"The Empire's Edge" is now for sale!

My book is finally out! And I having an imaginary digital celebration!

 Yay!

The book titled "The Empire's Edge" is out on April 2015.

Grab your dice and chracter sheet and Taste Penang and Malaysia like you have never tasted before!

This is a gamebook and that means that you, the reader, are the main character and get decide how to react to situations. Will you talk your way out of trouble, or will you smash your way out of trouble? You decide!

"The Empire's Edge" is a historical gamebook that captures life in the Edge of the British Empire; more specifically, Penang under the British East India Company. Step into the the time portal and emerge into a time of British naval dominance, sail boats, prejudice, coolies, kapitans, secret societies, and perhaps opium. I guarantee, this book is so special that you ahve never seen before!

Go get yours today at Google Play (preview available free) at an amazing launching promotion of RM5.00 only! (offer lasts until 11 June 2015) or you can get it at Pegasus Yield.

As always, comments and critiques are mist welcome; it helps to shape my plans for "The Empire's Edge 2"

Penang World Music Festival 2015

Just yesterday I attended the Penang World Music Festival held in Esplanade. It was raining at that time and all the crowd (which numbered 100) hid under the tent's shelter. Although some were crazy enough to dance under the rain with umbrellas. But fortunately by mid-show, the rain stopped and that means I gets to boogey close to the stage.

The festival was 6 hours long and was packed with performances with a good mix of contemporary, urban, fusion style, and......... pffffffft, okay I don't know what all those words mean because my artistic vocabulary is very limited, so I will describe the performers in one sentence to the best of my abilities:

1) Nanding Rhapsody (Sarawak, Malaysia)

"Iban Akademi Fantasia"

2) Tarabband (Sweden/Egypt)

"I'm in Sweden but I missed the spices and camels"

3) Ajinai (Inner Mongolia, China)

"Heavy Metal horsemen that are tired but had a shot of cocaine in the end"

4) Prem Joshua & Band (India.... well one of the band members is Indian)

"Curry-flavored-marijuana"

5) Annuluk (Germany)

"Yodeling Jazz"

6) Dizu Plaatjies & Ibuyambo (South Africa)

"How I imagine African music to be like after watching The Lion King"

I had a real blast that night. The only thing that saddens me the low attendance. All these musicians are really fantastic! And to be able to listen to 6 bands for RM80 is pretty cool! I really hope this event gets another green light for next year because I'm going again for sure!

So, please click on the links and check out their music while I go download some of that sweet sweet marijuana curry.

Short-Story Archives: The Stain (Part 2)

    The sun has set into the island's hills in the east side of George Town which brings in chilling breezes from the port that cool the sweat on my back. "See, I suffer much, just because, of your laziness, you owe me, a favor Ah Seng," Ah Fook tells me with that smirk, a smirk so classic that even with a bag full of grain on my back I can still see it. "I could have, gone home, played mahjong, and have my, dinner early. See how, self-sacrificing, am I?" he continues, panting while carrying another bag of grain on his back 
    "So all that talk of being brothers has come to this huh? Did you remember that time you borrowed money from that kelinga man?" I ask him back and he replies with a grunt. "You forgot to pay the him even when he specifically told you that a 'Goddess of Destruction' will come for you if you fail to pay back, then you laughed and said an Indian goddess has no interest in a Chinaman. You remember what happened next?"
    Ah Seng sighs, "A dog bit my leg, yes, yes," he replies dismissively.
    "It delivered her poison, you were so sick you could not move. Now I, have to personally go to the kelinga to apologise and pay back with my own money. Then, I also slashed my back with a knife in front of him to satisfy her need for vengeance."
    "That is, not my fault, you are stupid, to fall for, a kelinga's, dirty pranks," Ah Fook replies while shooing a little boy who has been pestering him a while, trying to sell him some oranges.
    "So you are the master of all things Indian gods now? I told you not to play with these sort of things," I nag him, but as usual he dismisses it saying I am paranoid, too superstitious, too easily tricked. It is his pride talking. "After all that, your legs got better right?"
    "Yes, yes, yes, you are right brother, I can never repay you," he finally relents as we both put the bags of grain on the warehouse's door. The boss nods and gives a few coins to each of us before going back and closing the warehouse. We were lucky this time, usually the boss will starve us for the day. But his recent engagement to a girl of a wealthy Hokkien family may have lightened his mood.
    We wipe the sweat off our foreheads and count our daily pay. "Do you want to make a little more money?" Ah Seng continues with a wide grin and a blinking eye. Ah, his schemes again. I nod to satisfy my amusement. "There is another Hokkien boss who looking for laborers to carry cargo at night. You want? Pay is good."
     I feel bad to disappoint his enthusiasm. The night is setting in and I just want to go back to the dormitory and rest for another day of work. "Work until bones break for what? Enough to eat, enough to drink, what more do you want?"
    I did not mean what I said, I though it might make him accept the decline better. However, his face was aghast. "You mix with these kelinga and malai too much and now you sound like them!" he mocks me jokingly while patting my back in a friendly manner. "Live just to have enough to survive, what life is that?"
    "What do you want to do with so much money?"
    "Open business, find a wife, be rich, have children."
    "But there are so little women here, why would they marry a poor labourer like you?"
    "Then, open business, be rich, find beautiful wife, have children," he answers while laughing loudly. I admire his ambition, my wish is to earn enough so I can sail back to China and live out my old days in the village. Being unsure, I shrug. "Haiya, come, I only do this because this brother is trying to taking care of you. This is opportunity. You are stronger so you will get better pay. See, with my brains and your brawns, we can take on anything."
    Ah Fook does have a point, he is after a Hokkien clansman, a work-mate, a close friend; It is only proper I agree.

Short-Story Archives: The Stain (Part 1)

This is a little short story I have written to paint you guys a picture of life in the colonial Southeast Asia. The story will be divided into multiple parts. Here is part 1:


"Ah Seng, Ah Seng, eat dinner!" a familiar voice calls to me. I await squatted outside the family hut that belonged my father's father. My father squatted next to me nonchalantly as usual. Some few yards away, I keep vigil watch over my grandfather who laid on a mat inside a small hut of thin wooden planks made just for him. He stopped walking ever since his leg swelled with pus. We had no money for any sort of doctors and he insists that his time has come and was unwilling for the family to spend another coin more on him. Thus he remained doomed to that little prison, slowly waiting for the afterlife.

"Ah Seng, Ah Seng? When are you getting a wife?" My mother asks in Hokkien while serving rice with steamed vegetables. I remain silent. "Ah Seng, Ah Seng, if you don't have wife, how do you have children? How do you pass on the family name? You must think of the family first," She continues. My father seems oblivious to mother's nagging and the world as he chomps on his food. The smell from his clothes tells me he has been smoking that vile opium again who had poisoned his body and mind rendering him unable to work. Poor mother, I thought as I scowl at him.

"Ah Seng, Ah Seng, take this bowl of rice and give it to grandfather, if he is going to die better a full ghost than a hungry ghost." I nod. I have been put in charge of delivering food and water to my grandfather but I dread at that duty; the hut is fouled with the stench of his rotting legs which had by now grown into a grotesque mixture of red blood, white bone, yellow pus, and black dead skin. He would smile gently at me each time I come, but I could not bare to return the gesture. After I am done with my solemn duty, I would quickly rush home to wash my hands off the disease, the misfortune, and perhaps the guilt of failing to be a filial grandson.
__________________________________________________________________________________

"Ah Seng, Ah Seng!" the voice in Hokkien pulled me out from the clutches of the dream demons right before cold water splashes on my face. I jerk up from my gunny sack bed in response. "Woi, Ah Seng, time to toil! Boss said he will make you starve if you dare to be late again."

I immediately scan the coolie dormitory with my eyes which are in full attention and in shock; the dormitory is empty save for me and Ah Fook. "Die!" I exclaim and quickly rush out of the dormitory with Ah Fook. "Thank you for waking me, but you will also be late." I asked him while we rush towards the jetty.

"That is what brothers do!" he replies with a smile. He is the closest thing I have to a family ever since I sailed to Penang. This place is foreign and the work is heavy but unlike back in Fukkien, I will not starve working hard here; that is of course if the boss will not have my head this time. Despite it all, Ah Fook made all this bearable. We had countless adventures and managed to bail each other out even at the worst of times. Perhaps meeting Ah Fook is my fortune in life which coincidentally is what his name means in Hokkien.

My Writer's Bible!

For your info, I am not a Christian. But I guess developing countries could use a little consumerism and well, everyone loves presents.Christmas is over, and my lovely girlfriend gave me an awesome gift, it's the book "How Not To Write a Novel".

According to the internet, that book is recommended as a must-read for all aspiring writers. I tried to look for it in the local bookstores but sadly, they had none. So, my girl went to Amazon and got one copy shipped from the US. According to her, the look on my face when I unwrapped my gift was priceless.

Can you feel the light emanating from it?

After reading a few pages, I had to agree with internet that this is some very good stuff! It contains many common mistakes novel writers make and with it, an example so you can experience the pain of reading it firsthand. For example, to illustrate using bombastic words sometimes stall a reader's immersion into your story:

"This is silly," she scoffed glibly at her.

Another plus point is that this book was written in a humorous tone that saves me from the dread of reading a boring textbook. That also means that even if you are not planning to write a novel, you will still have fun reading it. One notable example is concerning the mistake of letting a character escape from a challenge by a seemingly convenient out-of-the blue solution; the book describes that as a deus ex machina which is French for 'Are you f*king kidding me?'

 Hey, this one actually has a deus! (Note: The actual book does not have illustrations.)

To fully utilise this book, I'd say you should first be able to write understandable English, then this book can help you write exceptional stories. I will recommend this to anyone who wants a publishing deal or simply a good laugh. Needless to say, I love this book and will probably refer to it very often when I start penning (or rather keyboarding) things.

Fixi Novo. This publisher has its own manifesto!

When I go to the bookstores, I sometimes scroll through books by Malaysian writers. One publisher's books however caught my attention. After reading a first few pages, I had a feeling that I am going to like that publisher's books. Check out the Malaysian publishing company Fixi Novo's manifesto!

 

I LOLed after reading this. So, I bought one of their books. "Love in Penang" sounded fantastic because, as you should already know by now, I love Penang. This book turned out to be a collection of short stories by various writers; for RM20 only, its a real good bargain. 

Full review forthcoming!

Windhammer 2014 Review: Archipelago of Omens

Last year, I submitted an entry that had a problem of rules being too complicated. This year, as if by providence, an entry appears to show me how a gamebook with complex rules system would look like if done properly.  Archipelago of Omens is an entry where the rules don't complement the reading experience because they are the reading experience. 

The story revolves around a two deity lovers who were separated and only by uniting them can the world be saved. You get to play as characters in 3 different time periods to accomplish that mission. The story was plain and simple. Playing different characters just gives you different rules to toy with. I was hoping that somehow finishing a story with a character in an earlier time period will change the story for the other characters if I replayed.

The rules was where the game truly won me over. However, having to swallow 5 pages of rules and 3 pages of appendix was very off-putting at first. But once I start playing, slowly with plenty of page flipping, I managed to get the hang of the rules and boy it was fun! Very quickly, I forgot what the story was about and obsessed over every new item, weapon, and armor I got. However, I can foresee that this will not suit everyone's taste. I only find it enjoyable because I am a fan of tabletop RPGs and this type of game was just my cup of tea.

Complex rules eh? My munchkin senses are tingling

Despite the rules being its strongest selling point. It had a few minor weaknesses. The armor system was kinda confusing, the crafting rules did not clarify what counts as safe location, and the random encounter table sometimes coughed out enemies that were not in the same time period as my character.

Overall, this was a fun game but it will only be so for people who like pen and paper RPGs. In my opinion, complex rules works best when combined with an open world. So perhaps with less railroading and a nice map, this game will be solid. However, to make this game fun for the general public, the author must answer this question: "If I liked games like this, why am I not clicking away on Diablo 3 or World of Warcraft instead?"