The Malaysian Insider :: Sports
The Malaysian Insider :: Sports |
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The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
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The Malaysian Insider :: Books
The Malaysian Insider :: Books |
| Best-selling author Patterson reflects on success Posted: 24 Oct 2013 06:36 PM PDT His thriller, "Mistress," soared to the top of the Publishers Weekly bestseller list shortly after its August release, where it spent three weeks. Patterson, 66, spoke with Reuters about his unprecedented success, his characters and why he thinks his books are so popular. Q: "Mistress" was a recent No. 1 bestseller. Is that kind of benchmark getting old, or is it still a surprise? A: I still get a kick out of it, but I'm not competitive. If it's number one I like that. If it isn't, I'm okay with it. So I can still be the first author and go, 'Wow, I'm published, and there's the book.' And that still is fun. It has never gotten old for me. I can't say it's a surprise. It would be if it wasn't even on the list, I'd go, 'Whaaat? It's not there, oh, we did something wrong.' Q: Why do you think your books are so popular? A: The three rules of this kind of fiction for me are story, story, story. I'm telling a story, and I sort of have the sense that I'm talking to one person and I don't want them to get up until I'm finished. And the books are emotional. I think I'm pretty emotional. I think that's one of my strengths and I think that comes through to people. There are a lot of thrillers that are exciting, but there isn't much humanity to them. I do create characters that people are comfortable with and that they want to know what happened to them next. Even the villains, I think, there's just a humanity to them as diabolical as they may be, there's something recognizably human, which I think is one of the keys to creating villains that are interesting. Q: When you started out, one assumes it wasn't with a plan or expectation of landing anywhere near where you did in terms of commercial success. What were your hopes at the time? A: To get published. Just get the book out there. Then the first novel, which was turned down by I think 31 publishers, won an Edgar (book award) as best first mystery, so that was such a surprise and a delight, and for the first time I went, 'I'm actually a writer. I actually have done this thing and I've done it reasonably well.' So that was a real confidence booster. Q: Did you think then you'd become as prolific as you have? A: No, that all sort of crept up on me, and then pretty much by accident I wrote a book with a friend of mine Peter de Jonge, a little golf novel 'Miracle on the 17th Green.' It turned out nicely and I liked the process. I think people just don't think through the notion of cooperative art or co-writing. The movie and television worlds are full of teams, so are museums. So it's not as odd as people think it is, but that obviously allowed me to explode the number of books I've involved myself with. Q: Do you think you'll ever run out of ideas for your books? A: I don't know, we'll see. I have a big folder of ideas here that's about 9 inches (23 cm) thick. But I would think at a certain point I'm going to cut back on the number of books for sure. But I like to keep experimenting. I've experimented within the kid field, writing some comedy, writing an adventure book with 'Treasure Hunters,' and I have a middle school book about an African American kid in an inner city. There really aren't a lot of books that star African-American or Hispanic kids and I think that's useful thing to do, where kids can go 'Oh, that kid's like me a little bit.' Q: Looking 10 or 20 years down the line, do you think you'll want to just keep on writing? A: Yeah, writing, and then there's just a lot of charity stuff that I'm involved in at this stage. I have over 400 scholarships for teachers, and probably what we're going to do this year is put aside $1 million for independent book stores, where they can come to us and say, 'I need help.' And we continue to mess around with the movies a little bit. So there's plenty of things to play with. – Reuters, October 25, 2013. |
| “Doctor Sleep” retains perch on top of US best-sellers list Posted: 24 Oct 2013 06:28 PM PDT The list is compiled using data from independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide. Hardcover Fiction 1. "Doctor Sleep" by Stephen King 2. "The Longest Ride" by Nicholas Sparks 3. "Gone" by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge 4. "Identical" by Scott Turow 5. "Just One Evil Act" by Elizabeth George 6. "Storm Front" by John Sandford 7. "Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy" 8. "Starry Night" by Debbie Macomber 9. "The Wolves of Midwinter" by Anne Rice 10. "Police" by Jo Nesbø Hardcover Non-Fiction 1. "Killing Jesus" by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard 2. "Humans of New York" by Brandon Stanton 3. "David and Goliath" by Malcolm Gladwell 4. "I Am Malala" by Malala Yousafzai 5. "My Story" by Elizabeth Smart 6. "Si-Cology 1" by Si Robertson 7. "The Reason I Jump" by Naoki Higashida 8. "Break Out!" by Joel Osteen 9. "Pokémon X & Pokémon Y" by Pokémon Co. Int'l 10."Orr"byBobbyOrr - Reuters, October 25, 2013. |
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The Malaysian Insider :: Bahasa
The Malaysian Insider :: Bahasa |
| Khalid Ibrahim nafi Azmin Ali ambil alih jawatan MB Selangor Posted: 27 Oct 2013 02:02 AM PDT [unable to retrieve full-text content]Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim (gambar) hari ini menafikan khabar angin bahawa Timbalan Presiden PKR Azmin Ali akan mengambil alih jawatannya kelak. Katanya tidak timbul isu sedemikan dan sekiranya berlaku ia merupakan perkara biasa dalam politik. "Tidak mengapa, ia perkara biasa dan berlaku negara lain juga seperti di Australia mereka juga... 
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| Jangan ragui kejujuran kerajaan pertahan, jaga keselamatan rakyat Sabah, kata KP Esscom Posted: 27 Oct 2013 01:27 AM PDT Rakyat Sabah diminta supaya tidak meragui kejujuran dan kesungguhan kerajaan Persekutuan di bawah pimpinan Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Razak untuk mempertahan, menjaga kedaulatan dan keselamatan rakyat di negeri ini. Ketua Pengarah Kawasan Keselamatan Khas Pantai Timur Sabah (Esscom), Datuk Mohammad Mentek berkata dalam tempoh beberapa bulan sahaja selepas berlakunya insiden pencerobohan di Tanduo, dekat sini, Perdana Menteri telah mengumumkan beberapa perkara penting bagi faedah dan kepentingan rakyat negeri ini. Katanya ini termasuk penubuhan Zon Selamat Malaysia Timur (Esszone) dan Esscom yang merupakan ejen penguatkuasaan keselamatan di kawasan Esszone yang meliputi 10 daerah khususnya di bahagian pantai timur Sabah. Mohammad berkata Najib turut mengumumkan peruntukan sebanyak RM75 juta bagi memantapkan lagi operasi Esscom dalam pembentangan Bajet 2014 di Dewan Rakyat Jumaat lepas. "Kita berterima kasih kepada Perdana Menteri di atas keprihatinan dan komitmen terhadap keselamatan rakyat Sabah, dan ini menunjukkan kerajaan memang serius dalam mempertahankan keselamatan dan kedaulatan negara melalui penyediaan peruntukan yang begitu besar sekali. "Dengan adanya peruntukan ini, kita dapat mempertingkatkan lagi aktiviti dan pengoperasian Esscom, termasuk kawalan di kawasan sempadan dan perairan negara kita sendiri," katanya kepada pemberita selepas menyempurnakan majlis penyampaian Pingat Jasa Malaysia (PJM) kepada veteran ATM di Dewan Tun Mustapha, dekat sini hari ini. Mohammad berkata demikian ketika diminta mengulas kenyataan beberapa pihak, sebelum ini, yang membangkitkan isu kelewatan kerajaan Persekutuan melaksanakan Esscom dan Esszone. Beliau berkata peruntukan itu juga bakal meningkatkan kemampuan aset sedia ada, khususnya di pos-pos kawalan yang terletak di pulau-pulau sekitar kawasan Esszone. "Kita melihat masih ada ruang untuk menambah baik aset sedia ada terutama kemudahan bot. Dengan adanya kemudahan bot, anggota keselamatan kita mampu memperluaskan kawalan bukan sahaja di atas pulau (darat) tetapi juga di perairan sekitar pulau itu sendiri. "Pemerolehan bot yang sesuai juga penting bagi meningkatkan kemampuan memintas. Tidak ada gunanya anggota keselamatan kita melihat bot atau kapal di luar sana (lautan) tetapi tidak (ada) kemudahan (bot) untuk memintas mereka," katanya. Mohammad berkata walaupun masih menghadapi kekangan daripada segi jumlah petugas Esscom, namun ia berjaya melaksanakan pelbagai program dan aktiviti yang menjurus kepada memperkasa barisan pertahanan dan keselamatan negara, terutama di kawasan Esszone. "Setakat ini, belum ada lagi insiden pencerobohan terbaru atau apa yang diuar-uarkan sebagai gelombang kedua pencerobohan. InsyaAllah, kita berdoa, peristiwa Tanduo tidak akan berlaku lagi," katanya. Beliau berkata Esscom telah mengemukakan permohonan kepada Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam (JPA) untuk mewujudkan kira-kira 510 jawatan pelbagai peringkat di kawasan zon keselamatan itu. Bagaimanapun, Mohammad berkata jumlah itu 'tidak termasuk anggota keselamatan yang akan ditempatkan di lima batalion yang bakal diwujudkan di kawasan Esszone'. Katanya Esscom kini hanya mempunyai 48 jawatan pelbagai peringkat termasuk ketua pengarah yang diluluskan oleh JPA. Terdahulu, dalam ucapannya, Mohammad berkata penganugerahan PJM kepada bekas anggota tentera merupakan tanda penghargaan kerajaan kepada sumbangan dan pengorbanan mereka dalam mempertahan keselamatan dan kedaulatan, sekali gus memelihara suasana aman damai dan harmoni di negara ini. – Bernama, 27 Oktober, 2013. |
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The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion
The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion |
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