Robert Raymer's Blog, page 9

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 

*Links to my website, to MPH online for orders for all three of my books, including my latest, Spirit of Malaysia and to the French translation of Lovers and Strangers Revisited, Trois autres Malaisie.  Thanks! 

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:1st place:  Give Me You by Kay Sloan, Cincinnati, OH2nd place:  Tickfaw to Shongaloo by Dixon Hearne, Madison, MS
Finalists:A Different Life by Philip Erickson, St. Paul, MNCold War by Farah Halime, Brooklyn, NYFurther by Deborah Jannerson, New Orleans, LAJuanita by Kent Dixon, Springfield, OH Not the Usual Sleep by Tim Knowles, Brewster, NYResistance by Amina Gautier, Chicago, ILTansy by William Thrift, Columbia, SCThe Act of Theft by Robert Raymer, Kuching, Sarawak, MalaysiaThe 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, AustraliaYankees Angels by Robert H. Cox, New York, NY
        Winners for the novel: 1st place:  Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradel, Los Angeles, CA2nd place:  The Talented Tenth by Ladee Hubbard, Champaign, ILL3rd place:  The Invention of Violet by Amy Boutell, Santa Barbara, CA4th place:   Sunrise for Asphodel by Dan Turtel, New York, NY
Finalists:Advice for the Wicked by Glen Pitre, New Orleans, LAA Stone for Bread by Miriam Herin, Greensboro, NC Mask of Sanity by Jacob Appel, New York, NYScoop 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 

*Links to my website, to MPH online for orders for all three of my books, including my latest, Spirit of Malaysia and to the French translation of Lovers and Strangers Revisited, Trois autres Malaisie.  Thanks! 

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-esteemhttp://borneoexpatwriter.blogspot.com/2011/11/raise-your-self-esteem-by-listing-your.html, 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

****A link to my website, to MPH online for orders for three of my books, including my latest, Spirit of Malaysiaand for Trois autres Malaisie. 

Running Your First Marathon or How to Suck it up!

Kuching Marathon:  Robert Raymer with his sons Jason and JustinI just completed my first marathon; yes, that’s 42.195km, or 26 miles, 385 yards.  I won’t tell you my age (other than I’m one of the latter baby boomer from the US) nor my time, which isn’t all that impressive.  I did beat the seven-hour cut-off time for the in­augural Kuching Marathon (located in Malaysia, in the state of Sarawak, on the island of Borneo). “You came all the way from America?” several runners asked me, impressed.

“No, I live here.  I’m a writer.” 
 They seemed less impressed.
  My wife wasn’t impressed either.  When I announced that I was running a marathon, she flat out told me, “You’re insane!”
The insanity began when I saw this guy around my age and I could tell from a distance, he was fit.  He wasn’t muscular, but he had this pres­ence about him, and I thought, OK, that’s my goal for 2014, to get fit.  Then I read an article about a woman who ran her first marathon at age 60; she ran one every year for the next 18 years.  I thought, if she could do it . . . . I figured if I could get myself into shape then maybe in two years I could run a marathon.  Then I heard a radio an­nouncement about the Kuching Marathon only to realize it was the final day to enter, so I impulsively signed up.  I thought, OK, I still had four months, plenty of time to get fit.


Clearly I had been thinking too much.  Not that I’m all that out of shape; last year I did compete in my son’s primary school jogathon.  Prior to that, my last competition was 30 years ago in a pair of 5K fun runs at a company picnic back in America.
When I told my brother Bill I was running a marathon he thankfully didn’t laugh at me.  Having run in marathons himself back in the 90’s as did another brother Terry, who also ran in triathlons and Ironman competitions, he sent me helpful articles on how to run a marathon, so that got me thinking and training a little.  Very little.   I did run to my wife’s village Quop, which took me forty minutes from where I live, and ran twice more, there and back, for one hour and twenty minutes without stopping.  In my mind I planned a series of longer runs, but, well those didn’t pan out since my knees were throbbing and who wants to run a marathon on throbbing knees?

The marathon was slated to start at 4 am (it’s the tropics).  I thought that was pretty insane time to start a marathon until they pushed the starting time back to 3 am and we had to be there by 2 am, which meant I had to wake up at 1am.  I was starting to wonder if my wife was right: Am I truly insane?
I was glad my wife convinced me to check into a hotel so I could walk to the race; she didn’t trust me to drive at night without sleep).  The day before the race, I went to sleep at 4 pm, but my two boys woke me up at 6 pm, and then I twisted my own arm to join them for a pizza.  I was back to bed by 8 pm, but didn’t fall asleep until around 11pm, just in time for the alarm to go off.
I took a quick shower to wake up, ate some granola bars for breakfast, and applied generous doses of Vaseline on any part of my body that came in contact with my clothes to avoid chafing, especially those safety pins attached to my number A1-0445; I even put plaster across my nip­ples after seeing a photo of a marathoner whose nipples were bleeding from the chafing.  Who needs that?
Before leaving, I put on a blue headband and a silly hat and slipped out of the hotel room only to bump into another guy dressed like me, also running in the marathon.  I was glad I wasn’t the only fool staying at that hotel.

After some monkey-see, monkey-do stretching, I made my way to the starting line in the middle of the pack.  The front is reserved for the Kenyans, those competing with the Kenyans, and those taking selfies with the Kenyans.  (Kenyans took 8 out of 9 top spots; the other went to an Ethiopian and a Malaysian took tenth!  The winning time: 2hr 22min 9sec.) 
  Altogether there were four races 5K, 10K, 21K, and 42K (plus veteran categories for those of us above 45), with a total of 5,500 runners from 30 countries.  Thankfully the starting times were staggered:  The race finally started for those in front.  For us in the mid­dle we still had a ways to go before we got to the start.  I was impressed by two things:  how far ahead those Kenyans were as they curved around Padang Merdeka and by all the people lining the street to cheer us on.  Did I mention it was 3am?  Don’t these people sleep?
Once we got out of town, people gathered in front of their homes to watch us run by.  Some made a party of it, banging on drums, chanting and holding out their hands for us to slap. 
“Good Morning,” the children would say to me in English and I’d reply in Malay, “Selamat pagi!”  But was it morning?  Hell no, it was 3:30 am!  Shouldn't they be in bed?
Then there were long stretches when there was no houses, no people.  So I noted the road kill, includ­ing a scorpion and a couple of snakes, hoping I wouldn’t join them.  In marathons people do occasionally die, usual­ly of a heart attack as did Pheidippides, the legendary messenger who ran to Athens after the Greek victory over the Persians at the Battle of Marathon.
A 54-year-old runner from Brunei did die that morning after fainting a half hour into his run, not the marathon but surprisingly the 5K fun run . . . . Always make sure you’re fit and healthy; if in doubt, consult a doctor before your race, even if it’s chasing your grand­ kids around the dining table.  Those miles do add up.
Some runners ran in groups, some ran with blink­ing reflector lights on their backs or the back of their shoes.  Others ran barefoot.  Some carried special backpacks containing special fluids with a special hose that could reach their mouth.  Others wore specialized fanny packs for their drinks and energy gels.  Many ran with head­phones and a few Mickey Mouse ears.  This one guy sang as he ran.  I was im­pressed with both his voice and his repertoire and was so disappointed when he ran out of range.
Many brought their phones and cameras and took plenty of  photos of their com­pan­ions and new-found friends and some selfies, too; they would pose at every pose-able local from Slow Down signs to scenic bridges with middle-of-the night fishermen.  One lone fisher­man with four poles was eyeing us as possible bait. 
   
With hardly any traffic, we had the roads to ourselves.  Just had to avoid running into other run­ners like those who ran four abreast carrying on a lively conversation.  If I found myself getting hemmed in or stuck behind the same monotonous runner I knew it was time to pass.  Running marathons, I dis­covered was a lot like playing leapfrog.  I kept passing people, then they would pass me and this would go on for hours, and I’d say, “You again!”
Pretty soon you made friends for life, like Mohan Marathon from Singapore, who ran in the New York Marathon twice and the Honolulu marathon countless times.  Bald-headed and in his fifties, he made every­one laugh and kept calling me, Mr. Pennsylvania, and would introduce me to others and tell them to make sure they finished ahead of me.  When another runner had leg cramps he stayed with her to make sure she got some help, and kept helping her throughout the marathon and made sure that she got her t-shirt and medal, a true gentleman.
Most runners, by the way, are cheer­ful people; less than cheerful people don’t wake up to run marathons at 3am!  They also encourage you any way they can to keep you moving toward your goal of completing your marathon.  Some are road warriors, best to stay out of their way if don’t want tread marks up your back, or they'll sneer at you as you pass them.  A guy running in front of me was talking to another runner about a recent 84K race.  Who in their right mind would run two marathons back to back, but then I saw this guy with 100K t-shirt, which I found either encouraging or discouraging.  Are runners truly in­sane?  I’m not even talking about Triathletes and Ironman competitors, let alone those who run 250K across the desert!

One runner I kept bumping into had a helpful slogan on the back that said, “Never Quit.”  Another, “Run Till You Drop!” Before I did drop, I had to stop now and then to have my legs massaged.  One time I had sit off the side of the road to relieve discomfort to my left foot.  I removed my shoe but was afraid to remove the sock to see what was going on, afraid of what I would find and then use that as an excuse not to finish.  (I did tape my toes to minimize any blistering, not that it helped.)  Next time, I know, get better shoes.
In the days leading up to the marathon, I kept giving myself reasons why I shouldn’t go through with it, like lack of adequate preparation, lack of sleep, potential knee injuries that would require surgery, falling and injuring myself (I had a nasty fall in January that gave me a black eye), or even something fatal like a heart attack.  Who was I fooling?  I figured the odds were so stacked against me, and that didn’t include all those Kenyans!  But then I thought, well that line of think­ing isn’t helping me. 
  My whole reason for running in the first place was to get in shape.  In the back of my mind, I’ve always wanted to run a marathon, but then that’s like a lot people wanting to be an author; they just don’t want to write the damnbook!  Who in the right mind wants to run 42km at 3am in the tropics?  But I figured the only way I would ever run a marathon is by run­ning a marathon.  No guts, no glory!  Then I realized, once I actually showed up my odds were 50-50!  Either I fin­ished the race or I didn’t.
  Having a 50% chance at anything in life are pretty good odds.  Then if you back that up with a valid reason (wanting to prove to my wife that I’m not insane), some sheer stubbornness (I paid for this so I’m finishing it!), and a self-motivating mantra to help your­self get past the pain and that proverbial wall (they said it was proverbial not real!), those odds start to shift in your favor.
Around the half way mark, in the middle of nowhere, like a mirage, all these people popped up playing tambourines, singing and dancing.  Or maybe it really was a mirage . . . .  By the time the call to prayer came at 5:20 am, followed by the sun rising 6:38 am, I was still hang­ing in there, though at times walking and sightseeing more than running since my legs were killing me and I felt really, really pooped out.
“Hey, are you a tourist!” another runner called out to me, as I was enjoying the view from a bridge just as the sun was coming up.   

Oh, yeah, the marathon!   

Lack of training, I realized too late,  is the consummate marathon killer.  Either you put the miles in or you didn’t.  But then I noticed how some runners walked really fast by pump­ing their elbows.  By walking at a brisk pace you don’t fall too far behind before you get your second, third, or fif­teenth wind. 
  Then you play games with yourself, I’ll start running after the water station until the next road kill.  Basically you do what you have to do to keep going.  At the 34K mark they gave us a banana for breakfast.  Along the way I tried energy jells, Red Bull, isotonic drinks, granola bars, dried fruit, and gummy bears, some of which I carried in a fanny pack.  I carried my own bottle which gave me the flexibility to drink or sip when I wanted to and could refill it at the water stations, every three kilometers.  Glad I did.
The whole final third of the marathon, when you felt like your legs dropped off a few kilo­meters back, I kept pushing myself, staying focused.  I also relied on my past experience of completing the Big Loop Trail at Bako National Park with my son Zaini when he was 16 and climbing Longs Peak in Colorado with brother Bill when I was 22.
My writing mantra for the year going into the mara­thon was “Believe and Do!”  But during the actual running it became “Suck it up!”  By 7am the traffic came, and it got worse once we got back into town.  We now had to avoid cars at inter­sections, at round-a-bouts, and when double-parked!  Aware there was a mara­thon going on (signs were everywhere as were helpful policemen), most drivers were courteous (or curious) and gave us a chance to live.  Others, well, we were fair game.

When I got to those final two kilo­meters, on the last of my rubbery legs, a short, stout woman leap­frogged me and urged me on, and I thought, hell if she can do it . . . . Besides, I wasn’t about to run a full marathon and not get that t-shirt and metal!  My wife needed proof! I needed proof, too, so years from now I could look back on that day 17 August 2014, knowing that I came to the Kuching Mara­thon, saw all those thousands of run­ners, and conquered the course (but not the Kenyans).  Or in non-Roman terms, I sucked it up.
Later, I planned to use the marathon experience to lord it over my kids, “Hey, if your father can run a marathon, you can at least clean up your room!”
Then I began to wonder, why do normally sane people put themselves through the pain and or­deal of running a marathon (and do it again and again)?  Do they do it for the camara­derie, for the challenge, or because they can?  Does it even matter?  Then I remembered an expression I once heard, “You never know how far you can go until you’ve gone too far.” This not only ap­plies to running and writing books, but also to all creative, business, and pro­fessional en­deavors. 
The real question you might want to ask yourself, how far can you go in your life?  You may not want to run a mara­thon, but then again, why not?  If you can run a marathon, then nothing can stop you from pur­suing your dreams.  When things go horribly wrong and you feel like giving up or quitting life for good, you just do what you had to do to complete that darn mara­thon, including those nasty hills they throw at you when you least expect (or want) them . . . you suck it up and keep going!
Then there it was . . . the finish.  Before I knew what was happening, a pretty woman put the metal over my head, knocking off my hat in the process, and then another made sure I had the correct size t-shirt.  And it was all over except the pain . . . . You would think that the pain ends when the marathon does, but, sorry, it doesn’t.  Taking your shoes off does help. 
But you still have to make it home or to your hotel; unfortunately, the days of porters carrying you in style ended a few generations ago.  So I walked with my wife back to the hotel in my socks along with our sons Jason and Justin, with Jason proudly wearing my metal around his neck (he got first dibs).
   Then the cramps set in.  For me, that happened while I was soaking in the bathtub.  My wife had to help me out of the tub in a very painful, undignified flamingo stance. 
“Do you need me to dry you like the boys?”
“Please!” I said, and then Jason stepped on my aching, blistered toes.  “Please, watch the toes!”
I thought I would collapse asleep for at least a week, but I wasn’t all that sleepy, so we checked out of the hotel at noon and headed home with a few stops in between.  Getting in and out of car, in and out of chairs was an ordeal, but the staircase at home was pure torture.  I had to hold onto the banister and take baby steps sideways in an effort to minimize movement.  Any jerk like motion such as lift­ing a leg to the next step was excruciating painful.
When I finally did collapse, I slept wonderfully well except whenever I changed positions, then I’d feel that throbbing pain in the lower legs and toes.  But the knees were fine!  The following morning, the pain was still there, a lot of stiffness too, so I had to walk Frankenstein-style around the house.  But at the same time, I had this incredible afterglow.  I ran a marathon!  I really did!  My blue t-shirt and cool metal were proof!
   Now, instead of calling me insane, my wife calls me her “marathon man”.–Borneo Expat Writer
*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!

**A link to my website, to MPH online for orders for three of my books, including my latest, Spirit of Malaysia and for Trois autres Malaisie. 

Running a Marathon or Are You Insane?

Jason, Robert Raymer and JustinI just completed my first marathon;yes, that’s 42.195km, or 26 miles, 385 yards.  I won’t tell you my age (other than I’m one of the latter baby boomer from the US) nor my time, which isn’t all that impressive.  I did beat the seven-hour cut-off time for the in­augural Kuching Marathon (located in Malaysia, in the state of Sarawak, on the island of Borneo). 
“You came all the way from America to run here?” several people asked me, impressed.

“No, I live in Kuching.  I’m a writer.” 
 They seemed less impressed.
  My wife wasn’t impressed either.  In fact when I announced that I was running a marathon, she flat out told me, “You’re insane!”
For me, the insanity began when I saw this guy around my age approaching and I could tell right away, even at a distance, that he was fit.  He wasn’t muscular, but he had this presence about him, and I thought, OK, that’s my goal for 2014, to get fit.  I thought if I could get myself into shape then maybe in two years I could run a marathon. Then I heard a radio announcement about the Kuching Marathon, Googled it that evening only to realize it was the final day to enter, so I impulsively signed up.  I figured, OK, I still had four months, plenty of time to get fit.  
Not that I’m all that out of shape; last year I did compete in my son’s primary school jogathon and even won third place among adults.  Prior to that, my last competition was 30 years ago in a pair of 5K fun runs at a company picnic back in America.

When I told my older brother Bill that I was running a marathon he thankfully didn’t laugh at me.  Having run in marathons himself back in the 90’s as did my other brother Terry, who also ran in triathlons and Ironman competitions, he did send me some articles on how to run a marathon, so that got me thinking and training a little.  Very little.   I did run to my wife’s village Quop, which took me forty minutes from where I live, and ran twice more, there and back, for 1 hour and twenty minutes without stopping.  In my mind I planned a series of longer runs, but, well that didn’t pan out since my knees were throbbing and who wants to run a marathon on throbbing knees?

The marathon was slated to start at 4 am (it’s the tropics).  I thought that was pretty insane time to start a marathon until they pushed the starting time back to 3 am and we had to be there by 2 am, which meant I had to wake up at 1am.  I was starting to wonder if my wife was right: Am I truly insane?
I was glad she convinced me to check into a hotel so I could walk to the race since we live 11 miles away (she doesn’t trust me driving at night without sleep).  The day before the race, I went to sleep at 4 pm, but my two boys woke me up at 6 pm, and then I twisted my own arm to join them for a pizza.  I was back to bed by 8 pm, but didn’t fall asleep until around 11pm, just in time for the alarm that went off at 1am.
I took a quick shower to wake up, ate some granola bars for breakfast, and applied generous doses of Vaseline on any part of my body that came in contact with my clothes to avoid chafing, especially those safety pins attached to my number A1-0445; I even put plaster across my nip­ples after seeing a photo of a marathoner whose nipples were bleeding from the chafing.  Who needs that?
Before leaving, I put on my sweatband and a hat and slipped out of the hotel room only to bump into another guy dressed like me, also running in the marathon.  I was glad I wasn’t the only fool staying at that hotel.


After some monkey-see, monkey-do stretching, I made my way to the starting line in the middle of the pack.  The front is reserved for the Kenyans, those competing with the Kenyans, and those taking selfies with the Kenyans.  (The Kenyans swept the first three places in both the men’s and women’s marathon and half half marathon.  The winning time: 2hr 22min 9sec.  In fact Kenyans took 8 out of 9 top spots; the other went to an Ethiopian and a Malaysian took tenth!)
  Altogether there were four races 5K, 10K, 21K, and 42K (plus veteran categories for those of us above 45), with a total of 5,500 runners from 30 countries.  Thankfully the starting times were staggered:  The race finally started for those in front.  For us in the mid­dle we still had a ways to go before we got to the start.  I was impressed by two things:  how far ahead those Kenyans were as they curved around Padang Merdeka and by all the people lining the street to cheer us on.  Did I mention it was 3am?  Don’t these people sleep?
Once we got out of town, people gathered along the street in front of their homes to watch us run by.  Some made a party of it, banging on drums, chanting and holding out their hands for us to slap.  Being a Westerner and wearing a blue headband and silly hat made me stand out.  
“Good Morning,” the children would say to me in English and I’d reply in Malay, “Selamat pagi!”  But was it morning?  Hell no, it was 3:30 am!  I should be in bed!
Then there were long stretches when there was no houses, no people.  So I noted the road kill, includ­ing a scorpion and a couple of snakes, hoping I wouldn’t join them.  In marathons people do occasionally die, usual­ly of a heart attack as did Pheidippides, the legendary messenger who ran to Athens after the Greek victory over the Persians at the Battle of Marathon (which accounts for its odd dis­tance).
A 54-year-old runner from Brunei did die that morning after fainting a half hour into his run, not the marathon but surprisingly the 5K fun run . . . . Always make sure you’re fit and healthy; if in doubt, consult a doctor before your race, even if it’s chasing your grand­ kids around the dining table.  Those miles do add up.
Some runners ran in groups, some ran with blink­ing reflector lights on their backs or the back of their shoes.  Others ran barefoot.  Some carried special backpacks containing special fluids with a special hose that could reach their mouth.  Others wore specialized fanny packs for their drinks and energy gels.  Many ran with head­phones and a few Mickey Mouse ears.  This one guy sang as he ran.  I was im­pressed with both his voice and his repertoire and was so disappointed when he ran out of range.
Many brought their phones and cameras and took plenty of  photos of their com­pan­ions and new-found friends and some selfies, too; they would pose at every pose-able local from Slow Down signs to scenic bridges with middle-of-the night fishermen.  One lone fisher­man with four poles was eyeing us as possible bait. 
   
With hardly any traffic, we had the roads to ourselves.  Just had to avoid running into other run­ners like those who ran four abreast carrying on a lively conversation.  If I found myself getting hemmed in or stuck behind the same runner I knew it was time to pass.  Running marathons, I dis­covered was a lot like playing leapfrog.  I kept passing people, then they would pass me and this would go on for hours, and I’d say, “You again!”
Pretty soon you made friends for life, like Mohan Marathon from Singapore, who ran in the New York Marathon twice and the Honolulu marathon countless times.  Bald-headed and in his fifties, he made every­one laugh and kept calling me, Mr. Pennsylvania, and would introduce me to others and tell them to make sure they finished ahead of me!  When another runner had leg cramps he stayed with her to make sure she got some help, and kept helping her throughout the marathon and made sure that she got her t-shirt and medal, a true gentleman.

Most runners, by the way, are cheer­ful people; less than cheerful people don’t wake up at 3am to run marathons!  They also encourage you any way they can to keep you moving toward your goal of completing your marathon.  Others are road warriors, best to stay out of their way if don’t want tread marks up your back.  A guy running in front of me was talking to another runner about a recent 84K race.  Who in their right mind would run two marathons back to back, but then I saw this guy with 100K t-shirt, which I found either encouraging or discouraging.  Are runners truly in­sane?  I’m not even talking about Triathletes and Ironman competitors, let alone those who run 250K across the desert!

One runner I kept bumping into had a helpful slogan on the back that said, “Never Quit.”  Another, “Run Till You Drop!” Before I did drop, I had to stop now and then to have my legs massaged.  One time I had sit off the side of the road to relieve discomfort to my left foot.  I removed my shoe but was afraid to remove the sock to see what was going on, afraid of what I would find and then use that as an excuse not to finish.  (I did tape my toes to minimize any blistering, not that it helped.)  Next time, I know, get better shoes.
In the days leading up to the marathon, I kept giving myself reasons why I shouldn’t go through with it, like lack of adequate preparation, lack of sleep, potential knee injuries that would require surgery, falling and injuring myself (I had a nasty fall in January that gave me a black eye), or even something fatal like a heart attack.  Who was I fooling?  I figured the odds were so stacked against me, and that didn’t include those Kenyans!  But then I thought, well that line of think­ing isn’t exactly helping me. 
  My whole reason for taking part in the first place was to get in shape.  In the back of my mind, I’ve always wanted to run a marathon, but then that’s like a lot people wanting to be an author; they just don’t want to write the damnbook!  Who in the right mind wants to run 42km at 3am in the tropics?  But I figured the only way I would ever run a marathon is by run­ning a marathon.  No guts, no glory!  Then I realized, once I actually showed up my odds were 50-50!  Either I fin­ished the race or I didn’t.
  Having a 50% chance at anything in life are pretty good odds.  Then if you back that up with a valid reason (wanting to impress and prove to my wife that I’m not always insane), some sheer deter­mination or stubbornness (“I paid for this so I’m finishing it!”), and a self-motivating mantra to help your­self get past the pain and that proverbial wall (they said it was proverbial not real!), those odds start to shift in your favor.
Around the half way mark, in the middle of nowhere, like a mirage, all these people popped up playing tambourines, singing and dancing.  Or maybe it really was a mirage . . . .  By the time the call to prayer came at 5:20 am, followed by the sun rising 6:38 am, I was still hang­ing in there, though at times walking and sightseeing more than running since my legs were killing me and I felt really, really pooped out.
“Hey, are you a tourist!” another runner called out to me, as I was enjoying the view from a bridge just as the sun was coming up.  Oh, yeah, the marathon!  Lack of training, I realized too late,  is the consummate marathon killer.  Either you put the miles in or you didn’t.  But then I noticed how some runners walked really fast by pump­ing their elbows.  By walking at a brisk pace you don’t fall too far behind before you get your second, third, or fif­teenth wind. 
  Then you play games with yourself, I’ll start running after the water station until the next road kill.  Basically you do what you have to do to keep going.  At the 34KM mark they gave us a banana for breakfast!  Along the way I tried energy jells, Red Bull, isotonic drinks, granola bars, dried fruit, and gummy bears, some of which I carried in a fanny pack.  80% of the stuff I carried I didn’t eat, except for the gummy bears.  I also carried my own bottle and that gave me the flexibility to drink or sip when I wanted to and would refill it at the various stations, every three kilometers.  Glad I did!
The whole final third of the marathon, when you felt like your legs dropped off a few kilo­meters back, I kept pushing myself, staying focused.  I also relied on my past experience of completing the Big Loop Trail at Bako National Park with my son Zaini when he was 16 and climbing Longs Peak to the summit with brother Bill in Colorado when I was 22.
My writing mantra for the year going into the mara­thon was “Believe and Do!”  But during the actual running it became “Suck it up!”  By 7am the traffic came, and it got worse once we got back into town.  We now had to avoid cars at inter­sections, at round-a-bouts, and when double-parked!  Aware there was a mara­thon going on (signs were everywhere and helpful policemen, too), most drivers were courteous (or curious) and gave us a chance to live.  Others, well, we were fair game.

When I got to those final two kilo­meters, on my last rubbery legs, a short, stout woman leap­frogged me and urged me on, and I thought, hell if she can do it . . . . Besides, I wasn’t about to run a full marathon and not get that t-shirt and metal!  My wife needed proof!  Do you think she would’ve taken my word for it, knowing that I was insane?  I needed the tangible proof for me, too, so years from now I could look back on that day 17 August 2014, knowing that I came to the Kuching Mara­thon, I saw all those thousands of run­ners, and I conquered the course (but not the Kenyans).  Or in non-Roman terms, I sucked it up.
Later, I planned to use the marathon experience to lord it over my kids, “Hey, if your father can run a marathon, you can at least clean up your room!”
Then I began to wonder, why do normally sane people put themselves through the pain and or­deal of running a marathon (and do it again and again)?  Do they do it for the camara­derie, for the challenge, or because they can?  Does it even matter?  Then I remembered an expression I once heard, “You never know how far you can go until you’ve gone too far.” This not only ap­plies to running and writing books, but also to all creative, business, and pro­fessional en­deavors. 
The real question you might want to ask yourself, how far can you go in your life?  You may not want to run a mara­thon, but then again, why not?  If you can run a marathon, then nothing can stop you from pur­suing your dreams.  When things go horribly wrong and you feel like giving up or quitting life for good, you just do what you had to do to complete that darn mara­thon . . . you suck it up and keep going!
Then there it was . . . the finish.  Before I knew what was happening, a pretty woman put the metal over my head, knocking off my hat in the process, and then another made sure I had the correct size t-shirt.  And it was all over except the pain . . . . You would think that the pain ends when the marathon does, but, sorry, it doesn’t.  Taking your shoes off does help. 
But you still have to make it home or to your hotel; unfortunately, the days of porters carrying you in style ended a few generations ago.  So I walked with my wife back to the hotel in my socks along with our sons Jason and Justin, with Jason proudly wearing my metal around his neck (he got first dibs).
   Then the cramps set in.  For me, that happened while I was soaking in the bathtub.  My wife had to help me out of the tub in a very painful, undignified flamingo stance. 
“Do you need me to dry you like the boys?”
“Please!” I said, and then Jason stepped on my aching, blistered toes.  “Please, watch the toes!”
I thought I would collapse asleep for at least a week, but I wasn’t all that sleepy, so we checked out of the hotel at noon and headed home with a few stops in between.  Getting in and out of car, in and out of chairs was an ordeal, but the staircase at home was pure torture.  I had to hold onto the banister and take baby steps sideways in an effort to minimize movement.  Any jerk like motion such as lift­ing a leg to the next step was excruciating painful.
When I finally did collapse, I slept wonderfully well except whenever I changed positions, then I’d feel that throbbing pain in the lower legs and toes.  But the knees were fine!  The following morning, the pain was still there, a lot of stiffness too, so I had to walk Frankenstein-style around the house.  But at the same time, I had this incredible afterglow.  I ran a marathon!  I really did!  My blue t-shirt and cool metal were proof!
Now, instead of calling me insane, my wife calls me her “marathon man”.–Borneo Expat Writer
*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!

**Here the link to my website, to MPH online for orders for all three of my books, including my latest, Spirit of Malaysia and for Trois autres Malaisie. 

The Act of Theft – Finalist for 2014 Faulkner-Wisdom for Novella!

The Act of Theft has been named one of the finalist in the 2014 William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition for the Novella.  (In 2013 it was a short list finalist.)
Also my novels A Perfect Day for an Expat Exit (finalist 2012) and The Lonely Affair (The Resurrection of Jonathan Brady) were short list finalist for the 2014 Novel category.  
Plus I had "three" more novels in the 2014 semi-finals, including The Resurrection of Jonathan Brady (short list finalist above and in 2012), An Unexpected Gift for a Growling Fool(short list finalist in 2013) and The Girl in the Bathtub, (a finalist in 2012, short list finalist 2013 Novel-in-Progress, and a sequel to A Perfect Day for an Expat Exit set in Malaysia).
This is the fourth time that one of my works has made it the Faulkner-Wisdom finals in four different categories:  novel, novel-in-progress, novella and short story (“Malaysian Games”,  runner up in 2007).
All finalists for the Novella will be sent to the finals judge Moira Crone, a previous Faulkner-Wisdom Novella winner, who has published two novels and three books of stories.
Let’s hope The Act of Theft can pull off a winner.
                  —Borneo Expat Writer
*Reading out loud to improve your results. 
**Six lessons I learned from joining Amazon competition. 
***Links to my website, to MPH online for orders for all three of my books, including my latest, Spirit of Malaysia and to the French translation of Lovers and Strangers Revisited, Trois autres Malaisie.  Thanks! 

Faulkner-Wisdom: Two Novels Short List Finalist 2014!

Two of my novels A Perfect Day for an Expat Exit and The Lonely Affair  (The Resurrection of Jonathan Brady) were named as short list finalist for the 2014 Faulkner-Wisdom Novel Competition.
The sequel to A Perfect Day for an Expat Expat (finalist in 2012), The Girl in the Bathtub was named a semi-finalist in only its second full draft.  The Girl in the Bathtub, however, was a finalist for the 2012 Novel-in-Pro­gress (and a short list finalist in 2013).  Both novels are set in Malaysia, famous this year for its missing flight MH370 and then MH17 shot down flying over Ukraine.
This year I was determined to send in the early draft of The Girl in the Bathtub so I would be forced to revise it in time for the competition.  Since then, I had been continually revising the novel draft after draft, cutting the 493 page manuscript down to 419 pages determined to make this my best novel ever.  I hope to get it down to 400 pages by mid-September before I send it to a writer friend for a complete reading, then after further revisions, if necessary, start submitting it to agents, my first new novel in a while, which I find exciting.
My novel An Unexpected Gift from a Growling Fool was a semi-finalist this year too, dis­appointing since it was named a short list finalist in 2013 as was The Resurrection of Jonathan Brady(the revised version of The Lonely Affair) also a previous short list finalist in 2012 (and a Quarter-finalist in the 2012 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards).  I had actually submitted The Lonely Affair in 2013 along with my other four entries and somehow this got overlooked so they carried it over for 2014, a pleasant surprise and an extra short list finalist, giving me five entries instead of four for the novel (two short list finalist and three semi-finalist for 2014!).
I’m still waiting for the Novella results where my entry The Act of Theftwas a short-list finalist in 2013.                      —Borneo Expat Writer
*Reading out loud to improve your results.
**Six lessons I learned from joining Amazon competition.
***Links to my website, to MPH online for orders for all three of my books, including my latest, Spirit of Malaysia and to the French translation of Lovers and Strangers Revisited, Trois autres Malaisie.  Thanks! 

Suzi Wong and the Spirits, a Graphic Novel in English

Editions GOPE, a French publisher who does books with an Asian flavour, has launched a graphic novel in English, Suzi Wong and the Spirits.


Suzy Wong and the Spirits
Born in Hong Kong on the fifteenth day of the fourth lunar month in the year of the Tiger, Suzy might be an incarnation of Chang’e, the Moon Goddess. All she knows for sure is that since her birth, she has been protected by three age-old invisible and mischievous spirits: Godmother Qing Yi, learned Godfather Wen Chou and rough Uncle Jia Zi. As a child Suzy was spoiled rotten by everybody at the brothel managed by her grandmother Wong Su Xi, who had once been famous under the name of Suzie Wong. Our Suzy had a blissful childhood until a mysterious fire killed her mother and destroyed the floating brothel. Sent away to a boarding school, Suzy found she had a gift for feng shui. After graduating summa cum laude, she decided to reconcile with her six uncles and aunts. It would not be easy; they were scattered all over the globe, and each of them involved in either a sleazy business, a dark occult science, or both. But what really happened that fateful night? What drove the Wong family into exile? Will Suzy dare to return to her roots in Hong Kong, in the Aberdeen harbour, where Grandma Su Xi, abandoned by her family and only a shadow of her former self, is waiting?

Virginie Broquet is a French artist who writes and draws comic books and travel sketchbooks. She also works for the press, as well as for the advertising and fashion industries. She has been awarded a prize at the prestigious Angoulême festival, the second-largest comics festival in the world.
Steve Rosse (English text) has been a journalist and editor in Asia and the United States. 
Suzy Wong and the Spirits is a graphic novel for adults dedicated with love to some of Asia’s most fascinating cities. It is a fusion between an artist’s very personal travel sketchbook and a comic book. Giving free reign to her imagination, it is the author’s hope that the work is still firmly grounded in the sensibility of real life.  
 
The graphic novel will appeal to women/art/erotica lovers...For more information, excerpts and orders please go here.


Steve Rosse is also the author of Trois Autres Thailande, a collection of short stories, part of the Southeast Asia series that includes Trois Autres Malaisie, the French translation of Loversand Strangers Revisited . 

Previously, Editions GOPE gave new life to Richard Mason’s The World of Suzie Wong by launching a new revised, unabridged French translation.  Chapter two, for those of us familiar with Malaysia, takes place in Malaya, in a rubber plantation.  The World of Suzie Wong was not only an international best seller, it ran for many years as a play on Broadway and in London, and the movie version won Nancy Kwan a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in the role of Suzie.



 
And now the Suzie Wong legend continues through Suzy Wong and the Spirits.


For more information, excerpts and orders please go here.               —Borneo Expat Writer  

Here the link to my website, to MPH online for orders for all three of my books, including my latest, Spirit of Malaysia and for Trois autres Malaisie.

A Perfect Day for an Expat Exit—Round Two of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards

A Perfect Day for an Expat Exit has made Round Two of the 2014 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award under the Mystery/Thriller category.  This is based solely on the 300-word pitch, which is what agents and editors see first when you pitch them, as I wrote in my Six Lessons Learned from entering the Amazon contest last year.
Round Two is based on the 5000-word excerpt and a shot at the Quarter-Finals (14 April).  A different novel, The Resurrection of Jonathan Brady made the Amazon Quarter-finalsin 2012, beating out 95% of the completion.   

An earlier draft of A Perfect Day for an Expat Exit made the finals of the 2012 William Faulkner-William Wisdom Novel Competition, so I have some hope here, too.  One of the significant changes I made since then was turning this third person, present tense story into a first person, past tense novel, plus a ton of rewriting while reading the novel out loud.
While waiting for Quarter-Final announcements, it’ll back to rewriting A Perfect Day for an Expat Exit’s sequel, The Girl in the Bathtub, which was also a novel-in-progress finalist for Faulkner-Wisdom back in 2012. 
I’m hoping all the work I’ve done these last two years on these two novels will finally pay off.
Here’s the 300-word pitch (287 words actually) that got the novel through to Round Two:
A Perfect Day for an Expat ExitHaving your fate hinged on the erratic behavior of a manipulative American expatriate who has nothing left to live for cannot be good…
          “When living overseas as long as I have,” Michael Graver said from the com­forts of his decaying bungalow, “the question that you always have to ask yourself . . . is today a perfect day for an expat exit?”Distraught over catching his wife making love to an ex-boyfriend, American business­man Steve Boston flees from his former life to the tropical island of Penang.  En route to the Eastern & Oriental Hotel, a colonial holdover, Boston comes to the aid of a mysterious Eura­sian whose com­plicated life has been made messier by her father’s body washing ashore.  His death is not only linked to the enigmatic expatriate Michael Graver, who seems to know ev­ery­body’s personal secrets, but also his anti-American, opium-addicted British wife, Amanda.Until he met Graver, Boston had only read about expatriates as if they were some kind of mystical creature—a shapeshifter capa­ble of abandoning one culture for another or living in the shadows for the sake of survival; either hiding from their troubled past, seeking some self-indul­gent pleasure, or search­ing for a mythical treasure.  Or a little of each as in Michael Graver’s case.Graver’s life, however, starts to unravel when his own well-kept secrets are uncovered. With little left to live for except an elusive treasure buried by the Japanese at the end of World War Two, Graver gamely manipulates those around him, including Steve Boston who keeps finding himself in the wrong place at the wrong time until he’s caught smack in the middle with a gun aimed at his head. —Borneo Expat Writer  
**Here's a link to my website, to MPH online for orders for all three of my books, including my latest, Spirit of Malaysia and forTrois autres Malaisie.