A Spoonful of Malaysian Magic

An Anthology —

A burong descends from Tansang Kenyalang in the midst of a dire catastrophe.
A shapeshifter frees Kedah from the dreaded Raja Bersiong only to uncover a darker secret.
A woman learns to channel her family’s food magic.
A young huntress of supernatural creatures charts her own path of love . . .

This anthology of short stories offers fresh takes on Malaysian folklore and fairy tales, adds enchantment to the ordinary, and bursts with new, wonderful flavours. Stir a little spoonful of magic into your tea, whether you’re from these shores or from far away.

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Stories by

Collin Yeoh • Hamizah Adzmi • Ilnaz A. Faizal • Ismim Putera • Joni Chng • Joshua Lim • Julia Alba • Rowan C • Sharmilla Ganesan • Stuart Danker • Syazwani Jefferdin • Zufar Zeid

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Cover Art and Design:	Amita Sevellaraja (amitaseve.com)
Illustrations:	Yura (yura-w.carrd.co)
Postcard Design:	Chew Yuin-Y (instagram.com/elvenstar/)

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Release date:	23 November 2023
Published by:	Teaspoon Publishing
Print ISBN:	978-967-19634-6-3
Ebook ISBN:	978-967-19634-7-0

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Paperback Pre-order Price:	RM50 | Full Price: RM60

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Collin Yeoh has wanted to be a writer all his life, and indeed has been writing professionally for 17 years. At some point, he remembered that advertising copy wasn’t what he wanted to write growing up as a lonely bookworm kid. He now finds writing things that have plots, characters, themes, genres, and that won’t be subject to notes like “please include more product benefits” a lot more fun. He lives in Kuala Lumpur.

Hamizah Adzmi is a storyteller and currently works as the Knowledge Mobilization Programme Officer for Musawah, an international women’s rights NGO. She pursued a MA in Creative Writing under the Chevening scholarship in 2016/2017, where she focused on writing fiction revolving around Malaysian women. Previously, she was in the media industry and taught Creative Writing in universities. Her interests include books, writing, and feminism.
Link : https://www.twitter.com/omgthisbook

Ilnaz A. Faizal enjoys writing stories that cross between the genres of horror, fantasy, and romance. She also writes poetry and screenplays. Her favourite authors are Sarah Dessen and R.L Stine. When she’s not writing, she can either be found reading, embroidering cartoon characters, or sleeping.
Link : https://twitter.com/Ilnaz_Faizal

Ismim Putera (he/him) is a poet and writer from Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo. His works can be found in online journals as well as anthologised in To Let the Light In Anthology of Life and Death, Instinct: Asian Speculative Poetry 2021, Colours of Tapestry 2: Stories from Asia, Unsaid: An Asian Anthology, and recently in The Big Book of Malaysian Horror. His poem “Durian Blossoms” won third place in the 7th Singapore Poetry Contest (2021) and “Jantina” was longlisted for the Malaysian Poetry Competition (2021).
Link : https://twitter.com/ismimputera

Joni Chng is a writer and photographer based in Malaysia, born and raised in Kedah. She draws a lot of inspiration from diverse cultures around the world, particularly from the Far East and Southeast Asia, with speculative elements of her own invention thrown in for good measure. Her work has appeared in several anthologies and magazines, including The Big Book of Malaysian Horror Stories (Fixi Novo, 2022), Night Terrors: Vol. 21 (Scare Street, 2022), Tainted Love: Women in Horror (Twisted Wing productions, 2021), and NANG 3: Fiction (2017).
Link : https://twitter.com/jonichng | https://www.instagram.com/jonichng/

Joshua Lim writes stories that reimagine the world around him. His fantasy short story “Generation Game Night” was shortlisted for the Malaysian Short Story Writing Competition 2022, and his other works have appeared in Fixi Novo’s anthologies KL Noir: Magic (2021) and The Big Book of Malaysian Horror Stories (2022). He is currently a medical student who finds time in between classes to write fiction and overthink his future.

A medical officer and quality manager by profession, Julia Alba has been writing fiction since she was a teenager. She loves a great story no matter the genre or the medium, whether it’s a book, a video game, an anime or a movie. Her bad habit is her inability to resist buying too much Harry Potter merchandise. She lives in Perak with her husband and daughter.
Link : https://twitter.com/joo_leeyah

Rowan C is 22 years old and currently studying accounting, which inspired the title of this work. They’re also heavily inspired by the D&D games they play, and they’ve always looked up to Neil Gaiman and the late Terry Pratchett. They hope, through their work, these interests of theirs can be shared with all of you.

Sharmilla Ganesan is a radio presenter, writer, and culture critic based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She was with The Star newspaper for over a decade; currently, she is attached to BFM 89.9, where she hosts shows on current affairs, the arts, books, and film. She has also written for The Atlantic, South China Morning Post, NewNaratif, and ArtsEquator.
Link : https://twitter.com/sharmillag | https://www.instagram.com/sharmillag/

Stuart Danker is a Malaysian author who’s spent a decade writing across multiple genres and mediums, and that’s after plying his trade in various industries such as hairdressing and accounting. His first novel, Tinhead City, KL, debuted in 2021. Find him at www.stuartdanker.com.
Link: https://twitter.com/stuartdanker | https://www.instagram.com/storystuey/

Syazwani Jefferdin is currently a 24-year-old PhD in English student at Nottingham University Malaysia. She has been writing since she was 9 and has been writing fantasy fiction since high school. Currently, she’s working on her PhD creative work titled God’s Eyes, a novel that will explore the Fantasy genre with Malaysian elements imbedded alongside classic western Fantasy elements.

Zufar Zeid lives in the morgue and tries to give a voice to the dead. In his free time, he pretends to write but is actually just daydreaming his life away.
Link: https://twitter.com/Lv80Necromancer | https://www.instagram.com/zufzeid/

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ABOUT THE EDITOR

Anna Tan writes fantasy stories and fairy tales, and helps people publish books at Teaspoon Publishing. She also wrangles writers and deadlines for the Malaysian Writers Society (MYWriters) and Penang Art District.

Anna has an MA in Creative Writing: The Novel under a Chevening scholarship and is the current President of MYWriters. She can be found tweeting as @natzers and forgetting to update annatsp.com.

Links :
https://facebook.com/annatansp | https://twitter.com/natzers | https://instagram.com/annatsp

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ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

Just as a teaspoon of sugar sweetens your tea, Teaspoon Publishing adds a dash of something special to your words. Whether it’s getting a dose of magic in your fiction, working magic with your words, or helping you find that magical balance of trad/indie/ hybrid publishing, we hope you’ll find what you’re looking for here!

It’s as simple as a TSP —

• Traditional: where we source and publish fantasy works as a micro-press
• Services: where we provide writing-related freelance services such as editing, proofreading, and copywriting.
• Publishing Hub: where we hold your hand(s) and let you decide how we can help you fulfil your publishing dreams.

Talk to us at info@teaspoonpublishing.com.my or check out our website at teaspoonpublishing.com.my.

We can also be found at:
https://facebook.com/teaspoonpublishing | https://twitter.com/teaspoonpub | https://instagram.com/teaspoonpublishing

A Long Journey

A long journey

I am reading a long-winded story
As I travel onward bound
for a busy crowded distant city
from my sleepy little town


Across peaceful quiet valleys
and a vast expansive plain,
I'm seated in this sturdy coach
Of a rocking rolling train.

It is a book that I had bought
Almost a year ago
Which I have read but less than half
Of all there is to know

So at last today I'm coming back
To resume from where I left
I've made progress in six good hours
And will finish it all by myself.

A teenager's suicide, and her mother's grief

20190914 1238hr

A teenager's suicide: is it always the parents' fault?

I came across an article about a mother's grief over the loss of her teenage daughter through suicide, excerpt and link below:

"Published in 2019 by Ethos Books, Loss Adjustment is a personal reflection by copy-editor Linda Collins on her journey with her husband, Malcolm McLeod, after their daughter, Victoria, committed suicide in 2014. 

Collins, 60, works as a copy editor at the political desk of the Straits Times. McLeod is deputy picture editor at ST. 0 

Victoria was their only child. 

Three years after the incident occurred, Collins recounts her 17-year-old daughter’s suicide in this book, weaving in her daughter’s diary entries, personal memories and accounts from the people in her life"

https://mothership.sg/2019/09/loss-adjustment-suicide-daughter-book/ 

Some of the comments on the original post in facebook accuse Victoria's parents of neglect, and of not reaching out to her when she was in pain.

Was it necessarily so?

I agree with those who say that the bond between parent and child could have been fractured long before the suicide took place. And that sharing meals together did not help alleviate the pain in Victoria's hidden life.

However, at the same time, we have yet to ascertain the origin, the circumstance or series of circumstances that brought about the silent "wailing of a bruised and battered heart".

It may not be entirely the parents' failure to reach out,or should I say reach in, to her. Her decision to end her life could perhaps be avoided if she had reached out to her parents for help instead.

After all, her mother was kept in the dark throughout the years.

The little known life of Abraham Lincoln

Finished reading this intriguing biography of Abraham Lincoln today. This book, written by Dale Carnegie in 1932, was inspired by Irishman T.P. O'Connor who wrote a column called "Men and Memories" for the Morning Post in London. Carnegie was surprised and fascinated at how little he knew about many personal aspects of Abraham Lincoln's life. Hence the book entitled, "Lincoln the Unknown"

This book presents Lincoln's life as one long odyssey of struggles and failures punctuated by occasional success and happy outcomes, which unfortunately were few and far between. Lincoln, the Unknown is a tale of a sad life fraught with seemingly unending disappointments and setbacks from one chapter to another.

By the time he was 49 years old, Lincoln was described as having "arrived" at failure in business and bleak unhappiness in marriage. Although he was fairly successful in his Law practice, he had but only frustration and defeat in politics.

Yet the 49th year was the turning point in Lincoln's life.

Starting with his first and most famous political battle in U.S. history, Lincoln lived the remaining seven years of his short life achieving enduring fame, going down in history as the most popular, the 16th President of the United States of America.

Perhaps one of the "unknown" things of Lincoln is his favourite poem, a short poem about the need to refrain from being proud because life is short and fleeting, which he used as a maxim throughout his life.  (p74)

"Oh, why should the spirit
of mortal be proud?
Like a swift-fleeting meteor,
a fast-flying cloud,
A flash of the lightning,
a break of the wave,
He passes from life
to rest in the grave."

Of course no story about Lincoln, notwithstanding "The Unknown" part of the book-title, would be complete without his well-known speeches: his Gettysburg Address in 1863 and his Second Inauguration Speech in 1865 (please see Appendix A and B below respectively).

One may say Lincoln was more well known as an orator than as a politician. Today he is remembered for his fine speeches more than for his political or military achievements.

A question that one may ask at the end of this book is, what was the key to Lincoln's successful and inspiring speeches. The answer is found about halfway through the book, in Chapter 14, describing his rise to political power:

Firstly, Lincoln was unyielding in preparation.
He was always thinking about his speeches and would write notes on scraps of paper and envelopes whenever the thoughts, ideas and phrases came to mind.

Secondly, Lincoln was meticulous in revision.
He was constantly revising, recasting and improving on the words that he wanted to say in public or in meetings.

Finally, Lincoln was unwavering in his conviction.
He believed in speaking the truth, even if it meant losing support and becoming unpopular. "I am willing, if necessary, to perish with it . . ." he was often known to tell colleagues who warned him of the pitfall of making unpopular statements.

Appendix A

 p174, 19Nov1863, after victory at the Battle of Gettysburg
Lincoln delivered his famous speech, which started with the words, "Four score and seven years ago . . ." and ended with "Of the people, by the people, for the people . . ."

"Four score and seven years ago
Our fathers brought forth upon this continent,
A new nation, conceived in Liberty,
And dedicated to the proposition
That all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war,
Testing whether that nation, or any nation
So conceived and so dedicated,
Can long endure. We are met
On a great battle-field of that war.
We have come to dedicate a portion of
That field, as a final resting place
For those who here gave their lives
That that nation might live.
It is altogether fitting and proper
That we should do this.

But, in a larger sense,
We can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—
We can not hallow—this ground. The brave men,
Living and dead, who struggled here
Have consecrated it, far above our poor power
To add or detract. The world will little note,
Nor long remember what we say here,
But it can never forget what they did here.
It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here
To the unfinished work which they who fought here
Have thus far so nobly advanced.
It is rather for us to be here dedicated
To the great task remaining before us—
That from these honored dead we take
Increased devotion to that cause for which
They gave the last full measure of devotion—
That we here highly resolve that these dead
Shall not have died in vain—that this nation,
Under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—
And that government of the people,
By the people, for the people,
Shall not perish from the earth.

Appendix B

 p192, 04Mar1865
Lincoln's Second Inauguration Speech, a speech so eloquent that it was declared by Earl Curzon, the Chancellor of Oxford University to be the purest form of human eloquence . . . almost divine. This is the well-known, "With malice toward none, with charity for all . . ." speech.

The closing paragraphs are extracted below:

"Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations"