R.S. Vern's Blog, page 4
August 14, 2012
Middling Industries launches iOS and Android apps
Middling app
Is freedom of speech more important to you compared to freedom from hunger and poverty? Do you feel you have neither progressed nor fallen backwards over the last 5 years? Compared to 5 years ago, do you feel it is becoming more difficult maintaining your lifestyle? If your answers are yes, you are probably one serious middling.
Middlings live among us but essentially feel apart from it all. We often ask ourselves this: “Are we not as happy as those who are much better off in this world?”
Middling Industries launches a free app which allows users to rate just how middling one is. Download this simple and functional app and take part in the middling quiz. Find out if you are one serious middling and share your result with your friends. Get to know more about Haee and the other middlings, watch book trailers and buy books on this app. Available for download for iPad, iPhone and Android users.
Filed under: Middling book launch, News from the Publisher, Where to buy a middling book Tagged: amazon appstore, Android apps, appstore, definition of middlings, galaxy tab, google play, haee the cat app, iOS apps, ipad, iphone, itunes, middling app, middling quiz, quiz
August 12, 2012
A bittersweet book review on “Haee The cat with a crooked tail”
Book review from ilovebooks.com
What does it mean to be “middling”? The Merriam-Webster dictionary describes it as being of “middle, medium, or moderate size, degree, or quality”. In other words, average. In this charming illustrated book for children and adults, local author R.S. Vern explores the middling life through the eyes of Haee, a cat which is pretty ordinary save for its unusually long and crooked tail.
The first installment in a planned trilogy, the story sees Haee leaving his comfy home to explore the world. After losing his way, he is adopted by Tom Stuck and Jane Fruss, a very ordinary sort of couple. Haee gets used to leading a routine life with his new owners, but eventually gets bored and heads for the streets, where he befriends the alley cats, including Whie, a cat with an unnaturally big nose.
Bittersweet and seemingly simple, this story embodies the ambivalence the author feels about an average, middle-class existence – possibly mundane, yes, but reassuring in its certainties and not without its own joys.
So, on one hand, you have Tom and Jane, a middling couple who always “wake up early for work, go for evening jogs and sleep early at night”. They do have secret dreams: Organic food-loving Tom fantasises about moving away from the city, while Jane wishes she could fly away and see the world. However, they continue going about their routine lives, never acting on these inner desires.
On the other hand, there are also moments in the book where the author hints at the possibility that the things which prevent us from making major life changes may actually be much less frightening than we think.
Early in the story, for example, Haee gets lost after he enters a black hole he comes upon after leaving home. “Alone and terribly frightened”, he regrets his earlier curiosity and swears never to “act so foolishly and recklessly again”. At this moment, he is petrified when he sees “a pair of huge claws coming at him” in the darkness, but the claws turn out to be the (skinny) hands of Tom Stuck, who rescues Haee from the black hole.
By making it apparent to the reader that the things which frightened Haee so greatly are actually pretty harmless, Vern slips in an important point: Perhaps it isn’t that scary or difficult to create a life less ordinary.
Haee: The Cat with a Crooked Tail, Wednesday, August 08, 2012
By Lynette Koh, Senior Writer, Mediacorp Pte Ltd www.ilovebooks.com
To buy this book or download a sample preview, please go to http://www.ilovebooks.com/ebooks/home... .
Filed under: Middling book launch, Middling book review Tagged: bittersweet, book review, digital book, ebook, haee the cat with a crooked tail, ilovebooks, mediacorp, review, rs vern
July 10, 2012
Do a book review.
Please feel free to review ebook “Haee The cat with a crooked tail (Haee and the other middlings)” on askDavid.com
Filed under: Middling book review Tagged: book review, epub, ePub 3, kindle, nook
[Scrib.b.b.bles by Haee]. Now available on Wattpad!
Middling Industries launches Scrib.b.b.bles by Haee on Wattpad…. with monthly notes updates!
Haee loves to scribble when he is bored. Although he is just a cat, Haee is remarkably in touch with his inner self-conscious. He spends most of his time alone, daydreaming and sunbathing. That gives him plenty of time to contemplate on life. Haee has a street education with a major in Humanities. His favourite color is white and his favourite book is The Outsider by Albert Camus. Haee spends a lot of time wondering about what happens when he is alone and dying.
Scrib.b.b.bles is a collection of short writings written by Haee. We encourage you to read only when you are alone.
To start reading Scrib.b.b.bles by Haee, simply login to www.wattpad.com or download the Wattpad app on your mobile device.
Locate Scrib.b.b.bles by Haee at http://www.wattpad.com/story/1655450-... or use code 5659737 .
About Wattpad
Wattpad is the world’s largest community for discovering and sharing stories on the web and across every mobile device. It’s a new form of collaborative entertainment that connects readers and writers through storytelling and creative fiction! Wattpad is the only place offering a mobile, social, eReading experience.
Filed under: About Haee, News from the Publisher, Where to buy a middling book Tagged: cat, diary, ebook, entries, epub, epub3, fiction, free reading, haee, journal, middle class, middling, middling industries, monthly, publication, short writings, society, wattpad
July 1, 2012
1st middling ebook [Haee The cat with a crooked tail] makes it to Editor’s Pick!
We are pleased to announce the first middling ebook [Haee The cat with a crooked tail] by R.S. Vern has made it to the Editor’s Pick on Mediacorp ilovebooks ebookstore. Simply download the ilovebooks app and read it on your favourite iOS or Android devices!
Read about Haee’s interview with R.S. Vern under the review section and find out why R.S. Vern wrote this book about her cat. Watch book trailer under videos section.
Are you a middling? Middling Industries welcome all reviews and feedback. Please direct your emails to middling@middlingindustries.com .
Filed under: Middling book launch, Middling book review, News from the Publisher, Where to buy a middling book Tagged: black cat, cat, cat haee, crooked tail, ebook, editor's choice, editor's pick, epub, ePub 3, favourite book, haee, iloveb, ilovebooks, middling cat, multiple reads, r.s.vern, recommend, recommended book, top book of the month, top book of the week, top ebook
June 26, 2012
1st Middling ebook is currently available at these stores!
Middling Industries announces Middling basic ebook: Haee The cat with a crooked tail by R.S. Vern is now available at these stores:
Amazon Kindle
Barnes and Noble Nook
Mediacorp ilovebooks
Remember to share with your friends, post your reviews and ratings!
Filed under: Middling book launch, News from the Publisher, Where to buy a middling book Tagged: buy, cat, download, ebook, family, haee, humour, intriguing, middle grade, middling, middling ebook, young adults
June 18, 2012
An interview with R.S. Vern
An interview with R.S.Vern
1 June 2012
Haee interviews R.S. Vern in a rare sitting at home. This is one of the first few times they communicate. Otherwise, they pretty much ignore each other most of the time.
Minuted by Middling Industries
Haee: Why do you write a book on middlings?
R.S. Vern: I live in a small country where majority of the population is middle class. Many of us work hard in pursuit of a better livelihood, or migrate in search of a dream/ career. Sometimes, we end up feeling bored, confused, alone, unattached and unachieved. But I would like to think this is perfectly all right and a lot of us feel the same way. After all, life is not about having that perfect ending, but having that extraordinary journey.
Haee: What’s your definition of middlings?
R.S. Vern: Middlings live in the city. They have a comfortable standard of living and rely on their own expertise to sustain themselves. They place great emphasis on independence and have great concerns for the environment. Whilst they appear well rounded and established, they often have insecurities locked within.
Haee: When did you start writing this series?
R.S. Vern: I started conceptualising this series in 2008 during one of my trips to Japan. I was sitting at a café on a weekday afternoon and I saw Japanese salary men in their work suits and brief cases, gazing out of the window listlessly, seemingly waiting for time. When it was six o’clock, many of them stood up and left as if it was time to go home. I later realised many of these men were unemployed and simply needed to either pretend they were going to work so that their families wouldn’t judge them as incompetent or follow a routine which they had become so familiar with. I thought that was rather peculiar and yet, so poignant in this society we live in.
Haee: Why do you constantly have rules that your characters are being subjected to?
R.S. Vern: Whilst we are all free to make our own choices, we also need a set of rules to live by. And that is the dilemma most of us face. We hate being caged in by rules and regulations and yet, we feel lost and aimless without them. In new environment, all the more we need a set of rules to discipline our thoughts and make sense of the new. We are always conditioned to adapt at the end of the day.
Haee: Why do you use me as the protagonist in your series?
R.S. Vern: This series is about middling lives and it is something that is quite close to my heart. I feel it is less brutal to see life through the eyes of a cat.
Haee: So are you writing you as me, if you know what I mean?
R.S. Vern: Actually yes, I know what you mean. The answer is yes and no. Yes, because I am somewhat very much like you, independent, restless and free-spirited. No, because I think I am somewhat like Tom and Jane too as I am often bounded by the demands and realities of living in the city I am in.
Haee: In Book 1 “Haee The cat with a crooked tail”, Tom and Jane are portrayed as middling characters that constantly wish they were doing something else. Is there an underlying message behind this?
R.S. Vern: Middlings often ask themselves this question: “Are we not as happy as those who are much better off in this world?” We often find ourselves doing something we may not enjoy best because of the realities and demands of living in the city. But I think most of us have a secret desire to live a life that is less demanding and more frivolous.
Haee: Just for the record, I do not have a long and crooked tail. Why does my character in your book have a long and crooked tail?
R.S. Vern: Middlings are never perfect people. All the characters in this series have physical imperfections about them. You have a long and crooked tail. Tom has claw-like hands. Jane has chronic hives. Whie has a big red nose that almost covers her face. It is fiction after all.
Haee: Thanks for the session. Look forward to Book 2. Chill.
R.S. Vern: Ok. Chill.
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: author's interview, cat, city life, city living, creator, ebook, epub3, haee, ibookstore, interview, kindle, middling, middlingindustries, r.s.vern
June 11, 2012
Notes from Haee at Middling Industries
Notes from Haee share an interesting insight on the life of a solitary, restless and irritable middling. As a cat living in the city, Haee is left alone most of the time in the pad he shares with Tom and Jane (2 working middlings). He spends his day either staring out into the streets below or sitting in front of his favourite 25-inch television box.
He avoids social contact most of the time but at times, when he feels drawn to people, he sneaks out into the feverish, crowded streets below. Occasionally in the night, he trawls the bars, indulges in loud music, cigarettes and alcohol.
These notes provide an insight to an atmosphere of neglect, self-neglect, boredom, and non-existentialism, even sordidness. It is somewhat the modern city we live in.
Subscribe to Haee’s notes in his facebook notes at https://www.facebook.com/Cat.Haee?sk=notes.
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: black cat, cat, ebook, epub, family, gen X, gen Y, haee, ibookstore, kindle, middle class, middling, middlingindustries, MTV generation, multiple reads, nook, notes on facebook, the cat who, the cat with a crooked tail, young adults
May 29, 2012
Official Book Trailer: Haee The cat with a crooked tail
This is the official book trailer for Book 1: Haee The cat with a crooked tail, taken from trilogy series “Haee and the other middlings” by R.S.Vern.
Haee is a middling cat, living in the city. Constantly bored, restless and naturally curious, he ventures into unusual circumstances which take him out of his comfort zones and eventually, he adapts perfectly over time.
Children see this as a quirky graphic book, adventuring the world through the eyes of a cat. Adults see traits of themselves in the middling characters portrayed in this series. Great for a family read.
Available in 2 versions: 1 basic version and 1 animated version with additional content.
Out at major ebookstores in June 2012! Visit middlingindustries.com for more information or follow @catHaee on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: amazon kind, amazon kindle, animated, black cat book, cat, cat books, ebook, enhanced, epub, epub3, face book cat, family read, fiction, graphic novel, ibookstore, illustrated, ilovebooks.com, middle class, middlingindustries, mobi, multiple read, nook, quirky, r.s.vern, Shel Silvertein, the black cat, the cat who, Tim Burton, trailer, world cat, young adults
May 8, 2012
JUNE LAUNCH of a Middling electronic book
Haee The cat with a crooked tail is the first middling book taken from trilogy series “Haee and the other middlings” created by R.S.Vern. This much-anticipated electronic book will be available at major ebookstores this June 2012. It can be downloaded and read on your computer, eReader, tablet or mobile phone, making it extremely portable and instantly available to read.
Available on Amazon Kindle, Barnes and Noble NOOK, Apple iBookstore and ilovebooks.com.
Haee The cat with a crooked tail is formatted in the latest ePub file. It will have 2 versions, basic and animated. A Middling basic ebook has exactly the same story and images as a printed book. However, stories have found fresh ways to come alive with the latest digital technology. Images dance to live, character becomes animated with a voice; additional content are added to bring a new dimension to the characters. Middling animated ebooks do all that to bring readers a new experience to reading.
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: apple, black cat book, cat, cat books, children's book, define middling, ebook, epub, epub3, face book cat, graphic novel, haee, ibook, ibookstore, illustrated, ilovebooks.com, kindle, kobo, middle grade, middling, middling industries, multi, multiple reads, nook, picture, quirky, r.s.vern, Shel Silvertein, skoob, the black cat, the cat who, Tim Burton, world cat, young adults
