AFCC 2014 CLOSING NIGHT PARTY: MAKAN & MINGLE

"Every children's book brings a light in to a world full of darkness."  And if that's the case, NBDCS just lit up the entire region with yet another amazing AFCC!

In recent years, the festival has grown exponentially and it's due to the hard work and the long hours that Mr Rama, Kenneth and the whole team at NBDCS put in to make sure that it's an enjoyable and informative festival for everyone.

I'd like to think that my panel session with Emily Lim and Shamini Flint two years ago had something to do with the festival's continued success, or perhaps the performance of There's Soup on My Fly by ACT3 a year later had a small part in it too, but who am I kidding? It's all down to their indefatigible efforts to make it bigger and better every year. And my word, they have succeeded!

After a year of planning and a lot of hard work on their part, the 5th Annual AFCC was coming to a close with one big party.

Kathleen Ahrens kicked off the evening by sharing a few words before Festival Director, Kenneth, took to the podium to thank everyone and the invaluable NBDCS team, including the most energetic member Mr Rama. 

Then Mr Rama had a few words of thanks to say before everyone hit the buffet table and bottles of wine.

For the first time in months, everyone at the NBDCS let their hair down and truly began to relax for an evening with old and new friends.

I always feel this party is bitter-sweet because though we all had a wonderful time it signals time to part ways for another year or perhaps even longer. OK, so I am a sad, sorry, sappy, SAP but that's me. I admit it.

I'm really very proud of the team including" Adan, Carlo, Celine, Alicia, Jade, Judy,Vasantha, Preema, and Mr Rama for pulling off another amazing AFCC. And congratualations to the Board of Advisors led by Ms Claire Chiang. Long may AFCC continue. Anyway I'll stop rambling and let you have a look at some of the photos from the night.

AFCC 2014

The 5th Annual Asian Festival of Children's Content or AFCC officially starts today but the fun started yesterday with the set-up for all the action. Kenneth, Adan, Carlo and the AFCC Angels got to the National Library early to make sure that everything was going according to their well-laid plans.

Adan, Faith and Preema

Kenneth and Mr Rama  discuss the day's events.

The previous couple of years, the official bookstore was managed by Cheryle and Denise of Bookaburra but this year it's being run by Woods in the Books and let's just say that they have mighty big, HUGE, shoes to fill.

After browsing around the mediamart, the area where various vendors like Samsung and this year's festival country of focus: India have pavilions set up, I joined author James Mayhew for a drink at the nearby Hanis cafe. 

James has been in town for almost a week and we had a bit of a chat before illustrator Dave Liew joined us.

Once again, like last year, The Learning Connection was staging a  local children's story, Shekinah Linn's Spice Kids: Star Anise. A group of children sat enthralled as the performers brought Shekinah's story to life. Shekinah, no doubt, was really, really happy.

Dave and James were rescued from having to listen to me ramble on about publishing, when Stephanie and Faith from the Book Council came to tell them that it was almost time for their duelling illustrators session, a session in which they challenge each other to illustrate a story on the spot. And while the minutes ticked down to their challenge. And then it was time!

Award-winning author, Andrew Weale, Emma, Sarah and Linda made it to the library just in time for the event which thrilled everyone who watched these two ultra-talented illustrators duking it out with paper and paintbrushes. The kids loved that and James and Dave were besieged for autographs.

Auntie Susanna arrived after that and we discussed our upcoming book launches this weekend  and ran a couple or errands at the neighbouring Bras Basah Complex before it was time to get ready for the official launch.

Emma, Andrew, Sarah and Linda.

As we headed back downstairs we spotted Kelvin and Denise from Closetful of Books at the drop-off point.  Denise is a huge admirer of AFCC Board of Advisors Chairman Claire Chiang, so Auntie Susanna and I took the opportunity to introduce her to Claire.  There's no need to describe Denise's reaction as you can see it for yourself from the photo below.

Denise and Claire

Auntie Susanna and Claire

James Mayhew and Sally Gardner

I ran into  Ken Spillman, Linda Lingard, Sally Gardner, James Mayhew, Corinne Robson and Marjorie Coughlan before there was a flurry of flash bulbs and the crowd surged forward, signalling the arrival  HE Ms Vijay Thakur Singh, High Comissioner of India

At the India's Pavilion,  HE and the official delegation from India presented the library with a set of favourite children's books from their country. I, for one, can't wait to read them.

We were then ushered to our seats at the library's plaza to await the arrival of the guest of honour, Mr Lawrence Wong, Minister of Culture, Community and Youth and second Minister of  Communications and Information.

Mr Rama and Mr Wong

Claire, Her Excellency and the Minister all addressed the guests 

before it was time to announce the winners of the Scholastic Asian Book Award.

Ms Lim Li Kok, HE Ms Vijay Thakur Singh, Mr Lawrence Wong, Ms Claire Chiang,
Ms. Seline Lee and the winners of the Scholastic Asian Book Award.

With the official part of the launch over, the Minister toured the Mediamart, stopping at various booths to test out their products. It was dinner time for the rest of us.

All in all in was a great  start to what will be another amazing AFCC. If you haven't registered, don't worry, you still have time to do so. Just head on down to the National Library and you can register on the spot.  See y'all later!

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.  How on earth was I going to measure up to the 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 Leonard Marcus's engaging keynote address  Children's Books for Education and Entertainment. I really wish I had an opportunity to listen to him when I first started writing; it would have saved me a lot of grief when I was first starting out in this industry.  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 perusing the books on sale. Dragging Sarah to my makeshift workspace, I ran through my PowerPoint and she gave me the thumbs up. That was a relief until I realised that Internet access was practically out of the question. I'm kind of a dunce when it comes to these things, but I finally managed to figure it out in time to head over to the next session:


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 Audience

At 1:45pm I headed down to the Earshot Cafe to meet with Phan Ming Yen, the moderator Local Authors, International Audience, and my fellow panelists, Shamini Flint and Emily Lim. I literally bumped into Shamini--Sorry, Shamini, I'm a klutz, while she was talking to Ken Spillman  before Ming Yen and Emily arrived to run through the sequence of our talk. Shamini was all set and she didn't even need a PowerPoint presentation!  Emily was all ready to go and as for me, well I could only rely on my cheap attention-grabbing tactics. We agreed that the ladies should start off the panel discussion: Emily,  Shamini, then me.


The Gallery, the venue of our panel discussion was packed! A. Susanna was there to take pictures and to offer support...I mean.  Emily borrowed my computer for her PowerPoint presentation. Dang she was well prepared! It was brilliant! I suddenly had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. Next, it was Shamini's turn. She's brilliant and she makes it seem effortless.  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. Beads of sweat began to dot my brow and I felt an acne outbreak coming on. There was no way my presentation could compare to these two ladies.  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 launch of  Neill Laurenson's aka Sabian Lau's  book The Prince and the Merlion which was moderated by AFCC Board of Advisors Chairperson Claire Chiang. 

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

Stacey Zolt Hara

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 books so I'm glad I didn't talk to her about my latest book-"The Farting Forest".

exchanging autographs with Naomi Kojima

On my way out, I exchanged autographs with  Naomi Kojima. She signed   her charming 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 for a buffet dinner. I was beginning to feel my gut expand.

Asian Festival of Children's Content Day # 2

Leonard Marcus

The 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. It was a fascinating talk that was interrupted by the person next to me who kept talking to herself while she perused her programme, so  I had to 'shush' her which worked rather effectively but not before she shot me the filthiest of glances.  


It is interesting to note that even Eric Carle's book The Hungry Caterpillar was rejected by librarians for being too much like a toy rather than a book,  and that Margaret Wise Brown's book Goodnight Moon still reaches across generations today, though it, too, was not widely accepted at first. So I guess the lesson of the story is that librarians and teachers have and will continue to reject good books which will eventually be appreciated in time. So if you've faced rejection and continue to do so, then you must be a genius!! But then if that's the case I must be Einstein!! haha...kidding.

Claire Chiang

After Leonard's great introduction, Claire Chiang conducted an engaging, interactive session Telling Stories, Building Bonds which focused on  writing memoirs for yourself and your family.  She had us all riveted. Her dedication to her work, her philantrophy and her love for family is, for lack of a better word,  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 daze 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 and publishing her stories when she was just nine years old! 


The day ended with local actor Edmund Chen's book launch. I can never understand why people in the entertainment industry insist on writing children's books. Do those of us in the children's book industry embark on acting, singing or dancing careers? No, but perhaps we should!

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.