Embedded Files
Over the years, several of my short stories have appeared in various anthologies, whether in print or in ebook. Here's where they appear, more or less from new to old.
Batteries
Batteries
2020: An Anthology (Fixi Novo, 2020)
2020: An Anthology (Fixi Novo, 2020)
Malaysians have been looking forward to this talismanic year for decades. In fact, we started anticipating it when our seventh Prime Minister was still our fourth. Is 2020 really the year when we suddenly become a modern, progressive society that is the envy of the world? Or have things stagnated and ossified beyond repair? Don’t answer all at once! 2020: An Anthology brings together 20 pieces — mostly fiction, but some essays and a comic too — that reflect on our nation by focusing on our people, who continue to thrive and flail and exist in ways that will never be captured by even the most visionary slogans.
"Batteries" is a story of our times. With our over reliance on tech and gadgets, what kind of shenanigans (or troubles) can happen when our batteries run out?
Takpe
Takpe
A Kind of Death (Uncommon Universes Press, 2019); Insignia 2021: Best Asian Speculative Fiction (BWWP Publishing, 2022)
A Kind of Death (Uncommon Universes Press, 2019); Insignia 2021: Best Asian Speculative Fiction (BWWP Publishing, 2022)
There are many things her husband refuses to talk about, including Nur's past, why he's always sad, and the nail at the back of her neck. On the anniversary of the day she lost her memories, the arrival of a new family sends them on the run—hopefully towards answers. "Takpe" draws on the Malaysian legend of the Pontianak, a woman who has died in childbirth and comes back to haunt the living.
Operation: Rescue Pris
Operation: Rescue Pris
The Principal Girl: Feminist Tales from Asia (Gerakbudaya Enterprise, 2019); The Principal Girl Redux: Feminist Tales from Asia (Gerakbudaya Enterprise, 2023)
The Principal Girl: Feminist Tales from Asia (Gerakbudaya Enterprise, 2019); The Principal Girl Redux: Feminist Tales from Asia (Gerakbudaya Enterprise, 2023)
The Principal Girl: Feminist Tales from Asia features stories of bold, bright, and heroic women and girls drawn from Malaysia and Singapore, and the Asian diaspora that underlies the rich and diverse cultural heritage of the two countries. All eighteen stories in this anthology emphasise female empowerment, and privilege the strength and wisdom of young girls and women, over conventionally idealised traits such as beauty, obedience, conformity, and passivity, so frequently depicted in traditional male-centric folk tales.
The book was subsequently updated and republished as The Principal Girl Redux: Feminist Tales from Asia.
In "Operation: Rescue Pris", Pris is missing, and her friend Dan is organising a search party to rescue her. But does Pris really need to be rescued? Or can she get herself out of her fix on her own? This story explores several themes: the legend of the Gedembai in Langkawi, the legend of Sam Poh in Penang, and overturning the trope of the knight in shining armour.
Beautiful Hands
Beautiful Hands
Bitter Root Sweet Fruit (Word Works, 2017)
Bitter Root Sweet Fruit (Word Works, 2017)
The theme for the 2016 D.K. Dutt Award for Literary Excellence was 'knowledge and education.' Bitter Root Sweet Fruit pulls together the best stories submitted for the competition, including the winning entry by Bathmaloshanee M., and stories by runners-up Ling Low and Sumitra Selvaraj.
"Beautiful Hands" traces Kay's continuing revelation that the knowledge and skills in one's hands is just as important as the knowledge and education in one's head.
Jentayu's Tear
Jentayu's Tear
Insignia Vol 4: Asian Fantasy Stories (BWWP Publishing, 2017)
Insignia Vol 4: Asian Fantasy Stories (BWWP Publishing, 2017)
Way back when (I don't even remember when), I submitted to the Book a Break competition in hopes of winning a writing holiday in Provence. I didn't win... but I did get included in their annual anthology.
Fancy a trip to Pluto? Or how about a fearful drive along a stretch of country road, or a long, hot, dusty walk to Nairobi? Unless you prefer to go to church with a strange woman in green tights, her hair alive with electricity. Here you have 34 stories, each one a journey, whether planned or unexpected, funny or frightening, real or figurative, shared or dreadfully alone. ‘They had a long journey ahead of them’ was the prompt: the writers here, from award-winning authors to exciting new talents, took it and made it their own. Sit back and enjoy the scenery, then, as the stories here open your eyes to destinations you’ll want to go back to again. Bon voyage!
Codes
Codes
Cyberpunk: Malaysia (Fixi Novo, 2015)
Cyberpunk: Malaysia (Fixi Novo, 2015)
Cyberpunk as you've never seen it before…
Science fiction is all about outrageous ideas. Nice Malay girls breaking the rules. Censorship. Brain drain.
Moral policing. Migrant exploitation. All the stuff of fiction, obviously.
But these 14 short stories take it one step further. The nice Malay girls are cyborgs. The spambots are people. The brains have drained into cyberspace, and the censorship is inside your head.
Welcome to Cyberpunk: Malaysia.
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