On days like today I feel like I’m up against the whole world. Instead of conveying my inner landscape with words like I usually do, I hammer-and-nailed-up a graphic representation of my world for you, of what the weight of my destiny feels like.

I think this piece works well on a couple of levels: one, the chess board shares the same colour scheme as my book and, two, half my childhood was spent crouched over a chess board. Them good old days. Every once in a while there were heroic moments, times when I was able to turn dire games around, and lead a depleted army to victory.

Yichalal, the amharic word you’ll find in Fuel, means ‘anything is possible’. Rather frightfully, the context within which this word is uttered, offers a rather accurate measure of one’s sanity, or lack of.

The image above, as I originally intended it to be, was to speak for itself, be a stand alone; at worst, accompanied by no more than a string or two of words. I tell ya, no shutting this author up… ah, the fish that just refuses to drown.

I chuckled at the truth in his statement. I typically start my day around 9:30, 10, and normally call it a night at 2am.

I think I worked 50% less when I was working.

One Month Consultancy
For a month I was a consultant at a home grown interactive agency called Integricity. Surprisingly, it wasn’t as much a shock to the system as I had anticipated. In fact I was reminded of how much I loved doing what I was doing before. That when I left that life behind, it wasn’t because I was completely unhappy. I was merely answering that silent knowing that there was something greater I first had to accomplish, something outside the realm of advertising.

New Facebook Page
I’ve been asked a few times why I abandoned my old Facebook fan page for a new one. Believe me, it was a hard decision to make, and costs me the fans that were already following that page.

The problem with the old page was that it was set up some time ago as a community page, which naturally defaulted visitors to ‘The Wall’ (long distance runners cringe at the word). What I wanted was for people to land on a specially prepared page with information on the book.

Facebook users who set up their pages today can change their categorisations, but not those who had set up their page a long time back. To not be dinosaured into Facebook’s old system, I took that leap. And from that we’ve now got www.facebook.com/fueldabook

If you haven’t, please visit the page and be a fan of it. And as you read its contents, pretend that it is Obi Wan Kenobi speaking to you, and do all that it tells you.

(FYI to you developers out there. If you delete your page and try to get the same name back, you’ll never ever ever get it back, ever. To prevent name sitting, FB doesn’t allow it, and that name will be kept in a vault to which only Elvis has the combination.)

Job Hunting
Yup, been looking for a job for a few months now. Have not been getting too many calls though. With jobs being so specialised these days, I think most companies don’t know where to place my bi-polar potpourri  of skills.

StART Society
I’ve cut down on my classes at StART to limit the number of kids who will be affected should I return to full time employment. I miss them O So Dearly.

Recently, StART organised a very interesting event called the XTraMile Run. A runner, Alex Au Yong, volunteered to run 100K to raise RM100K for us. My role was to provide LIVE updates of the event. Never before had I tweeted and Facebooked as much.

55 FB Updates, 98 Tweets, 66 pics and 3 YouTube videos from a moving vehicle.

Over the 17 hours the run lasted, I think it works out to be one piece of communication every 4 minutes. Not too bad coming from a motion sick guy who gets nauseous from a half hour train ride, from one who threw up watching the shaky camera action in Bourne Supremacy.

The event was a great success and we exceeded the amount we aimed to raise.

New Book Website
The official site for when I first launched Fuel was justjezza.com, my blog site. The problem with that was no one could tell from the URL that it was a website for a book called Fuel. With www.fueldabook.com now set up, I’m now able to slap the book’s logo on anything and just include the URL, and people would know what it relates to and be able to find out more.

Fuel Running
The process of writing, publishing and promoting the book landed me neck deep in the world of running. Throughout the journey, almost every day of it actually, new word plays on the subject would appear in my head. Often I’d say to myself, “Hey, this would be great on a shirt.”

I finally got on my ass (I did it all sitting down), and jumpstarted my ideas to life.

I launched the Fuel Running line with 6 Collections. I’ve got dozens of other ideas locked away in this brain of mine, and each is calling out, “Pick me, pick me.”  My goal is to add a new collection each week… till the voices stop.

Go check out the site: www.fuelrunning.com, or be a Facebook fan, www.facebook.com/fuelrunning

What’s on the Horizon?
I really need a job. The hole in my wallet makes the one in the Ozone look like the eye of a needle. Here’s my resume: www.justjezza.com/misc/resumeJeremyChin.pdf

Feel free to pass it to anyone you think might be interested.

On the book front, I’ve yet to get my books out to the newspapers in the UK and Australia, oh, and to Running Magazines. The Star, the nation’s leading paper, promised me a review last Sunday. I nervously flipped through the papers three days back but… nothing. Copies have also shrapnelled across the United States to the 40 largest newspapers. Fingers, toes and eyes crossed on that front. If you happen to have ties with the media anywhere in the world, I hope you’ll help me get my book in.

I arrived to an entourage waiting to escort me in, each holding handmade welcome signs. One of the girls, after she learned who I was, flew like the wind to the canteen and excitedly announced to the rest, “Jeremy Chin is here. Jeremy Chin is here.”

I received countless offers from one student to carry my bag and my books, but I told him I was fine. I learned soon after that I had to ascend this stairway to heaven to get to the room I was to speak at. Hahaha!

From the school entrance, all the way to the classroom, I was photographed by this girl who, for the longest time, walked backwards. Natural born Paparazzi I tell ya. But you know what? I felt like a celebrity walking down the red carpet.

After I caught my breath, I started my one hour talk on my journey as a first time self published author. The room was full, with 35 or so in attendance. A mike was set up for me, but it did not work too well, so we did away with it. To be heard, I had to draw on the Southern Baptist Preacher in me. Midway through my sermon, a student brought me a glass of water. He returned 30 seconds later to ask if I’d prefer it in a bottle. It was the sweetest thing ever. We concluded with some Q&A and a book signing session.

To thank me for coming, I was presented with two gifts. The first was a laminated ‘thank you note’, the most colourful and vibrant I’ve seen in my life. It was beautifully hand drawn and carried the signatures of all the students on it. The second item would be to some an aphrodisiac—a box of chocolates (my wife’s favourite kind… she says thank you).

On  my way out, I passed several students who were at my session. They had my book in hand and had already started reading it. I was accompanied all the way to the school’s front gate, and was thanked for the umpteenth time for taking the time to share my experiences with everyone. The smile on my face paled to the one I wore inside.

It is one thing to be a King and be treated like one. And a whole other thing to not be one, but be treated as is you were.

PETALING JAYA.  A book reading session specially targeted at the hearing-impaired was held at the MPH bookstore in MidValley last Saturday. The event was conducted by Jeremy Chin, the self-published author of the fiction novel, Fuel. Sign language interpreters were present to gesture out the important message this new, exciting author had to convey.

Chin made it very clear to the audience the expectations he had for his book, which was for it to be an International Best Seller.

“When you take on a dream this big, it is crucial that you know why you are pursuing it. And those reasons have to be good reasons, reasons you will hold close to your heart till the day you die. Fuel’s success would buy me a golden ticket to continue doing that which I have come to love, which is to write, to share with the world the best that I am capable of. Believing in what you do. That is the most important ingredient towards becoming a great writer.”

On his journey as a self-published author, Chin inspired the audience by conveying to them how his was an endeavour driven by passion, and he went into intimate detail about his craft and all that went into the effort. Towards the end, he spoke of the importance of getting readers emotionally invested in the book’s characters, and how a writer who achieves that, becomes a puppet master in control of the reader’s strings.

Chin ended on a grim note though, as he ventured into the topic of promoting his book to the masses, of how glowing reviews of the book had thus far had little impact on book sales.

“Friends, my journey as a writer, as enjoyable as it was, has become extremely difficult now that I’ve gotten to the stage of promoting it. I sit here today, battered and bruised, a tired warrior in need of a helping hand. I’ve walked alone for a year and a half, and it is my sincere hope that each of you here would join me for the next leg of my journey. Read my book, and if you think I am someone who deserves to arrive at his dream, please, please, please shout it out to the world.”

“I don’t know any sign language, but I’ll create my own, to convey what it means to me to have you here today.”

He pointed at each member of the audience, and brought his hands close to his heart.

Just a quick update from me on the book. I’ve pushed the second edition of Fuel out on Amazon. E-book versions are also available on The Kindle and The Nook. This new edition contains a number of changes that improves the story’s flow. And because I was rushing the book out for Christmas, I made a number of slipups in the First Edition. Those have been rectified.

I’ve also released a trade paperback edition on Lulu.com. This was an important move for me because I wanted affordable worldwide reach. Although Amazon considers themselves to be international, shipping is pricey. If you live outside the United States, it costs an arm and a healthy testicle. Lulu, on the other hand, from what I understand,  prints the book in the country you are ordering it from, so shipping is a lot less. With all my channels in place, I can now market the book mercilessly.

World domination aside, Fuel is also available at The Bee, my new favourite spot to write (sadly, I don’t write as much as I used to these days). I love the food there, and the music, and the overall atmosphere. An old classmate of mine runs the place, and has granted me use of the stage to promote the book. I just have to think up something good to talk about, that preferably would not scare their customers away. Actually, I’m planning on doing a book reading for the deaf one of these days. Jonah Ong, a huge proponent of the book, is a signer, and he has agreed to do this with me. Maybe, The Bee, Baybee.

Other news. Fuel got its first official review last week. It appeared in the New Straits Times. All the nail chewing have worn my teeth out.

A few weeks before the NST article, I got an unofficial review (more a vote of confidence) from an article that was written by MPH Editor, Alan Wong. This was following a book reading that I had done on my birthday at Readings in Seksan. Another welcomed surpised I had received came when an English professor, Dr Anthony Sibert, was impressed by the book and started a push to have my book incorporated into the curriculum at higher learning institues in Malaysia. Personally, I don’t think my work qualifies. But maybe the level of education really has gone down as much as people have been saying.

Oh, I got a reply from Dato Rais Yatim about my request to place Fuel in all libraries nationwide. His office has referred me on to the Director of the National Library, who will make a decision on how many copies they would like from me. I have my fingers crossed that they would want my remaining stock. The University of Missouri have also promised to stock my book, along with the National University of Singapore.

I’ll be targeting local magazines in the coming week. US magazines and newspapers the week after. The UK after that. Still haven’t figured out how to take on the running community full force.

Will be making an appearance on Feb 26 at MPH bookstore in Midvalley, where I’ll be talking about my journey as a first time author. Fuel will also be featured at the Readings from Readings book launch on Feb 25. On the writing front, I’ve not started on my second book, but have been contributing articles here and there. The latest to be published was in Bettr Magazine. Lastly, I’ve entered Fuel into the Fourth Annual Amazon Breakthrough Award Competition. Winner gets published by Penguin. One can only dream.