David Seow's Blog, page 42

From the Royal Mail

The Duchess in Singapore accepting a copy of my book Blow a Kiss. As you know, I have been working on my  book  A Day with the Duchess for some time and now I've got some great news: it will be part  of the Sam, Sebbie and Di-Di-Di series with Epigram Books.Yay! If you've been following my blog, you may remember that my Mum gave a copy of my limited edition book Blow a Kiss to the Duchess when she was in Singapore last year. That story got picked up by Hello Magazine and the London Evening Standard among others. What a thrill!  Speaking of the Duke and Duchess I mailed them copies of my books If I Were a Blue Kangaroo, Emma's Elephant, and At the Night Safari for Prince George Alexander Louis and I received a response from the palace. Sure, it was  a standard form response but it was nice to receive it, nevertheless, and it will make a nice royal keepsake.  Considering the amount of gifts they received I hope they keep the books and read them since I shamelessly signed them for the little prince and his parents.

Royal Post

The Duchess in Singapore accepting a copy of my book Blow a Kiss. As you know, I have been working on my  book  A Day with the Duchess for some time and now I've got some great news: it will be part  of the Sam, Sebbie and Di-Di-Di series with Epigram Books.Yay! If you've been following my blog, you may remember that my Mum gave a copy of my limited edition book Blow a Kiss to the Duchess when she was in Singapore last year. That story got picked up by Hello Magazine and the London Evening Standard among others. What a thrill!  Speaking of the Duke and Duchess I mailed them copies of my books If I Were a Blue Kangaroo, Emma's Elephant, and At the Night Safari for Prince George Alexander and I received a response from the palace. Sure, it was  a standard form response but it was nice to receive it, nevertheless, and it will make a nice royal keepsake.  Considering the amount of gifts they received I hope they keep the books and read them since I shamelessly signed them for the little prince and his parents.

Blog Hop

Hi everyone, the Christmas decorations are up on Orchard Road and that means the end of the year is fast approaching. Ok, so there's lots going before the year officially comes to a close. My book At the Night Safari is out and At the S.E.A Aquarium  should be going to print within the next week or two. The Learning Connection is currently adapting my book There's Soup on My Fly! into a musical for preschools. I've also recently signed for representation with Jacaranda Literary and so hopefully my books will finally get an International Publisher. And yes, I'm working on contributing a blog post to my friend Vivian Kirkfield's blog.

David Almond, Emily Lim, John Dougherty and me at last year's
Singapore Writers Festival

My friend award winning author Emily Lim was kind enough to ask me to participate in a blog hop and she had to guide me through it step by step.  Thanks, Emily. I've added links to the Emily's, Catherine's, Sarah's and Emma's blogs at the end of this post so you can keep up with what my fellow authors are up to.
Anyway, here are the four questions I had to answer for the blog hop.
What are you working on right now? Right now I'm working on a couple of stories in the middle-grade range.
How does it differ from other works in the genre?Writing middle grade fiction is very different from writing picture books. It's a completely different skill set, but it's interesting and I'm enjoying the process.
Why do you write what you do?I write for kids because I still think like a kid and some of my all-time favourite books are children's books.

What is the hardest part about writing?Editing...but that's easy compared to promoting your books and getting them to sell!

Emily Lim
Emily Lim and Caleb

Emily Lim is an award-winning author of several children’s picture books. She is the 1st outside North America to win 3 medals for children’s books at the IPPY Awards (the world’s largest book awards) and also the 1st in Southeast Asia to win the Moonbeam Children’s Book Award. Her books have been published in Singapore, Malaysia, Korea and China, and crossed platforms into animation, Apps, e-books, and adapted for children's theatre. She has also written seven illustrated books which are used for social studies across all schools in Singapore.

Emily’s personal memoir, Finding My Voice (a true story of setbacks, new beginnings and toy characters), is based on her personal journey of losing her voice and discovering a new voice in writing and publishing. For more about Emily, hop to her blog http://mummumstheword.wordpress.com/
Catherine Carvell
Catherine Carvell

Catherine Carvell is the author of  'Darcy Moon and the Deep Fried Frogs' a chapter book due for release early 2014 by Fremantle Press. Catherine Carvell's Blog

Sarah Mounsey Sarah MounseyI have always loved to write for children and have had fun writing and publishing the Paw Print books. Purple Paw Prints was released in 2012 and Paw Prints on the Magic Sofa in 2013. 
I am an Australian and I grew up in Brisbane, although it has not been my home for 12 years. After spending eight years  in London, I now live in Singapore with my husband and three sons. I have always loved to read and write and credit my Mum for this lifelong passion.
I remember getting into trouble as a child for sneakily reading books under the table at school and for staying up late at night writing diaries and stories by torchlight! Books are a place where I get lost in the pages and forget what is going on in the real world around me. The characters become my friends and their journeys become my own. That is what I hope to share with children as they enjoy my stories.

Sarah Mounsey's Blog

Emma Nicholson
Emma Nicholson
I'm a children's writer and I can't stop writing. To keep my fingers happy, I decided to start this blog. And it kicks off as I'm about to publish a chapter book for 7-10 year-olds. I live in both Singapore and Epsom, UK, and I travel as much as I can. Singapore is a small island in south east Asia, sometimes called the Little Red Dot. This inspired me to call my blog Little Red Jot. I'll use it to park stray thoughts and episodes from my life and work. I hope you enjoy reading!


Emma Nicholson's Blog

Sneak Peak: At the S.E.A. Aquarium

If I haven't mentioned it already, I'm really thrilled with my revamped series of books with Epigram and I really love my illustrations. Here is a sneak peak of two of the Soefara Jafney's illustrations from At the S.E.A. Aquarium. I love them!!

Asian Festival of Children's Content Midstream Meeting

Hi all, I just got back from the Asian Festival of Children's Content Midstream Meeting. Now you're probably wondering what those three ladies with Kenneth Quek AFCC Festival Director  below have got to do with the Asian Festival of Children's Content, right? Well if you continue reading, you'll find out.

Catherine Carvell, Sarah Mounsey, Emma Nicholson, Kenneth Quek



Catherine and Sarah with a friend at their first AFCC in 2011.
  Australia's next top Authors Catherine Carvell and Moonbeam Award Winning
author Sarah Mounsey today.


Authors Catherine Carvell, Sarah Mounsey, Emma Nicholson  have both been writing for "quite a while" but when they moved to Singapore and attended the AFCC their writing careers took off faster than Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull at this year's F1





Emma, Catherine and Sarah attended their first AFCC in 2011 when they only had dreams of being published. Now two years and three AFCC's later, Catherine has a book deal with a highly reputable publisher and her first MG novel will be released in early 2014. Sarah's won a Moonbeam for her Purple Paw Print Series and Emma will be publishing her book Princess Petunia's Dragon later this year and is currently in talks with another publisher.



They aren't the only success stories to have come out of AFCC. Ovidia Yu won The Scholastic Book Award in 2011 and her winning entry The Mudskipper was shortlisted for the Hedwig Anuar Children's Book Award this year.


Ovidia reads excerpts from the Mudskipper in 2012Back to the meeting. When I arrived Mr Rama, Kenneth and the AFCC angels: Celine, Faith, and Stephanie were busy ensuring everything was ready for the guests. A short time later, the room was packed with literary heavy weights: Emily Lim, Adan Jiminez and Felicia Low, creators of the Sherlock Sam Series; my editor Sheri Tan from Epigram; Ovidia Yu, Evelyn Sue Wong; Myra Garces Bascal and Shekinah Linn. 

Mr Rama at last year's AFCC.

Shamini Flint, Emily Lim and me @ AFCC 2012


After NBDCS Director Mr Rama gave us a brief overview of next year's AFCC, we split into groups to share our ideas. One of which was to build awareness of the event, and that's why I'm blogging about it now. Next year they'll even be an amazing writers' retreat
 (I would tell you more but I've been sworn to secrecy. You'll just have to attend AFCC to find out more. But seriously, you'll be hitting yourself if you miss out).


Catherine with award winning author Norm Jogensen in 2012
.

Emma and  the amazing Wendy Orr at AFCC 2012
There will be book launches, performances, workshops  and forums for parents, kids and teachers and and more, much more. But I'm sorry as I said I can't tell you more than that. But I promise you, that you will REGRET it if you don't attend the festival next year. Seriously!

Now I'll keep blogging about it from now till May 2014, which is when AFCC will take place. In the mean time you can check out last year's AFCC on their facebook page:  AFCC  FACEBOOK PAGE.

Singtel Formula 1 Season 2013

The Formula 1 season in Singapore is always an exciting time - I've  lucky enough to have been invited to the Paddock Club twice as well as to the Sky Suites.


I'll never ever forget those experiences. A BIG THANKS goes out to those who invited me.  And I still get excited during Formula 1 week in Singapore.  

This year I bumped into Jensen Button and David Coultard and the one and only Paris Hilton!


David Coultard and me
Paris Hilton and me

Jensen Button and fan.

Book Launches

Tyler Brulè, publisher of Monocle Magazine was in town for the launch of Monocle Guide to Better Living, so of course I had to head down to Kinokuniya for his talk and book signing. As this book launch did not start on time but the apologetic Monocle team handed out promotional fans and chocolates to the growing crowd. This was a first! Brulè arrived a while later, casual chic in a blazer, crew neck tee, and khaki bermudas. I wish I could pull that look off as well as he does. After a brief introduction, he proceeded to sign books for a long line of fans and his tardiness was forgiven (perhaps he was suffering from jet-lag) as he took time to pose with everyone who wanted a photo.  


Now an author who knows how to show up on time is none other than Ovidia Yu,  one of my favourite people and it goes without saying one of my favourite authors as well. Her writing is so incredibly delicious that it's no wonder he latest hit novel is about a crime-solving Peranakan Aunty who happens to be a restaurateur.  Aunty Lee's Delights will delight readers who aren't even fans of the genre. Ovidia was clad appropriately in Peranakan attire as was her moderator Stella Kon, who's best known for her play Emily of Emerald Hill, who also happens to be a distant relative, my Dad's cousin. Also in attendance were fellow authors Adeline Foo and Otto Fong.

We were treated to two songs from the upcoming Emily of Emerald Hill Musical and Ovidia provided us with insights into the creation of her latest masterpiece. Pineapple tarts and Achar were served before I got Ovidia to sign my copy of the book. After that I  high-tailed in to the Botanical Gardens for a brisk walk to work off those pineapple tarts. Aunty Lee's Delights is available at Books Kinokuniya and all good bookstores around town. If you can't find it in a bookstore, then you'll know that bookstore isn't very good.

Happy Belated Birthday, Prince Harry!

Singapore International Storytelling Festival

So last week I had the privilege of attending the Asian Storytellers Congress, part of the Singapore International Storytelling Festival organised by the National Book Development Council of Singapore. 

At 7:45am Mum knocked on my bedroom door, saying that she thought I had left the house already. I shot out of bed, brushed my teeth, bathed, changed and bolted out the door. I was late!! Thankfully I didn't have to wait long for a cab and once I found one I told the cabbie to floor it to the Arts House.
Auntie Susanna, Gene Tagaban and Festival Director Kenneth
I made it in time for registration at 8:30am and picked up my name tag and managed an incoherent good morning to Festival Director Kenneth, and Auntie Susanna and one of Singapore's Preeminent storytellers Kiran Shah. I was starving as I hadn't picked up breakfast on the way there, but I managed to stave off my hunger pangs as Clare Coburn conducted her keynote speech, during which I caught up Michele Thompson and Annabelle from the National Arts Council and then headed for the buffet breakfast and scarfed down two curry puffs before heading to my workshop, Storytelling in the Classroom by Len Cabral.  Now storytelling and story writing are two very different animals and I learnt a great deal from Len's workshop. The guy is amazing.

Then it was lunch. I caught up with Susanna for a quick bite before we watched the Asian Storytellers weave their tales. Great job Kamini, Joo Hymn, Sheila, David, Kiran, Rosemary and Verena. Then it was time for the second workshop of the day: Playing with Shadows which was conducted  by Amihan Bonifacio Ramolete. I'm not the most limbre of people so it was a challenge for me to contort my hands and body into certain positions to form shadow puppets. Thankfully I was paired with Carolyn from the NAC, and while our fellow participants crafted elaborate shadow puppet stories, Carolyn, under my instigation, and I did a shadow puppet story about poop. Yes, you heard right, poop!! I'm grateful no one poo pooed our performance.

With that the day was over for the participants, but I was staying on for the storytellers' showcase which was completely sold out. Auntie Susanna had a great time at Gene Tagaban's workshop, A StoryTeller's Journey.

Auntie Susanna and I  headed out for tea, as we had two hours to spend before the showcase started, and after tea I dragged Auntie Susanna to window shop at an action figure store. 

Back at the Arts House, Caroline, Emma, Karen, Mei and Mika joined us to watch the showcase, which was amazing, really amazing.   After a late-night Indian vegetarian supper,  I walked all the way home and passed out shortly thereafter.  It's needless to say, it was a long but enjoyable day.

Singapore International Storytellers Festival

So last week I had the privilege of attending the Asian Storytellers Congress, part of the Singapore International Storytelling Festival organised by the National Book Development Council of Singapore. 

At 7:45 Mum knocked on my bedroom door, saying that she thought I had left the house already. I shot out of bed, brushed my teeth, bathed, changed and bolted out the door. I was late!! Thankfully I didn't have to wait long for a cab and once I found one I told the cabbie to floor it to the Arts House.
Auntie Susanna, Gene Tagaban and Festival Director Kenneth
I made it in time for registration at 8:30 and picked up my name tag and managed an incoherent good morning to Festival Director Kenneth, and Auntie Susanna and one of Singapore's Preeminent Storyteller's Kiran Shah. I was starving as I hadn't picked up breakfast one the way there but I managed to stave off my hunger pangs as Clare Coburn conducted her keynote speech. I caught up Michele Thompson and Annabelle from the Arts Council and then headed for the buffet breakfast and scarfed down two curry puffs before heading to my workshop, Storytelling in the Classroom by Len Cabral.  Now storytelling and story writing are two very different animals and I learnt a great deal from Len's workshop. The guy is amazing.

Then it was lunch. I caught up with Susanna for a quick bite before we watched the Asian Storytellers weave their tales. Great job Kamini, Joo Hymn, Sheila, David, Kiran, Rosemary and Verena. Then it was time for the second workshop of the day: Playing with Shadows which was conducted  by Amihan Bonifacio Ramolete. I'm not the most limbre of people so it was a challenge for me to contort my hands and body into certain positions to form shadow puppets. Thankfully I was paired with Carolyn from the NAC, and while our fellow participants crafted elaborate shadow puppet stories, Carolyn, under my instigation, and I did a shadow puppet story about poop. Yes, you heard right, poop!! I'm grateful no one poo pooed our performance.

With that the day was over for the participants, but I was staying on for the storytellers' showcase which was completely sold out. Auntie Susanna had a great time at Gene Tagaban's workshop, A StoryTeller's Journey.

We headed out for tea, as we had two hours before the showcase started, and after that I dragged Auntie Susanna to window shop at an action figure store.  Caroline, Emma, Karen, Mei and Mika joined us at the showcase, which was amazing and the storytellers had us mesmerized.  I passed out cold half and hour after I got home.  It's needless to say, it was a long but enjoyable day.