Emma's Elephant Review and Craft - Thank you Vivian

Hey, everyone, Vivian Kirkfield, whom I met at this year's AFCC was kind enough to review Emma's Elephant for me. Emma's first review ever. Thanks so much, Vivian! :) And if you're a parent, or a teacher or just love kids books, please stop by her website.  
http://viviankirkfield.com

MY AFCC Book Haul

My AFCC Book haul

Catching Up with Marjorie

Marjorie and Tsai @ The House of Suzie Wong (photo: Corinne Robson)

With AFCC over,  the Paper Tiger ladies, Marjorie Coughlan and Corinne Robson headed up to KL for a few days' R & R. While there, they visited the Batu Caves, which they said could be skipped unless you have a penchant for the odour of monkey piss; the Petronas Twin Towers which can't be missed, and the place which definitely is the MUST STOP in KL, The House of Suzie Wong on the fourth floor of Lot 10.

Corinne flew back to Vancouver via Hong Kong from KL, but Marjorie bussed it down on Aeroline and I

met her at the Habourfront Terminal for coffee before we went back to my place so she could take a bit of a rest after her 5-hour bus journey.

Ken and Marjorie at Taste Paradise

We spent some time talking about her trip to KL and  illustrations in picture books before Mum joined us for a bit of the conversation. As Marjorie  had to be at the airport by 9pm, we decided on a 7pm dinner at Taste Paradise at the Ion. I suggested a pit stop at books Kinokuniya on our way there and by the time we got to the restaurant, a long line of hungry diners had formed. Thankfully the wait wasn't that bad, and Kenneth arrived just as our table was ready.

Mr Quek did the ordering, then we discussed AFCC and how much fun it had all been. After we polished off  dinner, we called for a cab, headed back to my place to pick up Marjorie's luggage and floored it  to the airport.

I have to say that I was very jealous that Marjorie was going back to the UK. If I had a choice I would stay there for an extended period of time, but life so often gets in the way of our plans. However, I'm already looking at my options. (Thanks for the accommodations, Marjorie...hint, hint). As Marjorie had already checked in online, her time with us was up all too soon. So with goodbye hugs and a few "we'll see you soons" she headed off to the departure gate and was off to London on British Airways.

After a last wave goodbye, we grabbed a cup of coffee and a hot chocolate at one of the cafes before sharing a cab back to town. With Marjorie's departure, it hit me that AFCC 2013 was truly over. I was about to ask Kenneth when he was going to start planning next year's festival, but fatigue and the adrenaline crash from the previous week's event was beginning to take its toll and he was already nodding off. I decided to save that question for another time. Kenneth had just pulled off one of the biggest festivals of the year with great success and he needed a rest, a good rest, and without a doubt, he deserved it.

AFCC Day Five

Before we knew it, the last day of AFCC was upon us. The sad thing about book festivals is they seem to fly by. And though the organisers are probably exhausted by the end of them, it is to their credit that the participants wish the festivals lasted just a tad longer.

Evelyn, Kenneth, Mr Rama, Corinne, Marjorie and the AFCC team

Ok, now let's see what I forgot to add in my other blog posts. Oh that's right, meeting Kathleen Ahrens, Chris Cheng, Naomi Kojima, Dianne Wolfer,  Norman Jorgensen  and Trevor Kew again was such a delight. I wish I had more time to catch up with them but the week buzzed by so quicky. I didn't even get a chance to take photos with them this year. Maybe next year or at some other festival.

Naomi and me at last year's festival

Norm, Dianne, Kenneth and me at last year's AFCC

James Foley's artwork is fantastic. You should buy his new book Into the Lion. I was so impressed that I thanked him for illustrating my next book. Now if you know me, you know my usual strategy is to thank an agent, publisher, illustrator for working for me and that's my blood contract with them. It's binding and lifelong.  No wonder, James made himself scarce after I thanked him. I was like, where did he go? Darn, I should have introduced myself to Chris Nix and thanked him too. Oh well, next time then.

James Foley (Photo from the net and not me)

It was nice talking to Susanne Gervay about her anti bullying campaign. I know all too well what bullying's  about and I'm glad she's heading the cause.  I also managed to talk to Holly Thompson's ear about my experience in publishing here and hopefully she'll be able to bend it back.:)

Chris Cheng

It was fantastic seeing Corinne Robson and Marjorie Coughlan of Paper Tigers whom I met at the Bologna Children's Book Fair 2012. Well, actually I met Corinne at AFCC 2011 but I only met Marjorie last year, where we had a fantastic dinner in Bologna.

So on the last day of the festival I attended the laugh a minute, laugh-out-loud session on humour by Chris Cheng, Nury Vittachi and Norman Jorgensen. Brilliant is the only word you could use to

desribe that session. Well  you could say it was a LUIPIMP session.

Congrats to my friends Evelyn Sue Wong and Sarah Mounsey who launched their books Something Special and Paw Prints on the 
Magic Sofa.

Craig and Sarah Mounsey

The festival drew to a close with the SCBWI Dinner at the Pod @NLB. Mr Rama gave a thank you speech to those who made the festival the success that it was. Kathleen Ahrens had to drag Festival Director Kenneth Quek out from his hiding place to acknowledge his much-deserved standing ovation. 

Myra Garces-Bascal and her literary 'husband' Tuting Hernandez launched their book Beyond Folktales, Legends and Myths. Chris Cheng and Susanna Goho-Quek also launched their stunning book Water, which is a delight to read out loud, especially if you have Chris Cheng's voice. He a made it an absolutely amazing audio experience. And the illustrations are a visual buffet for the eyes - delicious!

The authors and illustrator

Entertainment came in the form of Nicholas Mark who played several popular tunes on his dijideroo. And it was not just his dijideroo playing or kids' books that drew gasps of admiration.

Nicholas Mark

I overheard some ladies who shall remain nameless gushing over his other...ahem... attributes rather than his dijideroo playing skills. And of course, I will tease them mercilessly from now till forever more.

Naomi Kojima, Mio Debnam and Kenneth Quek

I was famished by the time dinner was served! And I stuffed myself! The food was really good, which is suprising because conference food usually sucks!  With hunger pangs satiated people started drifting out to continue their evening elsewhere. It was kind of sad to see everyone go. Candy was off to the Philippines the next day. Mio was headed back to Hong Kong. Wendy and Tom and Caz Goodwin were headed back to Australia. We said our goodbyes and the Pod couldn't have seemed emptier. I waited until the AFCC team had taken down the last of the banners and hitched a ride back home with Auntie Susanna and Kenneth.

It's over!!

There was a sinking feeling in my gut, the same kind of feeling that I get at the end of a nice trip...but I was coming down with a bug and I was stuck at home for the next couple of days. Well, it gave my mum a chance to catch up on a  week's worth of nagging! :)

HAPPY 18th BIRTHDAY, SEB

I missed this year's Literature Lecture because it was my nephew Sebastian's 18th Birthday.  Sebastian was the title character in my very first book ever- Sebbie's First Day of School - which is scheduled to be republished with new illustrations by Epigram and so this was  a milestone birthday I just could not miss.

Sam and Sebbie in the book

AFCC Day Four: From Book to Blockbuster

I woke up at 5am after setting my alarm for -what else-5am. Over the next hour, I received wake up calls from Mum and Kumudha, so I had ample time to get ready to pick Wendy up from her hotel and head on down to Mediacorp Studios for her TV  interviews with AMLive and a radio show.

Wendy's books: Nim's Island, Nim at Sea, and The Nim Stories.

I got to the hotel at around 7:15am and asked the cab driver to wait and I met Wendy and Susanne Gervay who were breakfasting in the cafe. As it turns out Wendy was up as early as I was! We hopped in the cab and headed to the studio, which was where I worked as a scriptwriter about 16 years ago. I started having those flashbacks, you know the Vietnam-war-vet kind of flashback. 

I was a sitcom writer with the studios but my tenure there was surprisingly dramatic, like a soap opera amd if I   were to compare it to a soap opera it would be The Bold and The Beautiful...except in my soap opera we would nix the beautiful part. My bad :)

Anyway the studio  reception has hardly changed and neither has the canteen. Kumudha, AFCC's  Chief de PR arrived and we exchanged our IDs and passports for studio passes before proceeding to the canteen for a drink. The canteen hasn't changed at all either. In fact the stall owners all looked very familiar.

Then it was time for Wendy's interview. We were led to a green room, which wasn't very green and wasn't very much of a room. I was tempted to ask where the fresh fruit, croissants or breakfast buffet was but I behaved myself and kept my tongue in check. The producer then escorted Wendy to the studio and introduced her to the hosts for a pre-interview interview. One change I noticed  was that there weren't any cameramen anymore, everything was automated!

CLICK HERE TO SEE WENDY'S INTERVIEW

Once that was done we went back to the canteen for a break before the radio interview and once the radio interview was done, we  cabbed it back to the library.

Kumudha with Wendy

Wendy and me

We ran into Emma, who was just about to go for a session but she ultimately decided to join us for a chicken rice lunch.

Wendy and her roast chicken rice lunch

Emma and her chicken rice

After lunch we attended Wendy's session From Book to Blockbuster which was about the Nim's Island and Nim at Sea's journey from the page to the big screen.

 The former was a big budget Hollywood film starring Jodie Foster and Gerard Butler and the latter was a smaller budget film starring Bindi Irwin. It was great fun hearing about her adventure of having her books turned into movies. I mean what could be more amazing than seeing a world that you created on the big screen. What's even more amazing is that the genesis of the story came to Wendy when she was still a girl! Her mum even saved her first draft of the story and presented it to her at around the time of the premiere, if I'm correct.  Truly an inspiring session.

AFCC Day Three

So on  three I bumped into Andrea Pasion-Flores who I hadn't heard from since the writers festival last year. So we sat down for a drink to catch up with what she's been up to. She very kindly bought some of my books :) Thanks, Andrea. We planned to catch up at an informal supper party at Jacaranda literary agent Helen Mangham's house later that night. It would turn out to be a hair-raising experience getting there, but more on that later.

Our first talk of the day was Challenge, Trauma and Recovery in YA by Susanne Gervay and Wendy Orr. Susanne spoke about her research on burn victims she did for her book Butterflies and Wendy reflected on her recovery from a car accident and how the protagonist in her book Peeling the Onion had to go on a similar journey after an injury. 

It was an extremely interesting and thought provoking session which left the attendees with no doubt that young readers are able to handle the truth about difficult situations in novels as well as life and that though a story may not conclude with a happily ever after, it should end on a  note of hope.

Susanne Gervay

I've had a couple of YA stories percolating for years and one is based on a  group of friends of mine who lost their lives in a mountain climbing accident back when I was in high school. So this session was extremely helpful.

Right after the session I called Auntie Susanna because we had planned to take Mio Debnam out for lunch before her session which had been bumped up an hour. We met Mio in Hong Kong when we were there for the Hong Kong Young Reader's Festival in March, and where she treated us to a yummy dim sum lunch in Central. So for her visit here we decided to take her for the SE Asian buffet at Swissotel, which featured Roti Jala, Chilli Crab, ice kachang and durian pudding. I think I ate a tad too much.

With a belly full of buffet, I headed back for Mio's talk with Shirin Yim Bridges Writing Non Fiction for Early Teens. I always thought it was hard writing non ficiton, harder than writing fiction because sometimes the facts are hard and dry, so how on earth could you possibly make it interesting? Well after this session I found that you can make non fiction  fun by adding a dash of creativity to connect the facts. Now that I know that, it's something I just may try.

That evening I attended a portion of Malaysia Night, where the Princess of Johor was the guest of honor. Then Auntie Susanna and I skedaddled off to Helen Mangham's house to meet up with the Jayapriya Vasudevan and Andrea Passion Flores. Unfortunately our taxi driver was completely out of it and spent an hour or so driving us around  and refusing to look at the map. With the way he was driving I thought we were going to DIE!

We finally made it to Helen's house after catching another cab. I felt badly about it, but Helen, Jayapriya and Andrea were great about it and I had a really good time there. And I'll be meeting up with them again soon.  After a while, we decided to head back home as it was getting late and I had an early wake up call the next morning. Just to make sure I got up on time, I set my alarm and asked Mum and Kumuda, AFCC's faithful PR lady to give me wake up calls. Then I crashed for the night.