asian shorts

asian shorts

Asian Shorts – Audiobook

Published by Owen Jones on 1 February 2019

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:20 — 2.1MB)

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Asian Shorts – Audiobook

Asian Shorts

Compiled by

Owen Jones

Narrated by

Bob Sterry

Asian Shorts came about because of a sequence of events on one weekend. A friend was telling me that he had several short stories with Asia as a backdrop, I was saying that I had a few as well. Then another friend sent me an email that he wanted to write a short on Pattaya, and one of my Thai cousins sent me her latest photo, the one on the cover of this book.

It was like somebody was trying to tell me something, or several were anyway.

The nineteen stories by nine authors in this anthology were sent to me in one month, but are as varied as their writers. The stipulation was that Asia or an Asian had to feature strongly in the story. We have stories featuring Cambodia, China, Laos, Malaysia, Pakistan, Thailand, the USA and Vietnam, by Asian and non-Asian authors who live in or come from Britain, Malaysia, Thailand, the USA and Vietnam.

Some of these writers are well-known as writers, some are better known in other spheres; some have written a lot before and been published in the traditional sense, others are travelling the Indie Publishing path, and for yet others this is the very first time they or you will have seen their stories in print of any kind.
You can read more about each author by visiting the web sites that they have given after their stories. I thoroughly recommend that you do this, as what you will find out about the authors will surprise you.

I guarantee that.

Free Audiobook Link:

http://smarturl.it/asian-shorts-bounty?IQid=MPS

Free Audiobook Link:

http://smarturl.it/asian-shorts-bounty?IQid=MPS

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Follow-Up on ‘Asian Shorts’

Published by Owen Jones on 20 June 2015
Follow-Up on ‘Asian Shorts’

Follow-Up on ‘Asian Shorts’

Follow-Up on ‘Asian Shorts’

This is just a quick follow-up on ‘Asian Shorts’. A lot of the last seven weeks and nearly all of the last four days has gone into launching an anthology called ‘Asian Shorts’ which contains twenty stories by ten authors, so I was ecstatic to see a sale hours after it going live.

This could have been a contributor showing solidarity and good marketing sense or it could have been an unknown. To be honest, I don’t care, I am equally happy either way. I would be glad if one (or more, please) of the authors bought the book, but also chuffed if it was a reader who just happened to see one of the ads.

Anyway, the book is out there now, like a teenager who goes away to university or to work. You’ve done your best, and you will always be there in support, but success or failure is now pretty much out of your hands, and in those of the population of the world.

This is where the analogy changes, because it is where a writer should spawn another baby, in the form of a book, but parents rarely do 🙂

I read through the first six chapters of my own book in the middle of the night and liked it even more than I did when I was writing it. I came up with a title as well, ‘All For Love’. My first idea for a subtle, ‘The Story of A Female Russian Spy’ seems less appealing though.

Perhaps, ‘She was torn between her love of her parents, her country and her man’ is better?

What do you think?

Not easy without having read the book, is it?

Well, I can’t even give it to you, because this is the one that I am going to pitch to the… them, the last one having been a year ago.

Wish me luck 🙂

On another level, although it is too early to know how successful ‘Asian Shorts’ will be, I have already made it known that the next anthology will be ‘Paranormal Shorts’, so if you’d like to be in the follow-up, I hope to publish in late July.

Visit ‘Asian Shorts’

All the best.

Owen

Please visit my bookshop

 Podcast: Follow-Up on ‘Asian Shorts’

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Publication of Asian Shorts

Published by Owen Jones on 19 June 2015
Publication of Asian Shorts

Publication of Asian Shorts

Publication of Asian Shorts

The day has dawned for publication. I’ve read through the whole manuscript for the fifth or sixth time, attached the authors’ contact details, assigned page numbers, formatted it and written the blurb for the back cover. I had designed the front cover last month, so ‘Asian Shorts’ will be submitted to Kindle, CreateSpace, Smashwords, XinXii, Lulu and Kobo after I’ve had my late afternoon break. Permission for publication is usually granted within twelve hours.

So, if you are reading this on or after June 19th. our publication is almost certainly out there waiting for you in any format you like.

A little about the contents, for those of you who have never heard of ‘Asian Shorts’ before. It is the product of ten authors and a neighbour, the girl on the cover. Her name is Wao, which is quite apt. Anyway, she donated her photo, just as the authors donated the use of their stories for publication. All rights to the photo and the individual stories remain with those who created them.

There are twenty stories and the stipulation for inclusion was that they had to be about Asia or Asians. The cost of an ebook will initially be $0.99 and then $1.99, but will later rise to $2.99 if we add more stories.

I would like to remind you here, that if you buy the ebook now, you will be automatically entitled to all future updates free of charge. So, you have nothing to lose by getting the publication while it is smaller yet also cheaper.

Please support the authors who have made an effort to bring you this unique insight into life in Asia for such a low price. The next link will take you to a page on this blog where you can read the book cover and travel over to Amazon.

Read the details of Asian Shorts by clicking this

All the best,

Owen

Amazon Author Central

Please visit my bookshop

Podcast: Publication of Asian Shorts

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First Edition of Asian Shorts

Published by Owen Jones on 17 June 2015
First Edition of Asian Shorts

First Edition of Asian Shorts

First Edition of Asian Shorts

I am inordinately proud to announce that the first edition of ‘Asian Shorts’ will be available as from tomorrow, June 18th – Yay!

On the negative side first, it is only 74.4% (see update below) of the length that I wanted it to be, but perhaps I was over-ambitious in the first place. However, this means that if you still want to submit a(nother) story, please do so until I update this post to say that the book is full…. and if it is, perhaps we can do a second one! That really depends on you, dear writers and you, dear readers.

On the positive side, many things. The quality and divergency of the writers and their stories spring to mind. They far exceed what I had hoped for in this my first effort at such a project.

Everyone who has submitted a story has my most sincere gratitude.

There is also a surprise, which I only heard of today as I write this post and that is that one of our contributors has pitched the book to Asia Books, the biggest book chain in Thailand. However, it is not a ‘cold call’, he has sold through them before and had a meeting with them which ‘went well’. They have agreed to read the manuscript! How many writers get even that far?

So, fingers crossed on that one.

Does that make you want to submit a(nother) story to this first edition of Asian Shorts?

It does me.

Needless to say, I will be working on this project now until it’s done (besides publicising it for the rest of my life), so my own new novel, which is still untitled and the web site maintenance I was talking about this morning will have to take a back seat, but that’s how it goes when you’re a one-man band, eh?

If I have ever had a plea to make, it is this: if you want to get in this first edition of Asian Shorts (and make my life a bit easier), send me your story and bio now, right now, before we go to print for the first time.

** Update: I was reading an article by a short stories anthology master, and she says that such a book should be about 30k words long – ours is 37k, so I think we are looking good, and I am clsing submissions for this edition. However, I will create a second one, if the stories are sent to me.

Thank you.

All the best,

Owen

Please visit my bookshop

Please visit my bookshop

Podcast: First Edition of Asian Shorts

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Miserable Sods

Published by Owen Jones on 12 May 2015
Miserable Sods

Miserable Sods

Miserable Sods

I have received a few snide remarks from some miserable sods concerning the designation of the revenue from ‘Asian Shorts’, well, let me tell you miserable sods a true story.

Many members of my family give £5 a month to help ‘an unfortunate, Third World child’. I can think of at least four at the moment, so that is a total donation of about £200 a year, of which about £50 gets to the person it is intended for.

Now, here’s a fact, like it or not, but £50 a year does not go very far at all, even in a Third World country, whether you are trying to feed, clothe a child or send it to university. £120 a weekly is a lot closer to the mark for a decent education. For four years, and I have tried to make that by writing books as I have no other source of income and may not work here.

Likewise, my wife may not join me in the UK, if I went home to live, because the stupid rule now is that you need an income of £18,000 per annum to support a spouse. So we are well and truly stuck.

All you, miserable sods, you holier-than-thou critics, can stick that in your pipes and smoke it, and perhaps try to mind your own business.

∞

I feel better after saying that. Anyway, it’s a degree less today at forty-five Celsius, but it’s hard to tell the difference and still no signs of the monsoon that is doubtless on its way to reduce the temperature by ten degrees. I thought I’d seen signs of it a few days ago, but there you are, I’m a falang (white foreigner), so what do I know?

∞

We have two days off from Gail, as the other grandmother wanted to have her. Usually, she comes back confused by the change of routines (I suppose), but it gives my wife a break and a chance to catch up on the things she no longer seems to have time for – mainly socialising and the garden, I think, but she misses Gail all the same.

∞

More promises for ‘Asian Shorts’, but no more deliveries as yet.

Perhaps tomorrow, but as my wife is fond of singing, ‘Tomorrow never comes’, she has never noticed the fist two words of the line, and I have never pointed them out to her, since her version seems apt too.

All the best,

Owen

Podcast: Miserable Sods

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