I’ve been tagged twice to go on a writing blog tour – by David Seow in Singapore and Cristy Burne in Australia! No passport needed for this tour as I won’t be clearing customs and checkpoints. Instead, I’m just clearing 4 questions from my study chair in my pajamas.
I was supposed to join David’s tour yesterday and Cristy’s tour next Monday. However, with the Asian Festival of Children’s Content 2014 coming up this Saturday all through Wednesday, I’ve unable to keep to either of their tour dates and have rescheduled my tour to today!
A little about my two taggers:
David Seow is a prolific author over 30 picture books. We first met at the Asian Festival of Children’s Content on an incredibly successful panel session, and were then placed on the same panel again that year, this time at the Singapore Writer’s Festival, together with renowned author David Almond (of Skellig fame). David got me to join SCBWI Singapore and we now also have the same literary agent, whom he introduced to me. Here’s where I joined David’s tour.
Cristy Burne is the award-winning author of the Takeshita Demons series. We met at the Rottnest Retreat in Australia last year when I went as the Singapore Representative (under an exchange between SCBWI WA and the Singapore Book Council) to present on my works and the publishing scene in Singapore. Cristy and I had several lovely conversations together and I’m thrilled that she will be here as a speaker for the coming AFCC. Cristy, see you for breakfast next week! Meantime, here’s where I hopped onto Cristy’s tour.
Now, onto the tour itinerary:
1. What am I working on?
I’m currently working on a 12-week Just Write for Middle Grade online home-study course with the lovely Emma Walton Hamilton. She’s a multiple New York Times bestselling author, editor, writing coach and faculty member of the Stony Brook Southhampton in Creative Writing and Literature, amongst other accomplishments. Did I also mention that she is the daughter of Hollywood actress Julie Andrews? I’m now onto week 8 and hope to be able to start working on a middle grade draft I have left languishing for eons that will benefit from all the plotting and templates I’m getting from this course.
2. How does my work differ from others in its genre?
I find it hard to compare with others so I would say the difference is really that every author has his or her own voice. For me, my picture books inevitably revolve around the human condition and universal themes of love, grace, second chances and personal journeys. I guess I subconsciously write these from my over-decade long experience of struggling with a rare voice disorder Spasmodic Dysphonia and finding my voice again in writing children’s books. Finding My Voice – a true story of setbacks, new beginnings and toy characters – will provide the long answer to the differing point of my writing!
3. Why do I write what I do?
Through God’s providential journey in my life. 15 years ago, I woke up, a few weeks after marriage and when my career was at the point of taking off, to find that my voice had broken down like a bad overseas phone line which never got better for the next 10 years. After I left my job to find myself, I waded into a Book Council Publishing Initiative in 2007, wrote my very first children’s book manuscript and won a grant to publish my debut picture book. I had written Prince Bear & Pauper Bear, a story about a poor bear whose toymaker had forgotten to sew him a mouth and could not speak. I found my voice again (literally and metaphorically) after I subconsciously wrote that personal story. And so I write, and will continue to speak through my writing, for as long as God’s favour rests upon my writing.
4. How does my writing process work?
Before I became a mum some 3 years back, I used to wait around for inspiration to hit me on the head, and usually my head missed. Now that I’m full-time mum to Caleb, I only have pockets of time and am more deliberate in grabbing hold of Inspiration to get my writing ideas out. I now have an online picture book critique group (whom I met on Julie Hedlund’s 12×12 Picture Book Challenge) who have spurred me to write and revise with good momentum. I also have a middle grade critique group with writing buddies Pauline Loh and Catherine Carvell which started last year, stopped and will soon start again!
Now, onto my 3 tagged writers:
Dr Myra Garces-Bacsal is a Teacher Educator and Coordinator of the Masters and Bachelor’s Program in High Ability Studies and Gifted Education at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
Myra is also founder of Gathering Books (www.gatheringbooks.org), a vibrant and esteemed website on children’s literature and young adult fiction, a multiple times CYBILS judge and soon launching her second book One Big Story, a compilation of interviews and essays by leading kidlit contributors, which I have the privilege of being a contributor. I got to know Myra through our joint involvement in AFCC when we were both on the same Festival Committee last year.
Writing children’s books is far from easy but it’s not rocket science. And then I connected with my 2nd tagged writer Kirsten through Susanna Leonard Hill’s Perfect Picture Book Fridays meme and discovered that she came from rocket science over to writing children’s books! Kirsten W. Larson is freelance children’s science writer and author. Her work appears in Boys’ Quest, ASK, ODYSSEY and AppleSeeds. Kirsten spent six years working for NASA and frequently writes about space for kids. She currently is at work on four science books for children in grades two through six. She blogs at Creating Curious Kids.
I first met Beth through Julie Hedlund’s 12×12 Picture Book Challenge. We then met again over at Emma Walton Hamilton’s Middle Grade Course and started hopping to each other’s blogs at Susanna Leonard Hill’s Perfect Picture Book Friday meme. With so many meets on kidlitosphere, we may as well be touring buddies on this write space! Beth Stilborn is a pre-published writer concentrating on middle grade and adult fiction. Much of her writing has a theatre or music theme. She blogs at By Word of Beth (http://www.bethstilborn.com) and also has a blog about music and theatre for kids under her pen-name, Elizabeth Starborn, called The Starborn Revue (http://www.elizabethstarborn.com). Beth also provides copy editing and proofreading services for writers and others through Flubs 2 Fixes Copy Editing and Proofreading (http://www.flubs2fixes.com). Beth is a member of SCBWI (http://www.scbwi.org), Julie Hedlund’s 12×12 Picture Book Challenge (http://www.juliehedlund.com/12-x-12/), and Emma Walton Hamilton’s Children’s Book Hub (http://www.childrensbookhub.com). With Emma, she co-hosts the Children’s Book Hub Facebook Group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/childrensbookhub/), and is associate editor of the Children’s Book Hub monthly newsletter.
So, tour all these bloggers’ sites and check out what they are doing for the world of children’s books!
I’m excited to be on book tour alongside Beth! Woo hoo. Emily, your story if fascinating. Thanks for sharing it with the world.
Thanks for touring with me!
Thanks for the tag and the lovely intro, Emily! 🙂
Myra, enjoy your hols and see you this weekend at AFCC!
And I am equally excited to be alongside Kirsten! She is awesome! And wow, Dr. Myra! It was so good to read your responses to these questions, Emily, and get to know both you and your writing process better. Wishing you all best in all you do!
Beth, thanks! Saw your shout-out over at FB. That’s so clever! Never occured to me how helpful the 12×12 FB can be for all writing stuff!