The Ups & Downs Of Book Talks....

 
Hi all,

Sorry for keeping quiet for the past few weeks as I have been busy shuffling between towns to do book talks to promote my book. It has been pretty tiring, I tell you! All those travelling around and not exactly having an excited crowd who came specially to listen to me speak ....now I know how it feels for a budding singer / actor / dancer trying to have his/her BIG break! I feel you, my brother and my sister!!

Boy, if you were there for my first few attempts to do book talks, you would either have laughed your head off or fallen asleep!! Yes, I admit, I was pretty bad!

At one time, during one of my more important book talks at a popular venue down in KL, it took me a few weeks to prep for this important book talk but when the time came for me to take to the stage, I had stage fright and promptly forgot to say what I wanted to say!!

Luckily for me, there weren't many people sitting on the chairs provided BUT the most embarrassing thing was my editor and some staff from my publisher were there to listen to my talk. Yikes! I had the jitters! What was supposed to be an hour session turned out to be a brief 15 minute talk....how embarrassing and I could feel my face going red!!

Ok, ok....it wasn't all that bad because I eventually managed to muster all my courage to start speaking coherently and tried my best to tell my story as best I could through my slide show presentation...but still,  it could have been much better! Oh well, I learn :)

In all fairness, I was ready with my paper in hand to share my stories plus my slide show presentation but when I saw the author presenting before me, he seemed so relaxed and comfortable up on stage and he didn't even have a piece of paper in front of him....so I thought to myself "Hmm, if he can do that, so can I!!"

Big mistake....what a valuable lesson I learnt that day!

Well, I must admit I have been getting better and better at my book talks and even managed to last them as long as 45 minutes AND without reading from a piece of paper! Woohoo!!

To be honest, I seem to have mixed feelings about doing book talks....sometimes, I get very excited doing them, other times, not so but one thing I have learnt, that is....to be confident enough to speak in public and carry on talking even though I might only have one or two listeners in front of me. Sometimes, it can be quite discouraging but still, I have to persevere and carry on.

I tell myself that this is all temporary and it is a learning curve for me and that one day, all this hard work, having to deal with crappy microphones at times and all the travelling done at my own expenses will pay off! I know that one day, there will be people who will come to hear me speak!! 

The best rewards I get for now is when I do get some people coming up to me and telling me how much they have enjoyed my little book talk and that they will do their own exploration as well, be it on a bicycle or by car with their family. The additional plus points are when they asked me to autograph their copy :) Times like these is what keeps me going!

So for now, I guess I will continue to do book talks but only to a chosen few. For my next book talk,  it will be at Kinokuniya KLCC, one of the biggest bookstores here in Malaysia! Keeping my fingers and toes crossed that I will have an enthusiastic audience who will be interested to listen and who are not afraid to ask me questions  about my journey to make it more interesting and interactive!

Do drop by if you happen to be in KL on the 8th Dec, 2012 from 3pm - 4pm (as stated on the above poster, compliments from my publisher)  Now that I have seen what my publisher can do, I will insist on having more promotional posters like this for my future book talks to inform the public, at least one week beforehand.

Hopefully then, I will see a much better crowd for my future book talks.....

So, until my next update,  happy travels!

For the month of October 2012......

The Expat, October 2012

Hi there!

I had the pleasure of meeting up with the editor of The Expat magazine, Chad Merchant in August to discuss about my book. I was thrilled to hear that he agreed to do a write up for me in their October 2012 issue! A really nice and friendly guy who writes flawlessly! Thus, the post Editor !

The Expat magazine is a magazine specially written for all expatriates living in Malaysia, particularly those staying and working in Kuala Lumpur. It provides useful information about Malaysia and interesting topics about our Malaysian culture, sights and sounds

Recently, I browsed through their website and found more exciting information about them! Not only do they distribute to over 5,500 resident expats here for free but they are also on board Malaysia Airlines and Lufthansa, KLIA duty free shops and VIP lounges, luxury KL/Singapore coaches, expat associations, embassies and international schools nationwide, 4 & 5 stars hotel lounges and more than 300 selected restaurants, bars and retail outlets.....Wow. the list sounds impressive and endless! 

Well, having been in the market for the past 16 years, I'd say they are well established :) You can read more about them via the link below 

http://www.theexpatgroup.com/theexpat-read-online.php

And here is the online version of the article under their sister company TheExpatGoMalaysia.com

http://www.expatgomalaysia.com/article/727/book-review-pedalling-around-the-peninsula#.UKee1M6amrY

So nice of Chad to include my overall route map in his write up as well :) Hopefully, it'll grab the attention of the readers to want to know more about the interesting story he has done for me for he has hit it right on the spot! 

Once again, my heartfelt thanks to Chad and his team at The Expat group!

Cheerio!

Let's not forget our Malaysian medias as well :)

A two page spread in The Malay Mail, April 24th, 2012

The Sun, May 9th, 2012

 The Star, July 2nd 2012

And online paper Malaysian Insider on May 12th, 2012,

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/mobile//books/article_book/a-pedal-powered-malaysian-adventure

Also, not forgetting my very FIRST radio interview with BFM Radio. Below is the podcast for my interview.
http://www.bfm.my/assets/files/daily_show/2012-05-14_cycling.mp3

Well, it was pretty nerve racking being live on air for the first time but I'll get better :)

So, a BIG THANK YOU to all the newspapers above and radio station for featuring my story so far since the launch of my book in April 2012 :)

Let's keep the "wheels" rolling !!

Cheers :)

We made it into the Singapore media! Woohoo!!

The New Paper, Sept 2nd, 2012

Hi all,

Yup, it's me again with more happy news!!

I'd like to say a BIG THANK YOU to Danson Cheong from The New Paper in Singapore for featuring my story on Sunday, 2nd September, 2012. I think he did a nice write up for me :)

Hopefully, this exposure will help to promote my books to more Singaporeans to come and explore Malaysia, whether on two wheels or four wheels :)

Happy pedalling!

Cheers :)

My book is "GOING PLACES!" Yay!!

August 2012 issue of Going Places, the inflight magazine for 

Malaysia Airlines on ALL international flights!

Hi all,

About 2 weeks ago, I gave an unexpected lift to an Italian family who was stranded at the popular tourist spot, Teluk Cempedak to Kuantan town. Since it was fasting month and it was about time to break fast, no taxis were willing to come and pick them up, of course! The father hailed me after I finished my run in the evening and despite being all sweaty, I decided to give the trio (father, mother & their 19 year old son) a ride to town for them to catch their bus to Malacca later that night..

While in the car, we got to talking and I found out that they were here in Malaysia for a short holiday before heading back to Italy. They just came from Yangon in Myanmar and spent 2 nights in Cherating (another popular beach spot, further up north of Kuantan).

When they asked me what was I doing, I told them about my book and luckily, I had a copy of my book in my car and showed it to them. When the father saw it, he immediately gave a surprised exclamation!

Why??

Because he saw the cover of my book (twice!) while they were flying from Dubai to Yangon and Yangon to Kuala Lumpur on Malaysia Airlines! Well, well, well......what do you know!

I didn't believe him initially and asked him repeatedly whether it was my book cover that he saw but he was very adamant about it because both his wife and him are cycling enthusiasts too and the photo of my back on my bicycle had already registered back in his mind.

If what he said was true, then my guess would be that he would have read the write up in Going Places magazine, the official inflight magazine for Malaysia Airlines and it is placed in ALL international flights to and from Kuala Lumpur! Hooray!!

He promised to email me the page when he gets back to Italy the following week and that he did! True enough, I saw my book cover and the short write up!

I decided to investigate further and asked a friend who had connections with Going Places and he told me that he will send me a copy of the August 2012 issue. Thanks Kit Choong for this!

It arrived a few days' ago and I managed to scan the pages and made some amendments. Thanks Dickson for helping out :)

It's a pretty amazing feeling to know that the good people of "Going Places" has given me a great start to promote my books to the international market. A million thanks to you all for this wonderful window of opportunity!

Do stay tuned for more exciting things to come!!

Cheers!

THE BIG PICTURE.......

Hi all,

Just the other day, my friend Debbie, gave me a pretty good advice on how to further promote my books. She told me to come up with a bunting design that depicted the big picture of my tour.

Well, after spending a couple of days trying to get the right recipe for this and basing on some feedback from Debbie, my graphic designer and I were finally happy with the end result, Looking at it now, I'm must say I'm pretty pleased it with myself and I am looking forward to seeing the bunting which should be ready within this week!

Will keep you all posted!!

Cheers :)

A new cycling friend from Denmark :)

Hi all, 

Recently, I made a new Danish friend, Claus Andersen, who has put my book to good use! He was at one of the big bookstores, Kinokuniya, KLCC in KL a few weeks back to buy a Malaysian map for his cycling tour around Malaysia but instead, he found my book! He bought my book and promptly forgot about the Malaysian map! However, he did get a map when he was in Penang before the start of his tour. So with the help of my book and the map, I think he has managed to cycle the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia relatively easily and is now doing the east coast :)

Over the last weekend, I was in KL when I received a nice email from him about my book. I found out that he would be coming up to Kuantan in a few days' time too. I was on my way up to Langkawi the next day to settle some matters. Good thing I managed to settle my things within a day and hopped on the one and a half hour ferry ride to Alor Setar and onto another 10 hour bus ride back to Kuantan (where I reached at about 6am the next morning!) Bleary eyed, I needed my beauty sleep before arranging to meet up with him for lunch ;)

A very funny guy indeed and one who has toured about 40 countries already...a really seasoned traveller, I would say! We literally talked the whole afternoon away, mostly listening to his interesting travel stories! I introduced him some of our local savouries during tea time and then we did a short tour around Kuantan on our bicycles after that. 

Since he was looking for a Malaysian cycling jersey, and after making a few calls, I managed to get one for him....the Kuantan Mountain Bike Challenge 2011 jersey! A mountain biking event where I worked with the Pahang Police Contigent last year  It was hard work but glad to say that the event was a success with 640 participants. Phew! During the 4 month period, going in and out of the police HQ, I got nicknamed "Sergeant Sandra!"  Well, I would have preferred they called me "Inspector Sandra" but oh well....

We had to go over to Police HQ the next day for him to get one before he continued on his journey up north.......

Front view 

Back view

Anyway, I would like to say THANK YOU to Claus for writing a really nice review about my book on the Virtual Tourist website. The link is as below. 

http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/p/m/222ac6/

Hopefully, this will attract more cyclists from Denmark to come explore my beautiful country :)

And to Claus, great knowing you and HAPPY PEDALLING!! I'm sure you will have your own talk show one day!

Cheers!

Claus with his bicycle (and my book!) outside the Pahang Police HQ :)