Picture Book Review Master Class with Leonard Marcus and Marjorie Coughlan and Dinner with Andrea and Helen

So the festival was officially over but I had registered to attend the picture book review masterclass by Leonard Marcus and Marjorie Coughlan. I was so sleepy, extremely sleepy but I managed to drag myself out of bed in order to join Kenneth, Andrea and Naomi for breakfast as their hotel before the day-long workshop began.

I chose the picture book review masterclass because:

1.) It was being conducted by Leonard and Marjorie
2.) I'm a picture book author
3.) It would give me tips of what reviewers are looking for in a good picture book.

The class started at 10am promptly and I was late because there was a long line at the registration desk and I wanted to pay for the course before I actually attended it.

By the time I got to the room, everyone was introducing themselves. It's one part of any course that I feel least comfortable with and I just said, "Hi I'm David. I write books. I blog. That's it." 

I feel uncomfortable and awkward in a roomful of adults, especially when the attention is on me. I'm a writer. A loner. I feel most comfortable in front audiences who still require afternoon naps or diaper changes. In other words, the very young or the very old.

Anyway, shortly after my short, concise introduction, I got a text message and I wondered who could possibly be texting me so early in the morning. Could it be an editor or publisher who I had deluded into thinking I was the next big author with multi-million dollar sales potential? Could it be a transmedia exec offering me worldwide distribution for my stories? Perhaps it was MENSA calling to apologise for not recognizing my literary genius, or my plain genius, and asking if I would like to sign up as a member?  No to all of the above. So who was it from? Well, it was from Kenneth, giving me his critique of my introduction! And let's just say  I've had better reviews.

With that done, the class got underway a reading of Sendak's 'Where the Wild Things Are'. I was surprised that some people had never even read it. Though some did watch the highly questionable movie adaptation of it.

We discussed wordless picture books and translated picture books and all sorts of picture books. At the end of the day, Emma and I paired up to write a review of Susie Lee's wordless book 'Wave'.

Then it was time to pack up. Marjorie had one last drink and a curry puff with us before Kenneth and I had to head on over to Helen Mangham's house for a get-together with Andrea and Helen. They always host a wonderful party with fantastic food and drink during the AFCC and it's a wonderful way to bring the week to a close.

Emma, Simon, Emily, Pauline Loh were already there when we got there. Kenneth and I hit the buffet table and piled our plates high before settling down on her really comfy sofas and chatting with the other guests there.

Helen, Emma and I discussed a big huge upcoming meeting that we'll be having. Hopefully, I don't mess things up. Emily, Ken and Pauline discussed the high points of AFCC and then when it was time to go we thanked Helen and Andrea for a wonderful evening. Andrea was heading back to Manila the next morning and I'm supposed to get her my manuscript soon. Note to self: Start writing!

AFCC Day 5

So the last day of AFCC was here. It's kind of sad how fast these festivals pass but then again that's a sign of a great festival.  First up my friend Emily Lim invited me for breakfast with Frané Lessac and Cristy Burne along with Emma and Sarah. 

I told them that whomever I give my books to tend to fall pregnant. Cristy definitely did not want any of my books. LOL

 

After breakfast, we headed to the library where Emma was taking part in the pitch incubator, a session where Eric Huang and Mark Checkley walked participants through the elements of a pitch. It was perfect timing as Emma, Sarah and I all had speed pitching appointments with both Eric and Mark right after that.

Emma had the honour of pitching during the session and she did a great job I think. Though, Eric and Mark did offer her some pointers to make it even better.

Let's just say that I was a bundle of nerves at the speed pitching session, but Eric couldn't have been nicer and that relaxed me for my pitching sessions with Mark and Galen.

With the sessions over and done with, Emma, Simon, and I darted off to Seah Street for lunch with our agents Andrea and Helen.

With our tummies full of chicken rice, we made it back in time for Andrew Weale and Ho Lee Ling's  amazing session about school visits. I learned a lot and I'm definitely using some of their ideas!

As Andrew was flying back to the UK early the next morning, he wanted to visit the Raffles Hotel one last time, so along with Auntie Susanna we visited the Long Bar for peanuts and ginger beer!

And then it was time to head back to the library for the last official event of the AFCC, the closing dinner: Makan & Mingle.

London, Day Four 2014

Day four was the first day without a hint of rain. Ken, Celine and I made and early start, stopping by Gregg's for a quick breakfast and braving the wind chill factor on our wat to the fair. 

The lovely ladies of Jacaranda were already there and ready to pitch my books to potential publishers, thanks, ladies! 

As Ken and Celine were busy taking care of business, I walked around the two halls of booths. It was massive. It makes one realise just how many publishers, authors and illustrators there are out there. The competition is stiff and I now feel that I should have gone into accounting.

Emma arrived shortly after 10am and we went to a panel discussion by the Book Trust. Interesting and informative we were compelled to introduce ourselves to Book Trust Chief Executive, Viv Bird. I broached the topic of her possibly coming to the Asian Festival of Children's Content and she was interested to hear more. Let's hope the Book council can follow up on this.

Auntie Susanna and Mika were at the Singapore Pavilion when I returned and we decided to lunch at one of  the cafeterias. Mika had a vegetarian selection and Auntie Susanna had the braised beef and mash. A famished Annabelle from NAC joined us at our table and all too soon it was time for Kenneth's panel discussion about children's literature in Singapore. My publisher, Edmund Wee and Mei Lin Lee of Marshall Cavendish were also was also a featured on the panel which was moderated by Paul Tan.

But before the panel started, I . had a pleasant surprise when I bumped into the brilliant author, John Dougherty, my fellow panellist from SWF two years ago. It was great catching up again.

And....the panellists did a great job, deftly fielding  the tough questions about publishing in Singapore. 

And my favourite part of the session is the photo below!

With that done, Auntie Susanna and Mika tubed int to Civent Garden for a spot of shopping and Emma and I caught up with the lovely Anita Loughrey for some tea. It's always lovely seeing her.

But she had to dart off for a writer's event, so Emma and I attended the Singapore networking night. Annabelle  busy running around before cocktail hour but I managed to stop her for a quick photo with Emma. Please note Emma is holding the kopitiam cup Mum donated to the booth

Emma's good friend and Award winning author Andrew Weale joined us there. Andrew  is brilliant and hilarious! It was great meeting him and he'll be in Singapore for the AFCC next month.

The social went on till we were told the power would be shut off and so we headed back to the hotel for a quick change and then onto a not so quick dinner at the Troubabor.  

I'm doing laundry tomorrow. I bet you never thought you would hear me say that. Well, neither did I!

Goodbye to SCBWI's Lady with the Perfect Prose.

It's with great sadness that I have to say that my good friend and SCBWI Singapore Coordinator, Catherine Carvell is moving back to Australia. Catherine's a fantastic author and an equally great co-ordinator  for our meetings.  It's going to be really strange and different without her here. I call Catherine my literary twin because we've gone through the same ups and downs on our writing journey and we've got a lot of similarities in life, although I'm not British-Australian, I'm not a woman, I haven't gotten married, nor do I have to two fantastic kids.

Last week we gathered at out regular meeting spot - it's kind of like a local version of the Central Perk - The Book Cafe for Catherine's last official meeting.

And wouldn't you know it, the genius that I am, I forgot my camera. Anyway, it was a busy day: I spent the morning going through final proof-checks before heading to the police station to help my mum file a lost and found report. Then I had to dash over to Tanglin Mall to pick up a cake for Catherine's farewell meeting and then heading to Emma's for a meeting with our agent, Helen. It was a great meeting, BTW.

At 6:00pm, Emma called for a cab and we floored it to the Book Cafe. Catherine was already there so I had to surreptitiously hand the cake to the restaurant manager to keep in the kitchen. Saraharrived shortly thereafter with a huge bouquet of orchids, which was also handed over to the kitchen staff.

Catherine, David, Evelyn, Vidhya, Simon, Linda, Tracy, Maddie and my distributors Denise and Kelvin from Closetful of Books were already settled in our assigned corner of the cafe.  Catherine's brilliant and soon-to-be-blockbusting best-seller, Darcy Moon and the Deep Fried Frogs had just arrived and Catherine looked quite at home signing copies of her book. She's a natural. Her distributors were more than happy when they made a tidy sum from book sales that night.

After announcing her imminent departure to the rest of the members, we started the meeting proper by critiquing manuscripts from Vidhya, Simon and Linda. 

Vidhya's piece was an engaging piece about a lunch that mysteriously vanished, Simon's was funny is a squirmish, blood and guts way, and Linda's was about going home.

Catherine read Linda's story and it touched home! Linda later confessed she didn't think about that when she submitted in for review.

SCBWI RA showed up in the middle of the critiques after a full day of planning this year's Asian Festival of Children's Content. Though he was swamped at work, nothing was going make him miss Catherine's last meeting!

With the critiques over it was time for the cake and flowers. Sarah and I brought out cake and Sarah carried the flowers. I think Catherine was surprised. At least I hope she was. 

Catherine gives  a speech!

With her flowers and cake

After a short, informal but heartfelt speech, we all dug into the cake, which was kind of difficult to cut into. Then we all sort of sat around chatting and catching up before it was time to head on home. It's still hasn't sunk in that it was Catherine's last meeting but I'm sure it will. I'm sorry that Emma, Kenneth and I won't be here for her book launch next month at the Arts House but I'm sure it will be fantastic. I'll miss you lots, Catherine. You're a great friend.

One last shot of the group

Front Row (left to Right): Vidhya, Linda, Evelyn, me, Kenneth, Simon, Kristy, David
Back row: Vinnie, Maddie, Tracy, Emma, Sarah, Catherine.
Absent with regrets: Felicia, Adan, Emily, Kate.

School visit to Overseas Family School

So after a few days at the ISS, Emma and I headed next door to the Overseas Family School for two days of joint talks before an audience of over 120 second graders. Now I've paid visits to OFS for the past four years, but it's always been to invididual classes but this year it was very different as neither of us have spoken before such a large group, and while it was slightly nerve-wracking, it was still fun.

The kids were great, as always. Denise was on hand to snap a couple of snapshots and of the session. Then with that our talks for book week were over. Thanks to Kavita and Shalini for very kindly arranging the school visit. It was great! So thanks so much, ladies.

While Emma is off to the UK late next month a head of the Bologna and London Book Fairs, I'll be making my next school visit to Quayside Prep School at Sentosa Cove and I'm really looking forward to it!

The International School Singapore, Day Two

So after a really enjoyable first day at the International School Singapore, Emma and I headed back there the next morning to conduct workshops with second and third graders.

Again I am amazed at how bright and well-mannered the children are, much more than I was when I was back in school. They caught on really quickly and they came up with some amazing ideas.

Emma with two students reading their ideas out

After a brief break, we were ready for the group of  students Denise had to go off for a meeting so she couldn't hang around to take pictures, but that's OK. Our second workshop was as much fun as the first one.

Both Emma and I hadn't conducted workshops together before this, but we had a blast. I hope the kids had fun and learnt something too.

With that, my official part of my visit to ISS had come to an end. Emma still had one more talk after lunch, so we made a quick dash to the Ion food court before high-tailing it back to school for her talk with fourth graders.

Now, you wouldn't have been able to tell that this was Emma's first solo school talk. She's a natural She had the kids enthralled from the start. 

And as the session drew to a close, the kids got in line to for her to autograph their copies of Princess Petunia's Dragon.

With that our time at ISS was over. I have to say that we both had a tremendous time and once again I have to say a tremendous thanks  to Susan, Marilu and Graham.

International School Singapore visit 2014, Day One

With my hosts Susan and Graham Grant

With my captive audience

Graham Grant of the International School Singapore very kindly invited Emma Nicholson and me to conduct talks and workshops at the school during Book Week. Of course we were thrilled to have been asked and we immediately got down to planning our joint workshops and our individual talks.

If you've had look at some of my previous posts, you'll know that Emma recently published her awesome middle grade book Princess Petunia's Dragon and she was looking forward to seeing what her audience thought of it. So a couple of weeks before our visit we took about six hours to work out what we were going to say and do to hopefully inspire kids to write their own stories.

Emma's Book Palace of copies of Princess Petunia's Dragon

Writers basically work alone for the most part so I like doing workshops and talks with friends who are writers as well. It gives us a chance to bounce ideas off one another and, truth be told, I need someone to rein me in at times and Emma's really good at that. On more than one occasion, she's told me when I should be quiet! But that doesn't mean I always listen to her.

Emma at the printers!

By the time of our school visit, we were all set. I was scheduled to do two talks and two joint workshops with Emma. An hour before my talk I received a call from my distributor Denise from Closetful of Books who fretted: "You're still at home? Why are you still at home?" 

By the tone of her voice I realised I should jump into a taxi as fast as possible. Thankfully I live about 10 minutes away from the school and so I was there in no time. The guard at the school took down my particulars and handed me a pass that I had to make sure I did not lose. 

Caught trying to add a few illustrations to Sarah Mounsey's
 poster

 Denise met me at the main gate and escorted me to the library and introduced me to Susan and Graham who could not have been more warm and welcoming. Oh and Emma was also there  to support my individual talks that day. My fellow picture book author, Sarah Mounsey, aka the competition, messaged me to say that she was on her way there too. Kelvin, my other distributor, was already at a table piled high with copies of our books, ready for sale. So with time to spare I showed Denise my presentation.  After assessing what I had prepared --BTW I was up till two in the morning finalising it-- Denise looked at me and said: "Just make sure you don't go off topic!"

"What? What do you mean?" I responded. 
Denise sighed: "I know you, David, and you are capable of going off topic." 

Denise and Sarah

Now in my defence, I only go off topic when people, and when I say people, I mean Denise and other grown-ups, start talking about topics I don't want to listen to. Nevertheless, when it was time to go up to the multi-purpose hall where my talks were to talk place, I repeated this mantra: "Don't go off topic, don't go off topic, don't go off topic."

We plugged the projector into my computer and then the kids streamed in class by class. I handed my camera to Denise and asked her to take photos. 

Marilu Burden, Emma and Susan Grant

Then I met another of our hosts, the gracious and welcoming Marilu Burden, the Elementary School Literacy Coordinator before the students started streaming in.

The kids

I kicked off my talk by telling the kids about my earliest memories of reading and about what inspired me to start writing and why my school report card always looked like it had been fatally injured in a combat zone. 

RIP: My report card from school.
It sustained fatal injuries during my school years

Me

I have to say the kids were so well behaved, welcoming, and so, so smart. They're a lot smarter than I was at their age and I'm sure Denise would say that they are a lot smarter than me now, right, Denise?

After my first session, Sarah had to head off to pick up her children from school and Emma bought me a very nice lunch at Takashimaya before I headed back for my next session. Having heard me speak once, Emma decided she would rather spend the afternoon shopping than listen to me again. Denise was not so lucky and she had to listen to me all over again and try to sell some of my books.

The kids at my second talk were just as fun, smart and interesting as the kids at my first talk. Then it was time to pack up, go home and get ready for another day at school. 
You know the funny thing is that when I was in school I couldn't wait to leave and now that I'm a grown-up, a fact that is quite possibly open for debate, I can't wait to go back. Why is school now so much more fun than when it was back then?

As I left, Denise paid me a priceless compliment. She said: "It was good. I underestimated you."  Thanks, Denise! And thanks to Susan, Marilu and Graham for arranging a terrific first day!