Eclectic crime fiction & informed, irreverent non-fiction from Asia & beyond
Last month, we had a visit from veteran tattooist Bruce Bart and his wife Jennifer. They were on an Asian road trip and were looking for a tattoo master in Thailand. Their search, quite an adventure, eventually led them to Sacred Skin and to the house I share with my wife, photographer Aroon Thaewchatturat. This […]
Continue ReadingWriter Marco Ferrarese interviews photographer Hans Kemp, with whom I have just published Burmese Light, a new illustrated book on Burma. Read the full interview on Rolf Potts‘ celebrated blog Vagablogging here. Burmese Light: Impressions of the Golden Land is a photographic introduction to Myanmar, the country behind the Bamboo Curtain. Stunning images by award-winning […]
Continue Reading“A new book offers a visually stunning look at the cultural, geographic, archaeological and ethnic diversity and beauty of a country only now stepping out of the shadows.” writes Ezra Kyril Erker in a full page spread in this Sunday’s Bangkok Post. My new book, put together with photographer Hans Kemp is out now. Read […]
Continue ReadingSacred Skin receives a great review from Danny Keens, Producer of 60 Minutes, on Amazon. Wonderful!!! When I stumbled upon this print collaboration between author Tom Vater and photographer Aroon Thaewchatturat I was taken completely by surprised and totally mesmerized. You see, I’m not the sort of person who would have considered a tattoo and […]
Continue ReadingTaiwan’s tattoo magazine Extreme Tattoo featured an 8 page spread on Sacred Skin in its December Issue!!! The spread includes many images from the book and an interview with photographer Aroon Thaewchatturat. Sacred tattoos, called sak yant in Thailand, have been around Southeast Asia for centuries and afford protection from accident, misfortune, and crime. Young […]
Continue ReadingIn ein thailändisches Kloster, ins Wat Bang Phra, kommen Gläubige, um sich tätowieren zu lassen. Buddhistische Mönche übertragen mit den heiligen Tätowierungen spirituelle Kräfte. Dem Volksglauben nach mobilisieren diese magischen Tatoos verborgene Energien. Ernst Weber besuchte vor einigen Jahren das Kloster mit dem deutschen Schriftsteller Tom Vater und dessen Frau Aroon. Aroon Thaewchatturat ist Ethnobotanikerin […]
Continue ReadingBangkok 101, the Thai capital’s city magazine features Sacred Skin in its December issue. Writer Tom Vater and photographer Aroon Thaewchatturat spent a year researching the history and practices behind sak yant, Thailand’s centuries old sacred tattoo tradition. The result was Sacred Skin: a 200-page book packed with over 170 colour photos and insightful text. […]
Continue ReadingEveryone has a good book in them so they say, Asia’s first English-language crime publishing house looks set to put that adage to the test. Mark Bibby Jackson interviews me about all things Crime Wave Press in this month’s ASIA LIFE Magazine, both in the Thailand and Cambodia edition. I get to talk about crime […]
Continue ReadingI am interviewed on the Garlic Never Sleeps blog about all things Crime Wave Press this week.
Continue ReadingMy fiction imprint, Crime Wave Press, is extremely proud to be publishing Mindfulness and Murder, by American author Nick Wilgus, the first in the Father Ananda murder-mystery series and recently made into a feature film in Thailand. The Story: When a homeless boy living at the youth shelter run by a Buddhist monastery turns […]
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