David Seow's Blog, page 30

Reading Slowly and The Frankfurt Book Fair

Right before the AFCC in May, my friend Kenneth Quek, was interviewed about his weekend and the upcoming Asian Festival of Children's Content. You know, I've never been interviewed about my weekend. I guess that an article about how I sleep through it would be really very boring.

OK, so two days ago,  I picked up a copy of the Straits Times  only to find the same photo of  Kenneth reading Isa Kamari's The Tower that the papers used back in May.  Hey, I guess they used it to ostensibly imply that Kenneth is still reading the book and that would go along with the title of the article: Make Time to Read Slowly.  Ken, hurry up lah, finish the book already! *Kidding* 

Now with today's increasingly frenetic pace, most people tend to speed read  online  which, according to some studies, could literally lead to comprehensive cases of literary indigestion. So the gist of the article, according to the ST and the Wall Street Journal, is about about reading in  'continous linear pattern, in a quiet environment free of distractions.'  

Say what?  In my house there are no quiet spots free of distractions!  In fact everywhere I go there are distractions. I'm even distracted by the silence at the library.

Kenneth gave a really good quote about how reading develops the imagination.  Desmond Kon also gave a good  quote about the how he thinks technology has fostered the social aspects of reading.

Let me just say, I read in print and online and I'm still as unsociable as ever. I think most people who know me on any level would agree.

Now back to the topic of reading,  I'm about to start reading The Collected Works of AJ Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin. And from everything I've heard I'm really looking forward to it, though I'm sure I'll be facing a lot of distractions so I'm sure it'll take me a long time to read it.




Still on the topic of books, Kenneth and Celine, my frequent travelmates to the London Book Fair are now at the Frankfurt Book Fair as are my agents Jay, Helen and Andrea from Jacaranda Literary, Linda Lingard, and Edmund Wee, my publisher AKA Mr. Epigram Books.  I hope you guys have a fruitful time at the fair and I wish I were there too.

I'm really, really jealous. The last time I was in Germany was when I was four and my clearest memories of that visit were throwing up and catching the measles.

Thanks to Epigram and Ken for sharing the photos they took of the Singapore Pavilion. See if you can spot my books! Till laters, people.

A Day at SJI International

Today Soefara, Denise, Kelvin and I headed down to SJI International for Book Week and the kids were great as usual. It turns out that most of the kids we met are illustrators and authors in their own right and they know a lot more about publishing than I did when I was their age, so they're well ahead of the game.  thanks to SJI and Soefara, Denise and Kelvin for a great day.

The Lion Dance in the Sunday Times

Saturday Night Out Book Geeks: What Milo Saw

So for this month's book club discussion we decided on Virginia Macgregor's book What Milo Saw. As the Formula Night Race was on, we decided well in advance to meet somewhere out of town. Kenneth suggested Relish at Cluny Court which is renown for their burgers which are delish. So, of course we all agreed and I made a reservation for 7pm.



Myra and Benjamin were the first ones there and we started discussing the book before everyone else arrived. Emma and Catherine were next followed by Kenneth and finally Amelia.
Catherine's been busy with her move back to Singapore so this was the first time she's joined us in two months. Emma also just got back from her summer vacation back home in England and so this veddy English book was an appropriate main course for our evening.
Emma's pasta
Milo has retinitis pigmentosa: he's losing his sight. And that's just the start of his problems. Dad's run off with his tart and new baby Mum's salon business is going bust, Milo's school grades are suffering, his pet pig Hamlet is growing at an exponential rate but Mum's sent off great gran to a dodgy nursing home run by the sinister Nurse Thornhill and Milo's just got to get her safely home again!
Ken's spam fries
Emma pronounced the book 'Very English'. Adan hadn't finished it and was not liking it at all. Felicia said that she would gladly give the book away to anyone who wanted it as she did not like it either. Catherine thought it had too many 'boring bits', Benjamin did not like the book. Myra liked it but pointed out the flaws. Ken, Emma and I liked it and thought that it was a quick read and entertaining enough. And Amelia read the first page and fell asleep.
My bacon burger.So, yup, we were pretty much divided on the book. We weren't, however, divided on the food. Kenneth ordered the spam fries and they were excellent!!

Book Launches at Kinounya Gem

On the 13th of September, I headed down to Books Kinokuniya for the launch of Catherine Carvell's Darcy Moon and the Deep Fried Frogs and Susanna Goho-Quek's Fun at the Opera.

Catherine's book launch started promptly at two and she began by reading selected chapters from her debut novel and then answered questions before handing out colouring sheets and signing autographs. Emma, The Queks, Alex and I were there, of course, to provide moral support, not that Catherine needed it and she did a great job as she always does.



Emma and Kenneth

An hour an a half later it was time for Auntie Susanna's launch. Kenneth, Karen, Tilly, Alex and I were all there for her big day. Tilly and Alex were the star performers of her book launch. They both gamely acted out Auntie Susanna's story which is based on her childhood memories of the Chinese Opera.

Kenneth, Auntie Susanna and Karen Tilly and Auntie Susanna Alex in his  opera costumeIn fact,  their performance went so well they had to perform it again.  Then it was time for a Q & A session  and Auntie Susanna handed out prizes to those  answered the questions correctly.

All in all it was a fun day for everyone! I can't wait for their next book launches.

Singapore International Storytellers Festival 2014

Within a week, swim stars, screen stars and story stars have hit our shores. While most people will recognize Olympic swim  and screen stars, but when you mention story star most people go huh? What's that? Well to put it simpy to me, Story Stars are storytellers.

Katrice Horsley
L to R: Kamini Ramachandran, Davide Bardi, Michael Harvey,
Paola Balbi


Paola Balbi


Davide Bardi Kiran Singh Shah


Seung Ah Kim

Mochamad Ariyo

Michael Harvey
Before stories were written, they were passed on orally from generation to generation.  and the story tellers of today have elevated it to a fine art. 

The sad thing is that story tellers are largely underrated as opposed to those who tell their stories through the medium of TV, Film, the theatre or even the web. I attended this week. Without props, these artists use their voices, expressions and movements to draw you into the world of their stories. Thanks to the National Book Development Council for continuing to bring us great festivals and great events.

I thoroughly enjoyed all the story telling sessions. And at the end of the festival, Kenneth kindly invited me along for a special thank you dinner for all the story tellers. It's needless to say more stories were told and the other diners had a blast listening to them too!

Meeting Matthew Settle

Matthew Settle and me


Lately it seems like Singapore is turning into the Hollywood of SE Asia- And I, for one, think that's great!  In March, the cast of The Amazing Spiderman 2 was here for  Earth Hour; in May Hugh Jackman, Fan Bing, Bing and Peter Dinklage were here for the X-Men Experience; July saw Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista and James Gunn walked the red carpet for Guardians of the Galaxy.
Besides red carpet events, movie crews have taken to the streets starting with Agent 47 starring Zachary Quinto and Rupert Friend back in May. This week, Kristen Stewart and Nicholas Hoult started shooting their dystopian flick Equals.


But I'm most excited about the The Faith of Anna Waters, which is being helmed by Singaporean director Kelvin Tong. How cool is that? And If you didn't already know it, Matthew Settle and Mad Men's Elizabeth Rice are heading the cast which includes Jaymee Ong and Adrian Pang.
Ray and I were lucky enough to meet the  star of Band of Brothers, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, Gossip Girl last week, right before production started. Did you know he starred as the Green Lantern before Ryan Reynolds did? That's right. He was the Green Lantern in the TV movie Justice League of America in 1997! And besides acting on screen he's taken to the Broadway stage as Billy Flynn in Chicago!

Mr Settle and his lovely lady, Maria, couldn't have been nicer or more gracious and it was a pleasure meeting them.  And, of course, I had to shamelessly give him a set of my books for his daughter.




Welcome to Singapore, Mr. Settle and Maria and I hope you enjoy your time here.

Congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince George

Congratulations to Their Royal Highnesses the Cambridges: William, Catherine and George on the impending arrival of the newest member of their family.

Nathan Adrian at Singapore Swim Stars Showdown

Olympic swim Champ, Nathan Adrian, and a school of other swimmers sped into town for the inaugural Prudential Singapore Swim Stars. Nathan arrived a week before the event last Friday and it could be said that he's the one every one wanted to see. Fan girls were counting down the days till they could meet him at the meet. Now, I had already met him before way back in 2008, right before the Beijing Games, when he was in town with the Team USA for a training camp in 2008.



Back then, the entire team was staying at the Shangri-La and my American friend Lucy was dying to meet them to show her support. So we headed on down along with our friend Kee. Whenever we saw anyone from the team, Lucy approached them and asked them if she could have a photo. Nathan was seated with some of his team mates including Ricky Berens and Julia Smit when we approached and they all kindly agreed to a photo op. This was Nathan's first Olympics and he ended up bagging his first Olympic gold as part of the USA men's relay team. (He swam in the qualifying leg).
Lucy and Adrian with the team,


Flash forward four years and at the Olympic Games in London Nathan made it to the finals of the 100m freestyle, where he won the gold, narrowly edging out Australia's James Magnussen by 1/100th of a second.


Fans were looking forward to a face-off at this year's meet but Magnussen pulled out due to an injury.  Nathan ended up the big winner than evening winning both his events: 50m, 100m freestyle. For his efforts he bagged  a USD$20,000 pay check.


My friend Ray and I met Nathan at Marina Bay Sands a few days before the meet. He asked if we were going to the event, and I told him that I was since my brother  had invited me and that I was looking forward to it. He's just as nice down-to-earth as he was in 2008 and it was a pleasure meeting him again.  Actually now I'm kind of inspired to do a book about Olympic Swim Champs like Nathan Adrian. What do you guys think? 

Needless to say, that it was a thrilling and exciting meet. Thanks to my brother  for the ticket! And congratulations, Nathan!

Nathan with a set of books that I gave him for his nephew.
I look even more like a hobbi than normal next to Nathan Adrian

The Lion Dance is Out!

My latest book The Lion Dance will be out on 9/11/2014. But I just got my advance copies!!