Archives: Authors

An international correspondent with over 22 years of reporting experience in the region, Romen Bose worked as a Political Communications Consultant for former Malaysian Premier Najib Razak for six years and was a close confidante to decision makers in the upper echelon of the country’s political elite. Before setting up his own consultancy, Romen was head of Asian social media at IHS Markit and worked as a senior foreign correspondent with French news agency AFP based in Kuala Lumpur. He was the founding president of the Foreign Correspondents Club of Malaysia and a senior producer with the English service of Al Jazeera International when it opened its regional base in Malaysia. Prior to this, Romen was the Indochina Bureau Chief for Channel News Asia and has also consulted for the United Nations. Romen has also researched and written extensively on the second world war and its impact on Southeast Asia.

Mallika Naguran is an author of adult fiction and children’s books. Born in Singapore, Mallika published her first poem when she was ten. In college she began crafting short stories and circulated them among friends in their self-designed magazine.

Mallika authored the Ramayana: The Quest to Rescue Sita and Peter Pan in the POP! Lit for Kids series published by WS Education (an imprint of World Scientific Publishing) in 2021. She Never Looks Quite Back is her first collection of short stories published by Penguin Random House (SEA). She is currently working on another volume of short stories and two novels: fantasy for young adults and environmental fiction for adults.

Mallika has spent more than a decade writing and editing environmental articles as the founder of Gaia Discovery. She is passionate about wildlife, ethnic musical instruments, and the underwater world. She lives in Tasmania where she loses track of time while walking in forests.

Balvinder Sandhu has been a part of Singapore’s publishing scene for 25 years. She started her career writing for newspapers, then moved on to magazines and, eventually, websites. Her career as a writer and editor has seen her take on topics in the spheres of lifestyle, entertainment, travel, business, technology, health and women’s issues. In recent years, she has created content for a variety of clients too. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Law and is also the author of three books published in Singapore – Financial Fraud (2013), Foreigners Behaving Badly (2013) and Sex Crimes (2014) – which tackled crimes in Singapore that fit the theme of each book. She lives in Melbourne with her husband but goes to Singapore often to catch up with family and friends – and binge on her favourite local foods.

Vincent G. Marasigan lives in Davao City, Philippines, and works as an editor at the City Government of Davao. He has had short stories published in various journals within and outside the Philippines. The Golden Realm is his first novel.

Lope K. Santos was a Filipino Tagalog-language writer and former senator of the Philippines. He is best known for his 1906 socialist novel, Banaag at Sikat and for his contributions for the development of Filipino grammar and Tagalog orthography.
Santos pursued law at the Academia de la Jurisprudencia then at Escuela Derecho de Manila (now Manila Law College Foundation) where he received Bachelor of Arts degree in 1912. In the late 1900s, Santos started writing his own newspaper Ang Kaliwanagan. This was also the time when socialism became an emerging idea in world ideology.
In 1903, Santos started publishing fragments of his first novel, Banaag at Sikat on his weekly labor magazine Muling Pagsilang (The Rebirth) and was completed in 1906. When published in book form, Santos’ Banaag at Sikat was then considered as the first socialist-oriented book in the Philippines which expounded principles of socialism and seek labor reforms from the government. The book was later made an inspiration for the assembly of the 1932 Socialist Party of the Philippines and then the 1946 group Hukbalahap.
In the early 1910s, he started his campaign on promoting a ‘national language for the Philippines’, where he organized various symposia, lectures and headed numerous departments for national language in leading Philippine universities. In 1910, he was elected as governor of the province of Rizal under the Nacionalista Party. In 1918, he was appointed as the first Filipino governor of the newly resurveyed Nueva Vizcaya until 1920. Consequently, he was elected to the 5th Philippine Legislature as senator of the twelfth senatorial district representing provinces having a majority of non-Christian population.
In 1940, Santos published the first grammar book of the ‘national language’, Balarila ng Wikang Pambansa (Grammar of the National Language) which was commissioned by the Surian ng Wikang Pambansa (SWF). The next year, he was appointed by President Manuel L. Quezon as director of SWF until 1946. When the Philippines became a member of the United Nations he was selected to translate the 1935 Constitution for UNESCO. He was also appointed to assist for the translation of inaugural addresses of presidents Jose P. Laurel and Manuel A. Roxas.

Historian Paul French lives in Shanghai, where he is a business adviser and analyst. He frequently comments on China for the English-speaking press around the world. He studied history, economics, and Mandarin at university and has an MPhil in economics from the University of Glasgow. He is the author of a number of books, including the New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award-winning Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China, Carl Crow: A Tough Old China Hand, and Through the Looking Glass: China’s Foreign Journalists from Opium Wars to Mao.

Marga Ortigas has travelled the world as a journalist for three decades, with a career spanning five continents and two of the largest global news networks. After getting her start in the Philippines, she joined CNN in London, working across Europe and covering the war in Iraq from its inception. In 2006, she returned to Manila and the Asia Pacific region, reporting from the frontlines of armed conflict and climate change as senior correspondent for Al Jazeera. Her extensive coverage of the Muslim rebellion in the southern Philippines was recognised by the International Committee of the Red Cross for Humanitarian Reporting.
A British Council Chevening Scholar, Ortigas earned her MA in literature and criticism at the University of Greenwich. She speaks three languages, and is the editor of I, Migrant, an online platform which showcases writing from the diaspora, advocating a universal humanity beneath people’s differences.

James Finch grew up in America. He began a career in international private law in Tehran, Iran. He later joined the US Foreign Service, serving in Ecuador, Trinidad and Argentina. Returning to the private sector, he worked over the rest of his career as a partner in law firms in the Dominican Republic, Vietnam, Thailand and Burma, where he spent twenty-two years.

He has three published novels previous to Silence in the Land of Gold. Among his passions are photography and Burmese art. He has just finished the manuscript of a book on the sacred statue of Burma, a decades-long effort.

James has a house in North Carolina, USA and travels the streets and roads of the world with a camera and Debbie, the love of his life.

Dr Rohayu Binti Shahar Adnan graduated from the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland, and came back to Malaysia to do her one-year internship at Hospital Tuanku Jaafar, Seremban, Negeri Sembilan. After completion of her internship, she worked in Hospital Tuanku Ampuan Rahimah, Klang in the Surgical and Forensic Medicine Departments as a medical officer before succeeding to pursue her studies in Forensic Pathology. She enrolled in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s (UKM), a 4-year Master of Pathology program. Upon graduating, she went on to do her 6-month specialist gazettement in Hospital Kuala Lumpur. She was then transferred to Johor in 2010 and worked in Hospital Sultan Ismail as a Forensic Pathologist and Head of Forensic Medicine Department. Currently, she is heading the Forensic Medicine Department of Hospital Sungai Buloh. Besides heading her Department, she has been actively involved with medical undergraduate and postgraduate teaching in Forensic Medicine in both local and private universities. She also organizes and gives lectures in many seminars and workshops for medical officers, assistant medical officers, nurses, lawyers, students, and secondary school children on Forensic Medicine. She has performed more than 1000 autopsies, supervising more than 3000 autopsies, and has attended almost 100 court cases all over Malaysia. Not to mention, she attended a course training in Forensic Anthropology at the University of Tennessee, USA, and Central Institute of Forensic science Bangkok. Forensic Pathology has always been her passion and it is her dream to share her knowledge of Forensic Medicine to the public.

Fatin Amin has been on an unorthodox route when it comes to garnering experience. As a Journalism graduate from The University of Tampa and a Professional Golf Management Degree holder from the Professional Golfers Career College, she has never sauntered away from embracing new opportunities. Fatin has harnessed various leadership roles throughout her college career, and even took up practical training in a golf course, which was generally male dominated. Breaking barriers and acquiring new knowledge, paved a clear path of success for Fatin. Though life never goes to plan. After going through grief of losing her older brother Haikal from cancer, and multiple rejections of gaining work, post graduate goals became a blur. Her mother Jamilah decided to advise her on using her strong traits to create something on her own. As a primary caregiver for her late brother, and holding such passion for writing, Fatin’s mother advised her to create a blog to spread awareness. After much thought, World Footprint, a Kindness Project Initiative was created. It is a project inspired by her brother’s act of kindness to spread positivity, break social barriers, and create a safe space for individuals to express themselves. Being highly sports orientated, Fatin has always set her mind to win majors in anything she does. This book is a huge milestone for her, and has open doors for her to finally achieve the goal of creating a foundation in honor of her late brother, to help people wherever she can.