Weekend Tales #1

Recommended reads, what I wrote, food porn and other literary shenanigans

Hello there,

I hope you’re feeling way better than me, suffering in the hot, sticky humid weather of Malaysia. South-East Asia is going through a heat wave, and I am fantasising about installing an air-conditioner in my living room.

Never mind that I’m only renting this place, but watching TV in the cold is far more preferable than watching it while soaking in your sweat. Fortunately my home office, where I spend most of my time doing day-job work and writing personal stuff like fiction and newsletters, has an air conditioner.

This is, by the way, the first edition of Weekend Tales, where I’ll be updating you about my life, what I wrote and watched, and recommend good reads I’ve come across. Think of it is a weekly magazine for you to go through while having coffee on a Saturday or a Sunday.

In other news, I’m ready to share the second story in my composite novel, Distant Stars. I’m pretty nervous about it because well, will anyone read it? How do I even promote it?

Perhaps all we can do is just publish and publish consistently until one day you wake up and you have 100 paid subscribers or something.

That’s my hope, anyway, because I have no energy to do marketing stuff. lol.

Photo bomb

Malaysians adore eating. So since I’m Malaysian I’m going to be subjecting you to a lot of food porn. This is a medly of Sarawak Laksa, lamb pie, and scones I had for lunch with a friend. I know this is a weird combo but it totally makes sense to me.

The restaurant: Chef Wan's 1958 restaurant. Wan is probably Malaysia’s biggest celebrity chef. The meal came up to RM150, probably the most I’ve ever paid for lunch, but worth every bite.

Unfortunately, the meal proved too rich and too much for my tummy to handle. My stomach threw a tantrum and I spent the rest of the day and night dispelling two balloons worth of gas.

I wrote

My adventures in healing neuroplastic pain
For weeks, I was tortured by hip and lower back pain. Then I discovered the works of Dr. John Sarno and the science of healing neuroplastic pain. The results I've gotten in a matter of days was astounding. So I thought I should share this with people who are currently battling chronic pain. It may sound like a lot of "woo" but I believe there's a lot of truth in how chronic pain can't always be dealt with pills and surgery.

Good reads

I tend to read really widely, so my link recs are incredibly varied. I hope you enjoy them!

1. Fiction: Crazy Man in the Subway by

   Bill Adler
   We have subways in Malaysia, but they’re bland, unassuming and I certainly don’t fear for my safety like the man in this short story. This story helped me picture how it must be like to catch a subway in the United States, especially in light of what happened to Jordan Neely.

2. Are you rootbound? by Mitch Teemly. I once had a job where everyone there was resigned to being there forever. The prevailing thought was: There’s no point leaving because this is as good as it can get. I left. We are often trapped in patterns that other people have established. We can choose to create our own patterns instead.

3. The WGA Is on Strike — Here’s Why We’ll Win by

   Cole Haddon
   A professional writer friend and I had a conversation about AI and ChatGPT that made me realize how 😡 I was about the situation. It doesn't matter how many times you tell me that writers wont be replaced because it wont stop people from trying to.This article ☝ explains my anger well. AI is the last straw after decades of disrespect and disregard for our well being by the forces of capitalism.

4. Why I left Wattpad for Substack by

   Simon K Jones
   It is a real pity that Wattpad doesn’t help authors reach their readers easily. I like its UI/UX so much. This essay struck fire this month, with
   Hamish McKenzie
   promoting it via Notes.

5. A Few Extracts From My Notebook by

   Tom Cox
   One of my favourite writers ever is on Substack and I’m thrilled. He can write about cats like no other.

I’m reading

Far too many books at the same time. But I’m enjoying The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell because I have a bookseller friend and she sounds exactly like Shaun — crabby yet utterly in love with the notion of books.

I’m watching

Again, too many shows to count, but mostly Korean and Chinese dramas because they seem to scratch my itch for novelty this season.

However, I did watch one Western movie — I’m happy to report that Guardians of the Galaxy 3 managed to escape the curse of the sucky Marvel movie. Good that the trilogy (yeah, sure, Hollywood) ended on a good note.

Two shows I highly recommend you watch:

• Stealer: The Treasure Keeper - cops work with a treasure thief to retrieve stolen national treasures

• Family: The Unbreakable Bond - Mr & Mrs Smith, but grimmer and .. funnier? Yeah, the tonal wackiness of this show gets some getting used to.

Poll