September 2004
EDITOR’S
NOTE
Welcome to September’s edition of e-WordNEWS. We hope you have
registered to attend the seminars we have orgainsed for this month,
one for publishers and one for educators. We have the Writers Network
Night in place of readasia – this is going to be a very interesting
event, so do register early. Across the miles, an author relates the
humiliations of writers.
Enjoy!
From the NEWS desktop of...
Anita Paul, Editor
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NBDCS EVENTS
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Seminar – September 2004
Engaging Hearts
& Minds – Storytelling for National Education
10 September 2004 (for National Education Practitioners reaching out
to Preschool and Primary School Students)
11 September 2004 (for National Education Practitioners reaching out
to Secondary School and Tertiary School Students and Adults)
National Education is about weaving the fabric of a nation. It seeks
to build a common ground for Singaporeans from all walks of life, getting
us to identify with Singapore as our home, a place to live in,
to love and cherish. National Education messages can be communicated
in many ways. This one-day Seminar showcases Storytelling as an effective
method of getting National Education messages straight to the hearts
and minds of people. The messages are no doubt serious, but the delivery
has to be engaging and inspiring. Storytelling does exactly this, and
in the process, the messages stay embedded for life.
This seminar will take participants
through a complete process of:
• discovering storytelling as a most natural but powerful National
Education tool
• learning how to select stories to carry different National Education
messages for different audiences
• learning how to craft and tell stories
• learning storytelling techniques and tips
Time: 8.30am – 6.00pm
Venue: Novotel Apollo Hotel (405 Havelock Road)
To register, please visit http://www.nbdcs.org.sg/ne.htm
Centre for Literary Arts and Publishing (CLAP)
2 Professional
Development Workshops for Publishers
20 – 24 September 2004
For the first time in Asia, the Centre for Literary Arts & Publishing
Training Centre, UK presents‘2 Professional Development Workshops
for Publisher’s’. Both workshops will be conducted by Mr
Richard Balkwill, a publishing veteran with years of publishing and
consultancy experience behind him. Participants will get to tap on his
knowledge and expertise and be more prepared to take on challenges in
the ever-changing publishing landscape. Besides getting the latest updates
on industry trends and practices, participants will also benefit from
networking with fellow publishers from around the region. Seats are
limited so do register early!
Workshop 1
Developing Skills in Commissioning and Management
20 – 21 September 2004
Workshop 2
Professional Development for Publishers
Comprising:
A. Copyright, Legal Issues and Permissions
22 September 2004
B. Contracts, Agreements, Rights and Co-editions
23 September 2004
C. Financial Planning, Strategy and Digital Publishing
24 September 2004
Time: 9.00am – 5.00pm
Venue: Novotel Apollo Hotel (405 Havelock Road)
To register (early bird discount available), visit http://www.nbdcs.org.sg/clap.htm
Literary Arts
• Course in Children’s Literature (Chinese) by Dr. Chua
Chee Lay
6 – 7 September 2004: 9.00am to 5.00pm
• Creative Writing
by Felix Cheong
17 September 2004: 9.00am to 5.00pm
Library Management
• Managing a Children’s Library by Jennifer Yong
24 – 25 September 2004: 9.00am to 5.00pm
Book Publishing
• The Book Publishing Business: An Overview by Christopher Yaw
8 October 2004: 9.00am to 5.00pm
CLAP is offering Kinokuniya
Privilege Card holders a 10% discount on all courses!
Registration & Queries: Email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
/ Call (65) 68488290 / Fax (65) 67429466
Website http://www.nbdcs.org.sg/clap.htm
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BWRITER'S NETWORK NIGHT
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Author’s Talk
16 September 2004
The Book Council and Pansing Distribution invite you to share an evening
with the feisty and funny Fran Lebowitz, author of ‘Tales From
A Broad’ as she relates her writing journey and shares her experiences
in the publishing industry.
Published to high praise in Australia and a bestseller on Borders Singapore’s non-fiction chart, ‘Tales From A Broad’ is Fran’s unreliable memoir of her expatriate adventures with all things Singapore like karaoke, beef kway teow, the Crocodile Farm and Comfort taxis.
Besides relating the genesis for her book, Fran will also explain her writing process and share her experience of getting published. A successful literary agent at an esteemed literary agency where she has represented critically acclaimed and commercial writers as well as a major film studio, Fran will also offer insights on the book industry.
Time: 7.00pm
Venue: library@orchard, Programme Zone
Registration & queries, call Josephine Mok at Tel. (65) 68488293
/ Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Regina Quek at Tel. (65) 63199931 / Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
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BOOK REVIEWS
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Tales From A Broad – An Unreliable Memoir
By Fran Lebowitz
When a frazzled New Yorker who is mad, bad and dangerous to know lands
in Asia, life is never quite the same again – for anyone...
Fran Lebowitz cheerfully admits that she is intergalactically self-absorbed, a little crazy and really, really hard to please – just ask her eternally patient and bemused husband, Frank. But when her life in the fast lane falls apart – again – it’s time for a miracle. Reeling from the worst week of her life, topped off by her most important client stabbing her in the back, Fran realises that she’s almost forgotten what her family looks like. She wants out of the rat race and her hectic life as a literary agent - and time to be herself, a real wife and mother to her two small children.
Good old Frank delivers what seems the answer to her prayers – to escape for three months to Singapore while he does some business. But what starts out as a little break and a very big culture shock for all concerned marks the hilarious beginning of the end of the old Fran – and a whole new life.
This is unreliable memoir
at its best, drawn from the real life of one Fran Lebowitz, a broad
who really knows how to grab life by the scruff of the neck. There’s
a little bit of fiction and a lot of fact, but if you’re thinking
of adopting Frank, be warned – he’s very real and Fran doesn’t
like to share.
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ABOUT TOWN
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Voice & Place: Writers Forum (Septfest 2004)
5 September 2004
What is the relationship between where you come from and what you write?
Writers/poets (both emerging and established) from both sides of the
causeway will meet and talk about ‘voice’ and ‘place’
in their writing, as well as read extracts of their work. There will
be a discussion following each individual reading.
Time: 1.00pm – 6.00pm
Venue: The Substation Guinness Theatre
Jumpstarting Your
Script
- Playwriting Master Class -
10 September 2004 & 12 September 2004
Stuck with your story? Don’t quite know what your characters are
doing? Is your dialogue not getting anywhere? Award-winning British
playwright, Kaite O’Reilly, is here to the rescue. Through a mixture
of practical exercises and discussion, Kaite will help you develop your
story ideas and characters and bring your work-in-progress the next
step forward.
This two-session master
class is open to playwrights with some experience who want to further
their craft. Upon registration, please submit a short résumé
plus three copies of an extract from a work-in-progress, for example,
a scene, sizable monologue or script idea/fragments for Kaite to look
at prior to the class so that she can structure the sessions according
to your needs.
Time: 7.00pm –10.00pm (10 September 2004) & 2.00pm –
5.00pm (12 September 2004)
Venue: Classroom 1, The Substation (2nd Floor)
Maximum no. of participants: 8
Fee: S$60.00
Writers Connect
@ The Art House, Old Parliament House
15 September 2004
Looking for a writers group? Join the Writers Circles to share your
prose, poetry and other genre work fortnightly, followed by a reading
panel discussion: What Can I Say? And How Can I Say It? - The eternal
writer’s question of form and content. Today, in Singapore, what
can writers write about and how can they give it the best literary presentation?
This discussion will touch on the obvious question of censorship, but
will go much beyond that. Does content dictate form, can weak ideas
be overcome by strong writing; do ideas even exist outside of their
expression? The speakers for this session include Robert Yeo and Felix
Cheong.
Time: 6.45pm
Venue: Stage Door Café, Old Parliament House
For details, visit http://www.wordforward.org/
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ACROSS THE MILES
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Toe-curling – the humiliations of writers by Deborah Moggach
This article has been reproduced with permission from The Author,
Journal of The Society of Authors – Volume CXV, Spring 2004 and
Deborah Moggach.
Writers can only moan to each other about all this, really: the humiliating reading to an audience of two, the book signing where nobody turns up, the talk where the only question is ‘Where did you buy your nail varnish?’ (I nicked it from my daughter, since you ask.) Nobody is really going to care, are they, if we sit alone and unloved beside our pile of books, approached only once in two hours, and that by a woman who is trying to flog us her self-published book on recovering from breast cancer? Or that we wait, alone in the darkness, on the deserted platform of Newark station, the only reading matter a Violent Assault: Witnesses Wanted sign swinging in the wind, until we realise we’ve missed the last train home.
There is, however, a certain existential quality to some of these experiences which others can surely share. Humiliation, though one of a writer’s specialities, is not an entirely unknown sensation to everybody else. We do expose ourselves, of course, by offering up our work to the world’s critical stare, or worse, its indifference. It’s what we sign up for: that people give us their money and their precious time to read about characters who have never existed. And there’s a price to be paid for this chutzpah.
‘Nationwide Publicity Tour’ usually means a couple of signing sessions and two minutes on BBC Radio Humberside. Never is the gulf between promise and reality wider than during an author’s publicity tour, at least in my experience. One occasion I remember, almost with fondness, was a promotion in a shopping centre in Maidenhead on a rainy Tuesday afternoon. The deal was that if a customer bought a copy of my novel (paperback), they also got a free box of Crabtree & Evelyn freesia soap and a glass of wine. In other words, they were practically being paid to take a book away. Even with these inducements, however, an hour passed and not one person stopped. ‘Oh dear,’ said the manageress, ‘I don’t know what’s the matter, it’s so embarrassing. We had that Rolf Harris last week and his queue was an hour and a half long.’ For some reason she thought that this would make me feel better. Finally, after another half-hour a woman with Downs Syndrome approached me and asked, ‘Do you sell tights?’ I directed her to the nearby Dorothy Perkins and off she went. Nobody else came, so I went home.
Often one travels long distances to do a reading. Getting food out of anybody, once one arrives, is always the problem. Drink is even trickier. I remember travelling to the Folkestone Literary Festival, a modest affair in the front room of a defunct seafront hotel, and being offered a small dish of dry roasted peanuts, to be shared between three authors. We had left London in Mid-afternoon and wouldn’t get back until midnight but our hostess obviously believed that writers, like Citro?n 2CVs, run on very little fuel. Also on very little money, as we were all told separately, ‘Thank you for waiving your usual fee.’ (It’s a well-known fact that writers are expected to turn up for nothing; try telling that to your plumber.)
Then there was the library in the Midlands where I was booked to do a reading. However far you’ve travelled to a library you’ll be lucky to get a mug of Nescafé, but this one phoned me to ask if I’d like something to eat and drink while I was there. A sandwich and a glass of wine would be lovely, I replied. Two weeks later I took the train there, to be greeted by the librarians, the sandwich and a lot of fluster. ‘We’ve got you a bottle of wine,’ they said, ‘but we can’t find the corkscrew.’ Cupboards were ransacked. ‘Really, I don’t mind...’ I said. ‘Please don’t bother.’ ‘No, We’ve started now and we’re going to find it!’ they replied. I stood there feeling like a pervert whose very special needs were going to be satisfied by hook or by crook because, after all, the librarians had promised. Finally the corkscrew was found, the bottle uncorked and some wine solemnly poured into a tea mug. The audience was filing in by now as I stood there, surrounded by librarians, dinking my wine and eating my sandwich. ‘I suppose we should have given you a plate,’ one of them said.
There is much, much more. Bookshops where, I enter and suggest signing some of my books, they look at me as if I’ve got dog’s mess on my shoe. The audience on the QE2 who sat there in silence and then, after half an hour, told me they were waiting to see the film French Kiss with Kevin Kline. An event at Edinburgh where, in front of a large audience, Hunter Davies’s first question to me began: ‘Well, Deborah Moggach, you’re not really up there in the first eleven, are you?’ A charity lunch which had cost me £120 in train fares and where my interviewer not only got my name wrong but called the novel I was going to be talking about (The Ex-Wives), ‘The XY’s’ throughout, even though it was sitting there in front of her. The should I have heard of you?s and the people who say ‘you’re my favourite writer’ and then proceed to quote from someone else’s book.
Novelists have an equivocal relationship with reality as it is, and on a bad day we can feel as non-existent as the characters we have created – more so, sometimes. In my case this is compounded by the fact that I never see anyone reading any of my books, ever. Such a sight has occasionally been spotted, on buses or trains, but can one really believe this? After all, I spend my life making things up.
Still, mortification is something we feed off. We can use it in our work, just as we use everything else. And we know, deep down, that we deserve it. Every writer I know is waiting for the tap on the shoulder and the voice that says, ‘So you really thought you could get away with it?”
DEBORAH MOGGACH’s
latest book, These Foolish Things, was published in February. She is
currently working on film adaptations of Pride and Prejudice and Tulip
Fever. This is a shortened version of her contribution to Mortification
– Writer’s Stories of their Public Shame, edited by Robin
Robertson.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
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Call for Submissions
MW Enterprises is a ‘reality-based’ publisher. They publish
a book series called ‘A Generation Defining Itself: In Our Own
Words’ from which a generation (born 1960 to 1982) is speaking
out about its realities, dispelling the narrow, simplified stereotypes
created by the mass media and commercial marketing. Volume 5 of this
book series is out and it includes local poet Cyril Wong. MW Enterprises
is now accepting submissions for Volume 6 and they are seeking more
Asian voices for this volume.
The submissions period
is to the end of March 2005. No submissions will be accepted after this
period closes.
For details, visit http://www.evenstar.net/mwe/
MDA (Media Development
Authority of Singapore) National Scriptwriting Competition 2004
To help scriptwriters hone their craft and find alternative access to
the screen, the MDA has organised a National Scriptwriting Competition
2004 with the objectives of enhancing the skills of scriptwriters and
providing scriptwriters an opportunity to have their work read, awarded
and pitched to commissioning editors.
The closing date is 30 September 2004. For more details, visit MDA at
http://www.mda.gov.sg
2004 Noma Concours
for Picture Book Illustrations
Noma Concours invites new talents! The 14th Concours invites highly
motivated illustrators and artists to participate in this renowned event
to contribute to the improvement of the quality of picture book illustration
for children. The closing date is 31 December 2004.
For more details, visit the Noma website at http:www.accu.or.jp/noma
