The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf
The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf |
| Bachmann's novel - The Peculiar making waves Posted: 27 Nov 2012 06:39 AM PST An 18-year-old author's debut novel is making waves with its unique combination of mystery, fantasy and steampunk adventure. WHAT would you do if you had the services of a powerful faery at your command, capable of catering to your every whim? Some men would ask for power, some for glory, love, or riches. Swiss author Stefan Bachmann, however, is content with having it help him get organised. "If it wasn't frightening like the one in my book, I would ask it to keep track of things for me," Bachmann quipped in an e-mail interview. "I'm constantly losing pens and glasses and tickets." While the young author may not actually own a real faery (or so we think), writing about them has certainly brought him acclaim. Bachmann is the author of The Peculiar, a fantasy novel described as part murder mystery, part gothic fantasy and part steampunk adventure. His novel is making waves in the American publishing scene, receiving rave reviews from both The New York Times and Los Angeles Times. Named one of the big children's books of BookExpo America 2012, the novel has received praise from luminaries such as Christopher Paolini (author of Eragon) and Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson And The Olympians). What is even more impressive, however, is that Bachmann starting writing the novel two years ago, when he was16, an age when many people have problems fully reading a novel, let alone writing one! "I read crazy amounts of books growing up, and I think there just came a point when I wanted things to go differently than the way the authors were writing them," Bachmann said. "Some big influences were Beatrix Potter, Frances Hodgson Burnett, JRR Tolkien, and Susanna Clarke. I love prose and stories that are a little bit old-fashioned and a little bit magical, even if they have no fantasy at all in them. If they do have magic, it just makes them that much cooler." The Peculiar takes place in an alternate Victorian London, where faeries have become second-class citizens after losing a war to humanity. Its setting is dark and mesmerising, with wolves pulling taxicabs, church bells chiming every five minutes (it keeps the faeries at bay!) and messages being sent by clockwork birds. The novel tells the story of two changelings, or Peculiars (the offspring of faeries and humans): young Bartholomew Kettle, and his sister, Hettie, who has twigs growing on her head instead of hair. Shunned by the rest of society, the lives of the two siblings are thrown into turmoil with the arrival of a mysterious lady at the alley they live in. The two soon end up in a sinister turn of events involving kidnappings and dark rituals as they catch the attention of some very powerful faeries, such as the murderous Jack Box, and the devious politician Mr Lickspittle. Traversing exotic locales such as a goblin market and a steam-powered airship, the only hope for the two comes in the form of the well-meaning but bumbling Arthur Jelliby, a young politician desperate to do the right thing. Bachmann was born in Colorado in the United States, and later moved to Zurich, where he now lives with his family. He is currently attending the Zurich Conservatory, and dreams of becoming a film composer. The talented 18-year old even composed a few pieces of music for his novel, which he dubbed Peculiar Pieces. "I wanted to write a few short pieces that encapsulated the mood of three or four scenes from the book: Jelliby chasing a clockwork bird, a sad little waltz for two characters I won't name, and a scene where the faeries come out of a great doorway. "Obviously, and unfortunately, it's all played by an electronic orchestra, but it was a lot of fun to write, and I'm glad my publisher let me," said Bachmann, who is a fan of the soundtracks for the films The Village and Atonement. Bachmann said it had taken him six to seven months to write the first draft of The Peculiar, which was then followed by a long process of polishing it up. The inspiration for the book, he said, came from a Disney movie. "How sophisticated, I know," Bachmann joked. "It's called The Great Mouse Detective and it's about mice and rats in a gloomy 19th century England, with clockwork and creepy toys." Much of his storytelling style had come from fairy tales, he added, naming George MacDonald, Charles Perrault, and the Brothers Grimm as influences. "European fairy tales tend to be very vague about the magical elements and specific characteristics of their goblins and trolls," Bachmann said. "So I had a lot of room to come up with my own details. Most of my research ended up being on Victorian customs and English maps from the 1850s." The Peculiar also features elements of "steampunk", a science fiction subgenre typically featuring steam-powered machinery, anachronistic technologies or retro-futuristic inventions. "I like how steampunk looks, and I wanted to incorporate it and contrast it with the wild and naturalistic faeries," he said. "I'm very intrigued by the concept of machine versus magic. I love that." Bachmann said the second and concluding book in the Peculiar duology would be called The Whatnot, due out next year. He added that he would then stop writing about faeries and steampunk, as he wanted to try his hand at other things. He did, however, leave us with this tantalising glimpse into the second book: "Unlike the first book, a large part of the second one takes place in the faery world, and we get to see quite a bit of it. I loved writing that. It's a very sinister place, where literally anything can happen and there are no laws that can't be broken. "In The Whatnot, there's much wandering under lonely black trees, an expedition on a boat, a prolonged visit to the castle of a faery aristocrat, and the riding of some strange sorts of horses. None of it is quite as pleasant as it sounds." |
| BookXcess - Easy access to cheap books Posted: 27 Nov 2012 12:53 AM PST It has been six years since its inception, and the founders of BookXcess remain dedicated to its mission. SOMEWHERE in the city, huge printing machines work around the clock, churning out book copies by the millions. These books are then sold at dirt-cheap prices, because ink and paper cost next to nothing. This is what some people believe is the reason behind the low prices of books sold at BookXcess in Amcorp Mall, Petaling Jaya, Selangor. The company's managing director Andrew Yap shrugs it off as a "good misconception". "They think we are selling pirated books, that we print these books ourselves. But try printing a novel and see how much it costs. It isn't as cheap as some people seem to think," he says with a chuckle. No, the folks at BookXcess are not into piracy or secondhand books; they sell new books that are "remaindered" or overprint titles, at prices that are typically 50%-80% off the recommended retail price. In particular, the founders, Yap and his wife Jacqueline Ng, say they get a smaller profit from sales of children's books because they believe that reading is a habit that should be instilled from a young age. This will make it easier on parents to buy books for their kids. "We get these books at remaindered prices and we basically give customers access to books for a cheaper price. We also deal with excess books in the book industry. That's why there's an X in BookXcess, so it can go both ways – access and excess," explains Yap. The first BookXcess store was opened in November 2006, but it really all started before that, with a single shelf stacked high with books in a magazine store run by Ng. "We didn't know much about books then, so we were cautious about venturing into the book industry. We imported some books, put them on the shelf, and when customers came in to look at magazines, we would tell them to take a look and provide us with feedback," says Ng, who is executive director of BookXcess. The response was good enough to convince Ng and Yap that it was worth a shot, so they made the leap of faith. And it has paid off. From the first humble 500sqft (46sqm) store, they have now expanded into a spacious 12,000 sqft (1,115sqm) bookshop. Around 40,000 individuals have signed up as members. The highly anticipated Big Bad Wolf Book Sale, which kicked off with 120,000 books in its first year, promises to be bigger and better this year, with three million books up for grabs in its fifth instalment. "We are currently the biggest English book importer in Malaysia, and this year's selection of books at the Big Bad Wolf Sale in December will be mind-boggling," shares Yap, who previously ran a car workshop. By the end of this year, BookXcess would have imported no fewer than four million books from all over the world into the country this year. Not that the duo is going to stop there. "Our dream is to open the biggest bookstore in the world with 200,000sqft (18,581sqm) of retail space in a few years. It will be beside a busy highway, and it will be the craziest building in KL. I want it to look like a book and it might even have bright lights like buildings in Las Vegas at night!" Yap says with a grin. His enthusiasm is contagious. Yap and Ng have come a long way from those early days when they didn't even know that remaindered books existed, much less where to get them. Even when the books started coming in, they realised that they didn't have any idea how to categorise the books. "Which genre did each book belong to? We didn't know. It was indeed a steep learning curve for us, but we had clear goals: To increase the readership in Malaysia and provide a high standard of customer service. So, no matter what we wanted to do, we would always see if it matched these objectives," says Ng. "After all, the fastest way to increase readership and the standard of English is to have good and affordable books available," Yap adds. But are bookstores like theirs in a niche of their own, or do they give the regular bookstores a run for their money? Yap says that some in the book industry do not seem to welcome their being a part of it; but he believes that far from being a threat, BookXcess is actually complementing the industry. This is because a bookstore like theirs has its limitations. Overprints are available for purchase only six to 12 months – sometimes later – after the book launch proper. And the store might not be able to offer customers a book series in its entirety. It is also unable to place orders for specific books a customer might want because it relies on overprint supplies. "But when you can get a book at a lower price, it just might encourage a non-reader to pick up that first book," says Ng. "Someone might also be more willing to pay for a book by an author he or she doesn't know, just to give it a try, if the price is lower. If the reader gets hooked on it, he will end up wanting to get the whole range, and he might have to get it from another place since we might not offer it. So we are, in fact, complementing the book industry," says Yap. Despite all the teething issues and other obstacles that have come their way, Ng and Yap say that the customers and their feedback make it all worthwhile. They have had people tell them that they have rekindled their love for reading through BookXcess. Or that a visit to the store ended up in a non-reader eventually becoming an avid reader. "Some people have even told us, 'You have changed my life'. These are strong words, but this is the one reason we are motivated to go on, these stories from our customers. We know we are doing something right; it is not just a business, we feel we are making a little bit of difference in someone's life, and we are proud of that," says Ng. And they are here to stay, Yap emphasises. "We intend to do this for a long time to come. As long as Malaysians want to read, we will try our best to cater to them. But when our dream bookstore is built, I definitely plan to also return to the car industry!" Check out BookXcess at bookxcess.com. The Big Bad Wolf Book Sale will be held in Malaysia International Exhibition & Convention Centre (MIECC) at The Mines in Seri Kembangan, Selangor, from Dec 7 to 23. For more information, log on to facebook.com/bbwbooks or bigbadwolfbooks.com. |
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