Fourth Blogger's Breakfast Club May 26th, KL

Lee Su Kim Photo by Lyrical Lemongrass

My LitSaturday in KL began when Lyrical Lemongrass picked me up from the hotel forecourt and we set off to Bangsar for the Breakfast Club. We sneaked in just as Eric was introducing Lee Su Kim author of Malaysian Flavours (Pelanduk Publications, 1996), whose new book, A Nyonya in Texas: Insights of a Straits Chinese Woman in the Lone Star State (Marshall Cavendish, 2007) is now available at MPH. I also noticed a slim volume on Manglish. She spoke amusingly of her experiences in Texas, and how Americans view Malaysia (where??). The guy who always asks about making money from writing piped up at question time, amid much giggling from the audience, so I asked Su Kim if she'd met any cowboys while she was in Texas, to change the subject. Surprisingly, she said No! (and there's a whole chapter on this in her book) There were no cowboys to be met in Texas and she had to pay money to go to the Rodeo to catch sight of any. How disappointing! I just adore cowboys, you'd think there'd be a few wandering around in Texas. She was very funny and a confident speaker.

David Byck Photo by Lyrical Lemongrass

David Byck, author of It’s a Long Way to the Floor (Johnathan Styles, 2006) says it is not an autobiography, it's about the process of change. He looks very fit, so the man walks his talk! On his website he says his book is "a true story of how yoga changed the life of a hot dog-eating, sports-loving, weight-lifting, Mr. Corporate America from the inside out." I wish I could have seen a little bit of the man before (he does describe himself on his official website ) - but David seems like a very relaxed and happy kind of guy. You can see how his gentle, self-deprecating humour would carry the tone of his book.

He spoke with a lot of honesty and integrity about the writing process, describing how he's going about his second book and some very funny anecdotes about going to a writing workshop in the US and the process of editing after one has written the first draft. What I remember? 1. Work on your first sentence. 2. Finish your manuscript before even thinking about anything else. 3. The difference between most published and unpublished writers is simply that the published writer didn't let anyone discourage them. He was a very encouraging and motivating speaker and I think he'll be reading a chapter from his book-in-progress at the next Readings at Seksan's.

Kudos to Eric and MPH for getting such entertaining speakers, and for such a lively session. (Ooh and nice curry puffs!). I met Chet and Spiffy and k.kim which I recognised from Blogworld and somehow ended up going in a group with Eric, Xeus, Spiffy and Lyrical Lemongrass to Red Ginger and then onwards for a lovely box of cakes at Just Heavenly. Mmmm mmmm!


This picture of what I had: Death by Chocolate is from their website. I definitely survived to go back some day.