Book Previews

Book Previews

Russian Books – Update

Published by Chalita Majang on 4 March 2022

Two great stories!

Russian books
Russian books

We have had three of our novels translated into Russian recently, and I have at long last found the time to add them to my blog. Others will follow in due course, indeed, we are having two more translated as you are reading this article.

The first is the Russian translation of the first volume of Behind The Smile – the story of Lek, a bar girl in Pattaya: “Daddy’s Hobby”. Marvellously translated by the very able Dasha Elsova, who is currently working on the sequel.

“Daddy’s Hobby” tells the story of Lek, a farmer’s daughter from northern Thailand, who had to go to Pattaya to work in a sex-tourism bar to prevent the bank from foreclosing on her family’s farm, which would have meant her mother losing her home and livelihood, and her siblings having to leave school.

The second is the Russian translation of The Disallowed – the humorous story of a contemporary vampire family. The Disallowed refers to the people who have been bitten and made the change into vampires. This is a humorous and philosophical version of the more scary original version of the vampire story translated by the very talented Hebs Orest.

And the third is the Russian translation of the Megan Series – A Spirit Guide, A Ghost Tiger, and One Scary Mother! This series is about a psychic teen, who is looking for help to understand her supernatural powers, but can’t find anyone… no-one living, that is. This and the Ukrainian version were both translated by the polyglot Oksana Ryndina.

Russian Titles

The titles of these books in Russian are, respectively. The links are local to pages on this blog:

1] «Что скрывает улыбка?», История Лек, «девочки» из Паттайи: «Daddy’s Hobby». E-book – ISBN: 9788835427575

2] «Запрещенные» – Юмористическая история современной вампирской семьи! E-book – ISBN: 9788835420309

3] «Серии о Меган» – Духовный наставник, призрачный тигр и ужасная мать! [Книга 1] «Заблуждение» – Ebook – ISBN: 9788835424192

Please, take the time to check these books out on this site and click through to the sales channel for more information, if you are interested. The book company that I a directing you to is the Italian firm Tektime. They facilitated the translation of these novels and their narration as well in many cases. However, there are lots of other outlets, some in your own country such as: ЛитРес and Партнерские площадки. In addition, there are also all the usual international English-language retailers such as: Amazon, Apple, Google, Kobo, Overdrive, and Scribd etc..

Lastly, please leave any feedback or suggestions you may have below.

Best wishes,

Chalita

Filed under: , , , and Tagged: , , , , ,

A Night in Annwn – International

Published by Owen Jones on 4 January 2020

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:03 — 606.3KB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Email | TuneIn | RSS | More

A Night in Annwn
A Night in Annwn

A Night in Annwn

and its sequels

Life in Annwn and Leaving Annwn

by

Owen Jones

translated by professionals

In short, A Night in Annwn – International is about the Annwn Series, which relates the story of Welsh sheep farmer Willy Jones’ last few weeks on Earth, or on The Surface as he later comes to call it; his subsequent life in Annwn, which is ancient Welsh for Heaven, but it was underground; and his decision to be reborn in order to help mankind.

In A Night in Annwn, Willy Jones is missing his deceased wife and has let himself go, much to the dismay of his daughter. One day, he undergoes a Near-Death Experience (NDE) and wakes up in what he assumes is hospital, except that his nurse seems incredibly familiar. After a time in Heaven, which he is told is known by its ancient Celtic name of Annwn and is underground, he wakes up in a hospital in Cardiff on The Surface. The experience changes his life, but he does eventually die and goes on to live his Life in Annwn.

Willy pairs up with his wife again, and goes about re-leaning life in Annwn, until one day, he, his wife and daughter decide to be reborn as Bodhisattvas to help mankind, This is the theme of the third book in the series Leaving Annwn.

A Night in Annwn has been translated by professional translators into the following languages so far. Life in Annwn has been translated into some of them, and some have even been narrated by professional voice-artists, however the translations and narrations are on-going processes, so you may need to check back to see if your language has been covered yet. If you click on the book covers below, you will be presented with a sample of the text in that language courtesy of Amazon, although the books are also available on iTunes, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Scribd, Tolino and Audible in other formats.

English

Spanish

Portuguese

French

Dutch

Swedish

Daddy’s Hobby – The Story of Lek, A Bar Girl In Pattaya

Our sister blog: The Amiable Dragon

Filed under: , , and Tagged: , , , , ,

Asian Shorts International

Published by Owen Jones on 2 January 2020

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:02 — 364.8KB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Email | TuneIn | RSS | More

Asian Shorts Audiobook
Asian Shorts Audiobook

Asian Shorts International

by various authors

translated and narrated

by professionals

collated by

Owen Jones

Asian Shorts International is an anthology of nineteen short stories by nine different authors. Most of them are professional writers but two of them were previously unpublished and one of those went on to write several more books.

The writers live all over the world too, in as much as nine people can, but countries include Cambodia, Canada, England, Thailand, USA, Vietnam and Wales. Their names and brief bios can be found under the list of translations below. free audiobook copies can be obtained in most cases, and other languages are being added as they become available.

The authors contributing to Asian Shorts International, in no particular order, are: Mike Lord, Owen Jones, Bernard Foong, Gay Ingram, Jennifer J. Chow, S. R. Mallery, Trevor Aindow and David Collier.

Please support these authors by checking out  and reading their work.

English Edition

German Edition

Portuguese Edition

Afrikaans Edition

Italian Edition

Authors’ Bios of Contributors to Asian Shorts International:

Mike Lord

Sinagiri, by Mike Lord – Rajah Kasyapu & the Frescoes at Singiriya, in Sri Lanka.

Smashwords: http://tinyurl.com/mrpafs7 Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/o74846h

Owen Jones

Owen Jones writes in many genre which you can discover on his here: http://owencerijones.com . His flagship series ‘Behind The Smile ~ The Story of Lek, A Bar Girl in Pattaya’ is here: http://behind-the-smile.org

Bernard Foong

Bernard Foong (aka Young) is the author of ‘A Harem Boy’s Saga; a memoir’ by Young (seven book series): http://aharemboysaga.com/wp/ The first three books in the series – ‘Initiation’, ‘Unbridled’ and ‘Debauchery’ (published by Solstice publishing) are currently available at all Amazon online stores e.g. http://amzn.to/1FMlHVY

Gay Ingram

Gay Ingram writes historical fiction. Mai Lin: Another New Beginning is her latest release. See all her published books at https://www.amazon.com/author/gayingram. She also contributes a weekly column to http://venturegalleries.com/author/gayingram/.

Jennifer J. Chow

Jennifer J. Chow writes Asian-American fiction with a geriatric twist. She is the author of The 228 Legacy, a 2013 Finalist for ’Foreword

Reviews’ Book of the Year Award. She also writes the Winston Wong cozy mystery series under J.J. Chow. Visit her website for more details: www.jenniferjchow.com

S. R. Mallery

As a former singer, calligrapher, quilt designer, and ESL teacher, S.R. Mallery has been labeled nothing short of ‘eclectic’, see: http://www.srmallery.com

As a writer, history is her focus and is woven into her stories with a delicate thread. See http://tinyurl.com/srmallery

Trevor Aindow

Trevor Aindow is an accomplished bass guitarist who has played with many bands both at home in the UK and while holidaying abroad in Europe and in Asia. His Facebook page is at: https://www.facebook.com/trevor.aindow or you can contact him on trevoraindow@yahoo.co.uk

David Collier

David Collier is the founder and owner of Pattaya’s most famous bookshop the ‘Canterbury Tales Café’ in Soi Chaiyapoon, where he is often to be found reading and drinking coffee. http://www.canterburytalescafe.com He also runs a very popular Facebook group at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/749636571822694/

Daddy’s Hobby – The Story of Lek, A Bar Girl In Pattaya

Our sister blog: The Amiable Dragon

Filed under: , , , , , and Tagged: , , , , ,

Daddy’s Hobby Previews

Published by Owen Jones on 27 December 2019

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:52 — 841.6KB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Email | TuneIn | RSS | More

Daddy's Hobby Previews

Daddy’s Hobby Previews

Daddy’s Hobby Previews

This blog post, Daddy’s Hobby‘s Previews contains previews on Amazon of BEHIND THE SMILE – The Story of Lek, A Bar Girl in Pattaya” volume 1: Daddy’s Hobby in all the languages I currently have available: English, German and Portuguese. In some cases, there will be special offers and free audiobooks, while stocks last.

Lek was born the eldest child of four in a typical rice farming family. She did not expect to do anything any different from the other girls in her class in the northern rice belt of Thailand.

Typically that would be: work in the fields for a few years; have a few babies; give them to mum to take care of and back to work until her kids had their own children and she could stop working to take care of them.

One day a catastrophe occurred out of the blue – her father died young and with huge debts that the family knew nothing about. Lek was twenty and she was the only one who could prevent foreclosure. However, the only way she knew was to go to work in her cousin’s bar in Pattaya.

She went as a waitress-cum-cashier, but when she realised that she was pregnant by her worthless, estranged husband, things had to change. She had the baby, gave it to her mother to look after and went back to work. However, now she needed real money to provide a better life for her child and to make up for spending its whole youth 500 miles away. She drifted into the tourist sex industry.

The book relates some of her ‘adventures’, her dreams and nightmares and her ‘modus operandi’. It tries to show, from Lek’s point of view, what it really is like to be a Thai bar girl – the hopes and frustrations, the hopes and the let-downs, the hopes and the lies and deceit that are part of her every day life.

One day she meets a man she likes and he likes her too. Nothing new there, it had happened hundreds of times, but she feels that it is different. They have a wonderful four weeks together and then he goes home – as they all had, leaving more promises and more hopes.

This one returns, but real life with a real boyfriend is not as easy as she had dreamed it would be. They go through good and bad times, but will they stay together and for how long?

After all she has been through, will she be able to be a regular girlfriend or even a wife again? Will she ever really be able to trust a man enough again either? Or would she be better off giving up her dreams and carrying on working in the bar?

Lek begins to find out that getting what you wish for is not always as good as you thought it would be.

‘Behind The Smile’ refers to the fact that Thailand is known the world over as ‘The Land of Smiles’.

English

German

Portuguese

Filed under: , and Tagged: , , , , ,