Photo taken at MPH One Utama

Can you spot David Byck's book? Wow, to be featured among such famous (and infamous) people!
Hey David, when I saw this, my heart jumped! Congratulations!
To find out more about David's book, click on title or on the featured link.

Here is a write up by David which was published in November's Expat magazine ...

"I'm the type of guy who will try to put something together without reading the instructions.

It doesn't matter what - it could be a swing set for my children or programming a new mobile phone. “Who needs instructions?” I would proudly say as the Jungle Gym no longer looks recognizable to anyone but me.

And maybe this is the reason I wrote two manuscripts before I had taken a single writing course.

The first was fiction. Without giving any thought to outlining the story, setting up a plot or creating interesting characters, I wrote a ninety thousand word manuscript.

It took me three years and at the end, the only person who had the patience to read it was my wife. Even my very close friend who is usually supportive of my creative endeavors, couldn't get past the first chapter.

Still without any training, I wrote a sixty-five thousand word non-fiction. And although I wasn't sure why, it went much better. I suspect this is partially because I felt the book was somehow channeled through me and partly because non-fiction seemed to be much easier to write than fiction.

By this time I was in love with the written word - especially when it was my own. So off I went searching for the writing course that would catapult me onto the New York best sellers list.

I paused and reminded myself that throughout my life I had done most things on my own and that maybe this isn't or shouldn't be any different.

But then that first manuscript crept into my thoughts; the one that no one wanted to read, and I decided to try a little harder to find a reputable writing academy.

This is when I discovered 95%. As soon as I read their write-up for the SIP (Storywriters In Progress) training, I suspected it was what I was looking for.

Razlina Ramli, who is a graduate from UK's National Film and TV School, showed us how a story should be written. What components are necessary in order to make a good manuscript, a great one. She would delve beyond the surface of the words to point out that the scene or character was too flat or unbelievable.

In the end, I enjoyed myself so much that almost immediately after completing the SIP, I signed up for the Advanced Novel Writers course. A training where I was able to complete a full length manuscript in ninety days! Not three years as my first one had taken.

Although I know I have a long way to go, I also know that without the proper foundation that I received at 95%, my dream of writing for a living would be just that … a dream."