Thank You Kenneth, Auntie Susanna and Sue

As you  know, sometimes we need to go away to get away from it all. I want to say a huge thank you to my friends Kenneth, Auntie Susanna and Sue, three of the kindest,  gracious and most generous people that you could ever hope to meet. Yes, there are still people like this in the world today.

Kenneth, Auntie Susanna and Sue allowed me to get away from it all and my time spent with them in Kuala Lumpur was one of the happiest times I've had in a long time. So here is my wish for all of you...that you all be blessed with friends as great as these.

Lana the Angry Banana

Lana the Angry Banana

By David Seow

Not too long ago in a warm toasty kitchen filled with all kinds of food and fruit,

there lived a banana named Lana.

Now Lana didn’t like being yellow; she didn’t like having brown spots;

she didn’t like being long. And she didn’t like anything or anyone.

Lana was one very angry banana.

No one knew why Lana was so angry.

But just as pigs 

are round and fat

Lana was angry 

and that was that.

“What’s the big deal?” asked Jim

“It’s great being yellow,” said Harriett

“We adore our brown spots,” said Lucy.

“And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with being long,” said Jumbo

All the other bananas nodded their heads in agreement.

This made Lana even angrier.

And the angrier she became, the meaner and nastier she got.

And the meaner and nastier she got meant trouble

 for the whole banana lot.

She began to punch and glare.

She began to push and shove.

And whomever she hurt she just did not just care.

Soon the other bananas became just as angry as Lana.

They began to smack and hit.

They began to pinch and poke

And this made Lana smile more than just a bit.

Pleased with what she had done Lana went off in search of others she could make angry.

“Stop fighting!” bellowed Jumbo.  

All the bananas stopped fighting right then and there.

They looked at each other.

They had no idea of what they were fighting for.

“Oh dear, this more serious than I thought

All it takes is just one rotten banana to turn us all bad,” said Jumbo.

“Uh-oh!” said the rest of the bananas. “What do we do? What do we do?

We don’t want to turn bad.”

“Well there’s only one thing to do. We’ve got to make Lana happy. Nothing makes a banana happier that making a dessert.”

The bananas thought of all the wonderful desserts they could make.

Each dessert they thought of was more wonderful than the last.

“Let’s make banana pudding,” said Lucy

“How about banana nut bread,” said Harriett

“No, Banana cream Pie,” said Jim.

“No, we’ve got to make the best banana dessert ever,” said Jumbo. “We’ve got to make a banana split.”

So the bananas invited the Sprinkles, the Nuts, Mr Hot Fudge, Vanilla, Chocolate, Strawberry Ice Cream, and Ms Cherry to help with their plan.

They all found a big bowl and jumped in. The Ice cream family- Vanilla, Chocolate, Strawberry plunged in first, followed by all the bananas, Mr Hot Fudge, the Sprinkles, the Nuts, and Ms Cherry. They made a beautiful dessert.

“Oh for goodness’ sake,” said Lana.

All that noise is giving me a head ache. What are you doing?”

 “We’re throwing you a dessert party,” said Lucy.  “There’s nothing better than a dessert party.”

 But desserts made Lana angry. And parties made her even angrier.

And the angrier she became, 

the meaner she got.

And the meaner she got meant trouble

 for the bananas and the lot.

She began to push and shove

She began to punch and glare

But the bananas were so happy, 

they didn’t seem to care.

And this made her even angrier.

“Arrggh!!!” Lana screamed. 

She jumped off the table and onto the kitchen floor.

“I’m leaving. Don’t ever speak to me!” 

Just then two large feet walked toward her through the open door.

And so with a stomp and a squish,

We come to the end of this sorry tale

Of Lana the Angry Banana,

now squashed, flat, rotten and stale.

The End

Book Deal Dead

You never know which way the publishing tides will go.  So after months of discussions and planning, I thought that I would be releasing a book with a major publisher by years' end. But negotiations hit the proverbial brick wall and the deal fell through.

Oh, well, moving along, moving along. I've got other stuff on my plate that's keeping me busy. It's exciting but it's stressful at the same time. I'm not getting my hopes up because every time I do, I get disappointed. It's a tough thing being  kids book author. You take a lot of hard knocks that leave you feeling rather bruised. I tend to self medicate with burgers and fries and milkshakes.

Always a pick me up is attending the montly SCBWI meeting group led by our capable captain Kenneth. Though some members were MIA- Pooja, Resham, Sue, Qian etc etc, we still had a good night, discussing Catherine Carvell's latest chapter in her MG book. Good stuff, Catherine. Our group also has a new member, Evelyn, who's from Canada. Evelyn, if we were in Canada now, we'd be hanging with William and Catherine, eh? Any way SCBWI is meeting again next month, and I've made the unilateral decision that it should be somewhere on Orchard Road because that's most convenient for me. So if you're free on the 10th and that's the day after National Day come on by. We'd love to have you. I'll update you about the venue closer to the actual date.

Hedwig Anuar Book Award Shortlist Announced

Support Choi Sung-Bong

Please support this very brave and talented young man. Not only does he have talent, but he also has heart! His story would make an inspirational MG or YA book. I call first dibs on it.

There's Soup on My Fly Red Carpet Debut -haha

Tom Hanks and There's Soup on My Fly! on the Red Carpet @ The Larry Crowne
Premiere in Singapore. (photo: ACK)

I gave a copy of my book to Tom Hanks for his granddaughter at last night's premiere of Larry Crowne.  Who knew that it would be shot on the red carpet?

A Meeting with Kyle Chandler, a Book Festival and an Award Nomination

Kyle Chandler and Me

Hey, everyone, I met Kyle Chandler today, but first let me tell you about the Asian Festival of Children's Content where my books There's Soup on My Fly! and Blow A Kiss were vying for the Hedwig Anuar Award, which carried a $10,000 cash prize that was to be shared between the author and illustrator.

The Hong Kong & Singapore  members of SCBWI
  Top L to R: Janet, Kathleen, Sue. Bottom L to R:  Resham, Pooja, Me, Kenneth
Not pictured: Catherine

Well,  they didn't announce the shortlist until the awards night and I was pleasantly surprised that There's Soup on My Fly was one of the eight books shortlisted for the award. Well, you know I didn't win, of course,  because if I had, this post would have started very differently.  I did, however, meet the night's guest of honor, President Jose Ramos Horta of Timor Leste, but as you can tell from the photo, he looks like he'd rather be doing something else than posing with me. 

This is what the Prez must be thinking: Why am I posing with this goober?

As you know, I was also a finalist for the Crystal Kite Award so this is shaping up to be a pretty great year. Would have been better if I won the award though, hahaha. No, seriously, it would have.

Cheif Judge of the Hedwig Anuar  Award Ken Spillman announces the short list

Kimi 's seated in black jacket in the front row and Kate's right behind her.
Trevor's the only dude in the photo.

Nominee Sue, SCBWI Singapore leader Kenneth and lovely Lynda
who was so supportive

I also met some wonderful people at the festival, who also happen to be great writers, some of whom were shortlisted for the Scholastic Asian Book Award. 


Kimi Takazawa who hails from Hawaii was nominated for her book about some very unusual chickens - watch out for it!  Kate Whitehead from Hong Kong is another name to look out for. I've got a gut feeling, and my gut is rather sizeable, that both ladies will make it big in the children's lit soon.  You heard it here first!


It was fantastic meeting Janet and Lynda, who were so wonderfully supportive and encouraging! And BTW, Trevor Kew, you're a teacher and author and that's kewl! Auntie Susanna Goho Quek, you're such an amazing artist. Thanks for working with me for FREE!! ha ha. 

Clockwise from the middle: Sarah, Catherine and Kate

Before I forget, I have to add that I'm so proud of my friend and long-suffering editor Sue Flotow who was among the elite list of Scholastic Asian Book Award finalists for her story Kam's School Fish Rolls. After reading it I knew she would be shortlisted, and guess what, she was!!


Special thanks goes out to everyone who were great during the week, especially my fellow SCBWI Singapore members Resham, Pooja, Catherine, Sue, Qian, and of course, our fearless leader and all-round good guy Ken, who puts up with a lot of ***** mostly, ok, no, all of it, from me.

Kyle  Chandler and Me( David Seow)

So you might be wondering how I met Kyle Chandler. Well, I found out that J.J. Abrams and the cast of the movie Super 8 flew in town  to promote their movie and I was lucky enough to meet Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights, Early Edition, Homefront) who stars in the movie along with Elle Fanning (Dakota's kid sis) and Joel Courtney, who plays his son.

I've been a fan since Early Edition and Kyle was really great.  He's such a nice down-to-earth guy and listened to me babbling about Friday Night Lights and he waited patiently as the contents of my laptop bag fell out as I tried to fish out my books to give him as a souvenir. Of course I had to do the fanboy thing and ask for an autograph and he graciously obliged.  Let me just say he's not one of those celebrities who has the handwriting skills of a doctor, his signature is legible!  I apologized for being a bother, and he kindly assured me that I wasn't. 

Kyle Chandler and my friend Ray

I told him that 'Fly' was recently nominated for a book award and he offered his congratulations. He then asked me to pose for a pic  with him using his camera, not mine, but his! What a thrill! At first my friend Ray couldn't work his camera and told him that he'd take the pic with my camera and then we would email it to him. Ray's attempt to get the personal contact details of a Hollywood star was an epic fail! 


The pic was eventually taken and with a firm handshake, and a smile thanks were exchanged and he was off to his next appointment. I said it before he's a very friendly guy. Thank you, Mr Chandler!  Go see Super 8, people! 


And before I forget, head on down to the bookstore to get Adeline Foo's latest book Whoopie Lee, Almost Famous and Shermay Loh's Archibald and the Blue-Blood Conspiracy. They're fantastic authors. Oh and you might like to get my books too if you haven't already. Ta for now.