out of trouble.

Whether you believe in spirits or not is not the point.  If you are familiar with the Bible, and you take that as the word of God or as the truth, well there is ample evidence in the Bible where demons and spirits were driven out of people in order to heal them.  The Chinese here celebrate the Month of the Hungry Ghosts. There are two sides to every story; even doctors don’t always agree.  Again, it’s a matter of perspective from a different culture.  Learn from it, or dismiss it.  As a writer, as a person who has common sense, it’s your choice.  

As a follow up to this, while I gather more facts/opinions by interviewing her mother when she has fully recovered, I’ll relate my own personal encounter with a spirit in her mother’s house that took place 14 years ago.  Up until then, I had off-handedly dismissed such stories.  You can be the judge.  Again, I live in Borneo and many people have been violently killed here, on headhunting raids.  170 years ago Quop was nearly wiped out in one such raid by the Saribas and Skrang Ibans.

Here is the link for Part II, the Shadow Spirit.

Sarawak: Wild and Wondrous

Often I'm asked, so what is Kuching like? Then I realized I wrote this article on Sarawak, mostly about Kuching, two years ago for a hotel/trade publication in the US, and now that I have my own scanner I can finally post it -- better late than never!

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