Singing Chinese antiquities. Ghosts that only one young man could sense. A house with a sentient A.I. that becomes a part of the family. A cricket that acts as a tragic voice of reason. A man born and bred for neural mass surveillance.
This anthology is a collection of unpredictable stories of various genres—fantasy, science fiction, crime, horror and the supernatural—that touch on courage and fear, loss and resolution, denial and honesty, despair and hope…from an author who writes about being human in a world where the unseen is suddenly exposed. Every story is written in versatile language, with characters sure to elicit sympathy, and perhaps even familiarity, from readers who are sure to recognize themselves or those they know in the unique situations of each entertaining tale.
Archives: Books
Winds of War
The lost gods of Kayumalon are returning.
Before the exodus of kings to Kayumalon, seed mages were revered by both strangelords and mortal men, their magic reserved only for the bloodlines the gods deem worthy. It was a time of peace and prosperity, but it was an age that had passed on into history and then myth and then superstitious whispers around the bonfire.
Now, seed magic is cheap, the power of the gods reduced to a bottle of oil and borrowed magic mass-produced on magic plantations and coveted by enemies within and without.
Little do they know that Kayumalon’s fate will fall in the hands of a simple Dayo slave girl.
Yin knows that Masalanta Island Plantation is not home—though she longs to become a part of it, if only to be noticed by the island’s most beautiful red-haired boy. All she knows is that she and her father have been on the run all her life, and no matter how many times she asks her father why, he would only warn her that the world means her harm.
When the boy does notice her, she follows him into the night against her better judgement and realizes too late that her father is right. She wakes up the next day, feeling like she had the world in the palm of her hands and power that any girl in her position could only dream about.
INFINITE LIVES, INFINITE DEATHS
Infinite Lives, Infinite Deaths is a collection of stories that straddle genres such as horror, magic realism, metafiction, and science fiction, while stitching together elements from world mythology and folklore, Philippine history and society, and the Chinese-Filipino experience in a nightmarish version of Manila.
In Dreaming Valhalla, a family’s noodle restaurant is converted into a Norse-themed girly bar that parallels the rise and destruction of the Æsir. A group of children take a traumatic fieldtrip in A Visit to the Exhibition of the International Committee on Children’s Rights. In An Epistle and Testimony from June 13, 1604 a Spanish friar meets a Chinese convert bearing the stigmata, while in The Life and Death of Hermes Uy, a Chinese-Filipino entrepreneur opens a pharmacy in 1950s Manila, diversifying and expanding the business throughout the decades until its mysterious and abrupt closure.
A professor of applied folkloristics discusses the case of a young girl who returned home as a crone a few days after her elopement in A Reply to a Query, while Where Old Whores Go to Die features a grant application assessment detailing the context and procedures that govern a concentration camp for aged prostitutes. In The Way of Those Who Stayed Behind a Chinese-Filipino expatriate returns home and uncovers a family secret, while The Lament of Philip Reyes features a failed doctor coming face-to-face with the possibilities that never materialized throughout his life.
Have I Got Something To Tell You
A collection of stories that explore the intersections and conflicts in family lives and sexuality that are typical in contemporary Asian societies, yet also universal. These stories are set from post-independent Malaysia to the early decades of the 21st century, the Covid-19 pandemic years. Women are torn between marriage and emancipated lives of their own, a young boy whose taste or memory is shaped by May 13, mixed-race couples split by the walls of race and religion, gay men’s love cannot be understood by their family or nation, a sex-addict has to come to terms with his own demons, an endearing but heart-breaking love between two young men, one with hearing-impairment, a bungling spirit causes further complications in attempting to fulfill a death wish and the withdrawal from a dishonest relationship. These stories are set against a backdrop of clash between superstition and modernity, longing, loneliness and the search for love and resolutions which often seem unachievable.
Deplorable Conversations with Cats and Other Distractions
Lucky Lee has everything—wealth, charm, money, good looks—and does very, very little with it. He’s content. He’s happy. He takes for granted that life is good and always will be. But then his sister, the go-getting, successful, famous TV chef Pearl Lee, dies, horribly, and suddenly. Lucky is devastated. As he struggles to live without the big sister who’s always been the dominant, often relentless force in his life, the inconceivable happens—her cat begins to talk to him. It wants to know where Pearl is. It questions his eating habits, his outfit choices, his life. It hogs the TV. It tells him stories. Now grief-stricken Lucky has a major problem: he may very well be mad.
HORROR, HE WROTE
Chang Hong Lian, dubbed Red Lotus, is found dead in the lake at the Taiping Botanical Garden. Murdered with a borrowed knife, the plot is coincidentally similar to Adrian Holmes’ bestseller—a crime thriller ghostwritten by Hong Lian’s twin and Adrian’s mistress, Chang Pai Lian (aka White Lotus). The body of Red Lotus, who was with child, was found with the rare South Sea pearl necklace that belongs to Adrian’s wife, Marguerite Daisy Holmes.
Ernest Maxwell Graves, a writer of sorts, comes from a literary lineage. With his latest novel adding to the list of his failures, all he can do is end his life to end the shame. But fate has other plans for him. Saved by a ghost, Graves is promised success. He just doesn’t know yet the price he’ll be paying for it.
White Lotus, who was madly in love with Adrian, committed suicide under the bridge at the Taiping Botanical Garden where her sister’s body was found. She is back, still head over heels in love, and has a story to tell . . .
A murder mystery meets horror fantasy, this compelling tale of love and redemption will send a chill down your spine with every twist and turn.
Harmony Heights
Harmony Heights is anything but harmonious. In this nineties-style block of condominium located in a forgotten part of town resides a microcosm of bourgeois Malaysian society. From retired judges and doctors to CEOs and homemakers with side hustles, the residents in this apartment pride themselves on being model citizens.
But beneath the veneer of civility and respectability, lies a hotbed of secrets and skeletons that reveal the true nature of these residents. How will they respond to the trials and tribulations which life throws at them? Will they all manage to keep up appearances when their private affairs and exploits are exposed?
Harmony Heights is a peephole, allowing you to look in, to watch the unfolding lives of cheating husbands, ambitious women, unconventional families, and witness explosive (literally) situations. If you look close enough, you might just see someone you know. Are you ready to keep a secret?
How to Hunger
In the terrain of untidy relationships lies an ensemble of individuals coupled or alone, each driven by desire, cravings or folly. How To Hunger is a smorgasbord of short stories about how humans hunger—for love, lust and loyalty—where their voracity for the ordinary and sublime consumes them to the very end.
A Singapore emigrant chews over her sense of belonging. A vegetarian Western tourist finds a meatier version of Asia in a massage parlour. A young couple deepens their romance through home-cooked cuisine. A friendship between a Taiwanese and Singaporean ages over a decade like fine wine. An office worker’s submerged desires bubbles over in a hotpot restaurant. A married woman is tempted
by the sweet gifts of a suitor. An undertaker gets a taste of a spicy side of life. And a widower gets triggered by the scent of a curry puff.
Rethink the Couch
In more than a decade as a psychotherapist to some of Asia’s most powerful couples and businesspeople, expat New Yorker Allison Heiliczer has seen it all.
In Rethink The Couch: Into the Bedrooms and Boardrooms of Asia with an Expat Therapist, Heiliczer brings readers into her therapy room and engagements with such clients: the Singaporean maneater with a portfolio comparing the endowments-physical and financial-of her expat lovers; the wealthy Chinese litigator in thrall to a feng shui master; the entrepreneur trying to treat his own ADHD; the Indonesian-Chinese businessman who faced a reckoning when his multiple unzipperings were exposed, and many others.
But, this is no exposé. Part East-meets-West expat journey, part self-help deliberation, this collection of personal narratives explores the influence cultural backgrounds have on work and relationships and sheds light on stigmas that still surround divorce, therapy, mental health, and more today in Asia. Asia may lag the West in this regard – for now – but there is a quiet revolution afoot and Heiliczer is at the vanguard.
From toxic offices and complex relationships, boardroom power and bedroom failure, doomed marriages and ill-advised affairs, workaholism, loneliness, lies; these are struggles more common than many of us care to admit. Heiliczer lays them all bare through the prism of culture and is expert in understanding what makes those embroiled in them tick.
Empire of Gods and Beasts
Four Elementals in the running. One final battle awaits.
Beware the monster in the mountains.
The bloody battle between Lettoria and Oasis Kingdom saw the destruction of the Wall that has kept magic out of the Oasis Kingdom for centuries. Now, the kingdom dissolves into chaos with Emperor Han at the helm and rampant magic spilling across the land.
As Desert Rose and Windshadow return to the kingdom in search of the last Elemental, rumours of a rebel prince arrive from the west, heralding a revolution.
Meanwhile, an ancient power stirs within the deep dark heart of Yeli Mountain, awakened by the magic flooding the kingdom.
As the Elementals draw closer to the final race at the Immortal Spring, the last gateway to the realm of gods and beasts, they can only rely on the powers they inherited from the gods to stay alive in the destruction and rebirth of the new world.