Archive for the 'YM's books and writings' Category

“Yang-May Ooi has has a rare descriptive talent that brings the surroundings of her story… to vivid life” - New Straits Times, Malaysia

“Extremely readable and very entertaining legal thriller” - Marie-Claire, Malaysia

“Yang-May relays with vivid detail and sensitivity the impossible position of Asians who, to get ahead, must embrace a foreign culture whose interest in the East is based on greed and self-interest… a fast-paced, interesting read” - IS Magazine, Singapore

“… a polished thriller with a convincing portrait of a female protagonist” - Tatler, UK

“A highly-charged, highly-readable thriller. It’s also a fine portrait of a young Asian woman struggling to establish her identity in Western society… The Flame Tree is a gripping, intelligent debut from a writer with a future” - Sybil, UK

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Fusion View in the Press

The Star, one of the national newspapers in Malaysia, profiled Fusion View in their Bookshelf Section - click here for the full article.

Mslexia, the quarterly journal for women writers, has featured my podcast interview with Lucy Luck, the UK Literary Agent - see Mslexia Oct06.pdf. (You will need Adobe Acrobat to view the pdf file. Click “Back” on your toolbar to return to this page.)

Fusion View in New Media

“an incredibly rich and inspirational literary site that has gained recognition from fellow artists, writers and the literary web community in general” - 9rules Network

“A truly cross-cultural blog on writing and a whole lot more” - Imagined Community (http://imagined-community.com/blog/?p=29)

“Yang-May Ooi’s excellent East-West writing blog. Well worth a visit.” - Will Buckingham

My podcast on my “Two Voices” has also been picked up by a blogger in Perth, Australia who shares his experiences of speaking Australian English versus Malaysian English - see Ruminations

“If you are a Malaysian living overseas, you might feel at home at this site.” - Internet Newbie: the journey

Jon Yang, the author of The Rough Guide to Blogging has picked up on Fusion View on his own blog via The Star’s article about how I’ve been blogging to help my writing - see The Rough Guide to Blogging: The Blog

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I will be posting to Fusion View once a week for the next little while, usually on a Wednesday. I am focusing my writing energies on my latest book project, New Trends in International Public Relations, during this time. I am working on the social media aspects while my co-author Silvia Cambie is writing the main sections on international PR. You can check out my online wiki for the book project where I’ve been collating my research. I’ll also be writing about my research and reporting on progress on the book on my communications and social media blog, ZenGuide.co.uk - and also here on Fusion View.

Wishing everyone a great New Year’s Eve and a successful 2008!

This is a cross-post from my social media blog ZenGuide

I set up my International Public Relations bookproject wiki a few weeks back but I’ve been hesitating about announcing it on my blogs. I finally blogged about it a few days ago and invited comments and input - and I hope very much that you will help me with my research by getting involved in this project. But the reason I hesitated is that having set up the wiki online, I found that I have a strong streak of “command and control” in my character.

I wrote my two novels all by myself and did not show them to anyone until I had finished typing “The End” on the last page. I did invite input from experts on some of the background information that I needed to create a real world for my characters to inhabit and I did occasionally discuss motivation and plot points with my writer friends. But I kept the bulk of the story and text to myself during the 18 months or so that each book took to write. And I felt very much in control as the author and creator.

So while the “social media”, open and transparent part of me is all for having a go with writing a book via a wiki online, the old-fashioned author in me has been feeling somewhat uncomfortable about this new way of doing things. Will people nick my ideas/ thesis? Will people give me unsupportive criticism? Will I feel pushed and pulled by others’ input? Will I no longer feel like the author of the work?

My worries took me by surprise as I had always considered myself an open and trusting sort of person. (Though perhaps my years of training as a lawyer has overlayed that with an armoury of suspicion…?) Friends and colleagues gave me differing views. Some advised, no way should I put it up online as people might steal my work. Others were more of the attitude: well, try it and see. The advantage is that I can invite the help of others who may have more expertise of a particular issue than I have and I always liked the saying, “two (or more) heads are better than one”. And since I may be approaching experts with whom I have no personal connection, I can refer them to the work online for them to get a sense of what the book is about and whether they feel comfortable contributing to it. Also, as I would like to include a strong cross-cultural focus, having an online presence accessible from all over the world can only be a good thing.

A number of much more well-known authors than me have shared their books online while they’ve been work in progress. Chris Anderson blogged his book The Long Tail and developed it with readers’ input. Marc Wright over at simply-communicate.com is also using a wiki for his book Handbook for Internal Communication, due for publication in March 2008. So I reckon, if it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for me.

So far, I’ve put out a few feelers to a number of experts and I hope to have spoken to an Italian writer this week and also a Korean social media / tech CEO based in Japan.

Do go and check out the bookproject wiki - and let me know if you have any thoughts on any of the issues I’m researching. Drop me an email via the Contact form above or add a comment.

Photo: thanks to smackfu from flickr.com (CCL)

The article I was researching and writing earlier this year about blogging in Malaysia has now been published in Communication World, the journal of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC). It is featured in a special Asia-Pacific supplement under the title “Blogging Thrives in Malaysia.” The article examines the tension between political bloggers and the authorities as well as highlighting the success of non-political personal and business blogs in the country.

It has come together with the help of various journalists and bloggers who generously shared their views and experiences - thanks, guys! Much of the information they have given with me will also be useful for the book that I am working on about New Trends in International Public Relations.

Please feel free download the pdf of the article Blogging Thrives in Malaysia. By all means forward it to anyone who may be interested, with a link back to this post.

You can also download the article plus other articles I’ve written about social media from the box below.

As I munched on my lunch the other day, I scrolled through my blog aggregator and found myself reading a couple of eery and spooky blog posts that just seemed to pop up randomly in an eery and spooky way.

The first was a post from my associate Silvia Cambie, writing about an afternoon by the lake a long time ago. It reads like a Stephen King or like one of those creepy movies like “What Lies Beneath”. Here’s an extract:

“I could feel its skeletal fingers between mine…Its glacial breath down my neck.

A surreal fog was rising between me and my friend, like thick incense smoke in a dark, forsaken temple.

I don’t remember how I left the house. “

Eeeeek!

The next post that popped up on my screen was from the blog of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, telling ghost stories set in the haunted libraries of the US. Here is the entry for a library in Arkansas:

“Benton, Saline County Library. The library’s home from 1967 to 2003 was a converted theater building that frequently featured phenomena that made librarians suspect a ghost was afoot: phantom footsteps, paperback carousels rotating by themselves, books falling from the shelves, a self-operating photocopier, and a slamming book-return door. Once, late at night, Director Julie Hart heard the distinctive sound of a manual typewriter—but the library had long ago discarded theirs.”

The hairs are standing up on the back of my neck!

I love a good ghost story bu I’m completely hopeless when it comes to hearing strange noises in the night - I’m no plucky heroine, going off to investigate and instead, preferring to cower in my bed after I’ve turned all the lights ablaze and turned up the radio full blast.

Picture: thanks to gaileymcguire on flickr.com

I’ve just started work on my new book project New Trends in International Public Relations. As you can guess from the title, it’s not a thriller or a novel. It’s a non-fiction book aimed at business communicators, PR practitioners and marketeers.

This is my first non-fiction book and it’s an exciting challenge - but also a little daunting.

As with my two novels, my co-author Silvia Cambie and I started with putting together an outline. We then sent this to our commissioning publisher Kogan Page for them to approve it before we started any other work. Now that they’ve given us the go-ahead, stage two is the research.

I also started the writing process for my novels with research.

For The Flame Tree, I learnt all about geology and construction to make the central development project in the story - and the ultimate disaster at the heart of the book - as believable as possible. For Mindgame, I researched mind manipulation techniques and Creutzfeld-Jakob disease (the brain disease that is generally known as “mad cow”).

But the great thing about fiction is that you can take the key elements of your research and blend it with your imagination to re-create hard facts and reality into the fictional world that you’re imagining. You can bend the scientific facts so long as the outcome is within the realms of possibility. You can also use verbal sleight-of-hand - for example, in The Flame Tree I needed the hero Luke to discover a fatal flaw in the construction project that would mean that it is unstable and likely to collapse. In a short paragraph, Luke works on the data he has found and through clever calculations, he finds discrepancies and realises that the foundations are too shallow and the blueprints for the building have been falsified. That’s all I need to say - I don’t need to prove to you his calculations.

In a non-fiction book, I have to prove everything. Every statement I make has to be based on some authority and I need to cite the source. Yikes.

So my research process for this new book project is much more meticulous and I am careful to keep a note of the web link, the name and contact details of anyone I have approached for their input, the name and page number of any book I refer to. Interestingly, blogging has really helped me in this process - without thinking about it, when I blog, I always add links to sources where I’ve derived some information or to other websites where you could find further writing on a particular subject. Non-fiction citations are similar, I guess - the main difference is that instead of a link, I would add a footnote.

If you’re interested to see how the book is going, I’ve posted my first bit of research for the book on my communications and social media blog, ZenGuide - it’s part of the introductory chapter and tells you all about the world’s first website.

Related posts

Nicola Stevens on Writing Business Books

Photo: thanks to lancs.ac.uk

This is a cross-post from my social media blog, ZenGuide

I am delighted to report that my associate Silvia Cambie and I have been commissioned by business book publishers Kogan Page to write a book on New Trends in International Public Relations, aimed at business communicators, PR professionals and marketeers.

I will be focusing on the impact of social media on business communications and how PR practitioners can incorporate social media into their communications and marketing strategies. Silvia will be focusing on all the other key issues for practitioners such as corporate social responsibility, crisis communications and current hot topics and trends affecting international public relations.

We both have a strong interest in cross-cultural issues. Silvia is Italian and has lived and worked across Europe, speaking several European languages fluently. As for me, I have links with Malaysia and the Far East as well as being now based in London, UK. In today’s globalised world, PR practitioners are increasingly needing to work from a cross-cultural perspective so Silvia and I will be exploring the relevance and impact of cross-cultural issues for business communicators online and also offline.

I’ll be letting you know more details about the social media and cross-cultural issues I’ll be researching in the next few weeks. Silvia and I will both be blogging about our research and the progress of the book on our respective blogs and we hope very much that you will all be able to help us by adding your comments or sharing your experiences and thoughts with us. I will certainly give credit in the book to anyone whose contribution I use in the book.

My dilemma is whether I should blog about this book primarily on my social media blog ZenGuide, because obviously, it’s all about social media - or, on my cross-cultural blog Fusion View, because obviously, it’s also all about cross-culture. If I blog about the book on both of them, will it get confusing if different people comment on one or other of the blogs? Would it be better to choose one of them and then stick to it? But Fusion View has a great international, cross-cultural community there already and I really would love to hear what everyone has to say there. But my cross-cultural readers may not be so interested in social media as such? But if I blog about the book on ZenGuide only, will I lose the cross-cultural dimension by focusing on my social media readers? You see my dilemma. What do you think?

For those of you waiting for my third novel…. hmmm, it looks like that is going to be delayed while I try my hand at non-fiction with this new book project!

Further information

Silvia’s blog X-Culture is at www.chandacom-xculture.com.

Pic: thanks to health.state.ny.us

bkprj

Following my plea for help the other day about business that blog in Malaysia, I got some helpful suggestions from a range of different sources. In addition to the business blogging landscape in Malaysia, I have added a section on the political blogging landscape there, in particular in the light of the recent government iniatitive to recruit a blogging squad to counter the claims of political bloggers. I’ve now completed my article for Communication World - which is hopefully going to be useful for its international audience of PR professionals, marketeers and business communicators.

I’d like to say thanks to the following people who generously contributed their suggestions, links and views for the article:

Richard for telling me about Wiley Chin at http://www.ximnet.com.my/thelab

Sharon Bakar at Bibliobibuli

Eric Forbes at the Book Addict’s Guide to Good Books

Kenny Sia at KennySia.com

Francis Ho of Kuching Kayak, who blogs at FH2O: Kuching Kayaking

Kevin Anderson, the Blogs Editor at The Guardian, UK who blogs at Strange Attractor

Asohan Aryaduray, the New Media Editor of The Star, Malaysia

Due to space/ word limitations, it’s not been possible to include in the articlea reference to all the suggestions and links that everyone gave me but I’ve squeezed in as much as I could.

I hope to be able to share the article with you on this blog when it is published in Communication World in a little while.

Do you know any Malaysian businesses that blog or use social media? Or are you a business-owner, corporate executive or professional person in Malaysia who blogs as part of your business? I need your advice!

I’m writing an article for Communication World, the journal for the International Association of Business Communicators, (IABC) about business blogging in Malaysia. I have a couple of businesses in mind that I will focus on in the article - businesses based in KL who are actively engaging with bloggers and who have blogs themselves.

But I am keen to discover other Malaysian businesses that blog or use social media to promote their enterprise or to engage with their customers.

If you live in Malaysia or have a connection with Malaysia, can help me flesh out the article with some of your thoughts:

# Are there businesses or professional people (eg lawyers, architects etc) do you know of that are engaging with bloggers eg via their own blogging or by making contact with local bloggers?

# Are there any businesses using other types of social media to connect with their clients and customers eg podcasting, video, social networks?

# Do you have any advice for businesses wishing to engage with Malaysian bloggers?

If you are a blogger and you think that your community of bloggers around your blog could help with these queries or may have any experiences/ ideas they can add, please do blog about this query.

Communication World goes out to around 14,000 professionals in PR, marketing and communications around the world as a glossy magazine and also, some of its articles are available as pdfs online. IABC also has a Malaysian chapter. This will be a good opportunity for Malaysian innovation in the blogosphere to be seen world-wide and a good platform to showcase MPH and local litbloggers. I will give full credit to you - and any of your blogger contacts whose information I use in the article.

The deadline for my finished article is the end of July so I hope you’ll be able to let me have your thoughts as soon as possible eg in the next few days so I have a chance to write them up into the article. (Sorry for the short notice - I only got the commission to write the article a couple of days ago!)

Please add a comment or you can email me via the Email Me link at the top of the far right side bar.

PS. I am going to keep mum about the two businesses that blog that I know of for now as I would like to get fresh ideas from you

Photo: thanks to kleinmatt66 from flickr.com