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.

A Meeting with My Agents

Helen, Jay, Andrea and me

With the Singapore Writers Festival in full swing, my agents - see the photo above - took time to have a  morning meeting with me to touch base and discuss the possibilities for my published and unpublished manuscripts. It was great catching up with them again after their trip to the Frankfurt Book Festival. 

Some of my fellow writers have asked me about signing on with a literary agency. Well, let me put it this way, I've been writing for a long time and I only signed with my first agent two years ago and I just signed with the ladies above around two months ago. Yes, I'm very, very lucky to have my agents, but it took me a very long time to find them.

I've got a lot of writing to do between now and the beginning of the year so my agents can pitch my stories to potential publishers. Speaking of potential publishers, Jay, Helen and Andrea have been busy organising the SWF Publishing Symposium, which was amazing. I'm so glad I managed to attend it and I suggest that you attend it next year. 

The buffet lunch

The talks and workshops were amazing and whether your a writer, publisher or an editor, you'll gain new insights into the industry. I ran into fellow authors Adan and Felicia, Emma, Simon, Evelyn, Ovidia, Tiffany (who is also represented by Jacaranda) and we all agreed the sessions were great.

Tomorrow, I'm headed back to the Festival for another day of talks and workshops. Oh, if you've got kids, you might like to bring them down because Adan and Felicia will be conducting a Sherlock Sam Treasure hunt, which the kids will definitely enjoy. In fact, I may even take part in it!

Dinner with Jacquie Harvey @ Jumbo Seafood

L to R: Sarah, Simon, Jeff, Catherine, Jacqueline, Emma, Evelyn

Best selling author Jacqueline Harvey's back in town for school visits before heading off on a promotional tour of the UK for her best-selling Alice-Miranda and Clementine Rose books. (If you haven't started reading them yet, what are you waiting for?) So we, of course, had to take the opportunity to catch up with her for dinner. 

So last week, Catherine, Emma and I went for a food tasting at Jumbo Seafood Riverside Point. We're getting rather good at food tasting if I say so myself; we must have been royal food tasters in previous lifetimes. After our extremely well-honed and sophisticated palates were convinced that the cuisine was suitable for a best-selling author, we booked a table for 12, not realising that unforeseen circumstances would prevent some of our members from being able to make it at the very last minute. And the fact that Jaquie is allergic to shellfish. Sorry, Jacquie.

Catherine and Emma decided on the menu, the invitations were emailed and everything was set.  Emma and I planned to meet Jacquie at her hotel and we would make our way to the dinner venue from there. As with most plans, they never go according to plan. The one BIG hiccup was that I walked to the hotel and it took longer than I expected. Do most  Friday-evening pedestrians not understand the meaning of "Excuse me, please?" If that's the case, I'll just bark "Move it!" the next time someone is in my way.

By the time I got to the hotel, Emma and Jacquie were already in line for a taxi and that was great because we didn't have to wait too long to get one and then we were off to Jumbo Seafood, where Catherine, Jeff and  Simon were already waiting.

Now, why do restaurants take reservations when they can't give you a table on time? If you haven't realised it already, I'm not the most patient of people. 

Moonbeam

Anyway we eventually got our table and, in hindsight, I'm sure it wasn't as long a wait as I thought it was. Evelyn arrived just as we were being seated and the moon was high in the night sky when newly minted Moonbeam winner Sarah Mounsey made it to the restaurant after a trek from the MRT station.

Our fearless SCBWI leader, who's out of town, sent a message inquiring about the evening's proceedings. The ever efficient Kenneth Quek wanted to know if everything was going well. I was about to reply but my phone ran out of batteries. So he was kept in suspense for the remainder of the evening.

Chilli Crab 

When the food arrived, we had a hard time understanding what our waitress was saying as English was not her first language. She looked a tad annoyed with me when I asked her something repeatedly and later in the evening she kept rolled her eyes when I asked to look at the menu! Jumbo Seafood, your food's good but your customer service is much to be desired.

Chilli crab and Mantou buns

Deep fried baby squid

Asparagus

Now I would fill you in on our dinner conversation but you can't really do that justice on a blog post, can you? But what I will say is that it was great fun catching up with Jacquie and we can't wait to do it again.  Catherine, Emma, start planning! :) Thanks everyone for making it a fun evening. 

Here's a link to Jacqueline's website: http://jacquelineharvey.com.au