Most book launches involve author introductions, conversations, a reading or two, before concluding with either a signing or a Question & Answer (Q&A) session. In all honesty, you’d be hard-pressed to find any of these aspects in a Global Beards launch. The crowd at BooksActually was small but select – there and ready to fully-engage in whatever activities the duo had planned for everyone. There was laughter, mottos, taglines, and hilariously awkward “words from our sponsors” peppered through the session. And in between those activities, a launch did happen – when Global Beards got us to create a new Yellow Princess comic with them. So three characters, three cats, three panels, and countless puns and chants later, a new three-panel comic emerged from the depths of the bookstore. You may be able to see their final panel during your next trip to BooksActually =).
Global Beards is writer-artist duo Wayne Ree and Gene Whitlock. Commonly known as the creators of the Yellow Princess comic, they create comics to promote the fun in storytelling. Find out more about them and their works here.
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In conjunction with the Imaginarium exhibition, Epigram Books and SAM@8Q gathered a bunch of us kids (Sarah and I included. LOL.) for the launch of a new series by Peter Tan (a.k.a. Tan Tarn How) – the Sengkang Snoopers. Going on what seemed to be a fun-filled outing to Pulau Ubin, friends Zizi, Bus, SuLin, and her younger brother SuYang stumble upon an operation that may turn their adventure into something more sinister. This middle grade series by Peter Tan (more popularly known as Tan Tarn How) brings these kids on a journey of fun, adventure, and growing up – think Bookworm Club meets Legends of the Hidden Temple, somewhat. The launch started with a game for the kids present to get to know each other and win a few prizes - an opportunity which presented itself repeatedly through the event. In between games, Peter Tan also indulged all of us with a couple of readings. It was a great tactic to keep the kids a glimpse into the world of the Snoopers. They closed the event with a lucky draw, where Sarah and I (Thanks, Sarah Luck) won one of the copies of Sengkang Snoopers up for grabs. It’s now with Sarah so I’m looking forward to having this exciting read soon. Overall, it was a different kind of book launch – one which we thought engaged its audience well and definitely brought in a good lot of excitement. There was a tremendous amount of energy in that room and the hosts, together with Uncle Peter, did well to manage the whole event. Many thanks to Epigram for the invite, and SAM@8Q for hosting the event. Sengkang Snoopers: The Mystery of the Hermit’s Hut (Book 1) was written by Peter Tan, illustrated by Billy Yong, and published by Epigram Books. To find out more about the book, click here. I didn’t get the chance to play through this year’s International Tabletop Day thanks to #nippleSG (look it up on Twitter, you won’t be disappointed). Instead, I’m going to celebrate this year’s belated International Tabletop Day by listing the five best board games I’ve played since last International Tabletop Day. In no order of preference: Five Tribes I always thought Five Tribes was a complicated game with too many mechanics and rules to keep in mind. My friend, Eisu, and Tabletop proved me wrong. Five Tribes is a worker placement, German-style board game with a Mancala (or for us in Southeast Asia, Congkok) mechanic. The Sultan in the land of Five Tribes has passed away and it’s up to us to decide who the new ruler should be. One of the best features of this game is how it requires you to shift your strategy according to how the table is set – the setup is different and each worker meeple has a different placement with each game. So wanting to collect the most unique resources in one game may not be as viable as collecting Djinnis in the next. Five Tribes is designed by Bruno Cathala and published by Days of Wonder. To find out more, click here. (Note: Whims of the Sultan, its latest expansion, should be out. I’m going to be staying tune for more news!) Dead of Winter: The Long Night This game was especially fun for two reasons:
Dead of Winter is one of my favourite board games, but when Dave told us that he got the expansion – The Long Night – I knew we had to play it. Playable on its own or with the original base set, The Long Night brings in two different storylines which fully embrace the circumstances of the board game as compared to the main game. While the previous games perhaps had missions that counted at the start and the end of the game, The Long Night introduces different missions as the days and stages pass. We played the Raxxon storyline, or what Dave called the ‘Resident Evil’ equivalent. While we did really well on the crisis missions and first two stages (We had a peak morale of 8!), the luck of the draw for the final, special edition zombies did us in. And I won. Dead of Winter: The Long Night is designed by Jon Gilmour and Isaac Vega and published by Plaid Hat Games. Find out more about it here. (Note: Perhaps the designers and publishers were in a rush to release the game, but there are a few typos in the cards (especially the Crossroads cards)) Splendor One of the quietest games I’ve played, especially when you head towards the end. Splendor is a resource management and matching game where you try to become the wealthiest noble in the kingdom. With limited resources, be the first one to reach 15 wealth among your friends. Watch out though – you’d think that you’ll be able to math your way to success, until you realize that your starting chips are literally limited in number. Splendor is designed by Marc André and published by Space Cowboys. To find out more, click here. Quadropolis I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again – Days of Wonder makes games that soothes the organizer in everyone. As architects and engineers, we’re supposed to purchase different buildings and areas (in the form of tiles) to make the most sustainable, livable city – and gain the most points. Each building tile we use to construct our cities produce certain resources, which need to be made use of properly or result in your city producing excessive waste. Apartments provide manpower, parks clear up industrial waste, ports generate both energy and manpower but are only worth points if you play them in a row, you’ll get the gist. On top of that, certain tiles can only be obtained with certain player tokens and later placed on certain areas of your player mat. It was a new find for Dave, the Tiger, and myself. Quick to pick up and play, the game is bright, intriguing, and fast-paced enough so that there’s no extended downtime in between player turns. Quadropolis is designed by François Gandon and published by Days of Wonder. To find out more, click here. Limpeh Says Need I say more? We first heard of Limpeh Says towards the end of last year, when they launched the Kickstarter to this Singaporean take on Cards Against Humanity. While the latter brought about the most inappropriate answers to the most ‘innocent’ questions, Limpeh Says takes that a level higher with context-heavy insinuations and countless inside jokes. I bought a custom package, which gave me the opportunity to have my own inside jokes included with my basic deck… so “Sarah, No.” has become an answer card our friends look forward to receiving (and using). Limpeh Says was created by Tan Yong Heng and Gabriel Leow. To find out more about the game, click here. ### And that’s it for this year. I’m looking forward to more games coming my way this year, be it through my friends or Geek & Sundry. I hope all of you have enjoyed this year’s International Tabletop Day and we’ll see you next year!
P/S – While we wait for Titansgrave Season 2 and Tabletop Season 4 to slowly upload on YouTube, do check out the new Geek & Sundry series, ‘Escape’! It’s definitely becoming one of my staples. For board gamers and analog RPG players alike, gear up! Since Geek & Sundry started Tabletop, International Tabletop Day emerged among events and game shops around the world. I’ve been fortunate enough to attend the Tabletop Days from 2014 onwards. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to be as active this year since we’ll be having our annual gang barbecue. Regardless, mark the date on your calendars: INTERNATIONAL TABLETOP DAY 2017 – APRIL 29TH What games are you intending to bring out? Leave them in the comments!
For more information on International Tabletop Day, click here. Hello from April! And that’s a quarter of a year gone for 2017. The economy’s spiralling, weather’s getting warmer, workload’s piling, and we’re all still here. Speaking of “we”, I’m excited to announce… THE ROLLING RONINS. We made our debut event appearance as a sales booth at the #BuySingLit Festival towards the end of February (Thanks Kenny!), but have stayed low in preparation for many other things we have lined up for this year.
During #BuySingLit, many came up to our booths, asking if we were publishers, self-publishers, or an agency. Here’s what we are… The Rolling Ronins is a collective focussed on the production and promotion of entertaining stories, and the education of budding storytellers, across various mediums, and from the APAC region. We include:
You can find out more about what we’re doing, what we’re reading / drawing / writing, and which events we’ll be at on our Facebook page. See you there! Together with the pioneer Pulp Toast core, I was invited to speak at the All In! Young Writers’ Festival over the weekend. While the event was held at National Library Victoria last year, the Book Council (its main organizer) moved the event to a larger location for this year – TreeTop @ SCAPE. Our first panel was Snackable Fiction, with myself, Mickey, Naoko, and Valerie speaking, and Ganaesh both speaking and moderating. We spoke about “snackable” fiction, a term which came out while we were working on Pulp Toast, together with our work processes, and tips on submitting work. Despite it being the first panel of the day (at least for our location), we were pleasantly surprised and incredibly grateful for the full house we were presented with. The Question & Answer (Q & A) session was pretty insightful as well, with really good questions about:
After our panel together, all of us split up to moderate various panels – Valerie moderated a panel about constructing great short stories. Naoko introduced a couple of communication / content managers. And Ganaesh hosted a panel of five writers from around ASEAN. Mickey and I then rounded up everyone's panels with a workshop on Speculative Fiction and the technique we learnt during our time with the Mentor Access Project. I'll be blogging about the technique, named 'Workshopping', in a post coming later this week. In summary, Mickey and I spoke about the fundamentals of speculative fiction, its current growth in the region, and avenues to submit stories. What I really appreciated was how we got the participants to write their own stories, with a few volunteers going home with feedback. Again, we had pretty insightful questions. The one which made me revisit my role as a writer was this:
The obvious answer would be to say "No". Yet, I do find me asking myself the same question as I write my next story. Regardless, a big thank you to Carlo and the Book Council for inviting all of us as speakers for All In! Young Writers Festival. For more information on All In! Young Writers Festival, click here. There was a place in the Gillman Barracks where the publishers and creators gathered – a single building where stories were told and celebrated. Two weekends ago, our indie collaborative, the Rolling Ronins, were invited to booth at the Buy SingLit Festival held at the Gillman Barracks. Due to Gillman Barracks’s location, crowd was sparse until after 1:30PM for both days, half an hour before the panels and discussions for both days started. Regardless, I’d say that the Buy SingLit Festival this year was defined by two main factors: the people and the panels. The People Events are not events without the people. We had Alam Cahaya (a publisher, distributor, and resource hub for Malay language books – fiction and educational) on our left and SingLit Station (a non-profit organization pushing Singapore Literature) on our right. Other publishers and distributors exhibiting and selling included:
Note: Sorry if I’ve missed out other publishers! Drop me a comment if I missed out another booth / publisher at Buy SingLit Festival 2017 so that I can update this post as we go along. The exhibitors and publishers aside, we met a lot of interesting participants as well – fellow writers, independent storytellers, or readers who were looking for a fun story to experience. Last, but certainly not least, this event would not be possible without the support from the organizers, especially Kenny and his volunteers who were running around, making sure that the booths were fine, the AV was working well, and that the place exuded SingLit. The Panels I am incredibly grateful to these panels. Not only did they bring new insights among the usual discussions, but they brought in a greater diversity of people to the event. Apart from panels speaking about SingLit and its comparison against International Lit, and its future, there were readings, performances, and interview panels with local writers and publishers.
One of the panels which struck me were The Future of SingLit - where we heard the perspectives from different sides of the argument: That SingLit was diminishing vs. That SingLit was changing. True, the SingLit community still seems to be getting increasingly insular. However, it’ll do us good to not confine our definition of SingLit to just works that traditional publishers produce. These panels weren’t just a draw for the crowd, they brought refreshed hope that there will be people pushing for local literature and fiction to reach new heights. The Buy SingLit Festival is an industry-led movement to raise awareness to local books and to encourage people to buy local fiction. To find out more, click here. And there goes February! It’s both exciting and scary how the quarters creep up on you, especially when March is going to be pumped full of activities. Firstly, the Tiger, Lyn, and I will be headed for a short trip over the school holidays, so stay tuned for a short post after. Regardless, I’ll be going for All In! Young Writers Festival 2017 before we take our trip. All In! Young Writers Festival 2017
Dates: 10 – 12 March 2017 Location: SCAPE Thanks to Carlo and the Book Council team behind All In!, the Pulp Toast Core will be speaking at a panel, with Mickey and myself giving a workshop. So if you’re interested in snackable, speculative fiction, do come down and say hi to us: Panel: “Snackable” Fiction: Creating and Submitting Bite-Sized Stories Date: 11 March 2017 Time: 10AM to 11AM Location: Arena Ganaesh will be moderating us as we speak about how Pulp Toast came about and some pointers on submitting pieces to anthologies or magazines. Workshop: Speculative Fiction 101 Date: 11 March 2017 Time: 3:10PM to 6PM Location: Treetop A/B This will be Mickey and I speaking about the Workshopping technique, something we learnt from Miguel Syjuco during our time at the Mentor Access Project retreat. All In! Young Writers Festival is organised by the Book Council. To find out more about this event, click here. The end of February brings many interesting events, not least with #BuySingLit and NOISE Singapore. My picks? They have to be these two events: #1: Draw ‘em, Print ‘em, Sell ‘em If you’re a storyteller (particularly in comics and illustration) stumbling with the process of inspiration to audience, head down to LASALLE College of the Arts on 25th February (this Saturday!) to hear how other independent artists Draw ‘em, Print ‘em, and Sell ‘em. Broaden your horizons with other avenues to bring your work to your target audience – and bring down your portfolio if you want a taste of how other artists view your works. Draw ‘em, Print ‘em, Sell ‘em is a panel organised by OIC and NOISE Singapore. It will be held at LASALLE College of the Arts, 25th Feb, and registration opens 10:45AM. Entrance fees are $10 (Lecture only) or $15 (Lecture + Portfolio Review). You can find out more (and book your tickets) here. #2: Buy SingLit Festival From the folks who brought you BooksActually and the Singapore Art Book Fair, the Buy SingLit Festival 2017 will showcase works by Singaporean authors, published by Singaporean publishers, and everything else in between. If you’re wondering about the cheesed-off, egg-like mascot at the top – it’s only because the amazing folks at BooksActually have offered us a spot during the festival. And we, a new collab known as the Rolling Ronins, will be at the Gillman Barracks on the 25th to 26th of February. Our booth will feature works by Jerry Teo (Rex Regrets), Benjamin Chee (Charsiew Space), Wayne Rée (Global Beards), Max Loh (Paper Peril), Joelyn Alexandra (Pulp Toast / Roti Bakar), and Annabella Goh (Annuendo). Do come down to say hi! Doors to the SingLit Festival will open at 10:00AM, 25th Feb. Catch you at 7 Lock Road, Gillman Barracks! For more information on Buy SingLit, click here. I’ll be at the Buy SingLit Festival on both days – so I’ll see all of you there! How many people does it take to hang a painting? We answered that during a ‘Behind-The-Scenes’ Conservator’s tour with the National Gallery of Singapore in conjunction with Singapore Art Week. Valerie managed to snag some spots for the both of us and I was really excited to see what was in store for us. Note: Due to the sensitive nature of their work, no photography was allowed throughout the whole tour. Shortly after gathering, our guide briefed that the tour was designed to track the journey from the container (maybe a little earlier) to the gallery. And while we expected the tour to start from the gallery itself, we found ourselves weaving through the back lanes before going through the entrance of the conservators’ work space. Museums are built for many purposes – education and knowledge, research, archival, and as a physical space to store and preserve artefacts from our past. And while people who buy and display art in their homes look to have them last decades, museums and conservation centres work to have them last centuries. While we went through the different storage and conservation rooms, a few major points were brought up. Types of Conservation Fundamentally, there are two kinds of conservation used in the industry – Interventive and Preventive. Both terms are true to their names: Preventive Conservation: Many museums and galleries are engaging in this practice now in an attempt to prolong pieces and artefacts in their most original form for as long as possible. Interventive Conservation: This is the kind of conservation we see in documentaries and can picture in our heads – this is where conservators touch up paintings and restore sculptures as they see fit. One of the stories they spoke about during the tour was how this silk-backed painting had its silk back highly damaged. After much discussion and a decision, the senior conservator proceeded to slice off the paint (the painting itself) off the silk before quickly transferring it onto a new piece of silk. O.O Conservation Pointers & Necessities Conservation is highly dependent on its surroundings and environment. Factors like humidity, temperature, and lighting can affect artwork over time. An interesting note we got was the reason behind the dim lights or the banning of flash photography in exhibitions: There are many things the conservators can fix and do to attempt preventive conservation. However, constant photography flashes and beams will cause painting colours to fade – first slowly, gradually (where we cannot see the difference), then with extreme rapidity (all at once). This is also the reason why many museums (especially places with older works) tend to be dim and cold – for preservation. Challenges Faced By Our Conservators The usual suspects come to play – pests (they have traps everywhere), organic oils (people touching or trying to touch exhibits), flash photography. What had our eyebrows lifted in pleasant surprise were the physical and environmental challenges the gallery and the team has come to learn. One example was the challenge of transporting artwork into an area which was not designed or built to receive large vehicles and fragile materials on a regular basis. To respond to that, the gallery architect suggested a first – the first truck lift in Singapore. And that was the gist of our ‘Behind-The-Scenes’ tour with the National Gallery of Singapore and the Singapore Art Week. It was interesting, insightful, and I believe this was probably just a scrape of varnish on an aged painting. Regardless, we had fun and Val got quite a few tips on preserving some of the street art she got overseas. So the answer we got to the first question? 10 – the curator, the conservators, the lighting technicians, the archivist, and many other technicians needed to ensure that the painting is up safely. The National Gallery of Singapore is located at 1 St. Andrew’s Road, #01-01, Singapore 178957. You can find out more about them here. You can also find out more about Singapore Art Week and their programmes here. |
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