Collin Piprell

I’m in the business of generating alternative realities and then exploring them. This, I claim, is not schizophrenia. A Canadian writer and editor based in Bangkok, I've also lived in England, where I did graduate work at Oxford, and in Kuwait, where I learned to sail, waterski, and make a credible red wine in plastic garbage bins. At the end of 2008, I resigned as editorial director at Dragon Art Media (Bangkok, Phuket, Koh Samui, Bali) to devote myself to writing. My chief skills are words and tunnels. Before the Oxford and Kuwait years, my employment experience included, among other things, four jobs as a driller and stope leader in mines and tunnels in Ontario and Quebec. (One of my few regrets in this life is having had to refuse a development mining job in Greenland.) There’s been little call for tunneling these days, but since moving to Thailand I've produced many articles on a wide variety of topics, four novels, a collection of occasional pieces, a diving guide to Thailand, another book on diving, and a book on Thailand’s coral reefs. I've also co-authored a book on Thailand’s national parks. I've taught writing at a local university (Thammasat), and I conduct occasional writing workshops for publishing companies and community organizations. I'm currently at work on a fifth novel, the second of a futuristic trilogy that begins with *MOM,*, now available on amazon.com. Books by Collin Piprell (currently out of print, aside from MOM and Diving in Thailand): *MOM* (http://tinyurl.com/y9am7lq) *Yawn* (A Thriller) Bangkok: Asia Books, 2000 *Kicking Dogs* (Bangkok: Asia Books, 2001) *Bangkok Knights* (Bangkok: Asia Books, 2001) (The previous three titles need a new home.) *Bangkok Old Hand* (Bangkok: Post Books, 1993) *Diving in Thailand* (Singapore: Times Editions; U.S.A.: Hippocrene Books, 1994, 2000), photographs by Ashley J. Boyd. *Thailand’s Coral Reefs* (Bangkok: White Lotus, 1993), photographs by Ashley J. Boyd. * Thailand: The Kingdom Beneath the Sea* (Bangkok: Artasia Press, 1991), photographs by Ashley J. Boyd. * National Parks Thailand* (Bangkok: IFPC, 1993, 1995), with Denis Gray and Mark Graham Prospective agents and publishers are welcome to contact me at collin.piprell@gmail.com.

Dei ex machina and laid-back hi-so hysteria

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It’s been hard to focus on work, what with the pace of events, the phone calls and the temptation to check the Twitter and e-mail universe every minute or so for breaking news.

Yesterday I also kept finding myself drawn to the roof of our apartment building for a panoramic view of events. (These photos were taken by the lovely Ms. Plug, a downstairs neighbor and freelance photographer who joined me.) What with the spotter plane soaring around the Baiyoke … Read more

Thailand expat diaspora? Premature skedaddling

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The gloomier prognostications regarding the prevailing civil disorder in Bangkok have missed the mark, it seems. Though things do still look a tad bleak.

How bleak? That depends on who you talk to. It seems the US Embassy is offering to help repatriate families of expat residents. Not the Fall of Saigon, just yet, but it bespeaks unease in some quarters.

An old friend and long-term Bangkok resident just told me how he’s been thinking about Phnom Penh, and how … Read more

Cross-cultural onomatopoeia

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My friend and fellow scrivener Steve Van Beek lives in the area currently cordoned off by the security forces—right there in the middle of both the political heat and Bangkok’s worst heat wave in years. He’s waiting to see whether a repairman can get through to fix his ailing air-conditioner.

In passing, Steve also tells me the expression “to be on the fritz” dates from the very outset of the 20th century, and probably derives from the sound of … Read more

Hey, but we’re living in a Golden Age

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Here’s something from a collection I call “Leary’s Laws.”

“Things are always going to get worse, and we just have to take what friggin’ solace we can from that. What it means, we’re always living in a golden age, at least looking back from any time in the future.”

(Leary, in Yawn: A Thriller, by Collin Piprell)

So go ahead and take what solace you can from that. You might also want to stock up on canned … Read more

From absent presence to omnipresence: “I am my iPhone” (local DTAC slogan) to “We are my iPad”

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In Thailand, the iPad mostly remains a rumor of digital utopia on the other side of the world. But travelers to those distant parts are beginning to arrive back here with their über-gadgets.

And they are harbingers of epidemic social change. These carriers of the current Digital Grail—and soon, I suspect, they’ll include everybody in the world with a few hundred dollars to spend—behave as though they carry new-born children, and they’re prone to dropping these items on the … Read more

More universes

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I see Jack is touting Bill Page’s book The Nirvana Experiments (which is in a state of suspension, publication-wise, prospective publishers please note).

Coincidentally, given my last post regarding this universe, possible other ones, and connections between them, Bill reviewed Dawkins’ The God Delusion recently, and I’ve abstracted the following passage:  

[T]o his credit, Dawkins defines his terms clearly. He is attacking what he calls the God Hypothesis: The belief that “there exists a superhuman, supernatural intelligence who deliberately designed
… Read more

Russian doll universes/where does it stop?

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If you were thinking our world seemed a tad out of whack at times, it could be you were right. But all is now clear (“Our universe at home within a larger universe?” Science News), and we can carry on in face of any outofwhackishness, knowing what’s what and why. (Wait. No, we don’t know why; not yet. Possibly because God wanted it so.)

 I may have to revise the third book in my futuristic trilogy, as … Read more

Not phobic, not covered in oozing sores, but…

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I’ve been preparing to spend far too much time, I suspect, on my new blog/website. But more and more agents and publishing companies claim this is part of the self-promotional duties of the up-and-coming writer, in this new digital age. So it was nice to encounter a contrarian opinion (even if it was quoted on the blog—Shrinking Violet Promotions: Marketing for Introverts—of some writers who themselves tend towards novella-length posts): 
 

Just write your heart out. I promise you

… Read more