Blame overwhelm rather
than lack of interest for my very late posting about the Asian Festival of
Children’s Content in Singapore last week. It’s a great festival, with that
huge buzz of meeting other authors: friends old and new. Presenting on Trauma
and Challenge in YA lit with Susanne Gervay, we agreed on every point, though
it was interesting to see the differences in how we framed them. (I had to
think fast, having gone second!) In the end I think both of our talks could be
summed up as: Young people deserve the truth, and we should respect them enough
to know they can handle it.
 |
| "Imagining Nim's Island" photo by Nazir Keshvani |
Had a great response
to my Book to Blockbuster session too, but the one I was most nervous about was
being on the panel for a First Pages Critique. However the moderator, author Kathleen
Ahrens is highly skilled and set it up so well that it flowed beautifully. It
was fascinating to see how often the publisher and editor on the panel with me
put their fingers on exactly what made me uncomfortable about a sentence,
paragraph, or page. It was also intriguing to start thinking about something
that was nearly working, ‘But if you moved this sentence up here…’ etc.
 |
| Sad remains of chilli crab (thanks to Sue Flotow) |
And what a thrill to
not only be met at the airport by Singaporean author David Seow and a lovely
bunch of orchids, but taken out to a chilli crab dinner by the Singaporean
SCBWI members. And yes, it was as delicious as reported, but the conversation
was even better.
 |
| David Seow, author of Emma's Elephant (and many others) |
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| Singapore SCBWI friends |
Another night we were taken to Lau Lau Pa Sat Satay Street by Nazir Keshvani, a Singaporean journalist who’d attended my session on “Imagining Nim’s Island” with his son Kiran on the parents and children’s day. Kiran, a budding journalist, interviewed me throughout the dinner and was most indignant when his mother or sister added their own questions. (The family also took us to the airport when we left – we felt extremely well cared for the whole time we were in Singapore!)
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| budding journalist |
On the set of AMLive with hosts Yvonne and Patrick, photo by David Seow
 |
| The lovely Kumudha, PR person extraordinaire |
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| Nick Mark - who not only writes book in Indonesian, but can play the didgeridoo - at the formal closing SCBWI dinner |
Blame overwhelm rather
than lack of interest for my very late posting about the Asian Festival of
Children’s Content in Singapore last week. It’s a great festival, with that
huge buzz of meeting other authors: friends old and new. Presenting on Trauma
and Challenge in YA lit with Susanne Gervay, we agreed on every point, though
it was interesting to see the differences in how we framed them. (I had to
think fast, having gone second!) In the end I think both of our talks could be
summed up as: Young people deserve the truth, and we should respect them enough
to know they can handle it. 
Another night we were taken to Lau 
