Haresh Daswani's Blog, page 2
July 5, 2011
An interview with Reena Jacobs
Today we're blessed to be given time by a notable author, Reena Jacobs, on her book, Shadow Cats.1. Tell us more about yourselfI absolutely love grilled steak. I've gone through phases where I've eaten steak on a daily basis, and I've still not grown tired of it. The day I look at grilled steak and say I can't do this anymore is the day the world comes to an end. Seriously. Steak is totally my thing.
2. Tell us more about the book you are promoting?
Shadow Cat--the first book in the Striped Ones series--heavily based in Malaysian folklore. Shaman, wehr-tigers, and penanggalan demons! Oh my! A blurb anyone?Eric Randall's plan is simple-fix the mess his researchers have created in Malaysia, experience the pleasures the country has to offer, and return to the comforts of America. All it takes is one beautiful aborigine, and Eric finds himself stranded in a world of Malaysian myths and legends.A novice shaman amongst her people, Berani is free and independent. Yet all is not well in her homeland. Demons prey on her people, pushing them to extinction. When a strange speaking man invades her forest, she has one more worry to add to her already troubled life. Attraction or no, she will fight Eric tooth and claw to maintain her freedom. But will she destroy herself in the process?If Berani wishes to save her family... if Eric wishes to reclaim his old life, they must stand together against the threats of encroaching wehr-tigers and bloodsucking demons... or perish.
3. How does this book describe you? How does it express your thoughts?
Tough questions. Hmm... My love affair with Shadow Cat... I'm not so sure it does describe me. However, readers will find aspects of my personality in some of the main characters (Berani, Eric, and Bryan).
4. What similarities do you find between yourself and the protagonist?
Eric and Berani, Berani and Eric. I'm probably more similar to Berani than Eric. I understand her need to stand strong when threatened and her need to resist being controlled yet wanting to give up control at the same time.
5. What about you do you see in the antagonist?
In terms of the external antagonist, we have a bodiless demon (the penanggalan). Yikes! I can't say I identify with the demons in the novel. Although, I have some times when I lose my head and go ballistic, so my husband might point out a few similarities.
6. What music most appropriately suits your book?
This might seem odd, but I can't concentrate with music playing in the background. It's a huge distraction for me. I find myself concentrating on the lyrics, singing, and sometimes even dancing instead of writing. Shadow Cat was written in almost complete solitude and quiet, so I've never really thought about Shadow Cat in terms of music. I will say that I was on a Phantom of the Opera soundtrack kick at the time. Perhaps the dark, edgy, excitement of Andrew Lloyd Webber would suit Shadow Cat.
7. What values do you wish to impart through your book?
I didn't write Shadow Cat with the intent to impart values. However, the novel does promote the conservation of our natural resources in the rainforest. Also, my works tend to have a strong female theme. Though women are typically weaker physically, I like to show women as strong in spirit.Reena Jacobs is just your typical writer who loves to see her words in print. As an avid reader, she's known to hoard books and begs her husband regularly for "just one more purchase." Her home life is filled with days chasing her preschooler and nights harassing her husband. Between it all, she squeezes in time for writing and growling at the dog. You can find Reena on Ramblings of an Amateur Writer, Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes & Nobles, Smashwords, and Twitter.
January 9, 2011
Book Preview
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December 15, 2010
November 22, 2010
November 18, 2010
6 Hour Drive
"Just one right turn 2 blocks after, see the little laundry shop, make a left, and three stores after, there's where it is", reply of a slightly confused, middle aged convenience store owner inside the Gas station. Wherever this guy is going, driving for 6 hours does not seem to make any sense for his destination. None whatsoever.
And there stands our main character, thankful, as he proceeds to his car. A Japanese mid-size, he has a decent job. And now, he feels a strange twist inside his stomach, a knot that might look like if a boyscout were to go through your intestines and knot it around to something that would hold the base tent to the nail strong enough to withstand a small storm, or falling apples, whichever is the most imminent incident.
What drove our main character, who, by the way, if Gordon, for those who is thinking of his name, to drive six hours to a place I have not yet disclosed? Here's a hint. "In an argument between a husband and his wife, there are two sides of a story, the woman, and her mother. Yours did not matter". Yes, his mother-in-law has arrived, and has reached boiling point, 5 days of tolerating two loud women and Mexican take-outs. Gordon is looking for something to mend his mind off and cool him down.
"Women, like life, are only beautiful when they're mysterious, for it is in the innate nature of man to try to discover, in frustration sometimes, and understand the underlying cause of a woman being illogical, just like life. Once discovered, life, like a woman, is something you just go along by, and hope to coexist in utmost peace, for as long as it can hold."
Further to the discovery, "The only illogical point in life, seems to be women and Japanese VCR players, aside from Microsoft error screens. Take them out and life is actually simple and logical, like a stable machine".
It might have been noticed that Gordon is an intellectual, he is, and a quiet man with stomach problems at that. At this point in time, he is not after going to the toilet or the doctor, which is not as significant as what his main issue is. He wants peace.
From being a complete Atheist, he has pondered his curiosity to Buddhism, which offers one thing that got him curious, peace. And the peace he is seeking for, is 6 hours drive away.
He did not realize there was a temple a block away from his house.
He did now that he got to the temple and explained himself to the person at the lobby.
That did piss him off.
But for the strangest part, aside from causing greenhouse effects on his carseat, he did find peace driving 6 hours to the Buddhist temple. Asked what got him curious, in the middle of the whole argument, his TV was still on, and he saw some quiet monks who seem content.
While driving though, he has always thought that they might have been happy and peaceful because they weren't married to women.
But it is this frustration with two loud women that brought him this generality, as he can believe, for others seem to still be happily married, but he does suspect that his mother-in-law might have been majorly involved in some kind of conspiracy involving irritating straight men into becoming homosexuals. Anything is possible.
How did he end up with his wife? How did he end up not meeting hers and her mother in law's expectations of him when they don't meet his? What were they looking for in a man that he wasn't? That is the more important question.
Once the romance died off, which was two days after the wedding, all's hell.
And here is Gordon, in front of the temple, sweaty and confused. He does not know if he is sweaty because he is confused, or because of the Mexican food. But he does realize that he has to decide, now that he has traveled six hours.
And maybe that was his problem all along, to decide, to conclude, to justify and set his foot down. This might be what he needs to do all this time after all.
He decided to go in the temple, make the first left, and use the toilet. He then thanks the usher in the lobby and heads home with a good sigh of relief. Therapy and reflection did come to him after all, had he known all about the temple near his house, this might have been a different story altogether. But you know what, like life, he did get the intended lesson, and this might have been the story best to suit his needs at the time.
And there stands our main character, thankful, as he proceeds to his car. A Japanese mid-size, he has a decent job. And now, he feels a strange twist inside his stomach, a knot that might look like if a boyscout were to go through your intestines and knot it around to something that would hold the base tent to the nail strong enough to withstand a small storm, or falling apples, whichever is the most imminent incident.
What drove our main character, who, by the way, if Gordon, for those who is thinking of his name, to drive six hours to a place I have not yet disclosed? Here's a hint. "In an argument between a husband and his wife, there are two sides of a story, the woman, and her mother. Yours did not matter". Yes, his mother-in-law has arrived, and has reached boiling point, 5 days of tolerating two loud women and Mexican take-outs. Gordon is looking for something to mend his mind off and cool him down.
"Women, like life, are only beautiful when they're mysterious, for it is in the innate nature of man to try to discover, in frustration sometimes, and understand the underlying cause of a woman being illogical, just like life. Once discovered, life, like a woman, is something you just go along by, and hope to coexist in utmost peace, for as long as it can hold."
Further to the discovery, "The only illogical point in life, seems to be women and Japanese VCR players, aside from Microsoft error screens. Take them out and life is actually simple and logical, like a stable machine".
It might have been noticed that Gordon is an intellectual, he is, and a quiet man with stomach problems at that. At this point in time, he is not after going to the toilet or the doctor, which is not as significant as what his main issue is. He wants peace.
From being a complete Atheist, he has pondered his curiosity to Buddhism, which offers one thing that got him curious, peace. And the peace he is seeking for, is 6 hours drive away.
He did not realize there was a temple a block away from his house.
He did now that he got to the temple and explained himself to the person at the lobby.
That did piss him off.
But for the strangest part, aside from causing greenhouse effects on his carseat, he did find peace driving 6 hours to the Buddhist temple. Asked what got him curious, in the middle of the whole argument, his TV was still on, and he saw some quiet monks who seem content.
While driving though, he has always thought that they might have been happy and peaceful because they weren't married to women.
But it is this frustration with two loud women that brought him this generality, as he can believe, for others seem to still be happily married, but he does suspect that his mother-in-law might have been majorly involved in some kind of conspiracy involving irritating straight men into becoming homosexuals. Anything is possible.
How did he end up with his wife? How did he end up not meeting hers and her mother in law's expectations of him when they don't meet his? What were they looking for in a man that he wasn't? That is the more important question.
Once the romance died off, which was two days after the wedding, all's hell.
And here is Gordon, in front of the temple, sweaty and confused. He does not know if he is sweaty because he is confused, or because of the Mexican food. But he does realize that he has to decide, now that he has traveled six hours.
And maybe that was his problem all along, to decide, to conclude, to justify and set his foot down. This might be what he needs to do all this time after all.
He decided to go in the temple, make the first left, and use the toilet. He then thanks the usher in the lobby and heads home with a good sigh of relief. Therapy and reflection did come to him after all, had he known all about the temple near his house, this might have been a different story altogether. But you know what, like life, he did get the intended lesson, and this might have been the story best to suit his needs at the time.
April 11, 2010
I am back to blogging
Expect more articles put up here soon
November 7, 2008
May 22, 2008
February 1, 2008
For the Love of Light
Mark Sebastian has that blank gaze in his eyes. This gaze he has is as if he is on a hypnotic trance on something interesting, and that there is a sudden detachment from his external senses. He is breathing, but he isn't moving, just on that blank gaze to the front. This gaze makes him look comatose, or more obsessed to that item he is staring at, but definitely not with diarrhea, as people with diarrhea cannot stay still, hoping that by not staying still they will not have to go immediately. This is something so interesting and hypnotic he cannot help it but ignore the use of any external sense.
This hypnotic trance that happens to us due to a fixation over something we find utterly interesting has given everyone an embarrassing story. These stories can be humorous, and downright stupid, which makes it humorous in the first place. The most common trance would be a person's fixation over someone he or she is highly attracted to. When someone is highly attracted or attached to someone or something to the point of getting hypnotized, they would react in a manner that would only result in failure on their side. They lose their senses and rationality. This situation is far worse than finishing a bottle of cheap rum. Mark is intrigued on what many of us might not find so interesting, it is a shadow puppet show being done in a little rural village in Thailand. This is the country where the tone and pronunciation of words sound sweet, to the point where it sounds a little to feminine. Thai men should not be put in certain jails if they want to keep their manliness.
Mark is a tourist, who have seen shadows ever since he was born. He has also played shadow puppets in his house with a flashlight. The best he came up with is a dog with really pointed ears. These are the same animals we can only conjure up with anyway, there was once an Indian puppet master who came up with more things out of shadows using both his hands. Mark cannot do any of that.
And now he is staring and reflecting on how the farther the light throws the shadow to, does the shadow grow exponentially larger than the object. How an object perceived to be large in size, in reality, is something very small.
The discovery of how light can generally cause a confusion in the size of anything or anyone was during the dark ages, where whenever cavemen went back to their cave the cave wall would reflect a larger than life shadow of a small squirrel. The image of a killer squirrel has terrified cavemen every night, until one night, when one brave caveman decided to go after the squirrel, who, in reality, did not want to go out, but was pushed out of the cave, for farting a very nasty smell. It was this time that the caveman found the squirrel, bashed its little head, and came back to the cave a hero. The reality of the killer squirrel was discovered the instant everyone decided to go out of the cave and look at the dead killer squirrel, and realize it was no larger than the regular morning squirrel. The heroic caveman had to spend the night outside.
And there is was, in front of him, the memories of childhood, the story teller who he cannot understand, and the puppet show, mesmerized by a flood of thoughts and yet calm and peace.
Would it ever be possible to be flooded with thoughts and yet be quiet and tranquil at the same time? Mark is so overwhelmed his system shut out the external sense, and only kept the gave, and the reflection, on how what we always see might be totally different behind the curtain, on how we mostly live on illusions and belief, when the reality behind something so complex can be so simple. This and the idea that you can have several characters played by one person, this little multi-tasking that makes us believe there are different people out there when there is only one person behind everyone. This froze Mark.
Also, at this point, Mark is supposed to embarrass himself. This is what we are all waiting to happen to him because of that blank stare. Unless you forgot the whole point of the story, and got fixated with what Mark was thinking as well.
Mark accidentally stroke a transvestite's breast as he moved his arm, to which the transvestite found delight, and to which made Mark apologize and subconsciously feel disgusted. After all, Mark, like all straight men, are not entirely comfortable with transvestites, and will have to accept that it will take time for everyone to readily accept them.
The shadow story would not be relevant, as no one really paid attention to it, but it did carry an amazing storyline, and value, if only we decided to focus on that rather than getting distracted with Mark.
This hypnotic trance that happens to us due to a fixation over something we find utterly interesting has given everyone an embarrassing story. These stories can be humorous, and downright stupid, which makes it humorous in the first place. The most common trance would be a person's fixation over someone he or she is highly attracted to. When someone is highly attracted or attached to someone or something to the point of getting hypnotized, they would react in a manner that would only result in failure on their side. They lose their senses and rationality. This situation is far worse than finishing a bottle of cheap rum. Mark is intrigued on what many of us might not find so interesting, it is a shadow puppet show being done in a little rural village in Thailand. This is the country where the tone and pronunciation of words sound sweet, to the point where it sounds a little to feminine. Thai men should not be put in certain jails if they want to keep their manliness.
Mark is a tourist, who have seen shadows ever since he was born. He has also played shadow puppets in his house with a flashlight. The best he came up with is a dog with really pointed ears. These are the same animals we can only conjure up with anyway, there was once an Indian puppet master who came up with more things out of shadows using both his hands. Mark cannot do any of that.
And now he is staring and reflecting on how the farther the light throws the shadow to, does the shadow grow exponentially larger than the object. How an object perceived to be large in size, in reality, is something very small.
The discovery of how light can generally cause a confusion in the size of anything or anyone was during the dark ages, where whenever cavemen went back to their cave the cave wall would reflect a larger than life shadow of a small squirrel. The image of a killer squirrel has terrified cavemen every night, until one night, when one brave caveman decided to go after the squirrel, who, in reality, did not want to go out, but was pushed out of the cave, for farting a very nasty smell. It was this time that the caveman found the squirrel, bashed its little head, and came back to the cave a hero. The reality of the killer squirrel was discovered the instant everyone decided to go out of the cave and look at the dead killer squirrel, and realize it was no larger than the regular morning squirrel. The heroic caveman had to spend the night outside.
And there is was, in front of him, the memories of childhood, the story teller who he cannot understand, and the puppet show, mesmerized by a flood of thoughts and yet calm and peace.
Would it ever be possible to be flooded with thoughts and yet be quiet and tranquil at the same time? Mark is so overwhelmed his system shut out the external sense, and only kept the gave, and the reflection, on how what we always see might be totally different behind the curtain, on how we mostly live on illusions and belief, when the reality behind something so complex can be so simple. This and the idea that you can have several characters played by one person, this little multi-tasking that makes us believe there are different people out there when there is only one person behind everyone. This froze Mark.
Also, at this point, Mark is supposed to embarrass himself. This is what we are all waiting to happen to him because of that blank stare. Unless you forgot the whole point of the story, and got fixated with what Mark was thinking as well.
Mark accidentally stroke a transvestite's breast as he moved his arm, to which the transvestite found delight, and to which made Mark apologize and subconsciously feel disgusted. After all, Mark, like all straight men, are not entirely comfortable with transvestites, and will have to accept that it will take time for everyone to readily accept them.
The shadow story would not be relevant, as no one really paid attention to it, but it did carry an amazing storyline, and value, if only we decided to focus on that rather than getting distracted with Mark.
