I had a great time yesterday at Singapore's first Military Hobby Fest where I shared how I wrote my first novel, Pukul Habis. I also revealed - for the first time to a public audience - how Easter eggs were embedded in the story as a salute to some defence matters that cannot be talked about openly.
If you were there, I hope this talk gave you a better understanding of why the battle scenes unfolded the way they did.
Yesterday's event was my second book talk. Big thanks to all who made time to support the event. Being a first time fiction author, I have found that I enjoy hearing readers share their views and what the book meant to them. I was also quite humbled to have contributed to Singapore's reading scene as a number of you shared that Pukul Habis was the first story book you had read in quite awhile :-)
I thank SAFRA and all the volunteers who worked tirelessly over the past year to plan, organise and execute the event. I felt it had a good mix of military nuts, from the twin lawyers who paint warplanes and airliners, to the amateur film producers who make films on the SAF and Home Team, to the members of defence-related special interest groups on Facebook. I was pleased to meet you all.
And while visiting Books Kinokuniya at Ngee Ann City on Sunday evening, I was reminded how surreal it was seeing Pukul Habis on the Bestsellers shelf alongside established authors like the late Tom Clancy, John Grisham and Jeffrey Archer.
The first print run of Pukul Habis was sold out in Singapore and Malaysia months ago. Back in 2023, the debut novel made it to the bestsellers listing in Singapore's Sunday Times for several weeks.
I have reprinted a small number of copies with the intention of passing some to Tun (Dr) Mahathir Mohamad, former Prime Minister of Malaysia, and Lieutenant-General Winston Choo, former Chief of Defence Force of the Singapore Armed Forces. The story of an unthinkable war made such an impact on these prominent readers that both had agreed to write Forewords and this made a second edition a natural outcome. I passed the balance to Books Kinokuniya and once they're out, they're out. I have some copies for bulk buys with 20 books per box. Do email met at projectrocky@gmail.com if keen.
