Yahoo, my books are ready for distribution!

“I want to encourage everyone
to pick up a book
and read today!
 It’s my favorite pastime.
What books are you reading today?”
~ Gerry Robert quote

Exactly two months after meeting Gerry Robert at his seminar “Publish a book and grow rich” in Kuala Lumpur, I have finally printed my books. They were collected today from the printer and ready for distributions early next week to those who have placed an order and had made payment.

Thank you everyone for your interest and overwhelming support!

For those who have yet to place an order, it is still not too late. You can still do so through this blog, send me an e-mail or through Facebook.

My book is also available as an e-book beside the printed version.

Happy reading and have a nice weekend! 🙂

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Thank you, Larry Ng!

Praise for Ipohgal and

The Stories of the Scissors Sharpener’s Daughter

This book can be read as a humble yet assertive girl’s memoir.

It is a collection of stories told in a refreshingly simple way.  And there is disarming honesty here :

“…my parents and I dropped on our beds and snored like pigs.”

Not to mention ghastly events told in a no-holds-barred manner:

“Once singled out, these unlucky people would be taken away for interrogation and their faces would never be seen again.”

As the preface says, the book dwells mainly on how life was for the poor and underprivileged during the 1960s/70s. There was much superstition, but also the smell of blood, sweat, and tears of what the author calls “the voiceless and the faceless” in a city called Ipoh, as they struggled to survive, to find meaning in a society where working people were often lost in a sea of ancient customs and changing societal norms.

As a former Ipoh citizen, I can hear the sounds, see the actions, and feel the emotions of the characters recalled by this particular scissor sharpener’s daughter.  Through her words, the faceless and the voiceless are finally seen and heard.

A laudable first book by a most promising author.

Review of Ipohgal’s
Stories of the Scissor Sharpener’s Daughter
by
Larry Ng
MA (English), Iowa State University of Science and Technology Ames, IA, USA.
Former Ipoh ACS boy, Retired Teacher.

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Under the dimmed lights, along a quiet corridor of the hospital ward, a book was born.

What do you do when you could not sleep in the middle of the night? And you are at a place not your own home?

Between the years 2000 and 2007, there were many nights when sleep was a luxury for me. Even a short nap is a rare treat.

Whenever my parents get warded, I will spend the night at the hospital with them because I knew they will need me there by their sides.

And I have to be on my feet most of the time – to change their soiled diapers, feed them food and medications, sponge their feverish bodies, massage their aching limbs or just hold their hands to comfort them. Even whispering a prayer or two into their ears to ease their sufferings…..

By 10 o’ clock each night, the lights in the hospital ward would be off and there is nothing much I could do in the dark. When sleep could not come and this happened so very often, all I could do was to write and for this, I always have a pen and note-book with me in my bag.

On and off in those seven years,  I have managed to write more than two  hundred short stories under the dimmed lights along the quiet corridor of the hospital ward, when everyone was sound asleep and occasionally, a whimper or cry from some patients could be heard.

These writings  were mostly about the times growing up in 188 Hugh Low Street and things my parents told me when they were young and healthy. I wanted to remember them through words.

Today, I have compiled some of these short stories into a book called “The Stories of the Scissors Sharpener’s Daughter.”  To read what I have written on those lonely and quiet nights, please place your order for my book now. I am sure it will bring you a laughter or even a tear.

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