The memoir I worked on last year has been published. It is being distributed to bookstores at the moment. It’s a somewhat daunting thing. I now have to engage in things like book launches, literary festivals (three in the next two months) as well as radio and TV interviews. These are the least favourite things about writing; although this is my first solo book.
It’s funny, a little disappointing, but actually unsurprising that chauvinists, bigots and purists have started sending me quite ugly, insulting and vengeful messages. The same pair of fellows as previously told me to “go back to” Malaysia, because I am “not African” and “Africa is for Africans”. I either ignore them or mute them on social media.
Nonetheless, I am happy with the finished product. My publisher, Melinda Ferguson, has been great at guiding me through the process of writing – especially at the start when I really felt that writing a memoir was not on my list of priorities. I went ahead and spend the year on it, delaying the start on a book about a cricketing legend. First, though, I have to get through the marketing and promotion stuff over the coming months. And then there is that other project…