Popular-Star Readers’ Choice Awards: "The Merdeka Miracle" – a Hat Trick of Winners!

Congrats to all of the recent nominees and winners of the 2015 Popular-Star Readers’ Choice Awards, Cheeming Boey for nonfiction for his book When I was a Kid 3, and especially to Tunku Halim for his winning book Horror Stories! He had been nominated several times and this year he finally won.  The award makes it a hat trick for “The Merdeka Miracle!”  

Back in 2009 Tunku Halim, Lydia Teh (who had already won the Reader’s Choice Award in 2008 for her bestselling Honk if You’re a Malaysian) and I were asked by our publisher MPH and the editor for Going Places to write a joint short story about 2020 for their Merdeka, August issue.

They gave us less than one month to write it!  At the time I had never met Tunku Halim or Lydia Teh, though I finally got to meet Lydia  at the 2010 Bookfest where our books were again nominated, though neither of us won.)

 

At the time of our unusual request, I was in Kuching (on the island of Borneo), Lydia in Kuala Lumpur, and Tunku Halim on vacation with his family, traveling between Paris and London.  I quickly got an idea and the opening of the story; then we would rotate among us until we completed a draft. We continued to do so, draft after draft, frantically sending emails back and forth until we were relatively satisfied and out of time!

That same month when “The Merdeka Miracle” appeared in the August issue of Going Places, I won the 2009 Reader’s Choice Award for Lovers and Strangers Revisited  for fiction. 

  

On my MAS flight to KL for the award ceremony, not knowing I had won, I picked up some copies of "The Merdeka Miracle".  I picked up some more on the return flight later that day while carrying my award home.  I’m sure I was beaming with pride, itching to tell the other passengers, “Hey, open up Going Places to page…”  If only a stewardess would announce it over the PA system, “Ladies and Gentlemen on board we are privileged to have one of the authors of ‘The Mereka Miracle’ featured in our current issue of Going Places.  Please open to page…”  

Of course I was too shy to mention it to anyone, except maybe the little girl across the aisle who kept staring at me, perhaps wondering, why the color of my skin was different from the other passengers or why my nose was so...

Again, congrats to Tunku Halim for winning and for completing our version of a hat trick!  Lydia and I couldn’t have written “The Merdeka Miracle” without you!  Here’s a toast to more awards in our writing future!  

           —Borneo Expat Writer 

POPULAR Supports Local Authors - Writing Workshop

POPULAR Supports Local Authors - Writing Workshop

13 Jul 2015 BookFest @ Malaysia 2015, KLCC, Hospitality Lounge 5

HAVE you ever dreamt of being a writer? Have ever you thought of following in ink-trails of iconic authors such as Ernest Hemingway, George R.R. Martin, or Agatha Christie? Does the thought of having your name on the spine of a book fill you with delight?

If you answered “yes” to any of those questions, then you should definitely attend the Popular Supports Local Authors Writing Workshop on 13 July.

If you’re interested, get the RM50 participation ticket from selected Popular Bookstores outlets in the Klang Valley, and then confirm your registration at htp://bit.ly/writingworkshopbfm. The ticket includes a BookFest@Malaysia entry pass, a Staedler-sponsored stationery goodie bag worth RM30, a notebook, and notes from the speakers. The selected Popular outlets are at Sunway Pyramid, 1 Utama Shopping Centre, Empire Shopping Gallery, The Ikano Power Centre, Avenue K, Ampang Point, and Aeon Bukit Tinggi.

For registration, please log on to http://bit.ly/writingworkshopbfm



About the Speakers

Speakers	Biography
	Robert Raymer – The 1st Prize Winner of Readers’ Choice Award 2009 Named as one of the “50 Expats You Should Know in Malaysia” by Expatriate Life¬¬style, Sarawak-based American Robert Raymer has taught creative writing for 13 years at two Malaysian universities and been published over 500 times.  His stories have appeared in The Literary Review, London Magazine, Descant, Thema, The Writer and Reader’s Digest.  Lovers and Strangers Revisited (MPH), a collection of short stories set in Malaysia, won the 2009 Popular-The Star Readers Choice Awards, has been taught overseas and throughout Malaysia (and in SPM literature, “Neighbours”, translated into French, and one of the stories ("Home for Hari Raya") filmed by Ohio University.  His other books are Tropical Affairs: Episodes from an Expat's Life in Malaysia, Spirit of Malaysia, and he was the editor for Silverfish New Writings 4.  He has a blog on writing borneoexpatwriter.blogspot.com and a website www.borneoexpatwriter.com
	Dr Lee Su Kim, The 1st Prize Winner of Fiction Category in Readers’ Choice Award 2011 Lee Su Kim is a full-time writer and language consultant. Formerly Associate Professor of English at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Su Kim s research interests are in language, culture and identity. She holds a Doctorate in Education from the University of Houston and a Masters degree from the University of Malaya. She is the founding President of the Peranakan Baba Nyonya Association of Kuala Lumpur & Selangor. She was a speaker at the Ubud Writers Festival, 2010, and a previous columnist with The Star.
	Shamilla Ganesan, Chief Reporter from Malaysia No 1 English Papers The Star  Literary Coordinator and Columnist responsible for planning and assigning feature stories, interviews and reviews on books. Also writes the fortnightly literary column 'Booked Out', which aims to read, discuss and write about the books listed in '1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die'. Also includes creating a vibrant social media presence and following for the column.
	Kris Williamson Kris Williamson is a publishing consultant and writer. Born and raised in Florida's Tampa Bay Area, he fled America when the neo-cons took over, choosing to continue his studies in Australia. Eventually he found his way to Malaysia and has been tolerated there despite the lack of itinerant mat salleh in the 1Malaysia agenda. He has written professionally for a decade but only turned to writing for fun over the last few years. He founded the Southeast Asian-themed e-zine Anak Sastra in 2010 and still edits its quarterly issues. When not writing about himself in the third person, he talks about other people in the third person.

For registration, please log on to http://bit.ly/writingworkshopbfm

Season’s Greeting…Season’s Cleaning

It started with a rat . . . . A rat visited us last Christmas, too, came up through the drain in our bathroom, but I caught that one.  This is a relative that lives in the ceiling and ate its way through a couple of wires, thus darkening our kitchen.  Since we needed to call an electrician, we thought, well, what else can the electrician do?  The boys ceiling fan needed fixed or replaced and my wife has been hinting (for years) that our living room is too dull, so when the electrician arrived we asked for a quote on some down lights. 

While shifting furniture to make room for the electrician and his ladder, I noticed a lot of dust; then the electrician created a mess under each down light, so I furiously swept and mopped the living room and the dining room for good measure (the kitchen, too).  Just in time for some Christ­mas carolers from my wife’s village in Quop. 

After wishing us a Merry Christmas, the carolers left and moved onto the next house, and my wife hinted at the next project . . . . We really needed to do something with our wall that separated our property from the neighbors.  The lower half was fine, but the upper metal grille was rusty and looked horrible.  We had it painted two years ago by a contractor friend.  His bid was rather unfriendly, so we asked the contractor who recently completed the back wall at my sister-in-law’s house.  We’re glad we did. 

Impressed with their work, I got the idea of turning our upstairs balcony that we rarely use into a separate room for our exercise equipment, since keeping fit is one of our resolutions for 2015 (as is running a second marathon).  After doing some furious tape measuring, I could see the possibilities, so I got a quote.  It was reasonable if we opted not to knock out the wall separating it from the master bedroom since that would affect the ceiling, the floor and substantially increase the cost.  We’ll remove the door and shift the existing window out to the balcony and leave the windowless space empty, giving the balcony room a sense of spacious­ness and making it easier for my wife and me to talk while the other works out.  (Good for encouragement!)

As soon as they finished plastering the back wall (and the front, too, since we were at it), they got to work on the balcony.  Initially I had agreed to paint the back and front walls to save on costs, but the more we talked to the contractors about that, we thought it might be wiser to let the experts do that, since they knew how to seal it properly before painting (something I never considered) so the paint won’t come off during the first torrential downpour.  (We live in the tropics.)  Besides, my wife wasn’t convinced that I would get around to it as quickly as she wanted it done.  While we were at it (famous last words), we had them paint the side walls, too.

While rearranging some furniture in our master bedroom so nothing got damaged, my wife noticed that our ceiling fan was dusty.  Once we started cleaning that, it naturally led to other things that were equally dusty like our floor, our curtains, so before you know it, she has me vacuuming the curtains in every room of the house including the living room drapes, some­thing we haven’t done in years.  Who has time to vacuum curtains?

In the midst of vacuuming, my wife asked me what I wanted to do with the door that they removed from the balcony.  Knowing it’d come in handy the moment we tossed it, I thought of storing it in the back room where we do our laundry.  But first I had to move every­thing out so it wouldn’t be in the way of everything else.  Then I swept, dusted, mopped and tossed stuff; while I was at it, I did some serious rearranging to make it more pleasing to the eye.     

Once the balcony room is ready, we’ll call the electrician again to add an outlet and replace the light.  Before he comes we’ll take another look around the place to see if anything else needs repaired or replaced.  In the meantime, we’re taking down the Christmas decorations, but before putting it back into storage, I’ll clean out that storage room, too, since it’s looking fairly cluttered . . . . That happens when you have children, boys especially.

Hopefully, that will be the end of this year’s Season’s Cleaning, so I can finally relax and get back to revising my novel . . . . But already my wife is eyeing the boy’s room and subtly remind­ing me about my promise to paint it.  So for 2015, I see more work in my future, though I’ll probably procrastinate until another Christmas rat comes around . . . . By the way, when I was a kid, they were called Christmas mice, but everything back then was smaller.

Now on New Year’s Day, when many people around the world, including our neighbors, wake up with a hangover, we’ll be waking up to a clean, uncluttered house with a new exercise room and freshly painted outer walls . . . . Not a bad way to start the New Year.

And how is your own Season’s Cleaning coming along?  Good luck with that, or perhaps wait until next year . . . . Cheers.

              —Borneo Expat Writer 

Congrats to the Winners and Finalists of the 2014 Faulkner-Wisdom

Although my novella The Act of Theft came up short as a finalist in the 2014 William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition, and two of my novels A Perfect Day for an Expat Exit (finalist 2012) and The Lonely Affair (The Resurrection of Jonathan Brady) were short-list finalists for the 2014 Novel category, congrats to the winners and the other finalists and all those who took part. 

Again, this was the fourth time that one of my works has made it the Faulkner-Wisdom finals in four categories:  novel, novel-in-progress, novella and short story (“Malaysian Games”,  runner up in 2007).

Winners for the Novella:

1^st place:  Give Me You by Kay Sloan, Cincinnati, OH

2^nd place:  Tickfaw to Shongaloo by Dixon Hearne, Madison, MS

Finalists:

A Different Life by Philip Erickson, St. Paul, MN

Cold War by Farah Halime, Brooklyn, NY

Further by Deborah Jannerson, New Orleans, LA

Juanita by Kent Dixon, Springfield, OH

Not the Usual Sleep by Tim Knowles, Brewster, NY

Resistance by Amina Gautier, Chicago, IL

Tansy by William Thrift, Columbia, SC

The Act of Theft by Robert Raymer, Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia

The Little Girls by Lori Fennell, Lake in the Hills, IL 

The Year We Froze by Stan Kempton, New Orleans, LA

Witness by Melanie Naphine, Frankston, Victoria, Australia

Yankees Angels by Robert H. Cox, New York, NY

        Winners for the novel: 

1^st place:  Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradel, Los Angeles, CA

2^nd place:  The Talented Tenth by Ladee Hubbard, Champaign, ILL

3^rd place:  The Invention of Violet by Amy Boutell, Santa Barbara, CA

4^th place:   Sunrise for Asphodel by Dan Turtel, New York, NY

Finalists:

Advice for the Wicked by Glen Pitre, New Orleans, LA

A Stone for Bread by Miriam Herin, Greensboro, NC

Mask of Sanity by Jacob Appel, New York, NY

Scoop the Loop by Charles Holdefer, Brussels, Belgium

The Lenin Plot by Barnes Carr, Houston, TX

The Truth Project by Tad Bartlett, New Orleans and L. Ed Marston, Chattanooga, TN

                —Borneo Expat Writer 

Here are links to four 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 

Resolutions: Promises are Cheap, but Actions and Good Habits are Priceless!

I know it’s early for New Year resolutions, but if you want to do what you resolve to do, you better start now so it’ll become a habit by December 31.  If it’s not a habit by then, well your chances of sticking with your resolutions will be about as good as they were last year and the year before, going all the way back to your first New Year resolutions and then breaking it by Valentine’s Day, if not sooner.

If you really want change, and we all do, then you need to start doing what you resolve to do today (or the first chance you get) and continue to do it for the rest of October, November and December.  By then, or after 21 consecutive days some experts say, it will become a habit . . . . Habits are good, of course, so long as they are habits of doing what you want to do or what you know is right for you to achieve your goals, whether those goals are for your fitness and health, your relationships, your career, or your finances. 

Most of us, at times, have unwittingly fallen into bad habits, doing those activities that under­mine your success, your health, and even your relationships, both professional and personal.  You know what they are.  If you don’t, just ask yourself how is your health?  How are your relation­ships?  Are you doing the things you know you should be doing (and with those you love) or are you letting things slide, or worse, doing the exact opposite, engaging in risky, unhealthy activities with others (getting drunk, getting into trouble, having affairs) or even on your own like smoking, drinking, overeating, or spending all of your free time on the Internet.

Then there are habits of not doing; habits that you’ve fallen out of or gotten into the habit of no longer doing on a regular basis, which can happen after an injury, a separation, or your first child, or changing jobs or taking on new responsibi­lities at work or at home (taking care of an invalid or an elderly relative).  Or you just haven’t found a new fitness center after moving to a new place.  After a while, what you no longer do is your new habit of not doing, like no longer reading to your children at night (or reading period), or no longer spending time with your family other than watching TV or meals.

What is the road to hell paved with?  Good intentions.  We all have good intentions, but . . . well; what follows next after that ‘but’ is the problem!  We talk ourselves into changing our bad habits to good habits, but then we talk ourselves out of actually doing those things we know we should be doing.  Someone once said, “Argue for your limitations and they’re yours!”  If you keep telling yourself you’re not good enough, not smart enough, not thin enough, not fit enough, not pretty enough, not strong enough, not ______(fill in the blank), then you’ll forever own those limitations!

Earlier this year I challenged myself to run my first marathon, but in the weeks leading up to the race I began to give myself all kind of reasons why I should not run: my age, my knees, my lack of training, my concerns about potential injuries, and the fact that I hadn’t competed in a race in thirty years (a 5K fun run)!  That wasn’t helping me, so I focused on my goal of completing the marathon and started making lists of what I needed to get done before the race, what I needed to wear/bring on the day of the race.  Instead of arguing for my limitations, I challenged myself to complete that marathon, and I did!    

What can you challenge yourself to do by next year?  It may not be athletic, maybe you want a closer relationship with your spouse or children, or start your own business, or a second career as a writer or an artist, or lose some significant weight, or make better financial decisions for your retirement (it comes faster than you think!).  What can you start putting into place right now?  What new habit can you start working on today, this evening, tomorrow morning, or by this weekend?  So by the time December 31st rolls around, you’re well on your way to achieving your goal. 

It’s what you do right now that counts, not what you promise yourself you’ll start doing by the New Year.  Promises (even with the best of intentions) are cheap, which is why they don’t work!  Actions that turn into good habits are priceless.  They will benefit and serve you for the rest of your life.  They can also serve as a model for your family and your children, too.  If one of your goals is to be healthy and fit and also spend more time with your spouse and children, think of the activities you can do together to achieve both goals, like hiking or biking or swimming.

So get started now and get a huge jump on everyone else waiting until December 31st to making their resolutions.  And good luck!

–Borneo Expat Writer

*Here’s a fun, practical way to raise your self-esteem, list down 25-50 of your personal achievements (even if they mean nothing to anybody else except you!)

**Leap For Success

***Start Your day by asking questions

Here are links to four 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