Hatchets - Not Just For Firewood

The nominees for Hatchet Job of the Year 2013 are in.

Not everyone is happy, though. Here's a much-quoted excerpt of Mark O'Connell's critique of the Award at Slate: "The problem with the Hatchet Job of the Year Award isn’t just that it publicizes and rewards mediocre and shallow criticism by the kind of people who’ll shoot a baboon point-blank in the tits for their own amusement. It’s that it actively promotes such criticism, going out of its way to ensure that more of it gets written."

If O'Connell's rant is based solely on this year's shortlist, I don't think it's fair. The Award, founded by The Omnivore, is three years old - hardly enough time to build a body of "provocative or challenging or insightful" criticism "that makes an argument about and around a book" and "stands alone on its own essayistic merits".

And critics - whatever level of literacy - don't need much encouragement to write a hack job. The hatchet-job avalanche O'Connell dreads is happening - has he seen what's on Goodreads and Amazon? I believe that buried under the avalanche of throwaway one-liners are some real creatively cut gems.

What The Omnivore's encouraging is more thoughtful criticism of what's written out there. Nothing beats a skilful, witty takedown of a stack of written words performed with a surgeon's precision, as long as the positives in it are pointed out. Yelping about what's bad about Fifty Shades is too easy.

So this year's shortlist isn't as outstanding as, say, the one for the previous year. But if EL James's trilogy and its ilk deserve its place in the sun, so do the sharp words of their critics telling us why we should read something else - all in the vain hope that the reading public will wise up and writers will get better.

At least "the scathing takedown rip" that Buzzfeed's books editor Isaac Fitzgerald says is rife in "so many old media-type places" has more thought put into it than the stuff that packs the 'review threads' on some book-related social-media platforms. These days, takedowns appear to be more effective than praise in helping to popularise books.

But as more and more books are being churned out, it'll be tougher to separate the chaff from the wheat, and the book reviewer with too much on his plate will have to cut back on the scalpel-work. Other ways of reviewing books which the general public can better digest, like this "dialogic" marginalia on Dan Brown's Inferno, which USA Today says is the best-selling book of 2013, will slip into the mainstream.

By then, I expect that these hatchet jobs will get shorter, sharper and harsher as the volume of books overwhelm the dwindling number of reviewers because, well, who wants to take a scalpel to a 500-page monstrosity in the future when it's easier and much more fun to use an axe?

When that day comes, The Omnivore might need more than just one year's worth of potted shrimp to convince critics to think deeper before taking axes to bad books.

News: CSI: Metafilter, U-Turn On Mein Kampf U-Turn, And Coffee

So this book got published:

Stronger than an ice-shaken triple-shot espresso

I'm pitching this because I like how it's blurbed. Having proofread some of the stories inside, I can pretty much concur.

The publisher has a habit of stopping reprints of its titles after a certain period, so go get it now.


Other things that happened include:

• Ask Metafilter and ye shall receive (help to solve a 20-year-old mystery): Some "cancer-addled ramblings" may actually be prayers.
• Are stories better than science in helping us approach life's complexities?
• Do these figures show the decline of the American book lover? Has anyone compiled similar figures for Malaysia?
• Was a blind spot responsible for Grantland's inadvertent outing of a transgendered person that ended with a suicide?
• Can you make kids love books? Short answer: No. "...if a parent wants a child to read, then they should not push a book on the child. Let the child discover the book for herself." After all, isn't the adventure and thrill of discovering something great a huge part of why we open books?
• Fifty Shades publisher Vintage Books to release a book on Edward Snowden. Sounds like it's gonna be good.
• Bavaria makes U-turn (away from another U-Turn) on an academically annotated edition of Mein Kampf, a best-selling e-book.
• "Outstanding schools" in the UK are reportedly having trouble recruiting headteachers and senior staff from applicants who can't spell and have bad grammar. Time to recall all the expat English teachers in China, Korea, etc?
• Seems little has changed in South America since the first South American Handbook was first published in 1924. For one, Chilean youths "still stare at ladies" and "make audible remarks on [the ladies'] appearance" because this "is not rude according to the Chilean canons, but rather correct conduct."
• Look, the "DNA" of a successful book. Funny how men don't seem to cop to reading books under the "Adult" category.
• Wall Street Journal Asia talked to maybe three or four people and decides that Malaysia's coffee scene is heating up. Really now?
  
  Elsewhere, like in France, the coffee is bad. Maybe Artisan Roast KL can swoop in and help out.

News: "Overrated" American Literature, Found In Translation, And Books

American literature is "massively overrated" and "our reading habit has totally been transformed by the mainstream", says Jhumpa Lahiri at the Jaipur literature festival, according to dna India. SHOCK GASP WHEEZE ... Especially when The Guardian says that Guo Xiaolu said those words. So, who really said what?

The point of the discussion was about a "global novel", and the writers on the panel, which include Guo, Lahiri and Jonathan Franzen, were talking about whether the tsunami of US literature has washed the stuff from other countries out of our reading consciousness. Franzen didn't seem fazed by what Guo (or Lahiri) said, FYI.

---

A couple of FIXI-related tweets:

"Baru dapat surat tahniah dari MPH yg menyatakan #ASRAMA salah satu drp 20 novel Melayu terlaris di MPH @MuhammadFatrim" - Tahniah dude!

GinaYapLaiYoong @‏Cmate86 • 16 Jan 2014

FIXI Verso, a new branch of Amir Muhammad's mainly pulp imprint that publishes translations of English novels, has released BM editions of Stephen King's Joyland and Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Fans soon asked for more, but:

"@adamSanwar Harap2 fixi translate buku neil gaiman Tuhan Tuhan Amerika. BukuFixi" Nanti JAIS marah.

BukuFixi @BukuFixi • 15 Jan 2014

Well, anyhoo...

• Meet Shirin Segran, author of a 450-page science-fiction adventure novel and founder of a youth NGO, profiled in The Star. Meanwhile, South China Morning Post speaks with Hong Kong-born stockbroker-turned-author Julian Lees. And Lee Su Kim airs some laundry, from kebaya tales to sarong secrets.
• A new Pew study reveals that print is holding its own in the face of growing acceptance of e-books.
• Seems US schools are having trouble getting students to read because of the focus on an exam syllabus.
• Rizzoli, a bookstore on New York's Fifth Avenue that boasts a clientèle which includes Madonna, Michael Jackson, the Queen of Thailand, Elton John and controversial Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci, may have to close.
• Why was a book on Air India pulled off the shelves?
• Machines aren't good enough to spot potential best-sellers - but they will be.
• Malaysian publishing house seeking Stuff to publish. FEED ME.
• This year, let's try and stop making these linguistic mistakes. And, by the way, are you using "myself" correctly?
• Is this a kangaroo on a 16th century Portuguese manuscript? And if it is, can it alter a chapter in Australian history?

News: Hellebore, Mein Kampf, And A Hundred Words For Snow

A New Zealand toxicologist thinks Alexander the Great may have died from drinking wine spiked with a toxic herb, most likely "Veratrum album, a poisonous plant from the lily family also known as white or false hellebore."

Won't be the last time somebody comes up with a theory about how The Great Alex died. And the last time I encountered the word was in this takedown of an idea for an urban-fantasy novel. Strange, how different stuff we read eventually link up.

---

Dani Shapiro 'apologises' to a reader for not writing what said reader wanted.

"We choose a view. We pick a story to tell. We shift through the ever-changing sands of memory, and in so doing create something hopefully beautiful, by which I mean universal. We try to tell the truth – by which I do not mean the facts. Listen to me closely, because here is where I apparently have enflamed you so: it is not the job of the memoirist to present you with a dossier."

---

Instead of moaning about how US and/or the West has fallen behind the rest of the world, folks like Thomas Friedman and Niall Ferguson should just accept the dawn of a multipolar world and figure out how t engage it, says an author:

The relative economic decline of the United States is not about gridlock in Washington, stupidity or venality on Wall Street, the lack of can-do spirit among the young, or even the death of “the Greatest Generation.” It is about the rest of the world finally getting its act together. That’s not to say that America is doing everything right, of course; much of the rest of this book is about what the country could do better to engage with a new world of opportunity. But it is important to recognize that policies to “regain US dominance” are destined to fail—and are likely to be counterproductive.

From an excerpt of The Upside of Down: Why the Rise of the Rest Is Good for the West by Charles Kenny, of course.

---

"...the sky is falling because a thing has changed books are dead now for sure you guys...." Um, no, Peter Damien says. Also, why the development of books lies with the reading public, not book critics: "It is their rampant enthusiasm for books -- their opinions and their time and effort sifting through the books and finding plenty for everybody in the community to read -- which is sustaining and expanding the book world, which is making it a crowded and noisy and excited tavern and not [a] lonely, pretentious beach...."


OK, what else?

• Emoticon overload is not new: check out these olden-days emoji rebus puzzles.
• Behold, a guide to literary tourism in Edinburgh.
• Link alleged between economic slumps and rise in literary misery. Should we be expecting some downer reading soon?
• Cache of previously unpublished letters by Mary Shelley found, reveals that writers are like everybody else.
• It seems former French president Charles de Gaulle was in the running for the 1963 Nobel Prize for literature.
• Remember how they say Eskimos have at least 100 words (a hundred? Isn't it fifty?) for snow? Phil James listed them all down.
• Hitler's Mein Kampf topping e-book charts, thanks to the "50 Shades of Grey" effect? SHUDDER. But that also means this ban on an annotated edition of the book is probably redundant now.
• "(Munshi) Abdullah's Bible", written by Farish A Noor for the March 2008 issue of the now-defunct Off The Edge magazine. You'd think it'd be dated by now.
• This book says cats think of us as giant (and probably useless) cats. Who, me?
• Looks like more teen writers are finding publishing success.
• Decades-old Al-Saeh library becomes victim of sectarian violence in Lebanon.

News: Books, Buses, And Hidden Snark

Is the corporatisation of book publishing threatening the industry? Seems that way, according to the late Andre Schiffrin, an indie publisher, who was not keen on the profit-driven model for book publishing.

"Whereas before, the average annual profit for a publishing house stood around 3 to 4 percent, now every imprint in a publishing house had to turn 10 to 15 percent profit per year or face closure. This pressure to meet targets, Schiffrin believed, "profoundly altered the output of the major publishing houses.'"

On a slightly related note, there's a study out there that says good fiction "enhances connectivity" in the brain. Until this study is debunked, we now have a compelling reason for the proper screening of manuscripts and publication of good books.

But not everybody agrees that great lit can change your life radically for the better. Nor should it.

"Reading Faulkner doesn’t make me a better person, nor does it teach me much, aside from the realization that Faulkner was a marvelous storyteller," writes Malcolm Jones in The Daily Beast. He adds that "The mid-century novelist Junichiro Tanizaki's women aren't much like my mother and my aunts, but when I read The Makioka Sisters, my family, or at least that sisterly dynamic, snapped into focus like never before. I don't think the pleasure I take from such awakenings will get me into heaven, but it’s enough for me."

All right, moving along:

• Is this really the secret to reading a lot of books or an endorsement of the tools featured inside?
• Hunting for snark in academic papers: Did these people really slip those into the acknowledgements sections? Can't tell, from the way it's written.
• The chief, the "good books advocate", in The Malay Mail Online. Go, chief!
• Forbes's predictions for the book-publishing industry for 2014.
• "...we read or listen to author interviews for the same reason we read novels: to find out how to live. But where novels are often opaque in their wisdom, declining to tell us how to live as plainly as we might like, the interview offers clarity." Seeking writerly wisdom is, apparently, why we read author interviews.
• Laura Miller at Salon couldn't finish these books in 2013.
• "Don't call me an author." This maid in Gurgaon writes books - best-selling ones.
• "Is it time to forgive Greg Mortenson?" asks Jon Krakauer. Short answer: "Nope."
• In memoriam: The Millions remembers some writers who left us in 2013.
• "Speedy consumption of infinite info facilitates short cycles of indignation". How to break the online "rage machine"?
• Dick Metcalf, former Guns and Ammo writer, speaks out in The New York Times.
• Manufacturers of London mayor Boris Johnson's buses want to block a book critical of the design of said buses. Talk about throwing something under a ... bus.
• Got a cocaine habit? If yes, you're killing people. Lots of people. At times, in gruesome ways.

2013: The Year That Was In Words

I'm not generally big on year-end reflections but, given what happened to me last year, I can't help but think back on how ... eventful 2013 has been.

Apart from my steps into the kitchen, I managed to attend a couple of great events.

I didn't expect a whole lot from the inaugural Cooler Lumpur Festival, where I'd hoped to learn more about, among other things, Malay publishing. I probably have enough material from that event for three short pieces or a really long one - if I can get over the information indigestion. Yes, still.

Sadly, pigeonholing seems to still be the order of the day where Malay writers were concerned. The parents of Gina Yap, one of the writers of the Fixi imprint, even refused to attend the launch of her first Malay novel.

Discussing the 'changing face' of the Malay writer (from left): Uthaya
Shankar SB, moderator Umapagan Ampikaipakan, Singaporean playwright
Alfian Sa'at, and Fixi author Gina Yap

But in the overflowing rows of seats in all the events I attended at Cooler Lumpur 2013, I saw a lot of energy and hope and the occasional Kodak moment. If you could just see how close Alfian Sa'at came to tears as Pak Samad recited Balada Hilang Peta (Ballad of the Lost Map) on stage....

Indeed, the future lies with the young. Would it be fine to say that I expect great things from them?

I'm probably not alone in this. Chuah Guat Eng said something about "street Malay" being the language of the young and how they are using that to do their own thing, as well as Fixi's role in that.

Chuah Guat Eng (foreground) in the discussion on "A National
Literature" (with UK writer Suzanne Joinson, Alfian Sa'at, and
National Laureate A Samad Said), live-streamed for the Edinburgh
World Writers Conference

And I'm also looking forward to the next Cooler Lumpur Festival, which is scheduled to take place within the fasting month.

---

When I wrote this response to some "fed-up Penangite's" grouses over the 2012 George Town Literary Festival, adding that I might parachute into it at some point in the future, I never imagined that I'd do it so soon, i.e. one year later.

Things just fell into place that year. I felt compelled to balik kampung then and, hey, might as well be a tourist in my hometown while I'm at it.

So much has changed.

Western-style cafés that look more at home in Publika or Damansara Uptown are now jostling with decades-old kopitiams for customers. Old pre-war shophouses now house cafés, restaurants, art galleries and backpackers' inns. In the city, the skyline has grown higher.

My priorities then meant that I couldn't attend every single event duing GTLF2013, but I managed to catch the Q&A with Datuk Lat as his session drew to a close. I think he was talking about paper.

Datuk Lat (right) fielding questions as his session wraps up; the
session was moderated by the other guy, Huzir Sulaiman

"You'd think that, oh, there's some good quality drawing paper, I think I'll buy some and then you go home with your good paper and you'll start drawing ... that will never happen."

So it's not just writers who draw a blank when confronted with white space.

Whatever can be said about the George Town Literary Festival, I'm glad that there is one. But I'd reconsider getting Huzir Sulaiman and Shamini Flint back for GTLF2014 - those funny, witty, chatty people kept stealing the show.

"...well, I thought it was pretty funny."

There is such a thing as too much of a good thing.

---

"Too much of a good thing" pretty much sums up the Big Bad Wolf book sale as well. I managed to find a route that took me to the venue, but it was all too much for me. I didn't feel like picking up anything from the mountains of fiction titles.

Still, I ended up with several non-fiction titles, including a cookbook on curry, which I've yet to (and may never satisfactorily) master.

But I'm not sure if I want to go to next year's.

Then again, since production of new books picked up at work towards the end of 2013 I couldn't look at another printed page when I'm home.

The Beginnings Of An Epicurean Editor?

I recently cooked a spaghetti aglio olio for an early pre-Christmas party. Nothing new about that, except...

I used Chinese-style roasted pork belly, along with sun-dried tomatoes. Well, it was sort of inspired by the Pork Lover's Aglio Olio from Three Little Pigs & The Big Bad Wolf in Bangsar Village.

I cooked for six people.

It took place in someone else's bigger, better-equipped kitchen. I had to use a wok to toss the ingredients and it was hard work. But the experience left me with, among other things, kitchen envy.

Stirring up a storm in a kitchen (left) and the final product

It was the first time I'd made spaghetti for anyone else, outside the home - and I somehow got it al dente. At least the assembled thought it was.

And I'd only seriously begun what most would call "cooking" several months ago.

One thing I didn't know, though, was to toss the freshly cooked spaghetti strands in olive oil to keep them from sticking together. One of the hosts pointed that out as I struggled to free the strands from congealing into a heavy tangled mass.

Everybody loved it, and I'm sure they weren't just being polite. Two partygoers took home what was left for dinner the next day - I'm not sure if it would taste the same.

I've been dabbling with some pasta recipes of late, the latest step in my progression towards some degree of self-sufficiency in the home kitchen.

A curried carrot-potato soup with a drizzle of olive oil and
some sunflower seeds (used chicken-stock cubes, so it tasted
like something out of a Maggi packet)

An earlier version of my roast pork-belly pasta; it's advisable
to cut the meat to smaller pieces and fry them with the garlic
before tossing the whole lot with the pasta

The seeds of that might have been planted during a lunch date with a former colleague. I used to do the occasional restaurant review for the media back then, and when she knew about this, she asked if I cooked anything myself. I didn't.

"How can you write about food when you don't cook?" she asked, puzzled. "Isn't that kind of hypocritical?"

I don't know about her cooking skills but, man, she doesn't mince words. That stayed with me since, even though I can throw something simple together now.

My idea of a good hot chocolate is a bit different; this cup is a
mix of Valrhona Guanaja (70% dark) and Jivara (milk chocolate)

Here, I use Whittaker's Dark Ghana, and split it into two
portions: one plain and the other with cinnamon

Since my first experiments with milkshakes and smoothies with a blender, I've been wondering about what else I can do with my hands besides what I do at work with red pens and highlighters.

Putting things in ovens and heating them to death doesn't count as cooking in my book, though I have tried doing that as well - less cleaning up than dishes that require fire and a pot or pan.

A baked salmon - not much work required and great as a lean dinner
when served with blanched vegetables

Pigs in blankets, with a little bit extra (garlic and herbs). These later
burst out of their skins (and blankets) under the intense heat, but I
never got around to solving that problem - yet

After I first boiled a bunch of tri-coloured spirals (not sure what they were really called), I've had plenty of successes with pastas aglio olio - a no-brainer of a dish. You don't even have to fry the pasta.

Sauce-based ones were a bit trickier. An attempt at a sardine thingy left my spirals wallowing in some orange-coloured, sardine-flavoured slurry that smelled strongly of fish oil and tasted fine.

Several attempts at a curry-sauce variety were not as successful. The first time, I used too much masala powder. Another time, I got something that smelled and tasted vaguely of Nyonya-styled chilli paste (I used shallots instead of onions).

Every time, I got a bitter taste in the spice mix or sauce. I've learnt since then that some curries need cream. I used Greek yoghurt in my last experiment.

Not-very-good curry sauce pasta; used sausages because I wanted
the protein but nothing good was available

But I'm not giving up. Hell, if my Dad managed to make the family's chicken curry once....

And I'm guessing that these skills will come in handy when we start paying extra for tolls, electricity, petrol and stuff, on top of the GST that's coming on April 2015.

But more importantly ... can I write about food now? Or do I need to learn how to cook and rest a steak next?


As I post this, I'm recovering from a(nother) throat infection - and a bout of possible food poisoning, both of which occurred on Christmas Eve. I feel like I'm being told something, but I'm not sure what exactly.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

News: Cooking Anarchy, Letter-Writing, And Whatever

William Powell, author of The Anarchist Cookbook regrets writing it and wants it out of print.

Written when he was 19 and angry, "the central idea to the book was that violence is an acceptable means to bring about political change. I no longer agree with this."

No kidding, considering that the book, dubbed by some as a "murder manual", has been linked to a bunch of violent plots. But the book's publisher, who owns the rights, wants to keep it on the shelves.

What goes on the Web, stays on the Web, they say. Looks like the same goes for print.


So, what else went on?

• The ten best lines from Anthony Bourdain's Kindle Singles Q&A makes you want to pick it up
• No Mistake, an editor's memoir. Wondering if it's anything like a tell-all a la Kitchen Confidential?
• RIP Paul Torday, author of Salmon Fishing in the Yemen.
• The seemingly random list of books banned from Guantánamo.
• The argument for negative book reviews, partly in response to Buzzfeed's 'ban' on them.
• GrammarCheck.net has an infographic on what it considers the top ten grammar mistakes and why they should be avoided, brought to you by Lifehacker.
• I don't know enough about NYT columnist Ross Douthat's (almost spelled it "Doubthat") "notorious" mansplaining tendencies, but this attempt at reviewing books with his mindset sounds interesting.
• E-mail killed the art of writing letters? Nuh-uh, says a WaPo review of To the Letter: A Celebration of the Lost Art of Letter Writing by Simon Garfield. "In 1919, the Yale Review lamented that 'the art of writing letters has been lost,' with blame cast on the telephone, the typewriter, the telegraph, even the train — for delivering letters too promptly."
• Heartbreaking: the looting of one of Italy's oldest libraries - and the librarian was among the culprits.
• So Facebook wants to know why you didn't share that status update: Well, WHAT'S IT TO YOU, FACEBOOK?
• John Scalzi reminisces on the word processors he's used through the ages: He also rebuffs the notion that "self-loathing is in the writer's blood". And here's his take on the "death of the blog".
• Why putting numbers in text might not be a good idea.
• Is this real? Someone who has a severe allergy to (particles trapped in) BOOKS?
• Is the small book the answer to our TL;DR syndrome?
• Tired of selfies? Here are some "shelfies" - and they don't disappoint.
• Because it's France, France decided that it needed a French word for sexting "because the phenomenon often comes up in legal cases", apparently.
  
  And it seems that the word that annoys Americans the most is ... "whatever".

Not book-related, but I found this article about Ooi Eow Jin, Malaysia's "forgotten" music man, a somewhat powerful piece of writing. Read it before he and his era are forgotten again.

The Desolation Of Smug

November 2013 marks my third year as a books editor. Though I had few illusions as to what I'd be facing when I took this job, these three years have thrown quite a fair bit my way.

"Spend one year in this job and you'll see it all," I was told. Well, not quite. I ended up believing I ain't seen nothin' yet.

Certain issues keep me from fully chronicling my editorial exploits in public. What I can say, though, is plus ça change, plus c'est la même. What does change is the pace. Production has been ramped up of late and it's hard to keep up.

Nine months after I had my sinuses operated on, they have started running again. Just when I've gotten used to sniffle-free mornings.

These days and a little while back, my days looked just like this:

Hint: I'm the one with the sword (photo from here)

And the dragon often won.

My ego - or what's left of it - has taken a beating in the past few months. Not since my brief stint in the media have I experienced anything similar. Although I will always regard the ego-kicking I received in my media stint as the hardest.

In a previous life, I was considered among the best technical writers in my company. My skills in documenting were in demand. My command of English was once graded "superb".

But all that didn't help a lot with the copywriting and editing I'm doing today. There are techniques to be even better at those, which I have yet to master.

Don't be fooled into thinking that cookbooks and children's books are easy-peasy because of the simple grammar and writing style. Blind spots will appear and you'll be left red-faced.

It's been a long, hard comedown from those heady tech-writing days.

I have some hope that the next year will bring new things, more things. Right now, I'm also looking at the press releases and promo materials, besides the growing pile of manuscripts under my care.

I'm also hoping to acquire skills and means that will help me edit 'scripts better, en route towards being a reputable editor that strikes awe into hearts and minds.

I imagine that one day, after a couple of decades, a mountain of 'scripts, gallons of red ink and a dozen or so best-sellers, every meeting with an aspiring author will look like this:

Hint: I'm NOT the one with the sword (photo from here)

I was told that I'm a simple man with low-key preferences, no lofty ambitions, and no desire for the spotlight. True in a sense.

But I think I might have the makings of an ambition now.

First, I need to revisit the other parts of my life I seem to keep neglecting: time management, sleep schedules and priorities.

Masterclass In Session: Fashion With Carven

Zang Toi. Jimmy Choo. Melinda Looi. Edmund Ser.

You've heard of them, wore them, seen them in the papers and magazines, and maybe took pictures with them at some glitzy fashion do.

Some of you probably think, "Wow, isn't this the life! I could probably do this too."

Hold that thought. A fashion designer and industry veteran has a few words for you before you jump in.

The latest in the MPH Masterclass series, Carven Ong's Guide to the Fashion Industry, is not merely a guidebook on how to become a fashion designer. Rather, it is tailored for all those aspiring to make the cut in the glamorous, yet competitive world of fashion.

Fashion designer Carven Ong packed the sum of his experiences in the fashion industry into this book's ten chapters for this purpose. "This book is an opportunity for me to share my knowledge experience on a wide range of fashion industry topics, with those who are interested in entering the fashion industry," says Ong.

Fashion-industry aspirants, whether one wants to be a buyer, boutique owner, or follow in the footsteps of Ong, will find much to appreciate in the pages.

Ong uses his own personal story - one of missed opportunities, luck, and determination - to illustrate the potential payoffs and pitfalls that lie on the road towards fashion stardom. Behind the glitz and glamour of the catwalk and dressed boutique windows is a lot of hard work and, for the unprepared, stress.

Carven Ong's web site and online showcase, www.carvenong.com.my

Readers will be guided towards the proper way to enter the fashion industry. But first: do you want to just design clothes in the background, or do you want a share of the limelight as the progenitor of your own styles? That sets the framework of your business plan, which Ong recommends one does first.

"Be prepared to run a marathon, not a sprint," he writes. "It won't be easy, and the stronger your foundation, the higher your chances of success."

Also outlined are some of the processes involved in product development, be it for a couture or prêt-à-porter (ready-to-wear) business, as well as things to note when sourcing and using materials such as fabric and lace, some branding and marketing strategies, advice on opening boutiques and online stores, and more.

Gifted in the arts and an eye for style, it was natural that Ong would embark on a career in fashion.

From humble beginnings, he is now the proud owner of a couture boutique, some fashion counters in department stores and his own fashion academy.

"A mixture of passion, good business sense and a willingness to take risks has gotten me to where I am today," he says humbly. "Recalling just how tough it was to get the right type of guidance when I started out, I want to help anyone who wishes to make a career out of fashion design."

Now, with this single volume, he can.

---

Carven Ong's Guide to the Fashion Industry

Carven Ong
MPH Group Publishing
157 pages
Non-fiction
ISBN: 978-967-415-167-6

Buy from MPHOnline.com

News: Books, Lawsuits, And Stuff

• A book on being a 'submissive' wife becomes a hit in Italy and Spain, except with feminists (anybody remember our own Obedient Wives' Club?). A sexist "joke" book published by a Spanish company, meanwhile, was pulled off the shelves.
• A best-selling Saudi sci-fi book pulled off the shelves in Kuwait and Qatar, due to djinns. As we all know, djinns are bad news, which is perhaps why local publications such as Mastika occasionally warn readers about them. But the big question is: Can sci-fi as a genre exist when imagination is curtailed?
• Did an "evangelical celebrity machine" force a radio host to retract her claims that a Seattle pastor could be a plagiarist?
• A bunch of famous authors have condemned the amount of state surveillance as revealed by the world's biggest whistleblower of 2013, and are calling for the creation of a UN bill to protect civil rights for the Internet age. The list of authors petitioning for this bill is formidable. But will anything come out of it?
• A federal judge has tossed a lawsuit, filed by independent booksellers, that said Amazon and the big six publishers are trying to lock down the bookselling trade via Amazon's proprietary DRM in Kindle. And this little nugget from TIME seems to suggest that Amazon's apparent money-losing strategy with its Kindle e-reader is working.
• "Long-form, on the Web, is in danger of meaning a lot of words," writes James Bennet in The Atlantic. Time to rethink the terminology for 'long-form' journalism?
• Guilty pleasures: What's so guilty about them? "...the guilty pleasure seems to me the distillation of all the worst qualities of the middlebrow—the condescension of the highbrow without the expenditure of effort, along with mass culture's pleasure-seeking without the unequivocal enjoyment," writes Jennifer Szalai in The New Yorker. "If you want to listen to Rihanna while reading the latest from Dean Koontz, just go ahead and do it."
• "My education began in the library, where I read every book I could get my hands on. Before long, I wanted to be--among other things--a writer. I read books about it, and I learned that the chance of making a living writing novels was remote. But I also learned that if I got a job on a newspaper they'd have to pay me every week." Sir Terry Pratchett talks about his first job.
• Crowdfunded anthologies: what you need to know before jumping in.
• Hikaru Su- sorry, George Takei, a top 1000 reviewer on Amazon? Oh my.
• "Call me a defeatist, but honestly I'd be happy if a plurality of American college students could discern even the skeletal plot of anything they were assigned." Rebecca Schuman at Slate wants an end to college essays.
• "If a story is viral, truth may be taking a beating." So it seems nothing is too good to be true on the Internet - until it is.
  
  Speaking of viral: Did this blog publisher actually write this awful pitch? Because nobody can possibly be this daft. And multiple exclamation marks? Red flag!
• Whoa. Is THIS the state of our National Library now? Some of the pictures look a little old, though.
• Oh, yes ... Groupon's great idea for 'combating' the delivery drone scheme? Catapults. This thing just got ancient. Google, on the other hand, just bought a robot-engineering company. Retail Robot Wars, anyone?

You Don't Know PR Like He Knows PR

It was said that the Tang Dynasty calligrapher Zhang Xu produced his best work after a few drinks.

I wondered if the author of this book is similarly wired. How else to explain the outlandish ideas for the ads and public-relations campaigns he was involved in?

I mean, using a wild 'Canadian' bear (probably a grizzly) to sell bathroom tissues (and, later, having to track it down when it got loose)?

Trying to get David Copperfield to 'teleport' an SIA jumbo jet from Changi to Heathrow?

Staging a concert inside Sarawak's Mulu Caves?

Re-creating the splendour of ancient Rome at Singapore's Orchard Road - complete with real lions - for a perfume launch?

And it was his PR agency, apparently, that got the Singapore Girl into Madame Tussauds.

Regarded by some as "Asia's Mr Public Relations", Michael De Kretser has been in the PR industry for about four decades. His PR agency, MDK, began in modest settings such as his own condominium and an office space above an Indian restaurant in Kuala Lumpur.

After years of gallivanting around the world, setting up his out-of-the-box public-relations campaigns and growing his PR business, he is now the CEO of GO Communications Malaysia and also the chairman of the GO Group, a sprawling PR empire with partner offices in such places as Bangkok, Beijing, Colombo, Manila, Mumbai, Shanghai, Tokyo and Vientiane.

De Kretser's remarkable rise in the competitive world of public relations and some of his (mis)adventures en route to the top can now be found in his book, GO For It!.

While public-relations people can learn (a bit) about damage control and how to mount a PR campaign from it, the book is really about the inspirational story of a successful public-relations practitioner who, from humble beginnings, set out to make it big against all odds.

Between battling health scares, boosting brands, and saving tourism industries, De Kretser somehow finds the time to date one of the Supremes, hobnob with celebrities and the celebrated aboard Malcolm Forbes's luxury yacht, play a game or two of cricket, and much more. With lots of spirit and spirits.

Packed with amazing anecdotes and the sharp wit and candour he's known for, De Kretser's book will not only titillate, amuse, and shock but also inspire and make you believe that all things are possible when you say GO instead of NO.


Royalties from sales of the book have been pledged to charity.

---

GO For It!

A Roller-Coaster Public Relations Adventure

Michael De Kretser
MPH Group Publishing
157 pages
Non-fiction
ISBN: 978-967-415-166-9

Buy from MPHOnline.com

News: French Lit Frustrations, Angry Birds, And Durians

"Why don't French books sell abroad?" asks the BBC. "...when it comes to post-war literature, it's a different story. Even voracious readers often struggle to name a single French author they have enjoyed."

A bookseller there had this to say: "The books on offer here are very different from in the UK. French books are precious, intellectual - elitist. And too often bookshops are intimidating. Ordinary people are scared of the whole book culture."

Ooo. In short, les livres sont trop français. Too ... 'French'.

Buuut...

...French writers insist that the sins they are accused of - abstraction, lack of plot and character, a preference for text over story, contempt for the non-literary reader - are a cliche perpetuated by Anglo-Saxons with little knowledge of how things have changed in recent years.

"Personally I am fed up with all the stereotypes," says [French writer Marie] Darieussecq. "We're not intellectual. We're not obsessed with words. We write detective stories. We write suspense. We write romance.

"And it's about time you started noticing."

Pour quoi tant pétulant, madame?

---

One more stumbling block to Amazon's drone-delivery army: angry raptors. And this guy, who has reportedly pledged to shoot down any drone he sees.

Meanwhile, an "unusual" number of snowy owls are spotted in the US. Hmm hmmm hmmmm.


What else is happening:

• A different kind of artefact: The "artful accidents" of Google Books includes scans of employees' hands as they flip the pages.
• Reading can be hazardous: the 'confessions' of a judge for this year's National Book Awards.
• Readers of The Guardian recommend these self-published works. Are these truly the diamonds among the duds?
• Linguists find ways to, like, distinguish statements from questions in Valley Girl-talk, for sure. Like, totally.
• Mixed results for bookselling in Mexico after book prices are fixed. "...the law that was passed had no provisions for enforcing it, and so the situation has become ever more chaotic. Booksellers who follow the law are undercut by others who don't, and the latter aren't penalized — and this is an issue that's particularly bad for smaller or farflung bookstores, which the law was meant to support in the first place."
• Lingerie in literature: "underwiring" for stories? Probably not for men.
• Yeah, why do we value gold? "Chemically, it is uninteresting - it barely reacts with any other element," the standfirst goes. But gold is valued partly because of that attribute.
• Dunia nak kiamat? Sebab orang puteh tulis surat cinta kepada durian. Sorry, not going to translate.
• The literary feuds of 2013 because why not?

News: Amazon Drones, Books Of The Year, And Subatomic Sex

It's that time of the year, when everybody compiles a list of best/worst/overlooked/overrated books.

The Guardian's list of 2013's best books is out, kicked off by Tash Aw's Five Star Billionaire. It wasn't even December when they released the list.

Slate's book critics think your 2013 reading list should have included these "overlooked" books. Meanwhile, somebody at Newsweek tries reviewing the best Goodreads books of 2013 without reading them.

---

So, yes, Amazon plans same-day deliveries using drones. Joyce Carol Oates has some thoughts about that, and TechCrunch sees several obstacles to Amazon's goal of setting up an army of delivery drones.

In response (and for a lark), Waterstones 'introduces' its own army of OWLS (Ornithological Waterstones Landing Service), which is not exactly an original (or serious) idea.


Meanwhile:

• "Particular ways of being wrong": review the book, not the author.
• The latest Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey reveals that Malaysian students scored higher in math but lower in science and reading. Does this mean tougher times ahead for publishers?
• Meet Kenny Leck of BooksActually, an independent bookstore in Singapore. "King of the book geeks"? Really?
• Helpful definitions for modern authors are ... not very helpful.
• David Sedaris wrote an odd obit to his sister who committed suicide. One of the deceased's friends had something to say about that.
• Aaaand Manil Suri wins the Bad Sex in Fiction award for the "subatomic bisexual orgy" in his novel, The City of Devi. Apparently, Suri is a maths professor. Figures, doesn't it?

It's a short list, but I was busy for the past few weeks and I was away for the weekend. I might be sharing some photos from that weekend vacation later, because I'm not really deep into book-related stuff at the moment.

But I miiight take a peek inside the Big Bad Wolf's lair (between 6 and 15 December) and see what's inside.

News: E-Reading In Japan, And What Twain Did Not Say

One reason why Japanese readers are not taking the e-book leap: "differing cultural notions of convenience".

"Japan is much smaller than the U.S. in terms of land area, but there are so many bookstores, and people can buy cheap but well-made books. So books don’t really have to be digital," Toru Sanpei, chief of the secretariat of the Japan Electronic Publishing Association.

How many bookstores does Japan have?

According to Publishers Weekly, the United States had 12,703 bookstores in 2012 while Aru Medial, a Tokyo-based research firm, says Japan had 14,696.

Alrighty, then.


Elsewhere:

• Before you quote Mark Twain, read this. Because there are some things that Twain did not say.
• Are these the eight most influential people in e-book publishing?
• Daniel Mendelsohn and Jennifer Szalai discuss the value of literary prizes.
• There are fifty shades of rejection, apparently, even though many rejection slips sport only one.
• A veteran New Yorker and Random House editor picks the most under-appreciated books he's edited.
• Somebody actually did a "textual analysis of The Hunger Games", comparing the adjectives, adverbs and sentences most commonly used by THG author Suzanne Collins, Stephenie Meyer and JK Rowling.
• Know them by these deeds: An evil writer's guide to messing with the editor. G*d help those I catch doing any of the above.
• Twelve mistakes the grammar police tend to make, with a bonus thirteenth 'mistake'. So, who edits the editors?
• Over 40 errors in Sir Alex Ferguson's memoir? Nothing new, it seems. Could it be worth big bucks in the future? Uh....
• Using an old law, Brazil's rich bans biographies - but not always for the right reasons. "Though defending the honor of loved ones is the official banner, the more powerful motive for calling in the book police is money," writes Mac Margolis in The Daily Beast. The ban has, apparently watered down bios so much in Brazil that one historian calls them "glorified press releases".
• Perhaps responding to the debate over the gamification of literature, the Writer Beware blog highlights some author reality shows that failed (or never took off) - and Simon Cowell was involved in one of them.
• The last copies of Fixi title Dendam ("Revenge") has sold out and will not be reprinted. RIP.
• Company tries to fine couple over negative review, then sinks their credit rating when they couldn't pay.
• Of these "100 greatest novels of all time", I only read less than five. Don't judge.
• This book says cereals will damage your brain. And we thought sugar was dangerous already.

Masterclass In Session: Home Gardening With Desmond

When talking about gardens, I'd sometimes think of the KL Islamic Arts Museum. Looking out from inside the Museum's white, white restaurant and seeing the greenery outside, I'm reminded of the Mughals and their fondness for gardens.

A big Mughal(-ish) garden, designed by British architect
Edwin Lutyens. Photo from here.

Babur, the first Mughal ruler, was said to have favoured the chahar bagh, a garden of Persian design with a squarish layout. Features included trees, especially those that bear fruit; flowering plants and shrubs; birds and insects; and big water features such as pools, canals and fountains, and even tiered cascades.

Later Mughal gardens incorporated religious elements and symbols, creating a slice of Paradise on Earth. Surrounded by the fragrances and hues of flowers and fruits and lush greenery; the sound of birds, rustling foilage, and burbling of running water; and the cool breezes, it's hard not to feel otherwise. Definitely a far cry from the harsher aspects of the Mughal rulers' lives.

While the Mughal gardens were also a display of man's power to tame and alter the landscape, Desmond Ho's designs work with it and are arguably more natural-looking. Though some of the designs are relatively modest in scale, his gardens can have the same soothing effects.

Desmond Ho's Guide to Beautiful (Non-Palatial) Home Gardens will help you
dream up something more modest but doable - and just as lovely

Ho has come a long way since he decided to make a living by bringing people closer to nature. Picking things up on his own in the pre-Internet days, he started out by selling glass-enclosed greenery in terrariums and ended up founding Terra Garden, a garden design company that pioneers a Malaysian concept of outdoor living called Neo Nusantara.

After introducing this garden concept to a number of homes and public spaces, Ho aims to bring it to a wider audience. Desmond Ho's Guide to Beautiful Home Gardens, his attempt to do just that, is more of a concept guide, kind of like those lovely home garden and interior décor magazines.

The designs showcased in the company's web site are eye-catching and feels natural. But the immediate effect of this book on me was to instil the urge to buy a house. With a water feature. Maybe with a few plants around it. And a chaise longue. And...

...right, well, the latest volume in the MPH Masterclass Series is a bit different than the others. For one, it's no step-by-step handbook on DIY home-garden assembly.

Very few homeowners will do the actual work of installing lights, mixing concrete, digging ponds and so on. You'd almost want to pick up the phone and call a landscaper, which is what he recommends that you do.

But unlike the magazines, Ho provides more tips and advice on putting together the wish list for your dream garden. From lights, plants, water features and types of furniture to suggested garden layouts for a bungalow, semi-detached or terrace house, or even an apartment, you'll believe it's possible to own a slice of Paradise - even a tiny one - in your home.

---

Desmond Ho's Guide to Beautiful Home Gardens

Desmond Ho
MPH Group Publishing
160 pages
Non-fiction
ISBN: 978-967-415-164-5

Buy from MPHOnline.com

News: Tash Aw At The British Council, Self-Censorship, And Doris Lessing

The British Council has a new branch at Mutiara Damansara. In conjunction with its opening and this year's George Town Literary Festival, it's holding a two-hour writing workshop and book-signing by Tash Aw on this Saturday, 23 November, from 1pm to 4:30pm at its premises:

British Council Mutiara Damansara
Lot 245A, 2nd Floor
The Curve, Mutiara Damansara
47810 Petaling Jaya

For more information, e-mail arts[at]britishcouncil[dot]org[dot]my or visit the British Council Arts Malaysia Facebook page.

Aw is also a judge for this year's Impac Dublin International Literary Award. The Impac Dublin longlist, he says in The Guardian, is "a gift for readers in search of unexpected delights" such as translated works and "quirky" stuff from all over the world, making the Impac Dublin longlist a more mixed bag than that of some other book prizes.

---

NSA surveillance is apparently making writers self-censor. A report from PEN America says that, among other things, "16 percent of writers have avoided writing or speaking about a particular topic due to concerns about the NSA."

PEN America is the journal published by the PEN America Center, which was set up to defend free expression and celebrate literature. PEN has also established its International Day of the Imprisoned Writer (15 November), which highlights the works and plight of writers, editors, translators and political essayists and dissidents threatened by repressive governments.


In other news:

• RIP Doris May Lessing, British novelist, short-story writer and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.
• Non-existent fact-checking in book publishing allowed Dylan Davies aka Sgt Morgan Jones publish "a Benghazi fantasy".
• Is Amazon's Kindle Source offer to independent bookstores a "Faustian" deal?
• Nine things about listicles that make listicles like the one you're reading now sound plausible.
• Canadian artiste Bryan Adams has come up with an "unlikely, compelling" photography book on wounded war veterans. "This book is just a small example of the atrocities that happen when we bear arms against each other," said Adams in The Daily Beast.
• A US judge ruled that Google's book-scanning project is legal and considered "fair use" under copyright laws. This judgement will not go down well with the Author's Guild in the US. But sci-fi author John Scalzi, for one, is not bothered.
• Is too much being made about being nice or nasty to books? Somebody at The New Yorker thinks so. "...if authors were sages, then it really would behove the rest of us to just pipe down and accept their words from on high. Fortunately, they’re no such thing."
• London writer and bookseller Jen Campbell (Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops, More Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops) is writing The Bookshop Book and needs your input. "I want to know why you love bookshops; which bookshops you'd like to sing the praises of; if you've got a memory you want to share, whether it be happy, sad or amusing. You could even tell me about your ideal bookshop; if you could open one, where would it be? What would you stock? Anything you like!"
• Wouldn't it be nice to snuggle in bed reading your favourite blog? A guide for those using e-book readers to read blogs like books.
• A bit about the Polish city of Krakow, the latest Unesco City of Literature.
• "It's very tiring and exhausting when you try to ask for your rights and in return you get a dictatorship," says Aysha, who's part of Jordan's (mostly) female underground slam poetry scene. So she and a bunch of fellow poets are slammin' back.
• Dick Metcalf, an editor (or is it writer/editor or just writer?) who was fired for his pro-gun control article in the Guns & Ammo magazine says two major firearms makers may have played a part in his dismissal.
• Some surprises about the Malay language, and a list of Malay words with Sansrkit origins. Also: "...when a Malay speaks a sentence of ten words, probably five to seven of them will be Sanskrit words..." Considering the look of the web site, betul ke?
• What could be the best and worst 21st-century novels. The century's just started and Katie Price has two.
• "Gaming" literature: should (and would) Fear Factor-like reality shows make book-writing more exciting?

"Third Book! Third Book!"

So I was at the recent MPH Warehouse Sale 2013 and this guy was also there to autograph his books and other related merchandise.

Boey Cheeming, author of When I Was A Kid 1 and 2, at Food Foundry
(Section 17, PJ) book signing, 07 September 2013

Yes, the same guy "whose nuts I (apparently) made famous", to paraphrase a former colleague.

This guy asked me what the next step was, now that he has two books out, as well as calendars, T-shirts, and custom Sharpie marker pens.

Feeling a wee bit responsible for his rock-star status, I advised him to go slow and take a break for a bit. I felt that he'd been burning both ends, doing his book tours, talks, and media interviews and photo shoots. He'd fallen sick at least once during his latest homecoming tour.

"Oh, really?" he went, and sought a second opinion from a colleague at the distribution side.

"No, he should keep up the momentum," she said with a look that searched me for signs of mental illness.

"Exactly," said the rock star. "There'd be trouble if her boss heard what you just said."

How are sales doing, I asked.

"Very good," my colleague said. "In fact, the second book is selling better than the first."

When I saw the first book, I didn't expect it to shoot to the moon, either. I'd felt it was good enough that I'd managed to help get the book sold in Malaysia and maybe Singapore.

So my colleague's sentiments were basically, "Third book! Third book!"

Better than hot cakes: Boey's When I Was A Kid, Books 1 and 2

Then we turned to the tudunged fangirls lining up to have their books and stuff signed, and get a custom sketch for their upcoming birthdays plus a photo with Rock Star.

What next after Book Two, we asked them.

"Third book! Third book!"

Guess it was to be expected.

"He has a following," one tudunged lady said, adding that everybody reads his blog, he's so funny, and all that, so of course they will want a third book - maybe a fourth and a fifth....

And here I am, worried over whether he will burn out, like a rock star of the musical variety. Rock Star works hard for his success. He takes every opportunity he can to promote his books, himself, and the notion that you can be successful doing what you love.

And he gives his fans what they want. Custom autographs? Sure thing. Want a Diablo doodle with his signature? No problem. A sketch of a Dungeons and Dragons card-game character? No sweat.

Obliging author doodles Diablo for a fan

Some authors should take a leaf out of his book and burn the leaf that says "Who needs all that? My book sells itself." That's not true anymore - but has that ever been true?

Given that this book thing is all he's doing right now to make a buck, I suppose he is putting in the hours.

Some friends of a friend are nuts about his books as well. Relatable, they said of his childhood stories, and funny. My signed copy of Book 1 went to Turkey with a friend, who also took my signed copy of Book 2 to India - both with permission.

It's likely Friends of a Friend are also going, "Third book! Third book!" as well.

So maybe I shouldn't have rained on his parade by suggesting that he take a break - and miss all the fun of making a book and flying around meeting fans of all ages and demographics.

But I do want to see what comes out of his Sharpie for many years to come. I've read about how fame devours celebrities and it's something I wouldn't wish on anyone, even on bad days.

I'm hoping that Rock Star's crowd is much better.

MPH Quill, Issue 39, October to December 2013

...has some funny people: Douglas Lim, Harith Iskander, and Kuah Jenhan (comedian, movie critic, ice-cream flavour, etc) talking about the serious side of stand-up comedy.

Also in this issue:

• Excerpts from photographer Kenny Loh's photojournal, Born in Malaysia, which is, from what I've heard so far, getting rave reviews for the images and text. But mostly for the images.
• Also: excerpts from Jojo Struys's Guide to Wellness, from MPH Publishing's line of how-to books from well-known experts in their fields.
• Nick Vujicic was in town and Juan Margrita Gabriel, one of our marketing elves, was there to see him in action. Her piece on him appears in this issue.
• Edwin Yapp profiles several kinds of online 'demons' and how you can spot them - and avoid falling for their schtick.
• Follow Ellen Whyte over one day in Santiago di Compostela in Spain's district of Galicia.
• Yap Ming Hui seems to suggest that you should only trust your gut when you're hungry. In these uncertain times, investing by gut is not a good idea.

And more. Available soon at MPH bookstores and major newsstands at RM8 a copy.

A Storyteller's Christmas Gift

The original manuscript for this book came when we were looking for titles to publish. After editing it for I-can't-remember-exactly-how-many rounds and a chat with the author, I can conclude that while most of the stories are interesting and infused with a local flavour, the stories behind the stories in this collection are just as interesting.

"A Bird for the Journey", for instance, is based on author Paul GnanaSelvam's experiences in an Indian Christian family. Apparently, there's a fair bit of drama, particularly when a wedding is being planned: dowry negotiations, catering, church selections and the like. Why "bird for the journey"?

"I wanted something that evokes the image of a send-off," he said, citing the Citibank ad where Richard Gere buys a whole flock for a girl who wished to release a bird for her brother's ... successful exam?

"The Shadow Boy", meanwhile, gives a glimpse of life in a semi-rural setting where local beliefs are strong. In our discussion, Paul provided some background about the "shadow boy" and his father, a priest and exorcist.

The story that inspired him to write "A Journey's End" was that of his grandmother (or was it great-grandmother?) and her old metal trunk which held her few belongings from the time she set out from India and arrived on these shores. He spoke of the trunk fondly, treating it as a glittering heirloom. Sadly, the trunk was sold off as scrap metal.

What was most compelling, I feel, was the story behind "Latha's Christmas", about a mother of three who lives in a slum. Pick up this collection and Malaysians might recognise the backdrop of its titular tale. Compelling, because Paul said he was there on that day and saw and heard lots.

With all that Paul had witnessed and experienced, it's no surprise that he was inspired to write them out into stories, fictional or otherwise.

"As an Indian I believe that each of us has a destiny, charted just like the lines on our palms," he writes in the preface. "As such I believe that every individual has a story to tell. People's lives are filled with stories and it is through stories that we learn about ourselves and others.

"We tell stories in order to be heard, to be loved, to be accepted and to belong in the world. It is stories, that, for ages unknown, that keeps the human race glued together. I write stories because they must be told. And all stories are worth their while."

It would've been nice if everything from that weekend chat at Plan B, Mid Valley had gone into the book, but I wasn't sure if it would have worked. And the collection was already overdue.

So here it is: a compilation of Paul GnanaSelvam's previously published and unpublished short stories, just in time for your own Christmases. Despite the title, it has a very Indian flavour overall, from all the words in the glossary.

I've taken to using the Tamil phrase aiyo kaduvuleh (loosely translated, "oh my g*d") on occasion. A Tamil colleague seemed impressed.


Ipoh-born Paul GnanaSelvam's letters to editors and personal reflections have appeared in the Malaysian English-language daily The Star. He also has short stories and poems in e-magazines Dusun and Anaksastra, as well as short-story anthologies Write Out Loud, Urban Odysseys, Body 2 Body, the biannual literary journal ASIATIC, and the Lakeview International Journal of Literature and Arts from the Sacred Heart College in Kochi, India. Latha's Christmas and Other Stories is his first book.

Though his postgraduate research centres on teacher-learner communication psychology, Paul's reading interests include works of writers from the Indian diaspora, gender criticism and ethnic studies. He is currently lecturing at Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman in Kampar, Perak.

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Latha's Christmas and Other Stories

Paul GnanaSelvam
MPH Group Publishing
176 pages
Fiction
ISBN: 978-967-415-157-7

Buy from Kinokuniya | MPHOnline.com | Silverfish Books