#keepingOPENMINDS Virtual Launch Party
Big congratulations to Susan Kaye Quinn, whose debut novel releases TODAY!
Open Minds is book one of the Mind Jack Trilogy, and with over 40 party hosts celebrating the launch of the book, there is a lot of virtual fun to be had today, including posts about #keepingOPENMINDS, reviews of Open Minds, and guest posts by Susan.
And there will be PRIZES!! (because seriously, what's a party without party favours?)
For Party Hoppers who join in the fun, Susan will be giving away Open Books Encourage Open Minds gear (because opening a book can truly open your mind).
GRAND PRIZE: T-shirt (in the male or female variety)
Not Quite Grand, But Still Cool Prize: Mug
Fashionable and Fun Prize(s): 19 Open Books, Open Minds wrist bands
(the wristbands support TheLiteracySite and contributed to the purchase of books for a school in Rwanda. Yay!)
HOW DO I ENTER TO WIN?
Leave a comment in this blog post.
Hop over to Launch Party HQ for the list of participating blogs. Every comment left on a host blog, or on the HQ post, is an entry!
Tweet (be sure to tag @susankayequinn) or FB (tag @authorSusanKayeQuinn) about the party! Every one of these counts as an entry, too!
Now, more about the book:
Open Minds
Blurb:
When everyone reads minds, a secret is a dangerous thing to keep. lurb:
Sixteen-year-old Kira Moore is a zero, someone who can't read thoughts or be read by others. Zeros are outcasts who can't be trusted, leaving her no chance with Raf, a regular mindreader and the best friend she secretly loves. When she accidentally controls Raf's mind and nearly kills him, Kira tries to hide her frightening new ability from her family and an increasingly suspicious Raf. But lies tangle around her, and she's dragged deep into a hidden world of mindjackers, where having to mind control everyone she loves is just the beginning of the deadly choices before her.
Purchase Links:
E-book: Amazon US | Amazon UK | Smashwords | Barnes & Noble
Print: Amazon US | Createspace
About the Author:
Susan Kaye Quinn grew up in California, where she wrote snippets of stories and passed them to her friends during class. She pursued a bunch of engineering degrees and worked a lot of geeky jobs, including turns at GE Aircraft Engines, NASA, and NCAR. Now that she writes novels, her business card says "Author and Rocket Scientist" and she doesn't have to sneak her notes anymore. All that engineering comes in handy when dreaming up paranormal powers in future worlds or mixing science with fantasy to conjure slightly plausible inventions. Susan writes from the Chicago suburbs with her three boys, two cats, and one husband. Which, it turns out, is exactly as much as she can handle.
Susan will be on tour around the blogosphere to talk about her book and her writing. Here is the full schedule:
Ch 1: Where Ideas Come From: A Mind Reading World
Ch 2: A Study in Voice, or Silencing Your Inner Critic
Ch 3: I'm finished! Oh wait. Maybe not.
Ch 4: Write First, Then Outline – Wait, That's Backwards?
Ch 5: Why My Critique Partners Are Smarter Than Me
Ch 6: Facing Revisions When It Feels Like Being on the Rack
Ch 7: How to Know When to Query
Ch 8: A Writer's Journey – Deciding to Self-Publish Open Minds (Part One)
Ch 9: Owning the Writerly Path – Deciding to Self-Publish Open Minds (Part Two)
Epilogue: Finding Time to Write the Sequel
And now, on to my party offering. I chose to write a blog post on the importance of #keepingOPENMINDS:
The Benefits of Keeping an Open Mind
"The mind is like a parachute; it works better when it's open."
– Frank Zappa
(click for picture source)
I grew up in Malaysia, a small South East Asian country that is an ethnic melting pot of different cultures and religions. Malays, Chinese and Indians co-exist in a society where churches, mosques, kuils and Buddhist temples can all be found on the same street. And let's not forget the rich variety of indigenous tribes living in relative isolation in our jungles and mountains: the Ibans, Dayaks, Kadazans, Dusuns and many more. In fact, peoples have integrated so much that we now have hybrid cultures, like the Malay-Chinese Peranakan, the Eurasians (European-Asians), and the Portuguese-Malays.
Major religious dates are public holidays: Eid, Chinese New Year, Diwali, Christmas. When I was at school, my circle of best girlfriends (who I keep in touch with till today) include two Malays, an Indian, two mixed-race girls, and a homosexual Chinese boy. You can't get more diverse than that!
Now although what we did together was normal enough for teenage girls everywhere: hang out, have sleepovers, gossip about boys and crushes…we did it with a difference. We dressed up in each other's traditional clothes, incorporated bits of each other's languages into our everyday conversation, and bemoaned lost young love over an array of different foods.
(click for picture source)
The food! My goodness, that demands a blog post all its own! Malaysian cuisine is like nowhere else on Earth, with the amalgamation of Chinese, Malay and Indian foods creating a whole new level of gastronomic fusion cuisine! Satay, laksa, rojak, char kway teow, nasi lemak, ais kacang…the best of all worlds! I'm getting hungry and homesick just thinking about the variety on offer back home!
I count myself fortunate that I was able to grow up in such a diverse community. It is an enriching opportunity, to not only learn about a different culture, but to be able to experience it first hand, not as an outsider, but as a friend. Sure, the cultural differences have caused a couple of problems: I gave my Muslim friend ham-flavoured crisps, and fed my vegetarian Hindu friend jelly with beef gelatin in it, but after the initial horror ("Oh my God, you've damned me to Hell!"), we laugh about it today.
And I bet not many people can boast about having attended a Christian, Chinese, Malay and Indian wedding!
Of course, for such different cultures to co-exist, there must be give and take, and therein lies the source of some friction, especially with the more selfish and close-minded individuals of all parties. Whilst outright racism is rare, deep-rooted racial prejudices are not. I have encountered a handful of this in my time in Malaysia, and it upsets me each time how someone can be so narrow-minded as to judge another by the colour of their skin, or by their belief system.
(click for picture source)
Even in London, one of the most culturally and ethnically diverse cities in the world, I see people avoiding people, or confining themselves within a community of their own people, such that after years in the country, many of them still have no grasp of conversational English!
Where is the fun of living in a monochromatic world, of seeing, hearing and experiencing the same thing day in, day out? I understand there could be security in familiarity, but it's like eating cheeseburgers everyday. It's nice, but after a while, you're going to get tired of it.
Me and the hubster on our wedding day (photographed by John Chan @ Yin Photography, Penang, Malaysia)
I am thankful my upbringing exposed me to the richness of various cultures and religions, and I urge everyone to reach out towards a different coloured neighbour. With understanding comes tolerance, and with that, peace, friendship…and perhaps even love.
Black, white, yellow, red, brown…what does it matter? Only by being colour-blind, will you see the full kaleidoscope of the rainbow of diversity.
So till tomorrow, selamat tinggal, zàijiàn, sayonara, au revoir, adios, auf widersehen, namaste, kwaheri…and goodbye! 
Don't forget to check out the other parties for the Open Minds launch HERE!
