David Seow's Blog, page 51

IFLA: Books from Singapore

Blow A Kiss Excerpt

Here is an excerpt from my book Blow A Kiss, which was a finalist for the SCBWI Crystal Kite Award last year and which has been selected as one of ten books from Singapore to be displayed at the ILFA Congress in Helsinki. If you would like to download the ebook version please click on this link: Ilovebooks.com

The Great Big Spooky Forest

Here is a concept illustration from one of my upcoming books 'The Great Big Spooky Forest" illustrated by Susanna Goho. Coming in Dec 2012.

Ebooks

There's Soup on My Fly! and Blow A Kiss are now available as ebooks  @  I love books.com. So please check them out!!

Blow A Kiss at IFLA Congress

I just heard from my distributor that my book Blow A Kiss has just been selected by the National Library Board for inclusion in a book display at the International Federation of Library Association (IFLA) Conference in Helsinki and Joensuu in August 2012.


Apparently, the selection is based on what the IFLA considers the top ten picture books in Singapore.  Yay!

There's Soup on My Fly Dramatisation at the Asian Festival of Children's Content

So one of the biggest thrills for me during the festival besides meeting all the talented authors and illustrators was Leonard Marcus's Literature Lecture during which ACT3 dramatised my book There's Soup on My Fly! I have to say this was the best AFCC yet and it was in large part due to the great work ofthe NBDCS team: Festival Manager, Kenneth Quek and his festival angels and of course Mr Rama. Good job guys and gals.

Final Day of AFCC and Literature Lecture

Catherine Carvell, Sarah Mounsey and Kenneth Quek Auntie Susanna and me
Norman Jorgensen, Dianne Wolfer, Kenneth Quek and me

SCBWI Celebratory Dinner

The dinner spread
Adeline Foo and Linda Lingard Author/Illustrator Susanna Goho and proud mum of Festival Manager Evelyn Wong and authors Trevor Kew and Rukhsana Khan


Mr Rama addresses the guests
Kenneth receives applause for his hard work


During dinner,  Mr Rama thanked everyone who helped with the festival and the biggest applause was, of course without a doubt, for the Festival Manager Kenneth Quek who humbly acknowleged the crowd's applause.


SCBWI RAs: Linda, Yoko, Marjorie, Katheleen, Dianne, Chris and KennethThen Kathleen Ahrens, International Advisor for SCBWI spoke about the society and encouraged members to sign up...and I concur, if you are an aspiring author and illustrator you've got to sign up! So with that the last guest lingered for a while before some of the speakers headed off to Raffles to grab a drink...exhausted festival manager Kenneth headed home for the night to get ready for the last day of AFCC Neill Laurenson and I
SCBWI Singapore family photo



Faith and Mra can't believe that the festival is almost over

Asian Festival of Children's Content: Local Authors, International Audience

For weeks, Ken had been asking me if I had finished my powerpoint for the Local Authors, International Audience panel discussion with authors Emily Lim and Shamini Flint. My standard reply was 'more or less". And when I say more or less, that usually means more on the less side; however, I wasn't going to tell him that! Thankfully I finally finished my powerpoint presentation on the morning of our panel discussion. I was nervous about it as how on earth was I going to measure up to these two powerhouses of local children's literature. Talk about PRESSURE!!! So I figured that I would basically use attention grabbing tactics. Sad and pathetic? Yes. Shameless? Most definitely!!


Leonard Marcus delivers his address

So the day kicked off with another engaging keynote address by Leonard Marcus on Children's Books for Education and Entertainment. I really wish I had an opportunity to listen to him when I first started writing. Getting Your Books on  Bookshelves across South East Asia was a session I would have loved to have attended but I had to put my finishing touches on my presentation.


 Catherine and Sarah were already at the Bookaburra Bookmart, perusing the books on sale. I ran through my powerpoint with Sarah for her perusal and she gave me the thumbs up. That was a relief! Then I tried getting internet access which took forever!!


I then attended Crossing Borders, Taking our Books out of our home Country with Vatsala Kaul-Banerjee of Hachette-India and Adeline Foo.  Inspiring as always, Adeline, inspiring as always.


Local Authors, International AudienceAt 1:45pm I headed down to the Earshot cafe to meet with Phan Ming Yen, the moderator, Shamini and Emily. I literally bumped into Shamini while she was talking to Ken Spillman, sorry, Sharmini before Ming Yen and Emily arrived to run through the sequence of our talk...Shamini had her presentation set and ready to go and she didn't even need a powerpoint presentation...Emily was thorough as ever and I relied on cheap attention grabbing tactics. We agreed that the ladies should start off the talk: Emily, Then Shamini and then me.


The gallery where the talk was supposed to take place was packed! A. Susanna was there to take pictures and to offer support...I mean.  Emily borrowed my computer so she could show her powerpoint presentation, Dang she was well prepared! Shamini  left everyone in stitches with her sense of humor on how she went from high flying lawyer with a sports car to a mum and a writer. And she didn't even need a powerpoint presentation and I was next. Oh boy. Thankfully I didn't mess up my presentation! And before I knew it, the presentation was over and I was exhausted.


Shamini Flint, Emily Lim and me!

I headed straight over to the book launch of The Prince and the Merlion which of Neill aka Sabian Lau and moderated by AFCC board of adviors Claire Chiang. 


Neill Laurenson aka Sabian Lau and Claire Chiang at the book launch
of the Prince and the Merlion



This was quickly followed by Stacey Zolt Hara's app launch of her book Bella's Chinese New Year. 


I had a few sessions to attend before the SCBWI dinner at the Pod at the library which I was really looking forward to and I managed a quick chat with Sarah Odedina. It turns out she's not a fan of scatalogical boooks so I'm glad I didn't talk to her about my latest book. 
exchanging autographs with Naomi Kojima



On my way out, I managed to get Naomi Kojima to sign her book Singing Shijimi Clams for me and I signed my book  Monkey: The Classic Chinese Aventure Tale for her. After a quick stop to the library, I headed to the POD where SCBWI members from around the world were already gathered.

Asian Festival of Children's Content Day # 2

Leonard MarcusThe second day of the AFCC got started with the Asian Parents Forum with a welcome address by Claire Chiang and a Keynote address by Leonard Marcus "Read me a Story, Sing me to Sleep" which brought back memories of my days babysitting my now teenage niece and nephews. Fascinating talk that was interrupted by the person next to me talking while she was looking at her programme, so  I had to shush her which worked rather effectively after she shot me the filthiest glance.  It is interesting to know that even Eric Carle's book The Hungry Caterpillar was rejected by librarians for being too much like a toy and that Margaret Wise Brown's Book Goodnight Moon still reaches across generations today, though it was not widely accepted at first. So I guess the moral of the story is that librarians, teachers have and will continue to reject true literary geniuses. So if you've faced rejection and continue to do so, then You're a genius!! But then if that's the case I must be Einstein!! haha...kidding.


Claire Chiang


After Leonard's great introduction, Claire Chiang gave an inspiriting, interative Telling Stories, Building Bonds about writing memoirs for yourself and your family. Wow  she had us all riveted. Her dedication to her work, her philantrophy and her love for family is for lack of a better word is inspiring. So if you have a chance to hear her in person, please do so!!
Mr Rama and Victoria Siaw's mother, Victoria Siaw's seated in the corner.

As for the rest of the day, I walked around in a kind of haze as I didn't get much sleep the night before  but I did manage to go for the book launch of Victoria Siaw, a teen author from Malaysia who started writing with the encouragement of her mother from the age of 9. 


The day ended with local actor Edmund Chen's book launch. I can never understand why people in the enterainment industry insist on writing children's books. Do those of us in the children's book industry don't go into acting for goodness' sake!
Edmund Chen and fan

Anway, as I left for the day, Festival Manager Kenneth was running around making everything was in order for the next day, Festival Direcor Mr Rama was overseeing things and the AFCC Angels  Celine,Mra,Vasantha, Faith and Filzah were prepping for an influx of new festival attendees. 
Festival Angels: Mra, Vasantha, Faith and Filzah (Celine not pictured)

Glad that my long day was over, I headed home and put the finishing touches on my powerpoint presentation for my panel discussion with Shamini Flint and Emily Lim. How on earth was I going to measure up to these two accomplished authors... the answer was that I didn't know.