Saturday, January 20, 2018

From Coconuts to Confessions - #Contest #SriLanka #Vietnam @AdamMannAuthor

Love in the Rain
 
By Adam Mann (Guest Blogger)

About twenty years ago I was just finishing working on a project in Sri Lanka when I came across a book in Colombo entitled “an historical relation of CEYLON” which had been written and published in 1680. I’m not a historian, but the title intrigued me and led me to find out about the history of that area, and I also had the time and facility to visit some of the places mentioned in that book. It was a bit like surfing the web – one place led to another, and some of the recorded history in that region went back thousands of years!

The descriptions of people at those times – both men and women – began to make me think about their real personal lives. They must have had families! But recorded history is usually very quiet about their wives, concubines and mistresses, or indeed their husbands and lovers.

At that time I was living on the edge of a coconut estate in North West Sri Lanka, just before I moved to a new project here in Vietnam.

What a change!

I was suddenly confronted with hoards of beautiful ladies, who did nothing to hide their shapes and everything to make themselves more attractive, presumably to the opposite sex.

I had started to write novels based on the history I had discovered about the Indian sub-continent, and I was trying to find a traditional publisher, and fortunately managing to avoid the vanity press. So I still had my manuscripts intact.

I read the books again, and began to wonder again about their social and family lives. I also managed to “surf the web” as then the internet was slowly developing, and I found that people were writing about anything!

Now I’d better explain. My parents and their parents weren’t Victorian, but pretty close to it. Sex was a taboo subject. Simply, one didn’t talk about it – although they all must have participated in it or their children, including me, wouldn’t have existed.

This intrigued me and I must confess I wanted to dip my “finger” into the local society with all those lovely ladies, and I wasn’t short of volunteers!

I thought that language would be a problem, but in that climate nobody needed to talk about anything.

I steered away from people in my office, and friend’s offices. I also stayed away from the ‘red light’ areas. I was working in an agricultural area where reproduction is fairly close to the surface, and people are more than happy to talk and joke about it. But I was too busy working to manage to meet any participants for what I had in mind. In fact I was too busy for the next fifteen years before I completed my first manuscript.

I wrote my first adventure novel based on a man meeting several ladies at an embassy reception, which is also a location where ladies dress to kill!

I arranged for my hero in this book to meet his heroine several times socially before either of them decided that closer inspection, with or without clothes, would be a good idea.

Then I found online that several “on line” publishers had emerged, and the electronic novel had been developed – now called an eBook. I needed a front cover and again the web came to my rescue as I managed to buy several pictures of semi-dressed or undressed ladies. I taught myself to add the title of the book and the name of the author to the cover.

I also found several publishers who offered eBooks and printed paperbacks on the market, and they also had art departments who produced much better book covers than me. They also employ a team of the essential editors and proofreaders.

Today, with the New Year upon us I have looked back on my life and productivity over the last twenty two years:

Three murder or mystery novels.

Three historical novels.

Ten novella eBooks from on-line publishers, like eXtasy, Phaze and
Global Publishing and,

Twenty two eBooks that I have self-published using the name Butterfly
Books as I couldn’t wait for the publishers to make a decision.

If you’ve read this far please take a look at some of these books:


From a personal point of view I did mention that I lived and worked in Vietnam, but not in Hanoi. I have always preferred mountains to the coast, and I’m not too far from the highest mountain in Vietnam known as Fansipan, which is 3,143 meters, or 10,312 feet, above sea level, and is a favourite destination for tourists. At this mountainous location the residents are from ethnic minority groups, like Huong or Dao, who actually account for fifteen percent of the total population, but many don’t speak Vietnamese as their family language.

On recent visit to Sa Pa with my wife we stopped at a restaurant in the town for dinner, and I was momentarily delayed in the restaurant paying the bill. When I went outside I saw my wife was buying a locally made memento. The vendor was a local Huong lady wearing her traditional and colourful clothes, and my wife who is from the ethnic majority Kinh, both Vietnamese, but both haggling the price loudly in English!

Excerpt from my latest eBook:

I’m often asked to leave an excerpt from one of my books. I like offering these and the following is extracted from the beginning of one of my latest novellas:



It was very early morning when the flight finally arrived in Taipei, and Charlie walked with Sue-Ling to the Arrivals Hall.

Wait a minute,” she said and disappeared into an airport shop.

Here,” she said a few minutes later, “something from Taiwan so that you remember me!” and she laughed.

He handed him a small locally made toy farmer.

As she was standing close to him he kissed her forehead, and she blushed, but made no effort to move away.

Bathroom,” said Charlie, and Sue-ling took his bag and said, “I’ll wait for you,” which was kind of her.

She watched him walk away, and made a mental note.

Tall, she decided, probably six feet, brown wavy hair, slim build, intelligent and with a lovely smile. She guessed he’d be late thirties.
She knew he wasn’t married as he’d told her during the flight, as she’d told him she was nearly thirty and single, but she had also said there was an old boyfriend waiting for her at home.

Charlie, for his part, thought about this charming and attractive lady he’d met on the flight. She was quite tall compared to other Taiwanese ladies, kept her black hair shoulder length, wore thin gold ring earrings, and was still very slim. But with winter clothes covering her he could not tell anymore. Still she did have a lovely smile with sparkling black eyes.

Sue-ling was waiting for Charlie, and she gave him her bag as she in turn went to the ladies washroom.

Wrong way round,” thought Charlie, “I should have asked her first!”
And he admonished himself, and when she came back she was a bit deep in her own thoughts. They walked on together.

You have to go that way, but I’m going over there,” Sue-ling indicated the overhead signs, “Oh yes, here’s my mobile phone number so if you give me a ring sometime, and then I’ll have your number,” and she handed him a small card.

Good-bye Sue-ling,” said Charlie, “thanks for your time and help on the flight.

Sue-ling smiled and on tip toe kissed Charlie on his right cheek, and she walked away.

Charlie followed the signs leading to the Departure Hall, but was still thinking about her.

He dialed her number in his mobile phone, and it rang;

Is that the attractive lady I met on the flight from Vancouver?” he asked into the phone.

No, sorry, I can’t see her around here,” she replied, “but I’ll give you a call if I do.”

Readers will have to buy this eBook to read what happened next so try this link at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077QDKWC1 Or at Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/760958  


Links to all Adam’s books:

And at Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and other eBook retailers.
Try Adam’s website: http://www.adammannauthor.com  



Contest:

Readers are probably aware that most of my books are based in Asian or African countries where I have lived and worked.

Please send Adam the names of any country from Asia or Africa and the correctly spelled names of ONE of the languages that they speak, apart from English.

The author will send free copies to the first five readers in any format they like: epub, mobi (Kindle), lrf, pdf, pdb.

Don’t forget to send the author your email address, or you can send a Direct Tweet to @adammannauthor

Good reading and please have a happy and successful 2018.


1 comment:

Lisabet Sarai said...

Welcome back to Beyond Romance, Adam!

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