A Singapore Book Launch (and Farewell)

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Me signing books and feeling happy.

Due to rediculous timing, Darcy Moon and the Deep-fried Frogs almost didn’t get an official launch.

The reason for this is simple.

The release of Darcy Moon came within weeks of my family’s move from Singapore to Perth, and in the chaos that accompanies moving countries with two young children, I almost gave up on my life-long dream of throwing a book launch party.

It all seemed like too much to deal with.

But as you can see, common sense took over and I soon realised that I could NOT let a moment like this slip by unnoticed. No matter how much crazy stuff was going on in my life, this was something I had to celebrate. This was the culmination of a childhood dream.

So, with the help of my ever supportive family, we took the plunge and organised a party, which we very cleverly planned to take place ONE DAY before we left the country.

(Please note, life since then has been stupidly busy involving, amongst other things, temporary accommodation, buying a car, opening bank accounts and shopping for winter clothes as well as endless random items such as potato mashers, wind-up crayons and easter eggs – this may go some way to explaining the time gap between the book launch and the BLOG about the book launch … but back to the point.)

Darcy Moon and the Deep-fried Frogs was launched on April 13th, 2014 in the beautiful Blue Room at the Arts House in Singapore.

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Me sharing my story with the crowd.

It was a very special occasion. A chance to celebrate the publication of my first book (I have my fingers crossed there will be more), and also, a chance to say farewell. Farewell to Singapore and the friends I made there.

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A big green deep-fried frog cake!

The Illustrator of the book, Michael Scott Parkinson, couldn’t make it (for geographical reasons), but nonetheless his presence was everywhere and made the day soooooo much more visually appealing!!!

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Sian, Noa and Akira sing for the crowd. Thank you Satsuki Nagatome, Opera Singer and Vocal Trainer, and thank you Suzuki and Jun xx.

I was super nervous about my speech, but everyone was so supportive and looking back on the day, I hope people left with a glimpse into how much writing this book has meant to me, and the emotional road to publication.

Thank you to my husband for taking hardly any photos throughout the event (I forgive him only due to his constant support, encouragement and love over the past decade – lucky escape!).

Thank you also to my daughter and friends for their beautiful singing, and thank you to my son for his delightful impromptu speech.

And a sincere thank you to Sarah Mounsey, for her moral support and heartfelt words on the day, as well as her enduring and much treasured friendship.

Also, thank you to everyone who attended. Your presence meant the world to me.

A week of school talks at AISS.

This week I spent my time at the Australian International School in Singapore giving author talks to the year 3, 4 and 5s.

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The fantastic display by the librarian team. And yes, that is an origami frog on my head.

It was fantastic fun. The kids were enthusiastic, full of questions and it was great to meet so many passionate readers.

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The kids from AIS were thoughtful, imaginative and clever. The majority loved funny stories with conflict, suspense and adventure, while far less were keen on romance.

I owe a HUGE thanks to Jo-Anne Ward and her upper elementary library team. They not only created a wonderful author display, origami frog activities and a never ending stream of colouring-in sheets, but they also organised a fan-froggy-tastic lunchtime celebration and kept 750 kids running to schedule over 5 days, 15 talks and a hopping good lunchtime book launch.

By far, the most popular part of the talks was the character development exercise. We used one of Michael Scott Parkinson’s amazing frog drawings as inspiration and came up with some truly frog-tastical ideas.

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My good friends and fellow authors Sarah Mousey and David Seow were there for moral support and my Singapore distributors Denise and Kelvin from Closetful of Books did an amazing job coordinating the sales.

Here are a few of my favourites.

Hip, the 58 year old street dancer who does beat boxing in his spare time and has a pet gorilla.

Swaggy, the 900 year old model-frog who likes to play it cool and has a pet fish.

Roger Flipperson, the 39 yr old Jumpsuit designer who races F1 cars in his spare time and owns a pet pig named Oinkus Maximus.

Bob Stewy Steve the Jaz teacher who likes to eat donuts.

And …

Smooth, the gangster frog who has a pet tiger and beats people up for fun – yikes!

And after the fun, we all agreed. The best things about being an author is creating interesting characters and making them do funny things – like forget to wear pants!

We also had LOADS of FANTASTIC entries to our very popular colouring-in competition. The artworks are currently being collated and will be judged over the weekend. All the entries are wonderful and I’m not sure how we will pick, but the best 10 entries will be featured here, on the FROG BLOG, Monday 24th March.

And finally, if you live in Singapore and haven’t got a copy of the  book yet, you just need to email Denise at;denise@closetfulofbooks.com