Farewell, Manila: a short video of thanks and discovery

These past few weeks have been quite an adventure. I had 19 speaking engagements over a period of about 10 days. My poor voice is a squeak and I left Manila in an embarrassing hurry, not having done my usual trawl for new Filipino books to take home or even spent enough quality time with my mom. Still, going home is always good for the soul. Till next year.

<< My visit to Sambat Trust school libraries to fulfill pledges to Authors for the Philippines

Visiting Schools for Authors for the Philippines and the Sambat Trust ... and then some

My niece Nicole Q Ramos performing for children at the second of three school libraries we visited. When she finished, there was a burst of applause from the classroom next door! (Apologies for the very poor video. I'd never used the camera before and only belatedly remembered to film. Someone was taking a proper video alongside. Hopefully we can see that footage somewhere else soon)

Today, I fulfilled some of my pledges to donors to Authors for the Philippines. I was supposed to:

• Visit a Sambat Trust School  on behalf of the Siobhan Dowd Trust. 
• Donate a 5 CD set of Tall Story's audio book to a Sambat Trust school on behalf of author Christina Banach
• Donate a hardback copy of Shine to a Sambat Trust school on behalf of Tina Benipayo Andrews.

Here's proof! This is South Central Elementary School in Tanauan, Batangas - the first of three schools we visited. We also visited Ambulong and Hanopal Elementary Schools

Far too early in the morning, I set off with Sambat Trust consultant and school librarian Zarah Gagatiga and my singing niece Nicole Q. My publisher Anvil and mother company National Book Store provided transportation.

My Philippine mothership Anvil Publishing and National Book Store provided transportation to Batangas, about an hour's drive south of Manila. Thank you so much (especially thankful because flash flood traffic meant the return trip took four hours -- it was nice to be safe and comfortable in the Anvil van).

My niece, Nicole Q Ramos, came along to add a little musical sparkle. Nicole sings like an angel - last year she was nominated Best Newcomer at the 2013 Aliw Awards. She also hosts the i-Sport and Home Court segments of PTV4. I taught her everything she knows about singing. And ballet.

Zarah keeps the crowd entertained as extremely tightly wrapped donated books are released to take their place in South Central's new library.

Xi Zuq

Author Xi Zuq aka MJ has been working with schools building their libraries. The librarians and teachers he was working with had no idea that their shy, unassuming Sambat Trust worker was an award-winning children's author!

I grabbed a copy of his latest middle grade novel Supremo, about a boy whose ambition is to become a revolutionary style 'supremo' at his school. Can't wait to read it!

Then it was my turn to speak to the children. And I started sensibly enough ...

 

But unfortunately I quickly lost my dignity. This tends to happen when I'm in the company of children. Siobhan Dowd Trust, this is what you're getting for your money.

Here I am presenting the school with Christina Banach's donation of a 5-CD audio book of Tall Story.

I was worried that they wouldn't have the equipment to play the audiobook, so the night before, I popped over to the shops and got them a CD player and a nice set of headphones. 

... I hope the teachers will feel free to clamp the headphones on and have a listen to Tall Story. The audio book is lovely.

The teachers were delighted when I presented them with brand new copies of Minty courtesy of author Christina Banach who also donated the CD set of Tall Story

Then it was time for Nicole to sing ... and that's when everything went slightly spangly.

Nicole singing A Whole New World with math wiz Fiona.
Everyone loved it!

But it was when Nicole began to sing Let it Go from Frozen ...

... that the kids joined her in song. They knew ALL the lyrics. Even the mumbly ones between the notes.

Afterwards the children came forward with thank you cards and read them out to me. They were directed to Authors for the Philippines donors, the Siobhan Dowd Trust, Christina Banach and Tina Benipayo Andrews.

Obligatory Who's Who shot!

At lunchtime, an autograph seeking queue suddenly formed in front of Nicole's side of the table.

What about me?

Just kidding. I got to sign autographs too. But not as many as Nicole.

Nicole was still signing when it was time for lunch heh heh.

We also visited Ambulong Elementary School and donated a stack of Tall Stories, a couple of Animal Tricksters and a copy of Shine.

Ambulong Elementary's warm greetings for the donors.

We also went to Hanopol Elementary School where the librarians told us about how Typhoon Glenda ripped the roof off their library (one of the few relics of the Marcos era with its militaristic design) and almost carried away all their books. We stocked their shelves with copies of Tall Story and they promised to take us to see the volcano lake behind the school next time we came.

Zarah will definitely be back to train teachers and librarians soon. But I'm going home to England now and it's going to be another year before I'll be visiting libraries with the Sambat Trust again.  I cannot wait. Meanwhile, we think we've won over Nicole to our literacy advocacy. Fingers crossed there will be a lot of singing in Sambat Trust libraries sometime soon!

I suddenly discovered this morning that my flight is today and not tomorrow like I'd been telling everyone. So I'm finishing this blog post off in the departure lounge while texting apologies to all and sundry. Talk about absent minded. Lucky I checked my ticket before going to bed. I've got a short video of Nicole singing in Ambulong but I've got to roll up to the plane now so I'll add it to this blog post when I get to London. Farewell to the Philippines for now. I wish I could stay longer. Lots of love to you all. Mabuhay!

A Serendipitous Story, The School Run to End All School Runs, Come to My Write Away Workshop, and The Shock of the Dilis

SCHOOL RUN | COME TO MY WORKSHOP FOR YOUNG WRITERS | DILIS | BOOK LAUNCH

A SERENDIPITOUS STORY

I was featured on the front page of the Philippine Daily Inquirer yesterday! Find out about my identity crisis here (just in case you are not from the Philippines, the nay in 'Pinay' sounds like 'buy').

Thanks to Ruey for writing such a comprehensive article that had to be continued on two further pages. But no thanks for mentioning my age within the first two sentences! It was also Ruey who gave Shine a very nice review last August.

My mom rang me at my hotel first thing. 'CANDY! You're on the FRONT PAGE of the Inquirer!'

When Ruey interviewed me, he said it might appear on the Culture section of the Inquirer, not on the front page, so this was very exciting indeed.

I was interviewed by Ruel de Vera of the Inquirer. We met at a fascinating restaurant called Ziggurat. The menu was created by Filipino cooks who used to work for the dictator Khadafi. Delicious!

But searching for a copy of the Inquirer in the hotel lobby, I discovered they only stocked the Star.

Then, as I was eating breakfast a pretty smiling woman approached me. 'Don't you recognise me? It's Olga, your classmate!'

OMG. Olga was a childhood playmate. I hadn't seen her for maybe 30 YEARS! Olga then took me to meet her family. I couldn't help but notice that one of them was leafing through the Inquirer. 'This is Renato Reinoso, CEO of the Inquirer,' Olga said.

CEO? Of the Inquirer? Whaaaa????

And yes, they gave me a copy.

THE SCHOOL RUN TO END ALL SCHOOL RUNS

Last week, I was in Hong Kong and visited Bradbury and Glenealy schools. I was supposed to visit Peak School as well but sadly that chance was blown away by Typhoon Kalmaegi.

With children at Bradbury School. Photo by Mio Debnam

In Glenealy's beautiful school library. Photo by Mio Debnam

This coming week, I'll be visiting:

Beacon Academy (Laguna)
Xavier Nuvali
Alpha Angelicum Academy
Poveda
Ateneo de Manila
Beacon Academy (Makati)
Colegio de San Agustin
University of the East
Miriam College
St Theresa's College (my alma mater!)
(With two more schools the week after -- view the schedule)

Whew!

I will be telling the young people from these schools about my long journey to becoming an author. It's definitely gonna be fun, it's probably gonna be tiring ... I just hope it won't be FATTENING as well.

Filipino hospitality is so unstinting I usually find myself offered tasty treats at every single stop of a Filipino book tour.

Sadly, I am usually far too polite (and greedy) to refuse. Alas, poor waistline. I knew her well.

WORKSHOP ALERT! ASPIRING YOUNG WRITERS, THIS IS FOR YOU

On Saturday morning (27 September), I'll be running a Write Away workshop.

Write Away writing weekends are open to young people 7 to 17 years old. The current programme offers opportunities to interact and write with a published author  -- and this Saturday, it's gonna be me!

The Saturday workshops are run by Where the Write Things Are, a centre for lovers of writing of all ages. The centre is the brainchild of Neni Sta Romana Cruz, author of some of my favourite Filipino children's books and a fellow journalist from the Marcos era.

What am I going to do? Well, I don't want to spoil the surprise but there are going to be lots of chances to write and draw and show off your work.

Contact 0917-6240196 or writethingsph@gmail.com for more info. ASAP! It's this coming Saturday and places are limited!

THE SHOCK OF THE DILIS 

During the Manila International Book Fair, my friend Blooey took me to an ice cream parlour where we had this:

Yes, that is fish. Dried anchovy. We call it dilis.

What was it like? It was like Caramel Salt ice cream, except instead of salt, you have crispy bits of dried fish, and instead of caramel, your ice cream is made of chocolate sticky rice porridge.

Was it good? Ye-es, but I think if you're not from the Philippines, it might be a taste that needs a bit of acquiring!

... AND FINALLY

It's just five more days till the launch of Shine, Philippine edition. Are you coming?

< Diaries of Definitely UN-Wimpy Kids

Shine is Launching in the Philippines

ABOUT THE COVER   |  YOU'RE INVITED TO THE LAUNCH  |   SCHEDULE OF EVENTS IN HK & MANILA

I give you, SHINE, the Philippine edition!

FIRST REVIEW

Shine's already had its first review in the Philippine papers - thanks to Ruel de Vera for liking it! 

Thanks to my classmate, Carmen Montano for sending me this photo.
You can also read the review online

COVER REVEALED

I'm extra proud of Shine's cover because the artwork was created by one of my best buddies from university, Ricky Villabona. Here is what Ricky looked like when he was a baby.

Ricky is on the right.

As teenagers working as 'gophers' for the American network
news during the turbulent events that led up to a revolution
in 1986 Philippines 

Ricky and I were teenagers together, Communication Arts majors at university (Communication Arts would be the equivalent of Media Studies, I guess). We worked together on many student film and TV projects. One of our short films even placed fourth at the Experimental Cinema of the Philippines Competition!

When we graduated, I went off to become a journalist and Ricky became a fashion photographer and then a director of TV commercials like this one:


Today, Ricky is an artist and thanks to Facebook, we're still great friends -- I can ask him to make art for my cover and he doesn't get upset when I post his baby picture on my blog.

Ricky V

BOOK LAUNCH

So if you haven't unfriended me yet on Facebook, you should have seen this invite:

I couldn't resist Photoshopping this cover from a 1930s Liwayway magazine. The translation: Candy - "Come to the launch of my new book!"  Boy - "As long as I don't have to make a book report."

So ... are you coming?

HERE'S MY SCHEDULE

13 Sept Saturday Afternoon HK	SCBWI Hong Kong	Part One - A Writer is Just a Rabbit Staring at Rabbit Holes. Writers are like rabbits staring at rabbit holes that represent character, story and setting. We must dive in, go as far as we can go, in order for our stories to reveal themselves. Candy will talk about how there are no half measures in unfolding a story and how we are all better authors for the journey we have to take. Part Two - If Everyone's Now Got a Platform, How are You Going to Stand Out? We are all wise to the internet now, all tweeting, blogging, Facebooking. But is anybody listening? Candy Gourlay was an early adopter of the Internet, blogging before Blogger was invented, learning web design before content management systems became ubiquitous, and trying out every new thing that came along from MySpace to Tumblr. She will be discussing the author's biggest challenge: being discovered by readers. There will be tips and tricks and strategies. But be warned. Ultimately, it will be about writing a good book.
15 Sept Monday Morning HK 8.35 am	Bradbury School	School Visit
15 Sept Monday Afternoon HK 12 pm	Glenealy School	School Visit
16 Sept Tuesday HK 8.30 am	Peak School	School Visit
20 Sept Saturday Pasay City 8 am	Manila International Book Fair - Mall of Asia: Meeting Room 8, SMX Convention Centre	Why I Write for Young Readers. I will be speaking to an audience of educators - librarians and teachers who are already at the frontline of the reading battle. They already know the value of fostering a love of reading in their students. I will argue that that is not enough. Our educators must not only seek to create readers, they must also empower their pupils to become writers.
22 Sept Monday Biñan, Laguna 8 am	The Beacon Academy	School visit
22 Sept Monday Calamba, Laguna 12pm	Xavier Nuvali	School visit
22 Sep Monday Biñan, Laguna 2 pm	Alpha Angelicum Academy	School Visit
23 Sept Tuesday Mandaluyong 1 pm	Poveda	School Visit
23 Sept Tuesday Quezon City 1 pm	Ateneo de Manila	School Visit
24 Sept Wednesday Makati 11am	The Beacon Academy	School Visit
25 Sept Thursday Makati 8 am	Colegio de San Agustin	School Visit
25 Sept Thursday Sampaloc 2 pm	University of the East	Lecture
26 Sept Friday Quezon City 8 am	Miriam College	School Visit
26 Sept Friday Quezon City 3.30 pm	St Theresa's College	School Visit - my alma mater!
27 Sept Saturday Makati 9.30 am to 1.30 pm	Write Away Event (Where the Write Things Are, )	Workshop
27 Sept Saturday Makati 4 pm	National Book Store, Glorietta I	SHINE BOOK LAUNCH and signing. Yehey!
1 October Wednesday Tanauan, Batangas	Ambulong Elementary School and Janopol Elementary School	I will be fulfilling pledges I made to the Authors for the Philippines auction, delivering signed copies of my books, one CD set of Tall Story, and a school visit care of the Sambat Trust. I will also be opening one of the Sambat Trust's school libraries!

... and now some brazen promotion for my favourite charity:

Your old car can pay for someone's education.