David Seow's Blog, page 39

The Writing Year

It's barely been two weeks into the new year and I've already broken several resolutions. Oh well, I guess I can start over for Chinese New Year, right? Anyway, I'll try to be better at  from now on.

Firstly, I hope to be more disciplined with myself when it comes to writing. The beginning of the year always reminds me of the first school. For one thing, I get anxious about the year ahead and for another, I regret the the things I didn't accomplish the previous year. So my new year's resolution is to be much more time efficient and productive this year.


Speaking of the first day of school, Emma came back  from the UK in time to help me with the final proofing of Sebbie's First Day of School. Thanks, Emma.

Final Proofs for Sebbie's First Day of School

Emma's book Princess Petunia's Dragon is now available at Kinokuniya, MPH and all good bookstores in Singapore, so go grab a copy now! It's a brilliant book, really brilliant...a real fire-breather of a book. Stop reading this blog and buy a copy.





Emma at Kinokuniya with Princess Petunia!
Sarah's back safely from Cambodia and is hard at work on the third book in her pawtastical Purple Paw Print series and it should be out by May, just in time for the Asian Festival of Children's Content, right, Sarah? Sarah's  award-winning books are so much fun and unpredictable too. Kid's love them and I can't wait for the next one too!






Another book I'm terribly excited about is Darcy Moon and the Deep Fried Frogs by Catherine Carvell, which will be published in March. I was there when it was being written and I was lucky enough to be there when Catherine was crafting the story. It's hilarious and it's a green book too.  And by that I don't just mean it's an environmentally friendly book, I mean it's literally green - look it's got a green cover!   




And finally, Kristina Thornton and Michael Csokas's The Wee Adventures of Shabu Shabu: The Jade Legend has been a hit with kids here in Singapore, Sri Lanka, Japan and the USA since they launched it at the Asian Festival of Children's Content this year. The imaginative duo also have a top app for the book on itunes so buy it now for hours of entertainment for yourself or the kids in your life.




Now the sequel's about to hit to bookshelves. so get ready to order your copies of the next guaranteed blockbuster from Csoka and Thornton, The Wee Adventures of Shabu Shabu: The  Silk Route.

The working cover of book (NOT THE FINAL COVER)

Mark my words, Emma's, Sarah's and Catherine's, Kristina's and Michael's books are bound to be a best-selling award-winning must-have books of 2014.

That's it for now. I'll blog more tomorrow when I should actually be writing my next book! 

There's Soup on My Fly! by Storybook Theatre

This February Storybook Theatre will be staging their adaptation of my book There's Soup on My Fly! The tickets are priced at about $20, so it's really reasonably priced. Places are filling up fast so book your seat now!

HAPPY 2014

Happy New Year via Pat Chan

The Year in Review

FEBRUARY
Author visit at OFS with Auntie Susanna


MARCH
Dinner with Jacqueline Harvey and Lisa Yee
At the Hong Kong Young Readers Festival

SCBWI Dinner with Sally Rippin
APRIL
The London Book Fair
At the London Book Fair


In London presenting James McAvoy with
copies of Emma's Elephant and If I Were a Blue Kangaroo


At my Daunt Books appearance with Anita Loughrey and Candy Gourlay

With my agent Jay of Jacaranda Literary

Kenneth, Gee, and Candy at post-Daunt dinner


Spotting Prince Harry @ The Mandarin Oriental
MAY

Asian Festival of Children's Content
Kristina at the book launch of Shabu Shabu
Dinner with Wendy Orr

Wendy and me Sarah at the book launch of Paw Prints on the Magic Sofa


Naomi Kojima, Mio Debnam, and Kenneth Quek

Evelyn Wong, Corinne Robson, Marjorie Coughlan 

Jeremy Piven and me at the Social Media Awards 



JUNE
At Epigram


JULY 

Lucy and me


AUGUST
Sheri and Soefara at the printers


SEPTEMBER
With Soefara at Epigram
At Ovidia's book launch of Aunty Lee's Delights


OCTOBER
The first meeting of Saturday Night Out Book Geeks


Dinner with Jacqueline Harvey
Jacqueline, Sarah and Mum

NOVEMBER


Soup on My Fly dress rehearsal

Jason's panel at the Singapore Writers Festival

Pitching at the Singapore Writers Festival

Adan and Felicia pitching Kristina with the Everington Brothers


With my agents Helen, Jay and Andrea

At Emily's Tibby, the Tiger Bunny book launch with Catherine, Emily, Jade, and Edmund

DECEMBER
Emma's last checks before printing Princess Petunie'a Dragon

Catherine and Kenneth at the SCBWI Christmas Dinner

The SCBWI Christmas Dinner
Epigram Christmas Pop-up Sale

NTUC Back to School Fair with Emma
Bubbles, Balloons and Art wtih Autnie Susanna

Merry Christmas!!

Bubbles, Balloons and Art with Auntie Susanna

The next day I was back at the Fair for Auntie Susanna's session: Bubbles, Balloons and Art.  And it was packed, packed to the brim, so much so that the volunteers started turning away some kids. One girl burst into tears as they closed the door on her. 


I wish volunteers and organizers here knew how to deal with these situations. If a child wants really wants to join in an activity, make way for them instead of closing the door them...Sheesh!  

Ignoring the volunteer I opened the door and let her in. "She can sit on the floor or in the corner," her mother said. But I managed to find a place for her at one of the tables and settled her in. 





After that I set about taking photos. One mother expressed her unhappiness with the table her kids were sitting at because it was out of alignment with the other tables. So she wanted me to move two other kids so that her kids could sit at the other table. Seriously, was she SERIOUS?  Yes, she was! What cheek, what gall, what audacity! I politely declined and I simply pulled her table back into alignment with the other tables. Problem solved!



Auntie Susanna was brilliant as usual and she started the class off with having the kids blow bubbles. Everyone blew bubbles, even the big kids. 



Then they all quickly got down to the serious business of  drawing bubbles on their large sheets of drawing paper. One boy said: "This is impossible!" and when I told him that it wasn't, he cheekily said: "Hey, you're eavesdropping!"  


Auntie Susanna, Karen and Emma made sure they spent enough time with each child as they embarked on their adventure in art.






I have to say that Auntie Susanna certainly did have a bubbly
influence, pardon the pun, on the kids and they were totally engrossed in what they were doing. Even some of the mums got into the action.







And all too soon the session was drawing to a close. Auntie Susanna asked those who would like to share their art with the group, but only one young boy was brave enough to do so. 

He shared a story that went along with his colourful masterpiece and received a warm round of applause for his creativity.




With that, Auntie Susanna's session Bubbles, Balloons and Art came to a close. Before everyone left, they were handed out balloons and specially designed art cards. There was a mad scramble for the blue balloons and some kids expressed much disappointment was expressed when those ran out. Having said that, I dare say everyone had a really good time.




Parched from the workshop, we all made a beeline for Hanis for a drink while waiting for Kenneth to wrap things up at the Book Council booth.  

 Auntie Susanna, Karen and Kenneth treated Emma, Emma's husband, Jim, and me to a lovely Korean BBQ dinner at Bras Basah Complex. It was a nice dinner, but the company was even better. It was about 10pm when we finally headed home, knackered out, full-bellied and smelling of Korean BBQ.

NTUC BACK TO SCHOOL FAIR PT TWO

The next day I was back at the Fair for Auntie Susanna's session: Bubbles, Balloons and Art.  And it was packed, packed to the brim, so much so that the volunteers started turning away some kids. One girl burst into tears as they closed the door on her. 


I wish volunteers and organizers here knew how to deal with these situations. If a child wants really wants to join in an activity, make way for them instead of closing the door them...Sheesh!  

Ignoring the volunteer I opened the door and let her in. "She can sit on the floor or in the corner," her mother said. But I managed to find a place for her at one of the tables and settled her in. 





After that I set about taking photos. One mother expressed her unhappiness with the table her kids were sitting at because it was out of alignment with the other tables. So she wanted me to move two other kids so that her kids could sit at the other table. Seriously, was she SERIOUS?  Yes, she was! What cheek, what gall, what audacity! I politely declined and I simply pulled her table back into alignment with the other tables. Problem solved!



Auntie Susanna was brilliant as usual and she started the class off with having the kids blow bubbles. Everyone blew bubbles, even the big kids. 



Then they all quickly got down to the serious business of  drawing bubbles on their large sheets of drawing paper. One boy said: "This is impossible!" and when I told him that it wasn't, he cheekily said: "Hey, you're eavesdropping!"  


Auntie Susanna, Karen and Emma made sure they spent enough time with each child as they embarked on their adventure in art.






I have to say that Auntie Susanna certainly did have a bubbly
influence, pardon the pun, on the kids and they were totally engrossed in what they were doing. Even some of the mums got into the action.







And all too soon the session was drawing to a close. Auntie Susanna asked those who would like to share their art with the group, but only one young boy was brave enough to do so. 

He shared a story that went along with his colourful masterpiece and received a warm round of applause for his creativity.




With that, Auntie Susanna's session Bubbles, Balloons and Art came to a close. Before everyone left, they were handed out balloons and specially designed art cards. There was a mad scramble for the blue balloons and some kids expressed much disappointment was expressed when those ran out. Having said that, I dare say everyone had a really good time.




Parched from the workshop, we all made a beeline for Hanis for a drink while waiting for Kenneth to wrap things up at the Book Council booth.  

 Auntie Susanna, Karen and Kenneth treated Emma, Emma's husband, Jim, and me to a lovely Korean BBQ dinner at Bras Basah Complex. It was a nice dinner, but the company was even better. It was about 10pm when we finally headed home, knackered out, full-bellied and smelling of Korean BBQ.

Emma and her Elephant head to the NTUC Back to School Fair

This weekend I headed down to the National Library for NTUC's annual Back to School Fair for a book reading and art and craft session. Thankfully Emma agreed to read the story and Auntie Susanna and Karen also kindly volunteered to help out with the art and craft session.




My 45 minute session was scheduled to start promptly at 11:30, so I got there at around 11:00 and met up with Emma and her husband Jim at the Hanis cafe. Emma brought along her freshly printed book Princess Petunia's Dragon and I was one of the lucky few who got my hands on one of the advance copies. Thanks, Emma, it's a brilliant book and bound to be a best-seller!




Then it was time to set things up.  I'm always anxious before any presentation so I was thankful that Auntie Susanna, Karen and Kenneth were already in the room. While Ken had to dash off for another event, Auntie Susanna and Karen started setting up the art supplies, candy canes, and bookmarks for the kids, and Emma and I braced ourselves for the story reading. Soefara, my illustrator for the Sam, Sebbie and Di-Di-Di series, showed up just as we about to start and took a place at the back of the room. Thanks, Soefara!




I was terrified that no one would show up but then when the doors opened, a stream of kids and parents filed in. My throat began to dry up as it usually does before I address and audience, so I took a gulp of my coca-cola and then introduced Emma and myself.

I told the kids that this was Emma's story and she really did have an invisible elephant when she was younger but none of them actually bought that! One kid actually said that he used to like elephants but now he preferred dinosaurs. 



With only forty-five minutes for story telling and the art and craft session, Emma took to the podium and began reading. She has an excellent reading voice and I wish I could read like her. As she was reading, I assigned myself to the difficult task of handling the powerpoint slide show.


After  Emma was done reading, we quizzed the kids to see if they had actually been paying attention and when they answered the questions correctly, Karen handed out small prizes of bookmarks and Christmas candy canes.



Then it was time for art and craft and Auntie Susanna, Karen, Emma and I helped the kids and parents make paper-plate elephants. Thanks goes to Vivian Kirkfield for her art and craft idea!







Karen and Me
It was quite something trying to coordinate the distribution of the art and craft material to all the kids but thanks to Auntie Susanna, Emma, Karen and Stephanie of NBDCS everyone got what they needed and got down to the task at hand - creating a paper plate elephant.


Working on the craft
The kids were told that Auntie Susanna would pick the three designs that she thought were the best and they would each receive a copy of Emma's Elephant.


Very creative
Finished!
That's mine!


Auntie Susanna about to announce the winners 
After much deliberation, Auntie Susanna picked the three winners and they stepped up to receive their prizes. Everyone else received with Emma's Elephant and Princess Petunia's Dragon bookmarks.

Then Emma spoke briefly about Princess Petunia's Dragon which will be out in January at all good  book shops, so go buy a copy, people! 



On that note, it was a mad rush to tidy up before the next session. I felt completely spent, so exhausted and I can't thank Emma, Auntie Susanna and Karen enough for all their help. 

Then we high-tailed it out of there for a chicken rice lunch before we all headed back home. We would be back the following day for Auntie Susanna's session.

Emma signs Karen's copy of Princess Petunia

NTUC BACK TO SCHOOL FAIR PT ONE

This weekend I headed down to the National Library for NTUC's annual Back to School Fair for a book reading and art and craft session. Thankfully Emma agreed to read the story and Auntie Susanna and Karen also kindly volunteered to help out with the art and craft session.



My 45 minute session was scheduled to start promptly at 11:30, so I got there at around 11:00 and met up with Emma and her husband Jim at the Hanis cafe. Emma brought along her freshly printed book Princess Petunia's Dragon and I was one of the lucky few who got my hands on one of the advance copies. Thanks, Emma, it's a brilliant book and bound to be a best-seller!




Then it was time to set things up.  I'm always anxious before any presentation so I was thankful that Auntie Susanna, Karen and Kenneth were already in the room. While Ken had to dash off for another event, Auntie Susanna and Karen started setting up the art supplies, candy canes, and bookmarks for the kids, and Emma and I braced ourselves for the story reading. Soefara, my illustrator for the Sam, Sebbie and Di-Di-Di series, showed up just as we about to start and took a place at the back of the room. Thanks, Soefara!




I was terrified that no one would show up but then when the doors opened, a stream of kids and parents filed in. My throat began to dry up as it usually does before I address and audience, so I took a gulp of my coca-cola and then introduced Emma and myself.

I told the kids that this was Emma's story and she really did have an invisible elephant when she was younger but none of them actually bought that! One kid actually said that he used to like elephants but now he preferred dinosaurs. 


With only forty-five minutes for story telling and the art and craft session, Emma took to the podium and began reading. She has an excellent reading voice and I wish I could read like her. As she was reading, I assigned myself to the difficult task of handling the powerpoint slide show.


After  Emma was done reading, we quizzed the kids to see if they had actually been paying attention and when they answered the questions correctly, Karen handed out small prizes of bookmarks and Christmas candy canes.


Then it was time for art and craft and Auntie Susanna, Karen, Emma and I helped the kids and parents make paper-plate elephants. Thanks goes to Vivian Kirkfield for her art and craft idea!







Karen and Me
It was quite something trying to coordinate the distribution of the art and craft material to all the kids but thanks to Auntie Susanna, Emma, Karen and Stephanie of NBDCS everyone got what they needed and got down to the task at hand - creating a paper plate elephant.

Working on the craft
The kids were told that Auntie Susanna would pick the three designs that she thought were the best and they would each receive a copy of Emma's Elephant.

Very creative
Finished!
That's mine!


Auntie Susanna about to announce the winners 
After much deliberation, Auntie Susanna picked the three winners and they stepped up to receive their prizes. Everyone else received with Emma's Elephant and Princess Petunia's Dragon bookmarks.

Then Emma spoke briefly about Princess Petunia's Dragon which will be out in January at all good  book shops, so go buy a copy, people! 


On that note, it was a mad rush to tidy up before the next session. I felt completely spent, so exhausted and I can't thank Emma, Auntie Susanna and Karen enough for all their help. 

Then we high-tailed it out of there for a chicken rice lunch before we all headed back home. We would be back the following day for Auntie Susanna's session.

Emma signs Karen's copy of Princess Petunia

There's Soup on My Fly Tickets!