UNCLE BOS MAMA di Portal Ilham

The first few chapters of my new book UNCLE BOS MAMA boleh didapati di Portal Ilham

Click on the book to go to the link!

Jatuh cinta dengan seorang itu mudah. Tetapi bagaimana kalau jatuh head over heels dengan satu keluarga?

Joshua punya perniagaan yang dibanggakan dan kehidupan sosial yang boleh tahan. Tetapi dia sukakan ketenangan dan disebabkan sejarah masa lalu, dia tidak fikir akan menjadi seorang suami dan memiliki keluarga sendiri. Dia sudah menerima hakikat bahawa dia seorang loner yang akan bersendiri seumur hidupnya.

Wanita bujang itu bernama Fish. Hidupnya kacau-bilau. Dia punya anak tanggungan yang ramai. Lelaki yang disukainya dalam diam sepertinya tidak akan membalas cintanya. Dia tidak pasti dia mampu membayar bil bulan ini dan dia bekerja dengan majikan yang datang dari neraka.

“Mungkin ada masanya I rasa nak cekik-cekik dia orang. Tapi they are my responsibility sebab I sayang dia orang. Dia orang tu family.” - FISH

Shaina yang perasan dirinya lawa suka bermain cinta dan bergaduh dengan adik perempuannya. Shairil yang berkerusi roda suka memerhati macam perisik misteri. Shaila si kecil yang lasak seolah-olah kelahiran semula seorang ninja. Campur dengan adik angkat mereka si Faiq yang kuat cembeng tetapi cukup menarik hati, mereka mewarnai hidup Fish dari sehari ke sehari.

Apa yang berlaku apabila ada pertembungan di antara dua dunia ini? Apabila seorang lelaki jatuh cinta pada bukan hanya seorang wanita, tapi seluruh keluarganya?

“Uncle Bos Mama ni, bos mama kita orang.” SHAILA

To order: whatsapp ABANG LONG at www.wasap.my/60192254910

or visit Karangkraf Mall

UNCLE BOS MAMA and why I am updating my blog after so long (it's because I am lazy and I only use it to promote my book, let's be real, people!)

"Tapi sebab aku rasa tak fresh. Dulu bila menulis, aku rasa seronok. Aku seronok share idea, aku seronok do all those "jengjengjeng...TWIST!" kind of thing. Tapi sejak akhir-akhir ni, twist feels stale. The industry itself feels stale to me. It was the same thing. Tulis. Edit. Publish. Jual. Sign buku. Baca review. Somehow amid all that, aku dah lupa keseronokannya." - me, sometime in February 2016

Sooooo... I have a new book.

This is the book.

So you ask... Shai, adakah kau spesis manusia yang cuma update blog bila ada novel baharu? Yes. Yes I am. Because otherwise, I don't know what else to write anymore. I am already in my late 30s. I no longer have that thing where I think my opinion matters to anybody and I don't want to waste time that I can use to writing a book into writing a blog that people would not read anyway.

Except when I have a new novel to promote. Yes, this is the post. This is a promotional post for a new novel that I wrote last year, in less than two months. A book that was written during the time where I just felt like burning everything and everyone. Because as much as I hate admitting it, misery begets comedy.

Does this mean I no longer feel as stale as before? Not really. I really still think that the book industry is in a dire state. A lot of my writer friends decided not to write anymore, some were even like, "Mehhh" when I asked them if they are planning to release a new book.

In truth between this new novel and the said blog entry above, I have actually released two other novels - a novella KAMPUS consists of me and two other writers, as well as "#KATERERCINTA". But the thing about the novella is... it is not really a full-fledge novel, innit? And I wrote Katerer Cinta in 2014, so it was hardly my latest work. Yes, I edited some, but mostly it was the work of me when I was 31. I still have that "Let me tell you what I think" persona at the time. 

At 36 going on 37, I am more mellow. I think I had since change my notion of romance and love and femininity and strength and what it means to be a woman. I was used to the idea that not all romance must end with a happily ever after that comes in the shape of a man. I still do. I still think that happiness is an open road. But I also realised one thing.

The love of a man should not be a destination for a love story, a reward or a conclusion. It should be a road onto itself.

A man is a road. What the hell am I talking about. 

As much as I like being known as that writer who writes about the development of a female character, about a woman growing as a person and finding themselves, I realised that I rarely write a relationship. A healthy one at least. It's always a character finding her way to become a stronger person, and sometimes a man shows up in her life and that's that. You know Pyan and Apis Milo and Roul and Helmi and Neal and Zaniel and FU and Sol and Annas and... (I seriously couldn't remember who Emai ended up with in VALENTINA NERVOSA)... but do you KNOW them? Do you KNOW what they think? What are their aspirations? How do they function as a person and not as a love interest?

That's what I hoped when I wrote Joshua. That's why the original title of this particular book is called JOSHUA DAN KELUARGA FISH. I needed to learn how to write a man (and think like one, rather than think like what a woman might think of how man thinks.... daym, that's a moutful). This is me learning how to write a male protagonist, not a male love interest.

I also have issues whenever I watch a love story and then not feeling the chemistry between the man and the woman. Sometimes the story asks you to accept that these two are in love, but you don't know how. How did it start? When did it start? How does it evolve? What makes this person love this other person, deeply, incandescently? Why does Christian love Ara in Sana'y Wala Nang Wakas? I don't know. I still don't know. Looking at each other and then falling in love after bickering a bit is not enough for me. 

But why does Armando love Betty in Yo Soy Betty La Fea? Because he trusts her. He trusts her mind, her willingness to defend him, her naivety in thinking that he is good and kind even when everybody knows he isn't. Why did she love him? Because he saw in her what other people didn't. Did these feelings came immediately? No. It was nurtured through time, through conversations, yes... also through deceit, but also through the development of emotions and maturity. This is my textbook love story. A good flow. I may not think today that Betty should have given Armando a chance, but I still think it's a good story when it comes to the development of love itself. (this is also how Jaime Lannister and Brienne of Tarth story worked and developed in George RR Martin's "A Storm of Swords"... which I think is also great. Let's not talk about their ending in that blasphemy that is GOT8)

That is the subject that I wanted to delve into through this new book. How feelings developed. Rather than "how a girl becomes a woman and empowered by her situation", I want to ask, "What if this woman is already strong? What if we know she has gone through hardship? What is there for a woman who already knows who she is? And what is there for a man who is still searching for identity?"

Reading GRRM also made me realise one thing. I used to think I could never write children's book because I don't have children and I don't know how they think. But after reading ASOIAF, I realised how great GRRM is as a writer for he was able to write from the point of view of many different characters and none of them sound the same. He wrote Cersei - an antagonistic woman of 31. He wrote Bran - a crippled child of seven. He wrote Sansa, a troubled girl of 11. He wrote Jon, a complex teen of 16. He is none of these people. And yet none of them sound like one another. They didn't sound GRRM. They sounded Cersei, and Bran, and Sansa, and Jon.  

Will this attempt be successful on my part? I don't know. I can only write. 

To preorder, Whatsapp Abang Long at www.wasap.my/60192254910

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