Awang Goneng (W A Hulaimi) took blogging to a new height by compiling his blogs into a book. The book Growing Up In Trengganu (GUIT) was published by Monsoon Books and so well received that it set some wannabe writers like me who only started blogging as recently as July 2007 dreaming of becoming one. Latest news about his book is that the publishers are going for a reprint.
Dreaming is easy of course but writing isn't. Supposing that you have managed to compile a heap of your blogs which when turned into hard copies do you think it is easy to get somebody to publish it? It maybe easy if you are Awang Goneng who had been been in the print business as a reporter or something for sometimes. Who would know of Zawi? Now lets go one step further and I did manage to get my book published, how would I sell it? Even a well known blogger like Awang Goneng had a tough time initially. Most book stores in the major towns looked in askance when asked for the book called Growing Up In Trengganu by Awang Goneng. They would know of the latest book by Sydney Sheldon but not by Awang Goneng. Thanks to the regular requests by fellow bloggers book stores by the names of Kinokuniya, MPH and Popular in KL are able to identify the name of the book even if you mention the name GUIT.
So far I have only managed to put in a miserly 44 blogs. Compare that to Pak Idrus's 1,000 blogs thus far! Out of the 44 how many will be worthy enough to be put in a book? Could even be none at all. Some of them are just mere ramblings put in just to make sure that a new post be put in once in every 7 to 10 days just to keep it alive. That was the advice given my first guru H J Angus. H J Angus was one of the two bloggers who spurred me on to go beyond the first blog. Rocky was the other one. To the two of them I will be forever feel indebted. Due to sheer ignorance I deleted my first blog thinking that it will go to the archive box. With that goes their two most valuable comments.Without their comments by blog would have remained with just the one and only post as content.
There are other blogs by others though that truly deserve reading by any readers who understand English. These are gems that are true life stories that deserve to be turned into books. Turning them into a book is important in order to reach the other readers who do not have access to the internet due to various reasons. Even those with internet connections don't read blogs sometimes. I was one of them before I started reading Malaysia-today. The few blogs that I know before that put me off from reading them as they tend to be self centred stories about what they do from day to day which was of course boring.
Among the blogs of note is the one by Pi Bani who twists her stories around people involved with HIV and AIDS through no fault of theirs. So Pi Bani can easily turn her story into a book. The problem is how to end her book when the story she is writing about will continue till eternity? It can be turned into a serial I guess. Each book will be very thick indeed.
Next on my dream list is a book by this man who spent his life on a drilling barge in the backwaters of Kalimantan.That is his latest site, the barge can be towed to anywhere in the world though. He used to drill for oil in Sudan before and I often wondered whether a barge was used to drill for oil there as Sudan is neaver near to any seas. The sight of AK47 in the hands of juveniles scared the shit out of him and he left Africa in quite a hurry but lived to write about it. His story of his Palace adventures in Burma (now Myanmar) is another story that keeps playing back in my mind. He was out with his boss with the intention of drilling other holes of pleasures in mind. Later he turned out to be the gallant knight in shining armour when he came to the rescue an Australian lass from her misery from being neglected by the other knights. I would tell all and sundry to buy his book should it ever be published. This story teller extraordinaire goes by the Name of Mat Salo.
Next on my list of authors who can produce books by just compiling their blogs is a journalist working for a mainstream media. In her blog she didn't write about what her employer asked her to write for the assignment. Instead she writes on how she goes about to various parts of the world to cover events that will be sent back home to be printed in the media. I guess you have read her stories in her blogsite as she is non other than Fauziah Ismail.
For a start I have created a new site called Stories From The Blogs which is accessible at http://StoriesFromBlogs.blogspot.com/. I have posted several URLs to the stories by the above writers. From time to time more URLs will be added to the list either by the same writers or from other writers depending on the latest information as to the discovery of new interesting blogs based on seemingly true lifestories (who could really tell huh?).
I would be most grateful if some kind souls out there could scout for more of such gems to be put on the list. In due course when we have ample number of permanent helps, more people will be given the password to operate the site to add to the list and write a brief excerpts to the story to guide readers on the sort of story they like to read.
It is next to impossible for me to search all the blogs and read all the stories written as there are so many of them. Currently no parameters is set other than that it has to be based on truelife stories. No absolute proof needed to be seeked though and it will be taken at face value. Am I infringing on any copyright rules here?
Those who are interested to be involved in the project, please email me at mohdzawi@gmail.com.
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