Bangkok Writers Guild: Members’ books

Posted by Voicu Mihnea Simandan

Bangkok Writers Guild is an English-speaking Bangkok-based group for published and aspiring authors. At the moment, the group is made up of seven members, all of them with writing and publishing experience. Here are their latest books, listed in alphabetical order of the writer’s surname:

• And Then One Morning
  by Aaron Le Boutillier

And Then One Morning is a personal odyssey that encapsulates the expatriate life on a small tropical island and introduces the reader to the main characters who either survived or perished in the 2004 tsunami.

• Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness: The Truth about the Vatican and the Birth of Islam
  by Gary Dale Cearley

Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness is an uncompromising refutation of religious shyster Alberto Rivera’s tainted testimony as recounted by Jack Chick in his Chick Publication “The Prophet”.  Gary Dale takes apart Rivera’s account of the birth of Islam and alleged Vatican involvement using the historical accounts of what really happened. His research proves Alberto Rivera’s story to be totally fraudulent.

• Travels with the Fish
  by C. Y. Gopinath

The quixotic travels and misadventures of Gopinath in places as varied as Kerala and Turkey, Thailand and Chicago, Jerusalem and Bhusaval, form not merely an absorbing narrative of a bon vivant’s wanderings, but are also a raconteur’s treasury of sometimes hilarious stories that can be retold at parties. Always at hand, of course, is the Fish, armchair traveler and eternal nitpicker, ever ready to puncture the narrative with raised eyebrow and scathing putdown whenever he feels the telling has grown richer than the tale. Be it a quest for the legendary Sultan Saladin’s farman in Jerusalem, or a struggle to carry 300 kgs of vegetables from Bangkok to Borivali, Gopinath’s stories are woven through with sensitive insights into varied cultures, lifestyles and culinary habits.

• Bangkok Blondes
  by Anette Pollner (editor)

Very few books on Thailand are written by women. Bangkok Blondes is one of the first. It reflects the lives of creative women who live and write in Thailand – The Bangkok Women’s Writers Group. Bangkok Blondes shows you everything in the tourist package and more…

• The Ironman. A Play
  by Voicu Mihnea Simandan

The Lesters are living a quiet life in their beautiful house on the top of a hill. Although their parents are always busy, Brandon, Alice, and Wasan lead a happy life, playing ball and running around the house all day long. But, the world they know will soon change. Something terrible is going to happen. The Ironman is coming… The Ironman. A Play is a thought-provoking play for children that will keep the young ones glued to its pages until the very end.

• Forward O Peasant!
  by Maclean J. Storer

When Phillip Snow is sent to Vietnam to investigate the disappearance of a colleague, he’s not happy at the thought of spending time in a place about which he knows nothing except that it’s lightly carpeted with a chemical called Agent Orange. But carcinogenic poisons aren’t anywhere near as dangerous as the local officials, who will do anything it takes to stop him finding out what really happened. Surrounded by hostile Marxist ideologues, drunken expats, hypervigilant beggars, lunatic waiters, and bureaucrats with all the efficiency and charm of a sock puppet, Snow knows he is in a life-or-death battle to stop himself becoming as mad as everyone else…..

• Diner Dharma
  by Dan Thompson
  (former member of Bangkok Writers Guild)

Monk saw a sign.  It was that sign that brought a Buddhist monk off the roads of West Texas to the Attaboy Diner.  Not only the sign but the secrets he keeps.  The locals soon give him another mystery to solve: the not-so-great train robbery.  From chicken round ups to rodeos our bare-backed, backwards-riding Monk is called on time and time again to tell a story.  He tells about Issa the Mason who Wouldn’t Be King, about the Death of the Phoenix.  He tells these stories to a crazy cast of characters including townies like Isabella, the Queen of the Proverb, and to passers-thru like Bubba the mystical trucker…Come on in and sit a spell!  Pull up a booth and settle in.  Let Monk tell you a story!

• Quotations For Positive People
  by Larry Welch

The book contains a 9-year collection of street smart wisdom that has appeared in On the run…, a not-for-profit electronic newsletter that encourages positive thinking, betterment of human hearts, and personal development in communications and critical thinking. The quotations are easily digested, relevant to today’s world, and uplifting to the inner spirit. The wise viewpoints presented come from authors, business personalities, clergymen, entertainers, historical figures, media celebrities, Nobel laureates, philosophers, presidents, poets, politicians, scientists, sports stars, historical figures, and everyday people who share their take on the human condition. From thoughts on achievement to an insight on youth, the sages of our age express their ideas on why we are what we are and how we might be better through positive thinking. In all, 541 positive thinkers give their thoughts in 788 quotations. Whenever possible a brief description is given of the lifetime achievements of contributors.

The Bangkok Writers Guild meets every month at Bourbon Street restaurant-bar (in the back room) at 7 pm, on Sukhumvit Soi 22, Bangkok. Stay tuned for the exact date.

Voicu Mihnea Simandan is a Romanian writer, member of the Bangkok Writers Guild, who has been living and working in Thailand since 2002. He is the author of “The Ironman. A Play”, a book for children well-received in educational circles.

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