How does a book get on Amazon?

Aneeta and her writer-friends have published a collection of short stories called Snapshots. She lamented that the book couldn’t get on to Amazon for the following reasons.

I want to share this information with her and other writers who are interested to know how this can be done. This is what I found out from the publisher of Life’s Like That.

Want to appear in a magazine?

Here’s your chance for 15-minutes of fame.  If you own a sizeable collection of coffee-table books and don’t mind showing off your collection and a mugshot of yourself, head over to Eternal Wanderer’s blog.  Details there.  Hurry, deadline is this Saturday.

Buy my books, pleaaasssee….

If you turn to page 18 of today’s Star Two, you will see an article entitled Novel Approach. I’ve retitled it as Buy my books, pleaaasssee…. but it originally appeared here as Pulp Friction, or hey, buy my book!

I chuckled at how the writer, Jeff Pearlman, became a book prostitute to sell this book.

How to be happier

Monday morning. Need something chirpy to perk you up? I got this in the email from my bro-in-law. It is something good to be shared. If you know who's the writer, please let me know and I will credit him/her accordingly.

Happiness is a state of mind.Sadly, all of us attempt to define  triumphs/accomplishments that will make us happy.

Winner Announcement

There was a whopping 241 titles to the Suggest a Book Title contest. I've chosen the winning title with my editor's blessings and I'm so excited I can't wait until next week for the announcement. So I'm going to do it now.

Another new look

Got a case of itchy fingers again. I've renovated the blog and now it's got a new look. The pix on the header is the sunrise viewed from my father's grave. After I cropped the pix and saved the changes, I was surprised to see that the sun is at the exact position where the apostrophe in Life's is. My first thought was to recrop the pix but on second thought, decided that the sun makes a superb apostrophe. Well, Life's Like That, isn't it?

Report Card Day

Last Thursday was No. 3's report card day. After lunch, I dragged along no. 1 and 2 to the school, which was a good thing. My second cousin's parents (my second cousin is the same age as no. 3 and her parents are about my age) couldn't make it and asked me to collect their daughter's report card for them.

When we reached the school, we split up. I queued up at cousin's class, no. 2 at her brother's class and no. 1 was the runner between both classes to update on how fast the queue was moving in each direction.

Being special

In Light Manner

My nephew, Tze Ern, is a seven-year old with a learning disability. Recently he got into trouble at the school he attends. He poked a pencil at his school mate’s hand. The boy’s parents demanded compensation from my sister, Ann, who willingly paid for the boy’s medical fees.

Suggest a book title

HELP NEEDED: Suggest a book title and win an autographed copy and a mention in the book.

What’s it all about? Regular blog readers here would know that I’m working on my next book which is a sequel to Life’s Like That – Scenes from Malaysian Life. The manuscript is at the publisher’s and work is in progress to have it released early next year.

I need a catchy title that will help it whiz off the bookshelves but I’m a bit short on ideas now. That’s where you come in. Suggest a title for my book. It can be wacky. It can be a metaphor with a twist. It can be short. It can be long, but not too long. It can be something that zaps into your mind or one that reveals itself after some thoughts. There are only two no-nos: it musn’t be crude and it shouldn’t have any reference to food (eg. Malaysian Morsels.)

Obviously you need to know something about this new book in order to suggest an appropriate title. If you’ve read Life’s Like That or Lee Su Kim’s Malaysian Flavours, you’ll have a pretty good idea what the sequel is like. If you haven’t, that’s okay. Just read on. The book is anecdotal in nature and the writing style light and tongue-in-cheek. It’s about being Malaysian.

My editor has tentatively given it a working title of No Laughing Matter. It has 50+ chapters divided into 12 categories. Here are some topics that are covered in the book :

Display of public affection, rubber time, getting Malaysians to read, our last-minute habit, KPCs, snatch-thefts, spitting culture, penchant for creating records, homework dilemma, kitchen tales, how we treat our cars, transportation woes, playing badminton, cheering sportsmen, Malaysians’ generosity, going to the movies, slimming craze, food glorious food etc.

Even if your title is not chosen, you still stand a chance to win an autographed copy of the book as I will do a random draw for everyone who has put in a suggestion here.

New closing date for submission of titles : Friday, 23 June 2006.

NB : Those of you whom I've not approached personally to put up a link on your blog, could you please do me a favour by doing so? I only dared to ask those whom I know are regular readers here. Takut kena tembak if I go begging on every Tom, Dick and Harry's blog. Thank you.

Leftovers

This is what we had for dinner the past two days.

Sunday night : KFC and pasta pie made with leftover pasta. The spaghetti sauce which I made for No. 4's birthday party is depleted but there was still plenty of leftover pasta. So I put the pasta in a casserole dish with a layer of shredded KFC in between (tuna would've been better but I'd run out of canned tuna), beat some eggs and poured it into the dish, topped it with mozarella cheese and popped it into the oven.

From Awkward Thanksgiver

Lil Notes to God

Dear Lord

I find it awkward to say grace before a meal, especially in public. Are there others who feel like I do? Imagine a crowded food court: people jostling, hawkers shouting, voices buzzing, and I have to close my eyes to give thanks for my food. I imagine there’ll be dozens of eyes focused on me. I don’t like closing my eyes when everyone else has theirs open, barring long commutes on buses and trains. (How else would I catch forty winks?)

Money grows on trees

My grasscutter thinks that money grows on trees. There is a clump of dense "jungle" that have grown in my garden no thanks to the two potted bougainvillaes that have taken up root in the ground and flourished so well that they've spread their branches up the two Xmas trees in between. I asked him to clear the mini jungle. He refused. He said his cutter is not built for the job.