A wife’s gotta do what a wife’s gotta do

It has been a long time since I wrote anything GUiT. But the time has come for me to do my wifely duties and write things GUiT again.

I vividly remember the day we received the news that GUiT was finally going to be published. To say that I was more overjoyed and over the moon compared to the writer is not far from the truth. I was ecstatic. Deliriously so. He, being the man he is, was more composed, allowing only a smile and later broke into a brief jig around the room with the children. But that is him.

The day the books arrived, hot from the printers in Singapore, we were again overjoyed; my smile never left my face and for months it ached because I was/is that proud of my Awang Goneng.

We had the books delivered for the soft launch at the Royal Asiatic Society in London and I took to bringing five to ten books with me in my huge bag, the writer himself not suspecting anything. People I met at functions, press conferences and even from across the road, were targeted as possible buyers and readers of GUiT.

Take this for example: an interview with the then Foreign Minister. When I finished the interview, I boldly said: Can I interest you in a book written by my husband?

Of course he was interested, for he himself writes books and later congratulated AG personally.

Then there was the time we went to the bank and I saw a familiar face at the till. He was from the former cabinet, in charge of Finance. Once it was confirmed it was him, I said my salam and had small chats. AG began retreating in the background suspecting that any minute then, Iwas going to whip out GUiT to the unsuspecting former minister. And of course I did.

By then I was resigned to the fact that my husband only wanted to write the book and keep them all locked up in his cupboard. He'd shy away from any GUiT talk so much so I had to be the spokesperson, the salesperson and the pr all in one.

He worries that people might not find it interesting; a book he wrote only for his children, about his growing up years in a small town in Trengganu. About the Trengganu still alive in his memories. But I knew better.

I was on assignment in Paris two years ago. And then I decided to return the generosity of our Culture Minster who had kindly given me his book. So, I signed a book on AG's behalf and sent it through his officer. Within a week, I received orders for 500 books, and much later 500 more.

And there were many more. I took some books to a seminar in Liverpool and I believe I sold more books than the book stall outside the conference room.

So, imagine my shock when I read that in Malaysia the books were not selling and people couldn't find it anywhere. So, I went back, initially to attend the launch of the book alone in Singapore as the writer himself felt that he couldn't/wouldn't make the journey. (But later, I somehow twisted anything twistable, and he relented and came along).

My first few days in KL, I went around the bookshops and I couldn't find GUiT anywhere - not in MPH, Kino or anywhere. I was devastated. Those I found were sandwiched between Dina Zaman's I am Muslim and Lydia Teh's Life's Like That. Or hidden behind mountains of Samy Velloos!

So, it was then that I decided that I had to do something. There's no limit to a wifely duty. I approached a manager at a bookshop, explained my predicament, my frustrations. My husband, had he been there would have fainted with embarrassment. But, the manager, bless him, saw the book, believed in its potential and made just one phonecall that within one week saw GUiT in the best sellers list.

It was less hard work after that, though I still carry a copy or two in my bag these days.

The reason I am doing this promotion again is simple; GUiT has been shortlisted for the Popular-Star Readers Choice Awards 2009 for non fiction. Here's the list:

Yvonne Lee - Vanity Drive: The Vagaries of Women's Vanity
Sheik Mustapha Shukor Al-Masrie - Reach for the Stars
Adeline Loh - Peeing in the Bush
Adibah Amin - Glimpses : Cameos of Malaysian Lives
Paddy Bowie - Datuk Teh Hong Pow : Banking Thoroughbred
Kee Thuan Chye : March 8: The Day Malaysia Woke Up
Tun Mahathir & Tan Sri Abdullah Ahmad - Dr. Mahathir's Letters to World Leaders
Rustam A. Sani - Failed Nation? Concerns of a Malaysian Nationalist
Amir Muhammad - New Malaysian Essays 1
Awang Goneng - Growing Up in Terengganu

According to Sharon Bakar: Voting will be once again via the Star's Reads Monthly Supplement. The bookstore is organising promotions of the books and from June onwards, customers that visit POPULAR outlets will get 20% discount when they buy any of the nominated books. The winner will be announced at Bookfest @ Malaysia 2009.

So, if you've not read GuiT, give t a try. Below are just some of you who helped make GUiT a success!! Thank you!!!

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And AG, Happy Father's Day!!!