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Michael Allan Charles

Stories

4/12/2016

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I was in Kampot last week and had lunch in a hotel right on the river. There was a young British couple with a small child playing on the swings and we got to talking. When I asked them if they were on vacation they said no, we live here, and pointed to their house down the river a bit.. It turns out they had come on vacation a few years ago, lived in a rented house right beside the hotel and got to know the owners and fell in love with Cambodia. 

He was an electrician and she a teacher and they simply got up and left London, built their own house on the river and enjoy bringing up their child full time. When they lived in London, they told me, they spent all day working, putting their baby in child care and spent an hour or two talking to each other at night until they fell into bed exhausted. The man told me that he decided that was not the way he wanted to live with the woman he wanted to spend his whole life with so they packed up everything and left.

What is interesting he said, was that his parents, who had left Iran and Italy respectively, had a hard time with him leaving, although they had done the same thing to their parents one generation before. 

I wonder how many of you, dear readers, feel the same way as this young couple and feel like packing up and building a house in the middle of a wilderness on a river in the middle of Cambodia with no neighbours within miles? How many of you would have the courage to actually do it?
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Then there was the French middle aged couple I met making their way through Cambodia. They lived in Alsace but worked in Switzerland of all places. When I asked why, they said Switzerland hires the French because they work for less money than the Swiss and have a greater pool of skills because France is so large compared to Switzerland. They were very knowledgeable about the French in Cambodia. There are still signs of the French occupation, by the way,  like bakeries and going to sleep at lunch. Let's just hope you have no emergency at lunch time!

Unfortunately, I discovered a great bakery near my home. The bad news is that I will put on lots of weight, but the good news is I can get my old clothes altered very cheaply or even more cheaply get new clothes made,  so no problem. The French loaf is out of this world. 

Anyway, I had a long talk with the French couple who had toured Phnom Penh and asked if the pollution was bothering me and I had to embarrassingly say I never even noticed i,t but now that they did mention it to me it is started to bother me. Kampot is great with the river running to the sea ( or is that away from the sea?) but they were really looking forward to travelling to Siam Reap and planned to spend a week there which is probably a good idea since there is so much to see. 
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I am sure you will read these and other stories in my next novel, so you have something to look forward to read how I changed things but if you have not read my first novel yet, It All Started in Mandalay, what are you waiting for?
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Serendipity

3/1/2016

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What are the chances of someone in the chaise lounge next to mine reading my book It All Started in Mandalay?. If it was a mega best seller the chances would be pretty good, but I have a "selective" audience. This beautiful women, as it turned out, was actually reading my book, the book I wrote, the book . Unbelievable!!!!

​I was just fascinated watching her eye movements and wondering what chapter she was reading and what she thought of what she was reading.

Finally I had to break down and ask her where she was at in the book. She told me Rosa had just escaped from India and was on her way back to the Philippines. I asked her if she cried at this stage and she said she hardly ever cries. Wait till she gets to Paul's demise near the end of the book. If she does not cry at his death she never will. I cry every time I read it, and I wrote the story. It is an amazing experience to cry about some fiction that you know is totally made up but you cry anyway. Why? I understand that as a reader you may get caught up and identify with the character but I guess as a writer the same thing happens. What do they call that...a suspension of reality?

Needless to say, I autographed her ( my) book and she was thrilled to bits. Obviously I was even more thrilled but does she really have to know?

I can't wait for the day when I sit down at a beach somewhere again and two people are reading my book, one on either side of me!

Please buy the book here and in the blink of an eye it will be on your phone or computer. Buy it now It All started in Mandalay 
I can't remember whether I told you the story of a a new friend I made in my apartment in Phnom Penh. By chance he was from Kuala Lumpur and we started to talk about the book. Shockingly, he simply opened his phone and bought the book. That was almost as shocking as the woman reading my book right beside me. 

​The next thing you know, someone will be buying the movie rights!!!!
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The power of stories

2/26/2016

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You do not see me but I am there. As a foreigner who visited a Pagoda on Meak Bochea Day, a day of cleansing oneself of one's sins, the monks eat a festive meal before noon and then disappear to study or do whatever monks do. Many guests are in the pagoda praying and making merit  by bringing food, feeding the monks and serving them. For some reason, one of the monks spoke English and asked me to join them, I assume because  I showed an interest in what was happening and I had a white face. ( obviously a foreigner.) The monk who invited me asked me to pay my respects to the head monk. First of all, I really did not know how to pay respects and secondly I was not sure who he was pointing at. Was he pointing at a human being, or the alter, or a monk that was no longer with us? 

After some false starts, I figured out who he was talking about and bowed my head in his direction. He told me to go over and speak with him, which I did. When I got back, there was a heaping bowl of food at "my " plate and I felt like I had 400 eyes staring at me to ensure I ate every morsel. Since I had no choice, I ate food I did not recognize or even like and ate every last morsel. 

It was sort of embarrassing when the monks suddenly got up to leave, I had no idea whether I should go with them to a study session or something or say put. Needless to stay I decided to remain seated, not an easy task considering I had to be in yoga position and ensure I did not point my feet at anyone, especially a monk! t was embarrassing, I must tell you, when a woman server bowed before me, as if I was a monk!

I am sure this story will find its' way into one of my future books in one form or another. 

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Another incident that happened to me recently was the result of my crown on my tooth getting loose. I went to a dentist's office near where I live and was delighted that the office was clean, full of modern equipment and nurses and dentists wearing masks, even though we had to take off our shoes outside. 

The first thing the dentist said to me after he pried off the crown was " O my God"  I figured he must have said something in Cambodian so I asked him to repeat it and there was no doubt what he said..."O My God!"  What was I in for, I thought to myself, especially after he called in a "specialist". He said you better go and have an X ray before we do anything.
I felt the dollar bills adding up by the minute. I had my X ray and the specialist said you need a new crowns and a bridge. I did not know exactly what he was talking about  but thought I would have to take out a mortgage on my house. 

He slowly told me how much it would cost...$180.00 per crown, $2 for an Xray and so on. If you have had dentist work in the west, you know it is $100 before they even say hello.  Assuming the quality of the work is the same it is the bargain of the century.
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Off course, all of these stories and thousands more I will tell you are the lifeblood of any author. I don't think you can just write a story strictly from your imagination without some foundation or point of view or place. The creativity part comes with how you manipulate that story and work with it to make it a novel.

Reread my story, It all Started in Mandalay and see if you can figure out which parts are strictly my imagination and which parts are things that may have actually happened. 
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Who Done it?

11/28/2015

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Whenever you read a murder mystery like Baldacci or Picoult, at the end of the day  all of loose ends come together and you know exactly who did what to whom and when they did it. You leave the book satisfied that you have helped solved the mystery.  

Yesterday I just finished reading Linwood Barclay's Broken Promise and for the first time I was shocked to learn that he left more questions unanswered than he answered. At the end of the book we still do not know s who killed the woman that was lying in a pool of blood at the beginning of the book.

As it turns out, the important question of whose baby it was did get answered and we are probably more or less left feeling good about that, but what I considered a central question about who killed the wife went unanswered.

Wow....you can do that in novel?

There was also another murder that went unsolved and many questions about  motivation. It will make for a terrific sequel if he wants to go there, but the fact that questions are left unanswered does not detract from the book. How creative and billiant of Barclay's to be able to do this.
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​It got me thinking about my book  It All Started in Mandalay. I have a cast of characters and all of their stories come out. by the end. I even charted it to make sure they did! I have the Thai ex pat, the Vietnamese daughter of a American sympathizer during the war,  the Phillipina , the drunk American and so on. By the time you have finished reading the book, you know their stories. You also know that underneath their exterior, each character is essentially a good person. In Broken Promise, there were some really nasty characters and we do not even know what happened to them and perhaps could care less.

​In my book I even included an after forward telling the reader where each of the  characters went and what happened to them after the book ended! , in my next book, which I hope will be an erotic thriller based in Thailand, I will have a smattering of bad guys and although you will know "who done it" by the end of the book, I will leave some strings dangling for you to think about when you finish the story. Just as in life, I guess it is not that important to know everything!!!
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Finding your Voice

11/26/2015

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I had a great story to tell which became It All Started in Mandalay, a love story about an expat teacher in Myanmar who was very happily married in her home country but came to Burma to make enough money to enable her children to go to school. Like most expats living and working in a foreign country, she discovered so much more than money. She found a beautiful Myanmar man and they had a baby together which led to so many complications. She could not marry the man because she was already married and in love with her husband. She could not have an abortion for a variety of reasons and the child could not stay in Myanmar. To find out what happened you have to read the book and I hope you will to find out the answer to all of the unanswered questions you may have. 
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I knew I had a great story that is repeated throughout the world more times than you can imagine and I was passionate about telling it. It had great characters, a wonderful plot and many powerful themes, but i was left with a rather important question. Who was going to tell this story?
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In the first draft,  I wrote from the point the point of view of the expat teacher,  the new mother. It was complicated because I had so many characters and it was hard to bring out their character in her  talking voice. When I gave the first draft to a few people like my brother, he said the book sounded like a North American male writing. Since the first person was an Asian and a woman, I figured I needed a major rewrite.

What next? I used the third person throughout except the end which I put it in italics and used the voice of the grown up daughter telling her side of the story which brought all of the lose ends together.

Since the book was written, I have learned that there was another way of doing this. I just put down JodiPicoult's new book, " Leaving Time" which is quite insightful, by the way, especially if you like elephants. 

She has about four main characters and she simply labels the chapters with their names and talks in their voice, first person. This works amazingly well and  I  wish I had done it. I think my book would be more powerful and "real"  

I know by looking at the sales records, I have sold my book in Europe, India, all over Canada and United States. If you are one of the readers, can you write me please and let me know if you think what I did works and if you think it would be more powerful to use the first person for each of the characters so that they could tell their own story.

If you have not read the book yet, please do so and keep sending me feedback. It is a great benefit for what I am writing now which I cannot wait to tell you about by it will have to wait for another blog article. 
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Ruth Frankel Graner

10/9/2015

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I taught with Ruth for years in a school just north of Toronto. She was an inspired artist and wonderful mentor to many needy students. Everyone loved her and as the rabbi said at her funeral yesterday, when she spoke to you you either thought she was crazy or absolutely inspired. Her latest venture was to interview as many people as possible about miracles that happened to them. 

Unfortunately, she never got a chance to finish her book she she died suddenly just a few days ago, to all of our anguish and grief. In fact, we just had Ruth over for dinner about a month ago, and I proudly presented her with my novel: It All Started in Mandalay. She seemed delighted. A few days later I got an email from her saying she loved the first chapter and could not wait to finish the book. Since she did not write me after that, I assumed she did not finish the book, or worse, finished the book, but did not think very much of it and I did not want to embarrass her by asking how she liked the book. 

When we went to the "shiva" today, I introduced myself to her sister. She said, so you are Michael Charles! What could I have possibly done to warrant such a response from her, I wondered. She told me her sister had given her the book and told her it was a must read !  I later spoke with her daughter who told me she had heard all about the book and could not wait to read it.  
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Myanmar
I was overwhelmed by the comments from Ruth's sister and daughter. You can imagine how I felt when I heard the comments thinking that Ruth never spoke to me about the book after her initial e mail. I guess my one word of advice to any of you reading this is to let people know when you really like something they have done, be it writing a book or cleaning the house. You just never know when you will get another chance. 

To a very wonderful mother, teacher, artist and friend. May her name be forever a blessing. 
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World Wide Distribution

9/16/2015

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When I just checked out my sales figure for August, I was amazed at how much money I made, until I looked more closely and realized the number was in Indian Rupees. Although little money in Canadian dollars, it was huge in my eyes. Imagine what a buzz I felt  to know that people in India actually bought my book, hopefully to read. With the Internet today, it does not take long to get world wide distribution and if your book is any good no reason why it should not be a world wide best seller in the English speaking world. Who could have dreamed that I would have hard copy in the largest book store in Asia, and now people in India are buying the book online. I am just tickled pink and  brown. ( having a broken ankle just adds to the colour, most blue)
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I stared to think about it a bit and realized things on a couple of levels. Hey, the book is a love story, why shouldn't people all over the English speaking world enjoy the book? Although I am from North America, I spent many years working in Asia and I like to think that I have at least a small feel for how Asians see the world. In many ways, love is universal and my themes of love and loss are quite universal and even though the setting is in  Myanmar, the themes are the same...redemption, friendship and fulfillment. Thank you to the Indians who bought the book and I hope you do enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. 


On a deeper lever, in this instance I can see how the Internet has changed our world. Imagine a lone, solitary individual, me, writing a book in my office over a number of months, if not years and having the ability in 2015 to actually get people all over the world downloading ( and hopefully reading) the book. I know I have heard from Vietnamese, Thais, Burmese and now Indians who have actually put good money ( or plastic) on the table to read the book. What a wonderful feeling for me, the author and so illustrative of how the world has changed so dramatically in the last ten years or so. 


Even this blog was not possible just a little while ago. According to the statistics from weebly, hundreds of people are following this blog and I hope finding it useful, especially in they want to teach in Asia. I have no idea how they get to the blog but they do. 


Did I mention a nephew of mine who wanted to teach overseas who wrote me in Thailand and told me how useful the blog was to him? Could this have happened in the past?
Buy here
If you are one of the few readers of this site who have not read the book yet, please press the button above, put some plastic on the table and read the book. Then let me know how you liked it. Since I stopped writing this blog at he beginning of the summer many of you have written and asked me to continue to write so I will. 
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I broke my ankle a few weeks so will not be working in Asia for a while, so I will start to give tips again about how to get a job in Asia.  Just  me know where your interests lie in terms of information you need to know. I look forward to hearing from you either after you have read the book or how to get a job in Asia!
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Second Edition of It All Started in Mandalay

7/7/2015

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I was in Asia Books at the Terminal 21 Mall in Bangkok last week holding my book.This is the biggest and newest mall in Bangkok and this is the biggest book store in Bangkok so it was quite a thrill.  Too bad there was no one there to take a picture and since I just have a stupid phone the picture I cold have taken will just remain in my head. I got quite a charge of holding the hardback edition of something I actually wrote.  If you read this blog regularly  you will know that a second edition of It all Started in Mandalay is now out . It is much better because I added thirty pages of dialogue which gives more insight into the characters.


I really appreciate all of the wonderful comments you have made which makes me feel so rewarded.  I am now back in Canada on holiday and  If there are Torontonians reading this, I just ordered some books I will keep in the trunk of my car to be delivered to your home, especially if you live near a golf course. I would also love to come and talk to your book club or reading group. Teachers seem to love the book the best because of my references to international teaching and education but I have received lots of kind notes from other who are not teachers.
There is no country in the world that is like Myanmar as you can see from all of these pictures. . The people, the sounds, the culture, the scenes. If you have not traveled to Myanmar yet you owe it to yourself to go there and see for yourself. But if you can't go there for whatever reason, at least read my book and get a little flavour of what you might see, hear and feel. 
You can buy the book at Asia books in you live in Asia but if you live elsewhere you can certainly order on line with any of your favourite book sellers or go directly to Friesen Press by pressing the button on the right. 


Happy reading
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On Being an Author

5/25/2015

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It is really gratifying being an author and looking at your sales soaring. So many people have told me how much they enjoyed the book and many said it should be required reading for anyone contemplating going into teaching. In fact, as I was working with a new teacher today she happened to see a copy of the book on my table and took it for reading. I can't wait to see how she compares her experiences of working in a foreign school with the characters in the book. She promised to report  back to me when she finished reading the book.  You can either get a hard copy of the book, which you can buy at Asia Books if you live in Asia or online at Friesen Press.  at http://www.friesenpress.com/bookstore/title/119734000014595972
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Advantages of Being an Author
  • Instant celebrity status, at least in your own mind.
  • The opportunity to travel to promote your book. This is a picture of me in Singapore last week. Do I look relaxed?
  • Meeting great people and continually feeding your own ego when readers send such nice reviews and compliments
  • Great tax advantages, if I can only figure them out


Latest Promotion
Buy a hard or soft copy of the book ( e version hard to sign) and send it to me. I will pay for the return post and sign it as a special promotion. Look forward to signing hundreds of copies and again thank you for buying and reading the book. It means a lot to me.
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Sex

4/18/2015

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I thought my book It all started in Mandalay  might be considered unbelievable by some in terms of the illicit sex that permeates the book, but I am learning more and more that it is quite tame compared to real life. I am on vacation for a few days in Bangkok and what happens in Bangkok stays in Bangkok!

Yesterday, an older Indian woman was in a shop asking about the "Metro" There is no Metro in Bangkok so I started to speak with her and asked if I could help. After sorting out the subway system for her and explaining some areas she could explore, her husband, 68 years old ,asked me where he could find a "sexy" massage. The ensuing conversation, which lasted about 30 minutes was fascinating and will have to find it's way into my next book. 

I asked if they both wanted to go and she said she sees enough vagina every day to last her a lifetime. I asked her what she meant by that and it turns out she was a gynecologist. The husband was a doctor also. I told them to save their money and just go back to their room for a little wild session and she said they do not do that anymore. If eyes could speak he would have killed her. He then replied that if he went with another woman she would grab him by his ear and twist it off. Not at all, she said, just take lots of condoms! I left them arguing in front of a store as I slipped away.

I then walked further up the road and sat down for a Coke in McDonald's of all places. A young Ugandan woman ended up sitting next to me and we started to talk. Apparently an older Ugandan woman promised her a job as a nanny in Bangkok and brought her over on a plane. In mid flight she was told there was no job and she had to do sex work to "pay back" the money she owed her. The woman told me that over the course of the year she had to pay back $6,000 and now to extend her visa she had to pay another few thousand. In actuality it cost about $40.

This girl ( in her twenties I would guess) was an indentured servant and she saw no way out of the mess she was in. In a few months or weeks, after she pays off the next debt, there will always be another debt to pay and another. As I left her, I saw a man speaking with her and no doubt will be in his bed in moments. 

After I walked out of McDonalds a woman approached me and asked where I was going? Just looking around I told her and then she asked i I wanted company. I gave my standard answer which is maybe on my way back. I went on my walk, turned around and headed back to my hotel. Out of nowhere someone hit me. I could not believe it. When I turned to see who it was, the woman shouted "you forgot me already!"

I guess some dalliances are more pleasant than others! I always like to add pictures to my blog, but what picture could I possibly put here? Words might have to suffice!
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    Michael Allan Charles is the first time author of It All Started In Mandalay

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