The Royal Pup Pack: Party at the Palace

In honor of Prince Louis' first birthday and the impending royal arrival of Baby Sussex, Soefara Jafney and I are pleased to announce our next picture book The Royal Pup Pack: Party at the Palace will be released  in Spring/Summer 2019.

Synopsis:

There’s a joint party at the palace for Prince Louis’ first birthday and to welcome Baby Sussex into the fold. And the pup pack: Lupo, Guy, Oz and Jack are in a regal tizzy. What do they get the tots? Bones? Flea collars? Fur brushes? Will the gift they decide upon be the perfect present or a recipe for a royal pawtastrophe?

A Royal Adventure Giveaway

I'm giving a copy of A Royal Adventure to the first person who can tell me where Kate actually wore the dress pictured in the illustration below (*Hint*: it was on her royal tour in 2014) where Kate actually wore it. You can either email me your answer @dyw.seow@gmail.com  or comment in the section down below.

Book of the Week

A Royal Adventure is Epigram's Book of the Week! Thanks, Epigram Books!

A Royal Adventure makes it to the Sunday Express!! Yay

A Royal Adventure makes it to the Sunday Express. A Big Thank You to Royal Editor Camilla Tominey for a wonderful article.

Click Here to Read Article

Royal Inspiration Part Deux

In 2011,  I followed the news of The Royal Wedding with great interest. Then when it was announced the Cambridges were coming and to say I was beside myself with excitement would be an understatement of monumental proportions.

So I  set off to Gardens by the Bay in the hopes of meeting the royal couple with my mum and niece at the unearthly hour of 6:45am. We found a spot right against the barricades next to the Adeney family. As we had an extra bouquet of flowers, Mum handed one to Alice to give to the pretty princess.

After waiting for hours in the blazing sun, the royal tram came by and stopped right in front of us. The Duke walked in one direction, while the Duchess came over towards us. First she engaged Alice in conversation before making her was over to my My niece who was trembling with excitement as she handed the Duchess a hand-drawn pencil sketch.  Of the three of us, Mum did the most talking. 

Mum gave her a photo that I had taken of Princess Diana as well a copy of my children’s book Blow A Kiss. I raised my hand like a naughty schoolboy saying, "I took that photo. I wrote that book,'' and then I asked if I could shake her hand, which of course she said I could. With that, she smiled, waved, and moved off to meet the rest of the sweaty, screaming masses of royalists who were melting under the Singapore sun.

The Duchess accepts a copy of Blow A Kiss

A reporter later interviewed my mum about what she discussed and she was quoted in Hello and though she says that she was embarrassed by it, I think she was rather chuffed.

The Duchess holding her copy of my book Blow a Kiss +Raymond Liw

As there were no souvenirs commemorating the royal visit, I decided to write a children's book about it. I tried to self-publish the book before my publisher suggested making it part of my Sam, Sebbie, and Di-Di-Di series of books, and that's what I did. A year and a half after the royal couple's visit, the book was finally published! I dedicated it to Alice and Mikey Adeney and to a little guy named George Alexander Louis.

A few months after it was published, it was announced that the Duchess was expecting her second baby. So I started thinking about a  sequel that would be set in London and would include Prince George, his new sibling, and Lupo.

Thank you, everyone, for your support, and I can't wait for the new book to be out. I will be giving away a copy of the book once it is hot off the press. Check back for details.

A Royal Adventure Featured in Epigram's Latest Catalog

Click this Link to Preorder A Royal Adventure

Peruse the Catalog Here

My brilliant publisher Edmund of Epigram Books will be at the Bologna Children's Book Fair and the London Book Fair so if you're there, please look them up.

Teaser Illustrations from A Royal Adventure

First Look at A Royal Adventure and Book Giveaway

A  Royal Adventure image ©Soefara Jafney

Here's a first sneak peek at A Royal Adventure. Can you recognise the dress the Duchess is wearing in this picture? And at which official event she wore it?  

Answer: It's the Erdem floral dress that she wore to the Eden Hall reception in Singapore in 2012. 

I'll be doing a book giveaway as soon as the book is hot off the press. Stay tuned for details. You can pre order the book from Closetful of Books starting next week.

What will the Duchess Wear?

In our book A Day with the Duchess, illustrator Soefara Jafney faithfully recreated the outfits that the Duchess wore on the actual tour. 

So on the cover of the book she featured the Duchess in her Jenny Packham dress with the Orchid motif that HRH wore upon arrival in Singapore, the visit to the Orchid Garden and the arrival at Raffles Hotel.

For the tour of Gardens by the Bay, Soefara faithfully illustrated the Duchess in her broderie anglaise Alexander McQueen dress.

At Queenstown, the Duchess is accurately depicted in her Raoul dress.

And for the Duke and Duchess's last day in Singapore, she dressed Kate in same duck-egg blue Jenny Packham ensemble with 
matching jewelry.

It's needless to say that Soefara has an eye for detail. And the Duke and Duchess appeared on the steps of St Mary's with the little Princess Charlotte, Soefara sketched a quick commemorative illustration in which the Duchess is wearing her Jenny Packham shift dress.

So what outfits will be featured in A Royal Adventure? Stay tuned to find out.

A Royal Adventure featured on Hello Online!

I'd just like to take the opportunity to thank Ms, Chloe Best and Hello online for featuring A Royal Adventure. I am thrilled to bits! Actually that would be an understatement. 


The book is due to hit the printing press in April and will be out in time for Charlotte's first birthday. The book, of course, is dedicated to the Princess in honour of the occasion. I am pledging my advance royalty payment to charity. Again thank you to Ms Best and Hello for everything!

Hello Online 

A Royal Adventure

Coming April 2016

Welcome HRH Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana

Congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince George and welcome to Princess Cambridge. Here's just a teaser of the upcoming A Day with the Duchess #2: A Royal Adventure.

HRH Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana

Sweet Tweeting with A Day with the Duchess

Lately A Day with a Duchess has been getting attention on Twitter and I would like to thank  the What Would Kate Do blog, Chloe Howard and Cindy Stockman from Royal Central, The Duchess Life  and Jane from the Princess Kate blog, Holly Passalaqua 'SweetGirlHolly' Allison Lackey, @princesspleat, Hola.com  and everyone who has retweeted the images of the book and paper dolls. A Day with the Duchess has been a labour of love and I've been a huge fan of the royals.

I've been writing children's picture books for a long time and it's been a struggle promoting them, so I really appreciate this more than you know. A Day with the Duchess is very special to me as I've been writing for many years and this book combines my love for writing kids stories with my interest in the royals. How often can a children's author like me get to do that?

Royal Central kindly conducted an interview with me for their wonderful website and they even held a giveaway for a copy of the book. CLICK HERE TO GO TO ROYAL CENTRAL

And the winner is…. Gail Cabana-Coldwell.  Congratulations, Gail. I hope you enjoy the book.

Another great Kate blog: What Would Kate Do very kindly featured A Day with the Duchess as well. Thanks so much.CLICK HERE TO GO TO WHAT WOULD KATE DO

And thank you to Jane Barr from Berkshire to Buckingham for the mention on her Christmas shopping guide. Thanks so much!

CLICK HERE TO GO TO FROM BERKSHIRE TO BUCKINGHAM

CLICK HERE TO GO TO HOLA

If you would like to buy a copy of the book, please  CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE FROM CLOSETFUL OF BOOKS.

Many thanks and Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Book Launch for A Day with the Duchess

A week after we returned, Emma and I had back to back book launches at Books Kinokuniya. We were both very thrilled to say the least.

Erin, Sheri and Ilangoh with the help of our Kino friends promoted A Day with the Duchess via facebook and other social media, hoping to drum up some level of interest. Erin was in constant contact with me whilst I was in London, emailing ideas for activities for the children for the one hour launch.

As for goodies that the kids could take home with them, we had paper dolls of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, a paper hamster on a stick and stickers, lots and lots of stickers!

I invited William, Vicky, Mikey and Alice Adeney whom I met when we were waiting for the Duke and Duchess at the Gardens by the Bay. Incidentally, the book is dedicated to Mikey and Alice and you can see their illustrated likenesses in the book.

At two a small group of children and parents had gathered and we started the reading session of the book kaunch. As Emma has a far nicer reading voice that I do, she graciously agreed to read the story for me.  And it's needless to say that she did a fantastic job!

After the reading we played a game with the kids. They had to guess the whereabouts of  Kate the Hamster and whoever found her would win a prize.

Quick thinking Alice, found her and for her efforts, she won a Kinokuniya voucher, a bespoke sketch of the Duchess of Cambridge signed by Soefara and the opportunity to be an illustrated character in the next Sam, Sebbie and Di-Di-Di book.

Then Soefara did a drawing demonstration and she gave away two of her sketches before it was time for us to sign some books.

With that, our book launch was over and we had half and hour to get ready for Emma's book launch. Thanks to Emma, Soefara, Sheri, Ilangoh, Richelle and Erin for making this happen. Thanks to Mum, Auntie Susanna, Tilly, Kenneth, Simon, The Adeneys, Sarah, Linda, Tracy, Evelyn,  Dave, Jason, Jim, Edmund and everyone for coming out to support us.

Watch out for my next blog post on Emma's book launch. If you missed both our launches and you would like to attend  launches at the Asian Festival of Children's Content Just Click This Link to register.

Prince George's Christening

My concept sketch/caricature of HRH  Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge

In  honour of Prince George's christening, I'm posting a concept sketch, a caricature I had in mind for A Day with the Duchess which will now be published as part of the Sam, Sebbie & Di-Di-Di series with Epigram and will hopefully be released by the first quarter of 2014. The concept sketch below is by the mega talented Soefara Jafney and it is amazing. 

Teaser: William & Kate Illustration by Soefara Jafney