Jo and I got invited to the opening of the Singapore Writers Festival. Since it was evening and we could make it, well, we decided to go! As we approached the tent, we glimpsed Dave Chua of Gone Case but ALAS, he disappeared as we entered for that evening was also the opening of an exhibition by Sonny Liew elsewhere which I didn’t know and also the launch of the Gone Case 2, the graphic novel.

NO MATTER, so we bust into the tent like the writers we are.

Which is to say we pushed opened the doors and pretty much walked in after saying our names at the sign in area.

In the corner of the festival pavillion (that part is free for anyone to come) was an exhibit on Kuo Pao Kun’s lifetime achievements while the middle-ish part had black and white leather benches in front of a mini stage. The perimeter of the whole pavillion was pretty much a bookshop so there were shelves of local and non-local books. As usual, it is le literary people who are there. We recognized faces but we are shy girls not really so we just decided to check out the spread.

We are but PEASANTS for out of the whole affair, we liked the vegetables, salad and potatoes best. POTATOES AND VEGETABLES. Such simple tastes we have! The other dishes were too sweet for us even if it was sea perch soup, fish and Jo tried the chicken. It’s… sweet which was kinda weird. NO MATTER, we scoped out the people there while we stood around with our plates.

For those who didn’t know, there was a dresscode in the invitation to SWF. It was “literary chic”. There had been a lot of questions on Twitter by others who had this invite too. I decided that “literary chic” meant to dress up like a writer but not a hobo writer. It worked and as you can see from the pictures, everyone pretty much just wore whatever the heck they wanted.

We saw the NAC people too! They were busy so we didn’t want to disturb the people so we just shovelled more potatoes and enjoyed the air con there. So yes. We just spent the opening eating potatoes and vegetables before we decided to scram since well, everyone had their own person to mingle or speak literary chic and it was getting late for us. It was a preview night after all and there would be panels and such the next day.

I purchase my festival pass via Sistic when it had the early bird special so it just cost me $11 then. The thing is that you were supposed to exchange it at the festival pavillion to get your swanky proper pass! A lot of people were confused about this bit and eh, this was the first time the Singapore Writers Festival is being charged. Hopefully the next one would be less tedious.

For one thing, the ticketed events like workshops and stuff, you needed to buy via Sistic first since it was separate from the festival pass. And the festival pass was for everything else. Mostly, people were also confused on where to exchange your Sistic festival pass into the red plastic one since it wasn’t really obvious at the counter of the festival pavillion (it was said to be Info counter and was sharing with the bookstore’s cashier).

As Jo and I waited (we went to the fest the next day, so imagine a time lapse here instead of us camping in the festival) for the launch of Ceriph’s issue 4, we found this! Bubble G.U.M and Happiness at the End of the World was available! So was an Irish Tour of Singapore which you could buy it all at Two Trees too!

Plus, it amused me that Low Kay Hwa’s book that I bought a week or so before the fest was there since I was corresponding to him currently. That meant that they didn’t just stock the literary stuff at the festival bookstore.

Also, we found a book that was going to be launched the following week there. I had to buy it because the first line was:

Tara first met him at the Singapore Arts Festival in Moscow.

You have no idea how many people picked up that book there, stared at that line, looked around and back to it again. Worry not. I will read out parts of the book and reveal to you what it is since it is queued in my bunch of books to be reviewed.

Meanwhile, it was time for the launch for Ceriph issue 4. This issue is divided into different paper types and if you want to hear her reading, just click the video below since I would rather let her explain it herself!

One of my favourite stories in this issue is titled $trategic KPI + %Synergy% = Love by Mary-Jane Leo. I refuse to believe the ending. I believe that it was AMBIGUOUS, SINCE it was just merely a squashing. MERELY. It’s just a squash. You can get this issue and the previous ones at Kinokuniya, Books Actually or just check their website on where to get it.

After that, we went to the panel on Adoring Fans and Stalkers: Relating to my Readers, featuring Randy Taguchi and Fira Basuki. It was a super engaging and fun session. Very informative too on what fans they got and how they related to them or handled the really extreme ones. This was in the transaction pavillion which is to the left of the festival pavillion and needed the pass.

Before this session though, Jo did attend another panel and considering the layout of the tent, there was a distracting spider involved? The place is a bit dark too.

After that fan panel, we left to eat prata since there was quite a bit of prata talk somehow. Meanwhile, Vertical Submarine were responsible for these. Hahah, I always like Vertical Submarine stuff. It’s a mysterious case and another is called the UnderWriter’s Table. Yes, the book there says “How to write a blank cheque”.

Time lapse to the next weekend! It was getting quieter and the white board was getting more insane with art. You could get free fans too. Hah! Fans. I don’t think the bears at the info counter were for sale but they had mini versions of the festival’s programme. Anyway, it was a super hot day and I headed into the festival pavillion since the session I wanted to go was an hour away.

I must say that it was really quiet. There was also half hour readings and besides me and the bookstore staff and some of the NAC people, there wasn’t much visitors at the pavillion (unless they were buying books). I found out from my friend (not Jo. Check out the 1st prize winner for the Malay short story for Golden Point award, that is him) that the panel he was interested in was pretty quiet too, like around 5 or so people including him and the writer.

I think most of us attributed it to the fact of the festival being spread out in 3 places instead of The Arts House in which it made everything feel livelier. Plus, I didn’t know there was such thing as half hour readings at the pavillion. So sad for authors being slotted in the timings then.

Meanwhile, I was going to Is Facebook killing the Blog? Featuring: Pat Law, Gilbert Koh, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow at The Salon of the National Museum before I met my friend to find all this out. This panel was talking about finding your voice and write what you want to. Plus, more insight on how the panelists blog or intergrate facebook by linking to their blogs.

Their take away point was that if you are a serious writer who wants to write articles etc, choose a blog. Facebook is too spammy and your words might disappear if FB keeps changing. At least you will have an archive somewhere if you have your own blog.

The reason I met my friend cause HOHOHOHOHOH, I got a ticket to Joe Haldeman’s science fiction workshop. He had bought his before the start of the festival and I got mine in the last minute cause another friend of mine couldn’t make it and so I bought it off from her.

Heh, heh, heh.

As we bought headed to SMU, there was a performances, Words in Motion by breakdancing crews and other dancers. The whole thing was organized by Soul Theory Studios and there you can see Sheik Haikal being the emcee for it all. He was certainly entertaining for what brief time I was there.

And the last ticketed event for the evening was Building Other Worlds – The Fundamentals of Writing Science Fiction Featuring: Joe Haldeman. Mostly we got to listen stories from him, how he wrote his books and I did get to learn the difference of the types of science fiction written.

Not really sure how to explain it but okay, I did get to learn quite a bit and that it is tough to write science fiction nowadays.

It was certainly a sold out workshop and it was overrun a little bit since we wanted to listen to him more.

Lastly, my friend and I managed to listen to the LAST argument for the  Closing Debate: This House Would Trade English for Singlish at the transaction pavillion.

The well-acclaimed SWF Closing Debate is back! This time, the two teams of mystery speakers will debate on the motion: “This House would trade English for Singlish.” Singlish, Singapore’s colloquial English, has always provoked much controversy in a country torn between its commitment to a global and a national identity. Now who will make the most kilat (polished) argument for or against it? Who will conversely kena whack jialat-jialat (get trounced) for talking too much rubbish? Hopefully, all of them! Join us for a session of side-splitting, nose-bloodied, rowdy fun that will bring this festival to its irreverent close!

Members of the public could comment and well… WOW.

Singlish versus English debate

Although I’m sure there were official videographers, I know that footage won’t be used in… official videos or anything like that. No point for me to put up a video of the last arguments since it was really THAT packed. The audio’s good enough for you to listen.

Choice quote from the English camp:

In a nutshell the Singaporean identiy is about the acquisition of personal material wealth.Thank goodness our ministers are not like that.

There’s more leading to that but you got to listen to it, hahahaha.

Choice quote from the Singlish camp:

These days ah, we are told to speak English cause they are powerful international language, correct? But then ah, government also tell you nowadays you must speak Chinese because Chinese now very powerful. Right? I can guarantee ten years time they tell you to speak some Indian language because India also powerful. But you think ah, ok? English, Chinese, Indian, when put together Singlish already what.Correct? We are already in the future!

And that’s the end of the SWF. It was judged by how loud you clapped and thus both won. Hahahah, that kind of ending. In any case, that was great. In summary, SWF was fun. The venue needs to be worked out a little more since a lot of people have commented on not being able to switch rooms if they’re not interested in the panel and the ticketing needs to be a bit more clearly. That and the scheduling of panels. There was quite a lot of clashes with hot topic panels at the same time.

We’ll see how it is next year. For now, I’m going to keep my pass since it’s the first pass ever for a paid SWF here. COLLECTOR’S ITEM GET!

Talk/Discussion on Writing Real Life Speculative Fiction

Admission: Free

Location: Central library, multipurpose room (basement)

When: 24 September, Saturday, 6pm

Come on down if you’re interested in learning how to write fiction and yes, finally we have this once more since it was postponed by the elections. Gee.

MEANWHILE…

The same weekend has a WaterFire® art installation by Barnaby Evans at Bedok Reservoir. Main programme starts at 6pm but the fires light up at 7.40pm for 24th and 25th September. I know I’ll be going to the one on Sunday. Would be lovely to check it out and get inspiration and whatnot.

Click the picture above to see the full programme!

Also, what’s this…?

Oooh a Comics Xchange?

Yes! They’ve got workshops for artists and writers. I’m going for the seminar though.

Location: Goodman Arts Centre (You might remember this is the GAC when the crew made a mug)

Time: 10am – 8pm

Date: 1 – 2 October

The seminar is $40 for one day or $60 for both while the workshop is $50 for both days since it’s a course. You choose either:

Character Design for Comics
For anyone age 12 or above (including mature adults!) who would like to know how to create original, convincing and varied characters, then the Actions Workshop is just the place to be. There are basic fundamentals for creating characters – whether or not your passion is Shojo, Fantasy, Superhero or Sci-Fi, and this two day workshop will both strongly enlighten plus entertain!

Plot & Script Writing for Comics
There are many forms of writing, and few are as unique as comics. The Captions Workshop will teach and demonstrate essential fundamentals of plot building, story structuring and development of narrative with character dialogue. How to format a professional script is vital knowledge for any writer, as editors and artists require them to relay clear and concise instructions. Suitable for age 12 and above (including mature adults!).

The programme for the seminar is a whole lot more so you’ll have to check on their website to see which day you’d like to attend… OR GO TO BOTH!

Meanwhile, there’s a FREE entry to the bazaar where you can go there and buy doujinshi, artwork and cosplay.

The grounds of GAC is pretty good for cosplay. Lots of different scenarios you can capture. Plus, I know 24 hour comics is going to be there too, the comics equivalent of Nanowrimo. Sorta.

Anyway, go look see what do you want to do.

They’ve a website and Facebook for you to ask questions if you have any!

This episode starts out with us attending the book reading/launch of Ceriph #3 (it’s actually the fourth book but the first one was called issue zero) at Kinokuniya! 2 of our friends are in this issue! Magical Harkow and Schnoc from Nanowrimo!

It is a special issue where there is a pullout included in the book. The stories are pretty engaging and the poetry too! I was amused with Schnoc’s poem because it had technical things in it which was in a way an oxymoron to how poetry is!

It had a pretty good turn out too so that’s cool. You can buy the book either at Kinokuniya or Books Actually since it is published by them from Math Paper Press side. Ok. Once over, we and some of the writers there were off to Hong Lim Park!

It’s also called Speaker’s Corner if you didn’t know. As we got out of the bus, we went ooh cause there were so many people! It’s Pink Dot day there and we figured that we had time to attend this year! This year’s theme was the Freedom to Love.

Here, this is this year’s video directed by Boo Junfeng with the support of a whole lot of people.

We were there pretty late so we were at the tail end of the programme. Had to walk around the volunteers before we could get the fans and look at the flyer for the day. In any case, when we were there, I looked at Jo because Sebastian Tan aka Broadway Beng was on the main stage and doing a performance and said, “Hey… Isn’t this like a-”

“A getai?”

“Yes!” I exclaimed.

It was because Sebastian was singing Ja-jambo!

Also, Google was one of the sponsors for the event. That’s pretty nifty. For as quoted:

Google’s head of policy for South-east Asia Ann Lavin says it supports Pink Dot’s message as ‘an equal opportunity employer’ which ‘does not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, creed, colour, religion, gender (or) sexual orientation’.

The area was crowded, on one side you could buy drinks (pink!) and there was the ice cream man too. Fear and Ignorance were there peppered with pink post-it notes by people while the pink dot was in front of them looking like :c since they were behind it! Heh. Oh yes, say hello to Octavius, you will see him more in future episodes when I am not on camera.

Here, have a walk through with him for the event. He is new, so yeah.

Interestingly we met quite a lot of friends! Well, I did anyway. Before it was time to form the pink dot, Otto Fong and the Dimsum Dollies did a little speech before they started the countdown. This year, it looked more like a pink blob cause it was estimated to be around 10,000 people there so woah!

So that was nice since it was all peaceful without any people protesting or whatnot besides it being seriously pink. Thus, we’ll wonder how next year’s would be since it is doubtful that there would be any space at the rate it is going!

Oh yes, just a note for everyone at ANY event or for whatever thing, if you have a helium balloon, do not release it! The balloon itself will fall somewhere and it won’t biodegrade itself or it might choke some animal who chances upon it in the sea or whatever.  Till next week’s episode of SDS!

Two books, two different genres and two different places! You get the idea.

The first one is Wolf at the Door by one of our writer friends, Joyce. It’s an ebook so you can buy it only online here. She’s having a book launch/reading party this week too!

Location: The Garden Slug

Date and Time: 14 April, 7.30pm

You can check more details and the map on how to get there on her blog here and to RSVP to her too. It’s an URBAN FANTASY story of werewolves in Singapore, check the book out! TAKE THAT PEOPLE, we have genre writers here.

The next book event is BUBBLE G.U.M.!

That’s the poster that you are not going to see at the event at Ion. Hahahaha. ANYWAY, yes come to our reading/signing.

Location: Orchard Ion’s Prologue bookstore

Date and time: 19 April, 7pm

Ours is young adult science fiction. You can buy the book at the store itself or online here with shipping. It is also stocked at Books Actually! So yes, do come to either of the events and say hello… and buy.

Hello everyone! There’s a book signing and talk for “An Irish Tour of Singapore“! If you like history and want to know more about the Irish here, check it out! Also, I’ve read this book before and it’s so definitely not like a boring history book. Go listen to the talk to see why!

Short details:

Location: Orchard Ion’s Prologue book store

Date and Time: 26 March 2011 (Saturday), 3pm

Yes! Also click the more cut underneath here to check out the dinosaur we helped decorate for this talk and book signing!

He was Mr Chippensaur to us since he only wore a black bowtie. NOW he is decorated in green and shamrocks and other things! St Patrick’s Day was last week you see and this talk is related to it in a way! Heh.

You can totally see him from a distance since everything else on that floor is all black or white for “poshness” or something at Ion.

Oh besides that, I thought this was interesting when I received it in my email:

Free Talk: Self Publishing

@ Imagination Room, L5, National Library bldg, 5 April 11, 7.00pm to 8.30pm

E-books, readers and other advancements in technology have forever changed the publishing landscape making it possible for all authors to publish their work. As a result, 76% of all books published are now produced by authors independent of a publishing house. Leigh K Cunningham, Executive Director of the Association of Independent Authors, will share all that you’d need to know to realise your publishing dream.

Admission is FREE. To register, email to info@bookcouncil.sg with your name and contact number.

That looks interesting, I might go! See you guys there if you are!

The Singapore Toys, Games, Comics Convention 2010 starts tomorrow! Hurray! They’ve got the line up and “who’s who” up at their website now including the name of the shops. However, I’d like to focus on SOME people who aren’t “special guest stars” but who make the convention fun. They range from the various shops, to the organizations and even media people! I got to talk or rather email some of the people below so heh, you guys will get to know more on them!

The 501st

Singapore has one of the largest garrisons in Asia! They’re a group of Star Wars fans who make their own armour and costumes based on the bad guys in the movies. Everyone who is a Star Wars fan, owning a “bad guys’” costume and who likes to help out people are welcomed to join the 501st Legion!

Heh you see, even though they’re stormtroopers, imperial guards or even Darth Vader, the guys and ladies of the 501st are pretty sweet and nice. They do charity work and help out at some events!

At STGCC, they will be holding a droid hunt in which members of the public can join (note: This is VERY fun, my friends did this before). All you got to do is sign up at the 501st booth and you’ll be given a lanyard with a droid card. Then you’re free to roam around the convention hall doing your own things… AND THEN THE STORMTROOPERS WILL HUNT YOU DOWN!! They’ll be wandering around in little squadrons and will try to spot you. They will then capture you and issue you with a ticket to collect a prize at the booth. Heh.

More details at the 501st booth but one of my friends who did this… Well, here’s a hint. If you’re a Star Wars fan, you should know there’s one line about “droids” and if you use it, it might work. HUR HUR. To sign up, there should be a small fee to join but this will go to charity!

All the money collected will be donated to their said charity for the weekend (check out at the convention to know more). Besides the droid hunt, the 501st will be having a photobooth in which you can take a picture with them and there would be a R2D2 there too! Boop beep boop boop.

Check them out at their website if you want to join them or find them at their booth to check out their armour and find out more from them! They’ll be near the Starwars.sg people too! There’ll be a Hoth Battle Scene built entirely from Lego bricks so woaah.

If you’re spending mucho moolah to buy goodies at the convention, I don’t see why you can’t spare a fiver or ten (or more!) to help their cause.

G&B comics

If you like Western comics and are not a member of G&B, I tsk tsk at you. Members get special privileges like movie night and special sessions of signings with visiting artists and writers! Heck, they get discounts and other funky previews too. For STGCC, watch out their booth for the comic giveaways. Just check out what time they’ll be giving them out or heh, buy the comics since they’ll certainly stock up especially on the writers/artists who’ll be at the convention!

They’re the store in which you can pick up the special edition comics of V is for Vendetta, exclusive prints of Kickback  and other limited edition sketch books by Leinil Yu.

To be a member of the store you have to get to the actual store location itself at Rochor Centre since I would think they’ll be too busy selling the goods at the convention itself. Address and other info at their website here! Oh by the way, they SHOULD have their NETS machine marking at the booth at the convention… Bye, bye monies to you!

Here Be Geeks

They’re one of the supporting blogs of STGCC. Ha, ha I might be biased because I’m a guest writer for them but really, they’re cool. The articles and tweets they post are easily read and insanely fast. If you want to know any info or “inside” stuff of the convention, head on to their blog at Here Be Geeks or follow them on their twitter.

HBG is made up of a trio of geeks and site was created to fill up a niche that lacked in Singapore – comic books, television and gaming. They felt that the pop culture elements were seriously lacking in exposure here. (Yes, I totally agree.) They just started 11 months ago and booyah, now they’re even the supporting blog for STGCC!

The dudes will be walking around attending the panels, MODERATING some of them, providing live updates to the blog and tweeting at the event. If any of you readers want to know what’s happening at STGCC before you even hit the place, you should definitely read their posts since they’ve extensive maps of the location, event timings etc. Heck, it’s even in a more readable format that the STGCC website currently. The schedule for the events on all 3 days are out too and they’ve managed to find the pdf for it. So if you want in both pdf or excel, you can check out their blog post here, heh.

You might catch them in their official HBG t-shirts or on the last day, they’ll be going as the League of Evil Exes from Scott Pilgrim or Star Trek. Also, look out for contests and giveaways at their site! I can certainly say that their stuff is not sucky. BWUAHAHAHA! Very cool stuff if you like geeky things. Ok, uh. You don’t need to spend anything unlike the above two people, however please say hello to them! They’re nice. People going to some panels, you’ll see at least one of them and uh, me too on the various ones on the three days as moderators.

Movie Mania

They’re a movie fan group of costumers. Actually they don’t stop at just movies, they do costumes from games and comics too! They’ll be having a booth and Reno, the head of MM will be talking on Sunday at the 1pm panel at the 401-402 room. He’ll be talking about Cosplay 101 – How to make/source your costumes with Ellya Chao and Clive Lee. In my ahem, ahem sources I know there will be an ODST (from the Halo series) squad on Saturday. If you guys like the game, be sure to catch the whole squad there! Besides ODST, MM were the guys who usually can build their own armoured costumes. They have a Warmachine and Ironman too. Reno will also be one of the judges at the cosplay competition held there on stage.

Seriously, if you like costumes, weapons and all that cool stuff. Check out their booth or their website here.

Gone Case!

There’s a lot of cool independent artists and studios to be had at the convention at the Artist Alley. I managed to interview one of them who’s launching their book “Gone Case” there! Interestingly, they’re in the What’s New page of STGCC!

Gone Case is written by Dave Chua, a freelance writer, editor and a joint winner for the SPH-NAC Golden Point Award in 1995 amongst other awards. It’s illustrated by Koh Hong Teng who won the Digital Art Gold Award at Comgraph Asia Pacic Digital Art & Animation Competition in 2001 for his graphic novel “01321″ and his comics have been published in both Liquid City 1 &2.

The story was actually published in 1996! It’s a novel about a coming-of-age story about a year in the life of a 12-year old living in a Singaporean housing estate. However, in this comic adaptation, the duo took a year for it to come together, discussing on which points to focus on for it. The inspiration for the story was when Dave Chua wandered about the housing estate he stayed in, and felt there was a shortage of stories set in that milieu.

You readers can check out their sample pages or bits of their story at their website here. They will be at the Windmill Studios booth, Artist Alley J12. And just at STGCC, the comic book will be just $16! The price at major bookstores will be $18.90 so best you get it there. Plus, you can always get your book autographed by them! Besides Gone Case, they’ll be selling Hong Teng’s popular ‘BLKS&NOS’ Art Series Postcards and Cheah Sin Ann’s book – Billy and Saltie: Cool Croc.

IZReloaded/R3LOAD Network

If you’ve been to any event previously like AFA, various parties and whatnot, you might have seen IZReloaded before or at least his videos. Both IZ Reloaded and R3LOAD Network are official supporters of STGCC 2010 and he and his crew will be there!

IZ will be covering STGCC for R3LOAD Network, an entertainment and pop culture web TV network.  He’ll be doing a lot of filming, taking photos, interviewing, etc. And lots of tweeting. You readers can check out his twitter at @izreloaded. So if you want to be caught on camera, wave to him, smile and pose. Unlike the other blogs, IZ usually has video summaries of the events and they’re usually uploaded pretty fast.

Heh, if you miss the event, be sure to catch his videos. Or if you were there, check it out anyway to see if you were caught on camera!

AND THAT IS IT! Well, there’s more people who help out and make the convention fun but you guys have to BE there to check it out! If you wanna know where I’ll be? I’ll mostly be around the 501st, Movie Mania booth, artist alley checking out the goods or at the panels. I’ll definitely be on a panel as a moderator on Sunday for the 2.15pm-3pm, Traditional form of comic illustration panel at room 401-402.

Uh, so everywhere I guess?

SEE YOU GUYS THEN!

And so the 30th October was the kick off party for Nanowrimo in Singapore! It was at the multipurpose room of the national library. Most people ask why do Nanowrimo since you have to write at least 50k in 30 days well… That is pretty much the point! For others it’s a daunting task, to writers it is fun!

There were goody bags for the Nano-ers for those curious on what they are and what they mean:

• Either a monkey or octopus sticker from HQ.
• A burnable cd for backups!
• A pencil to write and a post it pad just in case.
• A nano booklet to help with writing.
• A dice to go with the things in the booklet.
• An alcohol swab to clean things and somewhat of a reminder not to get sick!
• A rabbit sweet for a plot bunny.
• Milo cause you’re champions!
• A plastic animal toy as a word prompt – if you don’t have a clue on what next in your story to put, insert the animal somewhere!

The queue as the people got in. It wasn’t even 6.30pm.

And yet the people were filling up the seats. Naturally they sat from the back first and then towards the front.

Maybe because Death (from Terry Pratchett) was there. Nya ha ha!

So it was a pretty fun time. The competitions and quizzes had prizes ranging from Moleskines to battery operated fans, girly/manly joke eye glasses and lots of notebooks.

We even had our book launch for Bubble G.U.M after the main bulk of what is Nanowrimo. You guys can get the book at Two Trees by emailing them or well, emailing me either way since I can contact them. In which in the slides we presented, we informed that the Nano-ers can still submit short stories of STEAMPUNK to Two Trees since we extended the deadline to 15 November for those that were interested.

And thus, we had our cake and discussion on comics and of speculative fiction. It was pretty fun as usual for that bit and we got everyone else to help with the chairs.

The flickr album will be updated with more photos of the event but yes! Fun. Hahah, I think the photos will explain more on the event since it has more things in it.

FYI for others, write-ins are from 2pm at the Earshot Cafe of The Arts House. They’re usually on weekends or check the info on the Nano forums anyway.

Woooh, a whole bunch of events! Well, usually these things tend to run in the second half of the year onwards. Click the more cut to read more. We have:

• Talk: ‘In the Footsteps of Raffles’
• Workshop: What’s Your Singapore Memory?
• Talk/ Book Launch: ‘A life of its Own’
• Competition: e-Mote Digital Storytelling
• Workshop: e-MOTE storytelling
• Competition: 2010 Adelaide Review Short Fiction
• Competition: Man Asia Literary Prize 2010
• Competition: The Iowa Short Fiction Award
• Competition: The 30th Arvon International Poetry Competition 2010
• Competition: Hedwig Anuar Children’s Book Award 2011

Uuuungh. I did wonder to split this post into two or something but whatever. I’ll put them under headlines so you can scroll and pick at it at your own pace or something. Or usually, I’d just copy just the title of the event and press ctrl+f it or apple+f depending on which computer I’m on.

Onwards we go!

In the Footsteps of Raffles

Location: National Library, Possibility Room, Level 5

Date: 29 June 2010

Time: 7pm

Nigel Barley is the author of twenty books, academic and popular, in genres as diverse as travel writing, fiction, biography and art history. In the Footsteps of Raffles and Rouge Raider are two of his books which have been written against the backdrop of Singapore and her history.

In this session, Nigel will discuss some of the particular difficulties and satisfactions that lie behind various works, concentrating on those involving the history of Singapore and SE Asia. He will also tease out certain themes that have emerged increasingly over the years such as his motivation as a writer, his personal relationship to his subjects and the tension between randomness and structure.

Admission is free! Places are limited, so please register via http://golibrary.nlb.gov.sg or by clicking here.

What’s Your Singapore Memory?

Location: National Library

Date: 26 June & 3 July

Time: 8.30am – 12pm

As part of the Singapore Memory Project, you are invited to join as storywriters of Singapore’s rich heritage. You need not be a writer to start with. The workshop will teach you the proper writing techniques using the Neuro-Linguistic Programming techniques and simple ways to source for your own stories.

For more information and to register, please email Nurulhuda_SUBAHAN@nlb.gov.sg

A life of its Own

Location: The Arts House, Earshot Cafe

Date: 6 July 2010

Time: 7pm

“A Life of Its Own – Understanding Depression and Its Treatments” provides insights that help us better recognise and understand depression, and its treatments. This book presents essential scientific and clinical knowledge which would reduce stigma, give hope, and reduce suffering.

Co-written by 32 experts consisting of doctors, psychiatrists and ex-patients in Singapore, they shared their knowledge in a straight forward, easily understood manner of the psychological illness from various perspectives in 24 articles in the book.

Admission is free! To register, email info@bookcouncil.sg with your name and phone number.

The e-Mote Digital Storytelling Competition

The e-Mote Digital Storytelling Competition  is open to all secondary school students:

Category A: Secondary 1 and 2 students
Category B: Secondary 3, 4 and 5 students

Each school is encouraged to send 2 entries per category.

Your stories should be between 1 minute and 3 minutes in length. The stories we are looking for must be in a digital format. What this means is that the submissions can be in the form of a video, a slideshow, podcast or any other digital media format that can tell a story with visuals and sound, suitable for digital broadcast on the Internet.

For more info, click here. (It opens to a pdf!)

e-MOTE storytelling workshop

In order to tell a story, you need to know how to tell a story; and our workshops are designed to do just that. Workshops will cover storytelling techniques and technical execution of the digital story.

If you’ve missed the 16 & 17 June workshops, we have organised four new ones for you: -
– 3 July 2010: (1) 9.00am to 1.20pm and (2) 2.00pm to 6.20pm -
– 10 July 2010: (3) 9.00am to 1.20pm and (4) 2.00pm to 6.20pm

The cost is only S$15nett per person. We encourage each school to sign up a teacher and three students (per category) for the workshops.

Download flyer for the more info on the workshops and the competition.

For more information on the workshops and the competition, please email sisf@bookcouncil.sg

Heh, this IS interesting. Too bad I’m not a secondary school kid though. If you are, check out the workshop. It’s pretty cool to learn some of the softwares there for those who haven’t known the basics. The flyer opens up to the same pdf as above, by the way.

Also, this point I’m getting tired to put in the exact info for the below competitions so if you’re interested, click the links there.

2010 Adelaide Review Short Fiction Competition

(Supported by National Arts Council Singapore) – Deadline: 23 July 2010

Attached: Terms and Conditions document and Entry Form.  More details online: http://www.adelaidereview.com.au

You get to win monies and also wine! If you don’t drink wine, you can always give it to Raven Silvers since her dad collects them.

Man Asia Literary Prize 2010

Deadline: 31 August 2010

Information and entry form: http://www.manasianliteraryprize.org/

Worth it only if you’ve already published a book! So yeah. It’s yearly though so if you haven’t been published this year or only end of year etc, you can try for the following year.

The Iowa Short Fiction Award

Deadline: 30 September 2010

Website: http://uipress.uiowa.edu/authors/iowa-short-fiction.htm

Not that this one is for a collection of SHORT FICTION. Means you got to have a manuscript of a lot of short stories in one collection.

The 30th Arvon International Poetry Competition 2010

Deadline: 16 August 2010.

Website: http://www.arvonfoundation.org/p236.html

Poetry, poetry, poetry. It costs 7 Pounds per poem for an entry for this competition.

Hedwig Anuar Children’s Book Award 2011

(Supported by National Arts Council Singapore)  – Deadline: 31 December 2010

Website is here.

It opens up to a printable pdf which includes the entry form.  Huh. ANYWAY, prize money is $10,000 (to be shared between illustrator and writer OR with a translator too if you have one). Free entry and I might enter this competition. It’s sweet! Read it! It’s a prize by Mrs Hedwig Anuar who was the first Singaporean Director of the National Library of Singapore. Anyway it can be short stories, a novel or poetry! But arrgh, you need to be published FIRST. So we’ll see how.

There’s a book talk coming up that seems to be organized by the Penguin Books Singapore at the Earshot Cafe!

It’s a book talk by Madhav Mathur, the author of The Diary of An Unreasonable Man in conversation with Deepika Shetty.

The short details:

Date: 14 May

Time: 7pm

Location: Earshot Cafe at The Arts House ( 1 Old Parliament Lane)

Since it’s a public event, you don’t need to register but just show up!

What’s the book about? Let me copy paste the info from Penguin Books India!

Pranav Kumar is:
(a) An advertising executive
(b) An aspiring writer
(c) An anarchist
(d) A fugitive from the Mumbai Police
(e) All of the above

Pranav Kumar has had enough. He’s sick and tired of being a corporate drone convincing people that their lives are meaningless without the newest product he’s peddling. He hates that commercialism is the new mantra and people actually believe that you are what you own. Pranav Kumar wants to change the world.

But how does one man make a whole country question the way we are when no one is interested in listening?

Pranav and his friends decide to capture the eyeballs of the nation and shake up the system. Their methods are unorthodox, their message unique. They take over a TV station, expose an environmental scam, strike out at patrons of brothels, sabotage a glitzy fashion show, and paint-bomb a local train.

But as the Anarchists of Mumbai ignite sparks of a much larger movement, they realize that doing good comes at a price, that the means are as important as the ends and that being hunted by the Mumbai police is perhaps better than being hunted by contract-killers.

Heh, an interesting book, non?

The novel has sold its movie rights to director Anurag Kashyap. And more about Madhav Mathur besides the fact that he’s an author, he’s an artist and an indie filmaker with his own company.

Meanwhile, Deepika Shetty is a correspondent for The Straits Times and Tabla! newspaper. She’s moderated writing events before in South East Asia, Australia and Sri Lanka and more obviously, in Singapore! For it is here that the event will be at.

Newsflash: Apparently not everyone got the eflyer etc about this but anyway, catch Mitch Albom, the author of Tuesdays with Morrie, The Five People You Meet In Heaven and more on 26th February (day of this post):

Location: {prologue} Ion Orchard level 4

Time: 1pm

Also, if you’re the first 50 people from 12pm, you get a complementary {prologue} welcome pack (ONLY with proof of purchase of his books from any Popular/Harris/{prologue} store). Also enjoy 20% discount of his books OR get a 2 for 1 for these titles: The Five People You Mean In Heaven, Tuesdays With Morrie and For One More Day. ONLY on the 26th Feb.

Can’t come in the afternoon due to work? IT’S OK.

Catch him at:

Location: Kinokuniya Ngee Ann City

Time: 7pm

EDIT: TOUGH LUCK! The sources said it was yesterday and they sent out the wrong info. SO, just 1pm today only!

That’s it for the 26th. If he has any other appearances after this date, well it’s probably for private events or something around here.