When superheroes get into social networking

My baby brother made this video - voiced it, shot it, drew it! I especially love the voice!

Happy Random Things

So today, I had the choice of blogging about something really serious, heavy and mind blowing about the publishing industry or just chilling and sharing two really random but nice things I read online. Guess which one I chose.

First really nice thing: Nathan Bransford, the uber-blogging agent in New York (I think. You think Nathan's in NY?) - one of the 1376 commenters on his blog the other day pointed out that the world of publishing is turning into mush was no reason to be negative. So he's been positive all week. Which made me feel really positive too. Let me share the last two very positive itemsfrom his positive blog post Ten Commandments for the Happy Writer:

9. Be thankful for what you have. If you have the time to write you're doing pretty well. There are millions of starving people around the world, and they're not writing because they're starving. If you're writing: you're doing just fine. Appreciate it.

10. Keep writing. Didn't find an agent? Keep writing. Book didn't sell? Keep writing. Book sold? Keep writing. OMG an asteroid is going to crash into Earth and enshroud the planet in ten feet of ash? Keep writing. People will need something to read in the resulting permanent winter

Second really nice thing: I was just browsing through the vlog (VIDEO blog - how many times do I have to explain this?)of the brothers Hank and John Green - John being the award winning YA author - when I came upon a 2007 item called "How Nerdfighters Drop Insults". What's so cool about John is in most of his posts he manages to (A) Tell kids it's okay to be nerdy (B)Make literary references that might get kids interested in reading. In this video, he quotes Shakespeare:

Treasure from Manila: Pieces of Me

MANILA -- On the flight to Manila to visit my mother, I read Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (thanks to Daoud for lending it to me), and it was just as dazzling as one critic described it. A blurb from the Observer said:

“Mister Pip is the first of Jones’ six novels to have travelled from his native New Zealand to the UK. It is so hoped that it won’t be the last.”

Discovering that there are more novels by an author you've just fallen in love with is like winning the bonus question in a game show. How wonderful that Lloyd Jones has more treasure for me to uncover ... IF of course UK publishers deign to bring them over.

I went to Bologna last year to attend the SCBWI Conference that precedes the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. I was stunned by the number of book stores, stuffed with books in Italian. Books I will never read unless I find a way to become proficient in the language.

Makes you think, what a disadvantage it is to have just one tongue and access to just one canon of publishing. All those books waiting to be read out there ...

I count myself lucky to have access to an ‘other’ world of books in my native Philippines –although bookselling sensibilities here definitely deserve the description ‘Developing’ in Developing World.

Charging around Manila visiting bookstores, I was at first disheartened by the thick wallpaper of Stephenie Meyer at shop entrances, the thicket of American titles in front and a puny selection of Filipino books hidden away in a corner. At several shops, I was escorted to the Filipino book section by staff who seemed bemused that anyone should be interested in local writing.

But at one book store, I was excited to find Filipino authors mixed in with Western authors, instead of hidden away in a dusty exotic corner. The display tables that other bookstores reserved for Stephenie Meyer and JK Rowling were given over to picture books that starred water buffalos and monkeys instead of fluffy bunnies and red-breasted robins, there were Filipino thrillers and romance novels, and even children’s historical fiction. Bravo, Power Books.

Here is some of the treasure I’ve amassed from trawling the bookstores:

Tiger on the Wall by Annette Flores Garcia, illustrated by Joanne de Leon
The Very Good Carabao by Rosario Calma and illustrated by Liza Flores.

I must have read these books a hundred times to my three year old nephew. These are published by the pioneering children's book publisher Adarna Books (someday I hope to become one of their authors!).

The graphic novel scene in Manila is exciting, with ranks of local graphic novels on display everywhere. I picked Martial Law Babies by Arnold Arre - because I was a child during the Martial Law years in the Philippines.


I was so excited to find young fiction by Carla M. Pacis - a middle grade chapter book Owl Friends that described the friendship between two refugees of the Pinatubo volcanic eruption, a tribal boy and a little girl. Enrique El Negro imagines the story of a Filipino boy named Enrique who is recorded by Pigafetta to have travelled with Magellan as a translator before Magellan's death in the Philippines in 1521.

Owl Friends, Illustrations by Yasmin S. Ong
Enrique El Negro, Illustrations by Mel Silvestre

I also found this beautifully designed book about the use of fruits and vegetables in folk medicine - it will be a treasure trove of research for my novels which always have Philippine folk elements.

Medicinal Fruits and Vegetables
by Jaime Z. Galvez Tan and Rebecca Marana-Galvez Tan

And then there was this fantastic fact book about the Aswang, a Filipino vampire monster - another great character to add to my bestiary. The Aswang Inquiry based on a report by Frank Lynch, retold and illustrated by Gilda Cordero-Fernando, one of my favourite Filipino authors. I also acquired collections of Filipino folk stories and legends, books on superstitions, DVDs of classic Filipino movies - all in the name of research ... and fun.

I stocked up on books by Jose Y Dalisay - a fabulous writer who really ought to be writing more short stories intead of newspaper columns. I am at the moment reading Killing Time in a Warm Place and it's brilliant.


In Mister Pip, a girl in Papua New Guinea is read the story of Pip from Great Expectations by her English school teacher:

Mister Watts had given us another piece of the world. I found I could go back to it as often as I liked. Not that I thought of what we were hearing as a story. No. I was hearing someone give an account of themselves

Bringing these books back from the Philippines is just like bringing back pieces of me that I had left behind long ago.
 
 

Ten simple pleasures on my visit to Manila

MANILA -- On Facebook, I keep getting invitations to create lists – 25 random thoughts, seven things about me, 10 unusual facts I know etc.

Well here’s a list. And all my online friends can breathe a sigh of relief ... I’m not tagging anyone to do the same.

Watching London engulfed in snow on TV, with the electric fan on full blast.


Drops of water on palm leaves after a tropical rainshower.


The Indonesian print on my mother’s pyjamas.


Seeing this lovely painting of Remedios Circle, a place near the flat where I used to live. It’s become quite rundown now, and I’m glad there’s a memory of its better days here.


Going to a good bookstore. Power Books in SM Megamall.


Stumbling upon an empty restaurant with a piano, late at night, while in the company of musician friends


Having my family go bananas playing bananagrams.


Watching my niece play volleyball for my university.


Enjoying the way Filipinos find their use of English so hilarious. Without Further Adieu illustrated by Elbert Or, published by Tahanan Books


... and PURPLE plants!

"I wish ... " video by my baby brother

My baby brother, Armand, who lives in the Philippines, just sent me this video he made using his own art and my daughter's voice:

Suddenly I can see a future full of animated book trailers.

Yikes! I've been tagged!

The rules:

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people and post a comment to Angela's blog once you've posted your three sentences.

I am sitting at the kitchen table in the holiday cottage that I let as part of my non-writing work. The nearest book is GIVE ME SHELTER - stories about children who seek asylum, edited by Tony Bradman. It's either that or the Reader's Digest Illustrated Guide to Gardening.

It's an auspicious choice because I have just heard that my short story has been accepted for a Tony Bradman anthology! Funny that I feel so relieved.

Also, in further shameless advertising, the short story Samir Hakkim's Healthy Eating Diary by my good friend Miriam Halahmy is featured in Give Me Shelter, which has just been shortlisted for the UK Literacy Association Award.

These are sentences 6 - 9 from Cherry Strudel by Leslie Wilson on page 123 of Give Me Shelter:

Old Her Next Door said, "Mrs Asllani, I should have got the whole greenhouse reglazed years ago. With safety glass."

Vjoleta said, "You're only getting the new glass because of Jusuf."

"That's not true," said Old Her Next Door.

Now off to tag five people. Hmm. Angela's already tagged Paolo, so here's my list of taggees:

Sue
Jude
Anita
Candice
Heather