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Buy Sarawak at Amazon.com |
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Sarawak by Jerry D. Mohrlang (Malaysia 196567) PublishAmerica July, 2002 352 pages $24.95 |
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Reviewed by Tucker Clark (Nepal 196770) |
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I WAS VERY EXCITED when the editor of PeaceCorpsWriters.org forwarded a copy of Jerry Mohrlangs novel, simply called Sarawak, for me to review. I had told the editor that I was very interested in books that were based on elaborations of the cultures or experiences we had in our Peace Corps assignments. I am convinced ALL of us have stories to tell gleaned from our experiences.
That said, I say run dont walk to read Jerrys incredibly well-researched, gripping, tale of high adventure and intrigue set in the 1830s that is based on the life of a young English aristocrat, James Brooke, who left an assured life of comfort, and a certain, endowed, gentry marriage to pursue his dreams of fortunes to be made in the Far East. Brooke became by incredible circumstances the first white Rajah of Sarawak, ruling the head-hunting, primitive, always warring indigenous tribes of Malay, Borneo, Brunei and Sarawak. |
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But much to Jerrys credit, he uses his knowledge of these tribes, their languages, culture, foods, et al, to have this clash of civilizations equally told and understood on all sides. It starts on the tribal side and we fast learn a whole new lexicon that he integrates into the clash. He tells a tale worthy of James Clavells Shogun and Noble House and Clavells allegiance to Japanese culture and historical consideration. And it has all the excitement and naval expertise of the twenty Patrick OBrian Aubrey/Maturin series of 19th century sea-faring historical colorful narratives. For selfish reasons I had to talk to Jerry after I finished this page-turner, because I had to know how he came up with the story and how it evolved, why it is fiction not even faction (although he did tell me many of the characters were real and some were amalgams, and there were actually three White rajahs in the James Brooke lineage who ruled Sarawak until the twentieth century!), and . . . how he got it published! A publisher endorsement |
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Read more about "Publishing Alternatives" | For you aspiring writers, it sounds like PublishAmerica Publishers if you can secure a contract, as Jerry did after sending them the book in January 02 and getting an OK-Go Ahead ten days later at no cost but to a percentage of the sales is incredible. Arranging ISBN numbers, digital publishing capacity, contracts, website-access, and links to warehouses like Ingram, Baker and Amazon, they seem to be a step above publish-on-demand folks, e-book and vanity press venders. And Jerry himself has worked to get the word out about this book through his personal website www.ColoradoWriter.homestead.com. A new book The riddle as to how he got to be such a good writer |
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Tucker Clark is a consultant /writer with masters degrees in psychology and social work, and too many formers in his vitae. For two decades he has been involved in clinic management and psychiatric training, substance abuse counseling, drug education publishing, corporate trainings and outplacement seminars, famine relief training in Ethiopia in 1985; e-commerce and internet marketing, bookselling, and writing fiction. To help maintain his Westport, Connecticut lifestyle, he network markets the PrePaid Legal Services product at the big money Director level.
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