Planet_Expat book launch:
Fri, Nov 9, 6-8pm:
Dymocks ifc: by John Cairns.

Website:
http://www.allaboardplanetexpat.com/

Press release, October 29, 2012:

Special Note: Everyone within striking distance of Hong Kong’s Central District is cordially invited to a book launch party for All Aboard! Planet_Expat, the most hilarious and insightful book ever produced about expatriates. The party is scheduled for 6-8 p.m. on Friday, November 9, at the Dymocks bookshop in the IFC Mall.

A BIG, FASCINATING WORLD NEEDS EXPLORING!
EXPATRIATES EVERYWHERE TACKLE THE TASK

Seasoned expatriates experience highs and lows, adventures and pleasures, dangers and woes. But they seldom return to their home countries to stay. Why not?

In a fascinating work of non-fiction, All Aboard! Planet_Expat, Why Dedicated Expatriates Seldom Go ‘Home’ (2012, Power Publishing Club, 368 pages, illustrated by SARA), 18 swashbuckling expatriates, having wandered here, there and everywhere, share surprising, often hilarious stories about their experiences.

“The world resembles a big expatriate adventure-sphere,” said John Cairns, the primary author. “This book focuses on ordinary, yet amazing, people with passions to place themselves in unfamiliar places and situations. Essentially, they want to indulge in everything the planet has to offer.”

Power Publishing Club founder Paul Watt urges everyone to grasp the richness of travel. “Discovering new places and living among people whose cultures, habits and opinions diverge from your own can be the greatest learning curve,” he said. “All Aboard! Planet_Expat should entertain and fascinate its readers while inspiring wanderlust.”

Readers can learn from, and laugh along with, intriguing people:
-- an educator who loves his adopted country despite regular threats to his life;
-- a hobby-actor who befriended martial-arts superstar Bruce Lee and other movie heroes;
-- a long-time pilot who prefers planes full of packages to seats full of passengers;
-- a retired American plumber who yells louder than anyone at cockfighting pits in the Philippines;
-- a top jazz musician who sees his music open doors on both sides of the Pacific;
-- a British-born construction executive who started his career by stealing money from his parents and running away;
-- a slick Canadian lawyer who abandoned legal battles and earns his living by making wine in China; and many others.

“All 18 people featured in the book have gained immensely from being expatriates,” said Watt. “Coming from different countries and situations, altogether they have lived ‘overseas’ for centuries.”

The book also contains illustrations by Sara Seneviratne, an award-winning cartoonist from Sri Lanka.

About the Book

“The most hilarious adventure book ever produced about expats.”

All Aboard! Planet_Expat tells the exciting, funny and true stories of 18 folks from different places who went ‘overseas’ to live. Soon they learned important lessons about life and people that everyone should know. The book sells at leading shops, hotels and taverns (and on the Internet).

By John Cairns
Illustrated by SARA
ISBN: 978-0-9574306-0-0
Power Publishing Club, 2012
Website: http://www.powerpublishingclub.com

About the Author
John Cairns, a seasoned editor and author, has lived in Hong Kong since 1992 when he left his Canadian homeland. Born in the tiny province of Prince Edward Island, he resided in three other provinces – Nova Scotia, Ontario and Saskatchewan – before taking the plunge to move to Asia and become a full-fledged expatriate. He welcomes email at john.johncairns@gmail.com.

About the Artist
Sara Seneviratne, an award-winning cartoonist from Sri Lanka, has journeyed through much of Asia and beyond as a multimedia consultant and artist. His work appears in leading newspapers, magazines and online. A specialist in political satire, social issues and human rights, he won Amnesty International Human Rights Press Awards in 1996, 1997 and 1998. He also provides the creative spark and primary talent behind Funworld magazine. More of SARA’s work appears online: http://www.sarasene.com

About the Power Publishing Club
Formed in 2012, the Power Publishing Club has plans for many more books. Future projects include All Aboard! Planet_Expat, Volume 2. Next time, the focus may shift to female expatriates. Other prospects include books about leading families, dynamic companies or fascinating places. Readers with remarkable true stories wishing to join a future book project should contact the publisher, at info@powerpublishingclub.com. The Power Publishing Club also seeks overseas distributors for its books.

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Too bad about the typo in the title on the front cover and spine, and the spine being upside down.

You mean the underscore? Not a typo, it's intentional. The version on the spine is the correct one: Planet_Expat, no space before or after the underscore. The publisher insisted on using an underscore.

The author didn't agree with me that there's actually an incorrect space after the underscore on the title page.

But that exclamation mark in the title bothered me as well....

I didn't even notice that the spine is upside down, but you're right, of course. When the book lies flat, the text on the spine will be upside down. The designer might be Chinese, as it would be the correct orientation for a traditional Chinese book where the front and back cover are reversed.

The book is actually a great read, even though it consists of authorised biographies, with the subjects having final say over the content or even writing it themselves, with some fine editing by John. Some of the subject were amazingly open about some unsavory or unfortunate events in their past, like jail terms. I'm just reading it, for a Lamma-zine story. If somebody wants a review copy as well, come to the book launch!

They wanted to include me last minute, just before completing the book, but I decided for various reasons to wait for the sequel, if any.

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Book of the Month in Dymocks! Many congrats to the Lamma-zine's Senior Correspondent!

Book launch this Friday, get your free caricature by Sara, drawn into the book, plus free wine as well. It is advised to model for your caricature BEFORE drinking too much....

Interview with the serial offender, er, AUTHOR, of 4 books so far:

http://www.dymocks.com.hk/ContentStatic/BookloverNewsletter/Booklover_Issue_39_All_Aboard_Planet_Expat.asp

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Not crediting my photo as the book's cover, not even in the long and widely name-dropping special chapter, "About the Book's Cover", seems to have been just a mere oversight when they selected the cover candidates from stacks of CDs from many sources.

As I said, they own the copyright of the photo and they're friends, so it's OK in this case. {*Small, almost inaudible grumble*}

Let's just hope Power Publishing will buy some advertising for this fine book on this website. Bookazine has advertised several times before and they were pretty happy with the results, they told me, and are still being quoted on my rate card.

Power Publishing posted this on their new Facebook page for the book:

"Power Publishing Club would like to thank Lamma-Gung from www.lamma.com.hk for his fantastic photograph of the Duk Ling that appears on the front cover and inside All Aboard! Planet_Expat. For news, events, stories, pictures, forums, classifieds from and for the Lamma Island Community www.lamma.com.hk is the place to go.

Thanks again Lamma-Gung for your fabulous photographs."

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Just found this better-than-usual, amusing Lamma-zine story about one of the 3 photo shoots I did for this Duk Ling junk in 2007:

Lamma-zine, July 18, 2007: The Old Man and the Sea

So maybe now I should dig out some of the better photos I took....

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Sad-happy story about the Duk Ling junk on the back cover of the SCMP yesterday, see below.

It's been 8 years since my 3 photo shoots on and around this iconic junk, but the Planet Expat book above with my cover photo has only been published 2.5 years ago:

Lamma-zine Nov 7, 2012: Buoyant Businessmen & Woeful Whines

It was a Dymocks Book of the Month, but by now the publishing co. has closed down, Dymocks has left HK, the publisher has also left HK, and the author has left Lamma for an undisclosed location,...

This is a good example exemplifying the transience of HK...

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