SCBWI Booktalk/Critique : 2007 June 11

A hen party - this if often what a SCBWI Booktalk reminds me off, and the last one held last June 11 was no exception.

As has happened many times before. all the people who attened were women. We came, we got down to the all important schmoozing and when we were certain that no one else would arrive, we started the serious business of the Booktalk. Of course, by the time this happened, we were all quite friendly with each other. This is the power of chit chat.

I started the talk with MVP, a book illustrated by John Shelley and written by Douglas Evans. After introducing myself (Nikki Garde-Torres, writer, ARA), I told everyone how John Shelly had gifted me with this book right after the wonderful workshop he conducted for us last May. He had actually given me a choice of books and I chose the one which I felt my twelve year old daughter would enjoy reading. MVP, which stands for Magellan Voyage Project is the story of a twelve year old boy who joins in a competition to circumnavigate the globe in 40 years. It follows him though the trials of travel. In the end, winning ceases to be the major goal, rather, finishing the race is an act of triumph in itself. The illustrations were in black and white and were quite whimsical, they truly enhanced the story. All of use agreed though, that the title was rather boring and made it sould like a book about sports. We felt that Magellan Voyage Project would have been a much better title.

Gina Lopez followed. She is a dentist turned chef and caterer and one of the three ladies present who were taking part in a Creative Writing class taught by Barbara Gonzalez. Her book was Lin Acasio-Flores' The Quarelling Kites. It told the tale of the relationship between fathers and sons through inanimate objects - kites. She loved the illustrations which were actually paintings done by Hermes Allegre. For Gina the story was a bonus because the illustrations were just so beautiful.

At this point Beaulah mentioned that some people think the kites in the story alluded to homosexuality - something that most of us found shocking. Beaulah said it may not be true at all in this case, but the point is, a book is never finished until it's read. The reader "finishes" the book and "finishes" the story. Because each reader is unique, the book is a unique experience with each reader, and even with each time the same reader reads the same book.

The next person who spoke was Len Manuel. She is 57 years old, has three chidlren, and has just finished a certificate course in early childhood development. She was also in the creative writing class as Gina. The book she shared was "One Foot, Now the Other" by Tomie de Paola. It dealt with a granchild and his relationship with his grandfather who had recently suffered a stroke. Len was surprised that it was possible to have a children's book on this topic. She was even more surprised at how well it was written and illustrated. Beaulah mentioned, not for the first time, that Tomie de Paula is a SCBWI board member and that he started his career as a liturgical illustrator.

We had two "Vivian"s that night. Our first Vivian, Vian Hermo spoke next. A long time staff member of the Westin Philippine Plaza, she has just recently liberated herself from work and is now part of the trio who were taking the same creative writing workshop. Unfortunately, she did not bring a book that evening but she promised to bring one the next time. We will hold you to that promise Vivian!

The other "Vivian" was next. Her name is Vivienne Magalindal, and she is a multi-linguial storyteller. Her story was "The Dragon Who Couldn't Breathe Fire", a book that is part of a Time-Life series on values. In this case, the story dealt with the beauty of being different. Vivienne has a soft spot for this topic, especially because she is a member of the ADHD Society and is a high-functioning person with ADHD herself. For Vivienne, being different is what makes us the same. She loves the clean lines of the illustrations which she said are in direct contrast to the drawings in some Pinoy cartoons. The illustrations are indeed well done, with colors which normally one would not think of for children. Like grey, for example. It was a pity that as part of a packaged series, the author and illustrator are not acknowledged on the book cover.

Next was our friend from the Manila Women's Forum (MWF), Marianne Stanley. She was also an attendee of the John Shelley illustrators workshop that we hosted last May 26. Originally from New Zealand, Marianne has been in the Philippines for four years now and teaches in various International Schools. The book she brought was "The Sign of the Seahorse", written and illustrated by Greame Base. I was sitting right beside Marianne and I must say that the illustrations for the book are fabulous - topped only, for me, by the beautiful, beautiful poetry in which the story is writtem. The entire thing is in verse and it is lovely. If I had been given a choice on which book brought there that evening I would borrow - it would have been this one. I can spend the entire night just reading it out loud.

Finally, it was Beaulah Taguiwalo's turn. Being an illustrator herself, she chose a book illustrated by John Shelley, but written in Japanese. The book was also given to her by John, and also discussed by him in his Powepoint presentation about his works. Beaulah noted that just as John said in the workshop, many of his illustrations are drawn from what he has experienced in his life and seen in his travels. A tree in a forest in England, for example, or his fellow students at his dorm. She related how John, who had stayed in Japan for 20 years, was proudly not of the Manga school of drawing. Rather, he has retained his very detailed, very British style. Beaulah that it is very apparent, John is highly skilled at freehand drawing. It is something that Beaulah said she'd naturally note, as she herself has a great love for illustrating too. For her, being awake means she is either reading or drawing. It's easy and it's fun for her, she says, so she believes that is what she is meant to do.

True to our commitment, we proceeded to the critiquing portion of the evening. Everyone was first reminded of some ground rules, and then we turned our attention to a manuscript that was presented that evening. It was a story in progress, written by Gina. We told her what we liked about her story, and also what we felt could be improved. In the end, we all agreed that she already had what was the most imporant - a very compelling story. Gina took all our comments well, which she wrote down in her notebook/journal - something that the rest of the people around the table apparently have with them too, most of the time. For Gina, her notebook/journal is where her thoughts, future stores, and perhaps even a recipe or two resided. Congratulations to you, Gina, for having the courage to share your work. We look forward to seeing you and your story in our future meetings, and we look forward to eventually seeing it in print!

We still had one manuscript to discuss, sent by Chiles Samaniego. But since we were running out of time, we decided to save it for the future. Thus ended another enjoyable SCBWI meeting - a Booktalk and Manuscript Critique combined. See you next second Monday next month, July 9!

Dominique Garde Torres
ARA, SCBWI Philasia

Joy Flies in the Philippines - a writing workshop

By Dominique Garde Torres (Nikki)

Here I am, doting mother to a budding writer on one hand, hardworking SCBWI volunteer and ARA on the other hand. That being my life, I had to stay home last weekend because of the illness known as a domestic crisis. In my case, let me just say that I needed to closely review how my house helper is doing and maybe micro-manage things for a day or two. I discovered a few things, and I will not go into details, but you can only imagine the rest of the drama.

In any case, it was rather frustrating to be home, training a new maid on the how and when I want my clothes washed and receiving multiple messages from Beaulah about how the population for our forthcoming workshop has grown. Amazing, but they're signing up in clusters! And it's only September! I bet October will bring in even more, and so will November - even up to the last few days before final cutoff. That, we know by experience.

The workshop that I speak of is, of course, "Joy Flies in the Philippines!" a writing workshop with Alice Mclerran. Alice wrote, among others, The Mountain That Loved a Bird, Roxaboxen, The Year of the Ranch and the twin books, Hugs and Kisses. At this workshop, Alice will first speak about herself as writer, will move on to the writing process and finally, a good two hours will be spent talking about the works - and works in progress - of the workshop participants!

Finally, at the end, Alice and my SCBWI partner Beaulah will speak of how the idea of Philippine editions of The Mountain That Loved a Bird came into fruition.

Wheww! Quite a lot for a single day. November 11 - this is the day all this happens. This is also the day I finally take my courage in my hands and submit a work for critiquing. There: I've said it in what is a very public blog. No backing out for me now.

For this and many other reasons, I am very, very excited about the writing workshop. The other reasons being that I was in on it from the start of planning onwards. It can get very, very frustrating to miss even one day of working towards the goal of making sure that all is well.

But, as Beaulah says, the Chinese character for crisis is the same as the character for opportunity. On the day I had to stay home to attend to domestic matters, my 11 year old daughter decided to take her courage into her own hands and write her very first poem. With the confidence of the young, she took this poem and showed it to me. Call me a doting mother, but I think the poem was wonderful. I am so very, very proud of her and staying home - while unfortunately missing the registration of a cluster of our workshop attendees - became much, much more than worth it. I will never again be silly enough to regret spending a day at home.

What could possibly warm a mother's heart more than reading her child's words? And what better motivation for a mother to attend SCBWI activities and to tend to her own writing, than the courage of her child to put her thoughts on paper? It was a better than excellent young adult's book that inspired my baby to write this. Working with people who produce such beauty, giving birth to more and more words is beyond enjoyable now.

Before a turn into a maudlin, doting mother, let me invite all of you to attend "Joy Flies in the Philippines!" Slots are still available.

The registration fee is P1,750 if paid by October 16, or P2000 if paid by November 3. There's a P200 discount as well for current SCBWI members. Either mail a crossed check payable to Beaulah P. Taguiwalo at No. 21 Everlasting Road, Pilar Village, Las Pinas 1750 MM or pay to me, Nikki, or to Beaulah anytime from 4 to 8 pm, every monday at Figaro, 3rd level Greenbelt 3, Makati. Just lets us know! E-mail me at nikkigarde@yahoo.com or Beaulah at beaulah.taguiwalo@yahoo.com or call me at 0917-6671267 or Beaulah at 0917-787-4956.

Joy Flies in the Philippines! A writing workshop by Alice McLerran
<<http://kidbooksasia.wordpress.com/2006/08/18/joy-flies-in-the-philippines/>>

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Touring with Chris
5th of 5 Installments

By Dominique Garde Torres (Nikki)

Author's Note: These are my personal impressions about the writing seminar with Chris Eboch, which was sponsored by the Philippine chapter of the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI) in Manila on July 15 and 16, 2006. Chris is the Regional Advisor for SCBWI New Mexico, and the author several of books including The Well of Sacrifice, a young adult historical fiction set in 9th century Guatemala. - Dominique Garde Torres (Nikki)

Many eons ago, I was a fit person. I would jog at least four kilometers daily and took my karate so seriously that I would occassionally have to wear pants and long sleeves to work to hide the bruises.

That was eleven years and twenty pounds ago.

When I learned that our guest Chris wanted to get to know the Philippines beyond the four walls of her designated classroom, I pitched in eagerly with suggestions about her itinerary. With courage, we proposed trips from North to South, our only condition being that the areas be within three hours of Manila. It may sound nasty but we didn't want to send Chris out of Luzon in the middle of the typhoon season. We we were afraid that storms might ground some flights and that she would not make it back for the all important workshop!

Anyway, I suspect with all our suggestions, poor old Chris just decided to sit back and see where her crazy hosts would take her.

Tagaytay

On Tuesday, the 11th, I picked her up bright and early - we were going to Tagaytay to see a volcano. Off we went. The first mini-adventure was our search for a place to eat breakfast. I wanted, I really wanted to introduce the woman to the joys of a heavy Filipino breakfast. Alas, the only place open was MacDonald's. Silly, really silly. An American travels thousands of miles to a tropical country to be fed MacDonald's food!

Anyway, as we were eating, our driver Cilet who is also my friend was negotiating with a couple of men about the rest of our day. As we exited the restaurant - everything was set. For a fee (sounded like a lot in pesos, tiny in dollars), we would take a banca (native boat) to the volcanic island, bring a picnic lunch and have the joy of climbing up the mountain to the lip of the crater.

And so we did. We climbed onto the banca and endured a very wet ten minute trip to the island. With us were our packs (I was protecting mine since I had in it my SCBWI files - I thought I could read them on the volcano's crater) and the huge, very nicely packed picnic basket. The water was choppy and there was a very slight drizzle. A minute or so away from the isle, we started smelling the place. It smelled of horse dung. Very distinctly so. I learned later that there were 900 horses on the island, kept there for tourists who wanted an easier way up the volcano. We started our trek, refusing all offers of guidance. After all, turn left and you fall into a ravine. Turn right and you slip down a cliff.

The path was muddy in parts, rocky in others. We were surounded by the forest with all its sights, sounds and smells. It was green, very green, with plenty of lush foliage. As Chris was walking and I was crawling up the path, we would pause every once in a while to take it all in (and in my case, catch my breath). Finally, four kilometers later, we reached the top and it was well worth the climb. It really was.

We looked straight down into the crater of the volcano. It looked like a lake, not anyone's image of a crater. No craggy rocks, no lava, nothing. But the water was clearly smoking, and it was surrounded by more foliage and little pockets on the ground that also spewed smoke.

Here we sat and enjoyed our picnic basket. They had packed it with china dishes, complete sets of utensils, serving dishes, serving spoons and even sauce! As we sat there, a new group of tourists arrived. They were Taiwanese or Korean, I think. The women were in very impractical heels and sandals, and unlike us, they had spent on horses rental.

Going down, there was a bit more traffic. I do not exaggerate when I say there were easily a hundred horses going up and down the mountain. Poor pedestrians that we were, we had to move to the side of the path to let the horses go first.

The trip back across the lake was much, much wetter than before. The banca was literally bouncing on the water and both rain and lake water splashed us everywhere. It was exhilarating.

From Taal, we went on a rather long road trip to nowhere in particular and ended up in the Mabini shrine in Tanauan, Batangas. The sublime paralytic of the Philippine Revolution had his coffin and various effects on display in a zen like white museum in his hometown. Along with a bunch of school children we looked the place over and I did my very best to give Chris an accurate overview of the stuff we were staring at. After that, we had merienda of bulalo (native bone marrow soup) and made a brief stop at the grocery for supplies. Then home we went, exhaustet but utterly satisfied.

Batangas

On Wednesday the 12th, the Nazareth school very kindly arranged for one of Lipa's tourist officers to tour us around the city after Chris' school visit. The name of the tour guide is Aylene and wonder of wonders, she and I have met before. Really, this world is very small.

First she took us to the ancestral home of Segunda Katigback, purportedly the first love of Philippine National Hero Jose Rizal. It was a lovely old Spanish style house with a beautiful azotea (balcony). Most of the original furniture was there and family pictures, past and present were prominently displayed. We were toured by her descendant, a sweet old lady who gladly told us ALL about her family. She kept talking and talking and talking - it was obviously a topic very close to her heart.

Following this, we visited the Carmelite convent where petals were supposed to have rained down on a miraculous statue of the Virgin Mary. The place had become a shrine for Marian devotees from all over the country.

Our final stop was the Lipa Cathedral, a huge church in the center of town. We had to run from the car to the church and were still nearly drenched as the rain came pouring down. It was a big cavernous place with lots of paintings on the wall and with a really beautiful if rather dimly lit altar.

This ended our Batangas trip. As we drove home, the rain came pouring down and it truly felt like a typhoon in full swing. Conversation centered on possible floods and consequences for our next day's trip. Subic On Thursday the 13th we were supposed go north and visit Subic but the storm and common sense kept us all home instead and in bed (at least that's where I was).

Manila

On Friday the 14th, the day before the big day, the day before The Workshop, we decided to be prudent and just tour Manila.

This actually started off as a long, long ride with a clueless driver and moi - a person with no sense of direction - trying to find Adarna House, the biggest and oldest children's book publishers in the country. With great determination we asked security guards, jeepney drivers, trycicle drivers and pedestrians along the way. Finally, after an hour and a half, we found it. It took me two minutes to get hold of the the LCD projector, which was the main purpose of my errand there, and less than 10 minutes for Chris to tour the entire area. Five or so minutes of interviewing the staff about the books they published and we were done. Back to the car and another hour and half ride back to Manila. Sigh... I hope Chris doesn't think I deliberately trapped her in a car in the middle of traffic so I can pick her brains dry. I did, I confess, take advantage of the time for conversation but I swear, I never planned the traffic.

After lunch and more talk, I took her to my second home - the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

From the 4th floor to the 1st floor, we took a tour conducted by moi. I showed her our museums, our library, our galleries and even the stuff stuck to walls of our hallways. We even had the pleasure of hearing the CCP Choir rehearse! I don't really want to describe what we saw as I am completely and totally biased. I think my building needs a lot of repair but it is still underrated as a place for touring. Most people come here just to watch shows, but there is so much more to us than that! Finally we were in a place where I could and did answer 99% of her questions with confidence. We ended up in the gift shop where Chris donated to the cost of maintaining the CCP by doing a tiny bit of Christmas shopping.

From there we went to the Children's Museum. Chris and I had fun here, playing alongside the children who were there. We touched everything that could be touched, turned all the knobs, climbed up whatever ladders were there. Chris even went rock climbing and I took a photo of her behind the waterfall. There was this one really cute little boy who became my friend, who asked to be carried so he could view the kaleidoscope and who kept smiling at me. Fortunately his father didn't take me for an ax murderer or kidnapper but just as a fan of his adorable son, so he let us play together for a while.

Then back to Orchid to make sure all was set up for the following morning. I think I may have shocked Chris a bit with the way I was bossing around the poor waiters. Alas, my CCP training kicked in and I wanted things done just so and the set up finished by a particular time. I did remember to say "Thank you" to the hapless young men who helped us out at the venue. Then to bed, to bed for a night of rest in preparation for "Putting the Story in History."

Makiling

By Tuesday the 17th when all the workshops and school visits and other "official functions" were over and done with, we were convinced that Chris: (a) loved nature; and (b) loved hiking and walking So this is what we kept making her do.

Right after the PHSA School Visit we proceeded to their cute little guest house near the church. Beaulah and Mark promptly fell into their beds and slept. Chris and I just as promptly set out for a walk. We passed by the beautiful chapel set by the side of the road, seemingly part of the forest. We walked a bit more, went behind the ballet studio and made formal offerings to Mariang Makiling, the Lady of the Mountain. We walked and talked and walked and talked. The road was asphalt but on either side of us loomed the forest, verdant and green. We ended up at the ruins of the cafeteria by the pool where we had dinner later that evening.

The next morning we woke up bright and early to a very heavy breakfast. After baths in freezing cold water, we were ready to face the day. First we drove down the mountain and asked for directions to the "Magnetic Hill." This was a spot along the road where supposedly, if one's car was put on neutral, it would neverthelss continue climbing up the hill. The guard said, "Just follow this road." One lady said, "It's just past the spot where water drips." Naturally we missed "the spot where the water drips" and had to double back. But we found The Magnetic Hill eventually and can now say from firsthand experience that "Yes, it is true. You do continue moving up!" when you put your car into neutral.

Then we went to the boyscout camp where we hiked up and down the trails. To my delight, even Beaulah joined us for part of the way while Mark was there all the time. Never mind that part of this young man's mission was to take videos of us looking silly as we hiked - it was good to have more people on the trail. Here we saw the caged chicken, heard the noisy geese and climbed up and up and up to what seemed the peak of the hill. There was a huge swimming pool which we would have jumped into if it were not empty, ruined houses which the forest was reclaiming and cottages for vacationists and campers. Hmmm....next summer I shall take my family here.

Our final stop was a nature camp within the University of the Philippines in Los Baños campus. Just as we got to the botanical garden's museum the rain cam pouring down, trapping us inside the cavernous auditorium for a while. A nice man put on a movie about conserving nature and we sat and watched that for a bit. After that was over, Chris, Mark and I started getting impatient and decided to hike in the rain. Following the signs posted along the way, we decided to search for the raptors. I confess now that I had no idea that raptors were eagles. I was actually thinking of velociraptors of Steven Spielberg and Jurassic Park fame. Silly me - several days of being surrounded by jungle and hiking was obviously addling my already addled brain!

Anyway, we finally found them and they were sad. Sorry but they were. There they were, in the middle of so much lovely green, their natural environment, and they could not fly! They were in small cages, barely enough for their wings to spread properly. One bird escaped and was serenely sitting atop his cage. He looked happy.

Then away we went for home. First though, we had to stop by Jollibee. After feeding Chris MacDonald's twice, we felt duty bound to have Chris visit own version of a fastfood burger chain.

Epilogue

Thus endeth the five part saga also known as The Visit of Chris Eboch. Saying goodbye was a bit of a letdown. Suddenly it was all done. I felt like a deflated balloon. Pfft!

Aside from what she actually came here to teach, Chris showed me that my legs are still intact and that I am not as decrepit as I once thought. I can still walk and walk and walk. Very personal thanks from me to you Chris for showing me that both mentally and physically, I can still do "it," whatever "it" may be.

There are many, many, many more images of this story that remain in my mind. There is the tourist, giggling his head off as he watched me stumble down Taal; the tour guide, gleefully telling us of how Jean Claude Van Damme climbed the mountain; the recruitment poster for priests asking young men to join "The Men in Brown;" Carla Pacis sneaking in late into the workshop and quietly eating her breakfast at the back of the room; riding with Chris in a van as it crawled through floods and traffic in search of Adarna and the LCD projector; listening to "Oh What a Beautiful Morning" as the St. Scho children wrote; trying to convince Mark that the never ending rain was normal and NOT a "climactic change....."

So many, many memories. But, as Chris says, you need not put everything in, only that which pushes the story forward.

So thank you Chris, thank you Beaulah, thank you everyone who was a part of this endeavor and thank you, thank you dear reader for following this story to its end.

Wakas (The End)

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School Visits with Chris
4th of 5 Installments

By Dominique Garde Torres (Nikki)

Author's Note: These are my personal impressions about the writing seminar with Chris Eboch, which was sponsored by the Philippine chapter of the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI) in Manila on July 15 and 16, 2006. Chris is the Regional Advisor for SCBWI New Mexico, and the author several of books including The Well of Sacrifice, a young adult historical fiction set in 9th century Guatemala. - Dominique Garde Torres (Nikki)

How to describe them? They were designed to be a cross between a simple Meet the Author and a mini-workshop. Not exactly an afterthought, they were nevertheless secondary to our all important dates on the 15th and the 16th. Initially we had thought we could handle two visits, both on the 17th, the day after THE BIG EVENT.

And so we started calling and writing people whom we knew, heads of schools and libraries. We were very specific, targetting schools whom we thought would actually be willing to spend their resources and release their students for one or two hours in order to deal with an extra activity.
Our batting average was really not bad. We got in touch directly with four schools. Of the four, two said "yes." These were St. Scholastica's College and the Philippine High School for the Arts. The third school we visited, The Nazareth School came to us. Or actually, the story is, Onie, one of their teachers and a former officemate called me to ask for some telephone numbers. In the course of our conversation, I mentioned the book talk, the workshop and the school visits. I was actually pushing her to join the workshop. Two hours later, I got a call from her saying their school wanted to take part in the school visits. A day later, all was confirmed. Just like that!

So, our schedule was:
July 12, 9 - 11:30 a.m. The Nazareth School, Lipa, Batangas
July 17, 8 - 10 a.m. St. Scholastica's College
July 17, 2 - 4 p.m. Philippine High School for the Arts

This meant that we had the afternoon of the 12th free to explore Batangas. We also asked the PHSA if on the 17th they could host us for the night (yes, that was Nikki and her chutzpah talking - "our workshop will be done by 4 p.m. but could you feed us dinner, let us use your guest house for the night and send us off after breakfast?) and they agreed. This meant that on the 18th, we were able to travel back to Manila at our own pace, stopping every once in a while to view the sights.

The Nazareth School

Of course we refused to believe native Lipeno Dennis Marasigan when he told us that it would take only an hour and half to get from Manila to Batangas. And as I told Chris, she was stuck with two people who are both a bit fanatic about time. I take pride in being late very rarely, on those occassions that I am, I turn slightly frantic. Beaulah would rather be two hours early than ten minutes late. So we got to the city about an hour and half early and a full hour in advance of our appointment at the school.

Having been unable to download the map which I had nagged Nazareth into e-mailing me, we were able to get to Lipa quite easily but had absolutely no idea where the school was. Fortunately, a couple of young people eating at MacDonald's (where we also had breakfast) knew where it is and ten minutes later, we were at the school.

The school was a small school - or a big house, depending on how you want to see it. We were met by Jo Ann Reyes, their very amiable school directress. This woman was all eagerness and warmth, and very, very accommodating. Her English, I noticed, was excellent. In consideration of our early arrival, she immediately made sure that the first batch of students were ready 30 minutes ahead of schedule.

As we went down the hallways of the school, we were barraged with the images of the children's works pinned all over the walls. We learned from Jo-Ann that instead of relying on English and Filipino textbooks, the teachers use reading lists that they provided to the students. In the classroom, we found that instead of individual chairs with desks, the children sat in tables together. All over the walls of the rooms, more samples of their work were proudly displayed.

The first session with the grades 3 and 4 students started at 8:30 and ended at 9:00. I hesitate to go into details about how and what Chris taught since I suspect this is copyrighted under her name. Suffice it to say that she started by asking the children what their favorite books were and continued with guidelines or rather guide questions in putting together a story. After a brief talk on the questions, she allowed them a few minutes to write. This was pretty much the system she followed: lecture, discuss, write. Lecture, discuss, write. Finally, to illustrate her point, she discussed her book and showed them illustrations from it. The second session, which was from 9:30 to 10:30, was pretty much the same.

Chris did allot a certain amount of time for questions and answers. Here the children amused the adults with their wit and with the directness of their queries. One little boy actually asked Chris outright how much money she made. Another wanted to know if she had a boyfriend. There were questions about how much time she took to write the 200 pages of the book. When they learned that it took her six months, there was collective gasp of "Oh No!' And there were many, many questions on how her story ended. So much so that she ended up donating the book to their library!

After both sessions, the children very sweetly (and agressively and insistently) asked Chris for her autograph. In between sessions we had a really delicious merienda of chocolate-e and bibingka and for lunch we had caldereta, fish and chicken. Delicious, and for Chris a really good introduction to Filipino food. They sent us off with requests for many more activities of this kind as well as gifts of suman and coffee, and for Chris a huge candle.

It was on a very personal level, a very satisfying experience. Watching the faces of the children, their eagerness to learn made me feel so good that I had a rather goofy smile plastered on my face for most of the time. This was also the first time that the four of us - Beaulah, Nikki, Chris and Ikoy - worked as a team and it was, even if I do say so myself, a pretty good team. Beaulah was the team leader, Ikoy was the photographer/driver, Nikki was the coordinator and Chris was of course, the teacher.

St. Scholastica's College

At 7 am on July 17th, we headed off for St. Scholastica's College. We warned Chris that this would be a slightly different experience since it was known to be a conservative Catholic school. And it was.

After getting into the campus, it took us just a few minutes to find the elementary school. We knew we were expected by the huge sign on a portable blackboard, written with multi-colored chalk saying "Welcome Chris Eboch." We were met by the principal, Didi Villegas. After a short stay at the conference room we were then escorted to the Library where the workshop was held.

A word about this library - it was wonderful! It was big, it was well lit and the children had a little raised platform with pillows and mattresses where they could lie down and read in comfort. Turtles and hamsters were available for borrowing along with the usual books.

The first session was for grades 3 and 4, the second for grades 5 and 6. Between sessions we had a truly delicious snack of backed macaroni, coffee, tea, softdrinks and pastry. Lunch was similarly heavy.

As we went up the stairs to the library, we learned a little bit about the school. We saw the huge tree, where, when a class picture was taken, ghosts were seen in the final print. And we learned that it being a girls' school, the only boys bathroom was on the 4th floor. Poor Ikoy!

As with Nazareth, the talk of Chris was followed the same format. This time, she did not go into the "questions" but asked them to relate times when they were scared. This time, one or two children were able to read what they wrote.

An interesting note about our team was that none of us were practicing Catholics. So being in an intensely Roman Catholic school was a new and truly novel experience for all of us. The prayers before the start of the session complete with a little bow was an amusing practice, particularly for myself, a person who grew up in a rather secular school.

This time the young ladies sat on the floor. There was a powerpoint presentation that served as a very good introduction of Chris: who she is, where she is from, the books she has written. Questions were asked again, and this time the children were a little bit more discreet. Instead of asking if she had a boyfriend, they instead asked her to "tell us more about yourself." But the autograph signing was the same, as was appreciation we felt from all of them. Lucky old Chris came away from the experience with a gift of books and a jacket. Again, Chris donated a copy of her book to their already large library.

Again, my goofy smile must have been plastered on my face all morning because again, I was amused, touched and satisfied with the students and their teachers.

The Philippine High School for the Arts

After St. Scho, off we went to Mount Makiling and the Philippine High School for the Arts. I personally was looking forward to this particular trip because I had worked many, many times with the school and had never had any problems. I trusted their staff and was sure that the young people would not be found wanting in talent. I had forgotten that it had been over two years since I had worked directly with them.

After a traffic filled trip we finally reached our destination. We were expecting two 1-hour sessions with 13-16 year old students, a mixture of creative writing majors, and students from other disciplines. Instead, we found that we were expected to conduct two 2-hour sessions for 8 creative writing majors and 12 teachers.

Obviously, it's all a matter of miscommunication. Happily, we managed to arrange things and all the details were ironed out to everyone's satisfaction and relief. After this, all went well.

With 8 creative writing majors left, the session went much, much faster. This time Chris had the time to ask all of them to read their works out loud and to give them bits of advice. She pretty much covered the same ground, only much faster and slightly more advanced. She also added lessons on description - similar to the lessons she had given the adults just a day earlier.

After a short break we continued. Considering that this time, Chris had the same students for both sessions, a bit more depth and rapport was established with the young ladies (yes, for some reason, all the Creative Writing Majors of the school were female!).

In the evening, we had an outdoor dinner by the pool, near the ruins of the school's caffeteria which had burned in 2001. The setting with the dim lights and the music felt like prom night. On the lamp posts, the works of the young ladies were displayed. Providing additional lights were overhead projectors. They had actually attempted (and unfortunately failed) to project their works on the pool. Dinner was good and we had the chance right before that to interact a bit more with the students. After dinner, we were serenaded with somgs and instrumental pieces from the music majors and poetry read by the creative writing ladies. It ended with a few surprise words of thanks from Chris. (Even she was surprised!)

While this trip did not start out as well as the others, the young people with their talent and enthusiasm did more than save the day. I am reminded again and again about why I do love returning to this mystic mountain and working with its young students.

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Workshop with Chris
3rd of 5 Installments

By Dominique Garde Torres (Nikki)

Author's Note: These are my personal impressions about the writing seminar with Chris Eboch, which was sponsored by the Philippine chapter of the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI) in Manila on July 15 and 16, 2006. Chris is the Regional Advisor for SCBWI New Mexico, and the author several of books including The Well of Sacrifice, a young adult historical fiction set in 9th century Guatemala. - Dominique Garde Torres (Nikki)

I fully intended to take part in this workshop not just as an organizer but as a participant as well. In my mind, I wanted to take full advantage of whatever the privileges of ARAship are and learn, learn, learn!

Foolish thought. Murphy's law stepped in and I simply could not focus completely. My apologies to Chris. But my eyes and my ears had to be kept peeled for the movements of waiters and other staff, the needs of the participants and the facilitators, registration matters, etc., etc. It didn't help either that I had set up my household as such an absolute autocracy with myself at the helm that even as all this was going on, I was getting a million and one calls from them as well about everything from homework to laundry schedules. Sigh....

Anyway, I shall do my best to recount the events of the 15th and the 16th.

Having a "full time" or should I say fully involved staff of 2 for an activity like this is doable but not always practical. A few days before the start of the workshop, my memory and Beaulah's were going haywire and we kept getting confused with the numbers. Did we have 40 or 42 or 50 or 60 participants? Telephone calls, text messages and e-mails from last minute registrants and would be registrants added to the confusion. But again, we were happy. We felt so popular! We finally pegged the food and seminar kits at a number that we felt was safe.

So in they came, a mixed group fo writers and would-be writers. We had teachers, retirees on their second careers, published and unpublished writers, publishers, marketing people and illustrators. The majority were not SCBWI members like myself and Beaulah. In fact I would venture to say that for many of them, this was the first they had heard of the organization. I believe, I truly believe that one and all came with minds open to new possibilities.

Beaulah, the indefatigable RA started everything with introductions. She introduced herself, she introduced Chris and she introduced the Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.
Then Chris took over and that was that.

Okay, okay. Then Chris took over and started in her rather quiet manner to share herself, her talent and her knowledge with us - at that time a room full of strangers and almost strangers.

Quiet or perhaps serene - these are the words that I would use to describe the way Chris Eboch spoke. She was not a very emphatic person, her voice was never raised. In her entire stay, I never heard her say anything in a very loud manner. She spoke with a very even cadence, her words were measured out with care. At times, she would flash a smile - sounds corny but this smile, close lipped and rare as it was, did light up her entire face.

This did not mean she was a pushover. On the contrary, she made her views known in a very definite manner and there was never any doubt as to what her opinions were. In any case, she was very thorough in all that she chose to do.

She introduced herself, making sure to stick to the details which were pertinent. In other words, no juicy little tidbits about her love life or anything like that. Even when she mentioned her sort-of-pet duck, Pete, it was to illustrate a point about writing history!

Then she got to know her students - basically she learned which ones wrote fiction and which were interested in non-fiction.

Having armed everyone with these very basic but necessary details, she proceeded to the lessons.

She spoke of definitions, specifically, the meaning and components of historical fiction. She gave words of encouragement, assuring one and all that there was room in the international market for more works.

She went through each book that Beaulah had sent her and:

a) defined it as a work of either history, historical fiction or of another genre altogether;

b) on the second day gave her very gentle and tactful critiques of each work.

She spoke of the possibility of writing works which could tie in with school curricula, of stories that could entertain even as they taught lessons and of the use of language and vocabulary. She even gave helpful tips on maximizing the use of specific computer programs!

Dialogue was discussed along with the need for research and sources of stories. The preferences of some editors came into the conversation, followed by the process in the US through which one could get published.

Setting, description, action and again, dialogue - in just one and a half days, we delved into these topics and with her help, gained more than a modicum of understanding of how these elements could push a story forward.

Naturally, Chris also made everyone write. And write. And write. At the one or two exercises which I was actually able to take part, my fingers, long accustomed to typing started hurting. I was no longer used to gripping a pencil for such long periods of time!

As if all this were not enough, still, she found time to segregate the fictionists from the non-fictionists for special lessons. And to critique a few works. And for morning, afternoon and lunch breaks. Breaks where we continued to learn, this time from each other as we "networked" and gossiped in the manner of all students when released from the classroom.

All in a day and a half! Whew!!

In the end, most of us came away satisfied. I hasten to add that this is not merely my opinion. Ever concious of trying to improve for the next activity (Calendar it: November 11, with Alice Maclerran) we distributed evaluation forms after the workshop. We got no complaints at all about Chris, a few comments about the tiny bathroom and many, many calls for more such activities.

Of course, at the end we had our group picture taken. If you look at our "class picture," it's nearly a sorority. But one and all, even our very few men, had big smiles plastered on. I am excited to find out in the next few months, which of the 41 will remain in our sphere, will become SCBWI members, will get published, will remain friends. In my mind, I see myself a year from now staring at the class picture and saying "Oh yes, her book launch was last...." or "I just attended the baptism of her child," stuff like that.

Special thanks again to Ani and her mom Lyn, to Neni, to Guia Yonzon for the comic books given away to everyone, to Rochelle for helping with the registration, to Adarna, Anvil, UST, St. Scholastica's College and Southville International Colleges. Beaulah and I may have been at the forefront but without all of you, it would have been much duller, much less exciting and certainly less succesful. My personal and most sincere thanks.

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Booktalk with Chris
2nd of 5 Installments

By Dominique Garde Torres (Nikki)

Author's Note: These are my personal impressions about the writing seminar with Chris Eboch, which was sponsored by the Philippine chapter of the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI) in Manila on July 15 and 16, 2006. Chris is the Regional Advisor for SCBWI New Mexico, and the author several of books including The Well of Sacrifice, a young adult historical fiction set in 9th century Guatemala. - Dominique Garde Torres (Nikki)

In the previous installment of this mini-saga, I shared all that happened on the course of conceptualizing and planning for the trip of Chris Eboch. I spoke about the first few characters whom we had the privilege to meet and the different tasks we had to accomplish.

In this entry, I go on to the Booktalk, our chapter's most regular activity, now made more interesting with the participation of our very special guest, Chris Eboch.

As soon as Chris' flight from Tokyo landed in Manila, Beaulah whisked her off to the hotel where I was waiting. After giving Chris a couple of hours to rest, we escorted her to her first "official" activity. This was our monthly Booktalk, hosted every second Monday by SCBWIphilasia - the Philippine chapter of the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators. Since the start of the year, we've been having these monthly meetings where we bring our favorite books for children and young adults and discuss them: do we love them, do we hate them, why did we choose them, do we want to write or illustrate books like these, etc. As the discussion continues we do have the tendency to talk about many, many other things, sometimes related to the talk, sometimes not. According to Chris, it sounded like a typical SCBWI schmooze: an informal gathering of members and friends.

In consideration of Chris who travelled thousands of miles from New Mexico to Tokyo to Manila to be our seminar speaker, we decided to make an exception and hold our Booktalk near Orchid Garden Suites, the hotel where Chris was staying. So off we went to Figaro, a coffeeshop located in the CCP Complex less than ten minutes away. We had another reason not to tarry: we had to be at Figaro one hour early because Chris had a press interview.

A word about this interview:

A week or so earlier, I received a message from a certain Myla of the Varsitarian, the school paper of the University of Santo Tomas. Initially they wanted to do a report on the writing workshop and were hoping we had some free slots to give away. We couldn't give them that, so they settled on attending the booktalk instead and interviewing Chris. How did they hear of our event? Well, they heard of it through their adviser, Lito Zulueta who heard of it from me who sent an email to him so he could have a press release out in the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Nice work Lito, I am really glad you had your students join us. Talking to young(er) people is always such a pleasure.

When we got to Figaro, the student reporters arrived shortly after. They conducted their interview with very earnest expressions, took copius notes, and shot many, many photograhs of Chris and of us. They were, as I have found all the students from their school to be, extremely polite. In Chris' words "I have never been called Ma'am as often." We listened in and during breaks in the conversation, started interviewing (grilling?) the kids ourselves. So we learned that Myla wanted to be a writer but her parents made her take Nursing. And that the photographer Kevin read a lot of Chinese novels. In any case, we look forward to receiving copies of The Varsitarian in September when the articles appear.

Ever the teacher, Chris assured Myla that as a nurse who could write, she could find a very special niche - perhaps she could write for the hospital newsletter or perhaps she could write about the million and one stories found in every hospital.

I think they liked what they heard and saw because both young people stayed for the booktalk. Feeling like a rather protective mother, I kept an eye on both of them and noticed that they were listening very intently, taking notes and many, many photographs. I would like to think that they went there as part of their assignment and stayed for their own satisfaction.

At 6 p.m. people started trickling in for the Booktalk and at 6:30 we started.

As always, Beaulah started with an introduction of the activity, SCBWI and this time, of Chris.

As our very special guest, Chris was the first to share. Naturally, she spoke of her book The Well of Sacrifice. It is a story set in 9th Century Guatemala, the height of the Mayan civilization. Published in 1999, it still brings in a check every year. At the moment it is used in schools for 4th graders who study the Mayan civilization.

Neni followed with Guess Who My Favorite Person is, written by Byrd Baylor and illustrated by Andrew Parker. As always with Neni the many years a teacher, the book was very neatly marked and she knew just what pages to show us and what passeges to read. She enjoyed the book because of all the detail in the text. Again, the teacher in Neni surfaced and she identified this tome as one that could be used as a fun way to teach children to pay attention to detail.

As an added point of interest, she mentioned that the author was a rather eccentric character who left her family to liveon her own in Arizona.

Hannah, a surprise attendee, followed. A teacher a Brent school, she is also an actress for Trumpets, a fairly well known theater group that does a lot of musical theater productions for young people. She shared two books: The Diary of Anne Frank and CS Lewis' The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Both were favorites from her childhood. She fell further in love with them when she took part in plays adapted from these books.

She spoke of how she used to search through wardrobes for Narnia when she was a child. She shared with us the time she spent as a young girl, reading the thoughts of another young girl. Now, as a teacher in Brent, she is able to sing all the songs of the Narnia musical to her pupils and thus is able to get them to see how alive the words could be.

Hannah - a lady close to my heart as we share our twin loves of theater and literature.

After Hannah, it was my turn. I had actually planned to share A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, but before discussing this book, I brought out Anne Frank's Tales of the Secret Annex. These were the short stories written by Anne Frank, whose ambition was to be a writer. I noted that most of these stories were for children. In my mind was the thought (fantasy) that if Anne had lived, she could very well have become a SCBWI member herself!

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a book for young adults, very close to my heart since it dealt with a young girl who managed to bloom in spite of adversity and the misfortune of growing up poor in a bad environment. It was also the story of a family with strong women, who survived many trials - kinda like my own family.

Finally, Beaulah shared a Vietnamese translation of Oscar Wilde's The Selfish Giant. Clearly, Beaulah thinks of a book not simply as a story but also as a product. She mentioned that she bought it in Hanoi's Temple of Literature, which existed as early as 1,000 years ago. Going into the temple was like going on a journey through learning. She also noted that just 25 years after the end of the Vietnam war, the country was already confident enough to publish books by foreign authors and did not just confine themselves to tomes on local culture. She admired people who were brave enough to have books translated. Ever the illustrator and production manager, she noted that the production quality of the book looked like it was just a cut above silkscreen and probably involved tedious color stripping by hand.

She also had a second book from the same publisher which dealt with the story of an ancient Vietnamese king. This was more similar to some of our publications on Philippine history, myths and legends.

After some discussion on how English is taught - whether as a second language or as a language of equal importance to one's own - the booktalk ended. Neni very kindly offered to drop Chris off at the hotel. In keeping with the practice around here, we gave her very specific instructions: just go "straight down the road."

I will always enjoy these Booktalks/Schmoozes because beyond what they teach us about books, writing and illustration, the conversation always reflects so much about the personalities present. I could sit quietly in one corner, just listening and end up with character sketches. Okay, I promise not to turn the booktalks into a venue for me to hone my skills with writing execrcises! But I could - character sketches, descriptions, focusing on each person's concerns, all can be found in this one little once a month talk around little coffee tables!

As tired as she must have been, I do hope Chris' first introduction to SCBWI Philippines was enoyable.

Thus ended Chris' first day in Manila.

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Preparing for Chris
1st of 5 Installments

By Dominique Garde Torres (Nikki)

Author's Note: These are my personal impressions about the writing seminar with Chris Eboch, which was sponsored by the Philippine chapter of the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI) in Manila on July 15 and 16, 2006. Chris is the Regional Advisor for SCBWI New Mexico, and the author several of books including The Well of Sacrifice, a young adult historical fiction set in 9th century Guatemala. - Dominique Garde Torres (Nikki)

I always think I know it all and have seen it all but am always, always proven wrong.

In my work at the CCP, I have played host and nanny to literally more than a hundred artists and groups. Three or four have remained good friends. I have wined them, dined them, attended their shows and workshops, gone shopping and touring with them and best of all have had long, long coffee laden conversations with them.

So when Beaulah and I started planning the activities of Chris Eboch in Manila, I was pretty confident that I knew what to do and what to expect.

I cannot even pinpoint the exact date we sat down and started brainstorming for this project. It was early in the year, I remember. Our individual personal schedules were laid on the table and between that and our other concerns, Beaulah managed to lay out a timetable for SCBWI for 2006. Wonderful planner that woman.

Hundreds of e-mails later, in March or April I think, we started searching for a suitable venue. We went to Coconut Palace, to Intramuros, to the CCP and to a number of hotels. Some of these were places one or both of us were familiar with, others were venues we went to check out on the off chance that thay might be suitable. We ended up in Orchid Garden, a sweet little hotel, tucked in beside the Vietnamese Embassy and in front of the far more imposing Sheraton. We loved the place because of its cozy little lobby which was forever playing instrumental classical music, the rooms which seemed comfortable enough and the food which we of course sampled. Best of all, the price was well within our range. We were truly tempted by Intramuros - what better place after all for a seminar on writing historical fiction? But logistics were a tad more difficult, especially for two women who could only devote part of their time to the project.

And so we met the first of many, many interesting characters in this story. Her name is Grace and she is the account manager assigned to us by Orchid Garden. Grace is very fair, has curly black hair, round black eyes and a smile which never wavers. Ever since we met her, her make-up was always impeccable and her clothes were never rumpled. She made it a point to always greet us with a very firm handshake and her conversation was liberally sprinkled with "ma'am" this and "ma'am" that. Her paperwork was not as impeccable as her clothing but somehow, it was very difficult to get annoyed with this woman. She just smiled so readily and so easily. I cannot recall a time when she ever said no to us. It was always "yes I will see if it is possible." Of course, there were many things which were not possible, but as far as she was able, I think Grace tried to get us what we wanted. Tried. Not everything was under her control, but at least she tried.

Through this entire process Beaulah kept up a continous stream of e-mail: with me, with Chris, with other SCBWI members. Eventually, I started e-mailing Chris directly as we arranged the details of the trip. On any given day, I would turn on my office computer at my customary 6:30 am and find at least two e-mails about the seminar. Towards May, it was not unusual to see five e-mails a day from Beaulah, from Chris, from many other people. This workshop was built, was constructed on a foundation of talk and never ending communication.

From these electronic conversations, I was reminded again of the first time I met and worked with Beaulah, almost twenty years ago in 1987. Her attention to detail was there as was her honesty. Every topic was discussed with candor - finances, venue, personnel needed, even the way our personal schedules and family lives would be affected by the work entailed in putting together the activity. Together we worked out what the bottom line would be, the point of no return when we would make a final decision to either cancel or push through with the workshop. We knew how many school visits were possible, how many students per school, etc. Between the two of us and with the help of Ani, we ended up sharing a network of many, many schools and individuals. Personal calls and e-mails were made to these networks and still more e-mails flew. Yes, Beaulah, ever the Math teacher, ever the master planner, reminded me over and over again to look at the teeny, tiny details of everything - from the workshop to the school visits to the tours.

Snail mail was also sent to this shared network as well as text messages and telephone calls.

My first impression of Chris, stricly from e-mail, was that she was very, well, American in the nicest way possible. Very frank, very easy to talk to, very up front about what she wanted and needed and very open. She said "yes" to nearly everything we suggested and gently let us know her preferences. So we dropped Corregidor when we learned that she was not much into World War II and added a couple more school visits when she said she was open to that.

Finally July came around and it was crunch time. Almost daily we would get e-mails and calls from people who were interested. The average number of e-mails sent and received daily climbed to seven. Sometimes, Beaulah and I would sit beside each other in an internet cafe and forward e-mails to each other. It sure beats sitting at a table and passing hard copies around! And the stuff we sent to Chris would have driven her crazy if she were not so patient with us. Long, long e-mails with many, many details.

But we were happy. We were well on our way to forty participants. A good number, considering tht Beaulah and I had agreed to push through even with just ten. The school visits were surprisingly easy to arrange. They almost fell into our laps. It took just one e-mail and two phone calls to get St. Scholastica's College to say "yes." The Philippine High School for the Arts said "yes" with just one call. I spoke to a friend about attending the workshop and the next thing I knew, she had spoken to her school directress not about the workshop but about a school visit. For this, the Nazareth School pursued us and of course we said "yes, yes, yes!"

Along the way, it seemed that the project kept giving birth or rather kept growing extra arms and legs. We never planned on three school visits, but that is what we got. We never planned on a press interview but they came to us. And we never thought we could hike that much anymore, but we did - and not just on level ground! But I am getting ahead of myself.

While Beaulah and I were definitely the ones who spoke of the project ad infinitum and ad nauseam, there were many others who, with their ideas and their words and their network and their actions helped us tremendously. First of all, there's Ani. As always, she made her entire office available. All fax messages were sent to her. She sent letters to all the Writing Centers and e-mailed to her very, very broad network of friends and colleagues. From day one she was in touch with us as various registrants paid and sent their information. Finally, she waived the rental for their LCD projector and lent it to us, for two whole days. During the first session of the workshop itself, she served as official powerpoint button presser.

There was also Neni. Without Neni, there would have been no school visit to St. Scholastica's College. Neni was there for us to talk to and to bounce off ideas. Neni also tapped her broad network of friends and colleagues for the workshop. She attempted to bring in Beacon, and she did succeed because one of their teachers joined us on the 15th and the 16th.

And there there were Beaulah's sons. The strength of this woman lies within herself and within her family. And her family joined us in full force. From the planning stage onwards, Homer drove us from place to place to place. He was there as we negotiated with Orchid Garden, he viewed Coconut Palace along with us, and he sampled the delicious food in Intramuros along with us as well. If not for a very minor accident, this young man would happily have taken charge of touring Chris around Intramuros.

But to me, the real revelation was Ikoy. I had known Ikoy for a long, long time. Beaulah and I worked together in the same publishing company way back in 1987, and that was where Ikoy was first introduced to me: he was still a boy then, thirteen years old, quietly sitting under his mom's desk in our office and waiting for her to finish working. Definitely beyond boyhood now, Ikoy joined the workshop as photographer-driver and was with us throughout the three school visits at Nazareth School in Lipa, at St. Scholastica's in Malate, and at the Philippine High School for the Arts in Makiling. In between, he happily (I think) helped me out when I had a couple of technical problems. This young man has enough charm to get away with many naughty remarks. Why do I say he was a revelation? Because it is the first time I ever had a real conversation with him and by and large our talks were good ones. I think I am beginning to see him now as Mark - a separate and very fun, very smart individual - not just Ikoy, Beaulah's son. OK, let me be honest. I think I will continue to call him Ikoy, but in my mind, Ikoy the silly, funny, smart intense individual, not Ikoy, Beaulah's eldest.

To summarize our preparations:

a) first we got a speaker; b) then we picked a date and discussed pricing; c) after this we found a venue and finalized pricing and payment schemes;d) finally we sent out letters, e-mail announcements and press releases; e) then we wrote, spoke and called our friends to let them know about the school visits; f) then we put it all together in one big schedule along with the other less-planned stuff such as tours and one interview for a college paper.

Having done all this, we felt we were ready. Sounds simple? It was, sort of. But without the people who helped us along the way, stubbing a toe would have been expected, stumbling a possibility and falling flat on our faces a reality which could have been.

Haayyy! The next installment of this personal report will be on the booktalk. Abangan ang susunod na kabanata! (Wait for the next installment).

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Victor

I was at my husband's graduation last Saturday and amidst all the pomp and pageantry of Asia's oldest university graduating its most recent batch of PhDs and MAs, I started thinking back to the beginning when Victor's education really started.

I really do not know when this was, it would be presumptious for me to pinpoint the exact second when learning popped into his head. But I do know that long before he started pre-school his mother exposed him to books and music. I disagree with my mother-in-law on many, many points but on this we have complete understanding. Once she saw her child, now my husband, looking at books, she started buying them for him. Just as my parents did for me and my sister.

His collection, now grown to about 7000, and now considered conjugal property, really started with this woman, buying her little boy, his first comic book, his first cloth book, the first book he drooled over.

And so the little boy grew into a young man, into a mature man and turned from a son into a father, into a husband. To this date, with his fancy title of Doctor of Philosphies majoring in History, he still cherishes and keeps his old comic books, Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew novels, JD Salinger, the many, many biographies which he started reading as a child.

At night in bed, before sleeping, there are many, many times when this huge man lies beside me giggling his head off over some young adult or children's novel. While it was normally my pleasurable task as the mother to read to our daughter before she slept, many times, we had my husband join us, siiting on the floor or the foot of the bed, laughing over the book as much or more then his child or showing his grief or otherwise reacting to the stories.

Incongrous to think of this man, 5 feet, 10 inches tall, nearly 200 pounds, still reading, hunched over in concentration, his favorite children's book, reading it with his daughter or just by himself, taking joy in the words and pleasure in the pictures. Incongrous but strangely right. Just right.

Nikki's Thoughts

Melody as Lola Basyang

Parts 1 to 3 will follow, but first here's the 4th of 4 parts of our report! We were there last Monday March 27 at Jayme's Grill at The Fort. And there she was. A hunched over old woman - white hair tied in a bun, eyeglasses perched on her nose, wearing a white kimona and a red patadyong, clutching a crooked walking stick, and with a book in hand... why, it's Lola Basyang herself!

For a while there, storyteller Melody Remorca had everyone entranced, young and old alike. The occasion was the launch of yet another Lola Basyang book - selected and edited by Lola Basyang expert Christine Bellen, designed and illustrated by Felix Mago Miguel, and published by Tahanan Books.

Lola Basyang is actually the pen name of the late Severino Reyes, a member of the privileged ilustrado class in 19th century Philippines. According to children's author and Lola Basyang expert Christine Bellen, Reyes is the Filipino equivalent - and more - of Hans Christian Andersen. He wrote up to 500 Lola Basyang stories, and these were first printed in 1925 in Liwayway, the longest-running Tagalog magazine that Reyes himself founded and edited. Read the whole fascinating article by Nilo A. Yacat at http://www.petatheater.com/news2.htm -Beaulah in Manila

Photographs by Mark Taguiwalo licensed as follows
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/

Scarry, Spinelli, Stroud, and Lola Basyang / A Meeting of Two Worlds

Photos by Beaulah Taguiwalo. License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/

Scarry, Spinelli, Stroud, and Lola Basyang

The SCBWI Booktalk last March 13 was our first outside Makati. This time we had it in an airy place - at Starbucks, all the way up in the 5th level overlooking the 5-storey atrium of Shangrila Mall in Pasig. Nikki booktalked What Do People Do All Day! by Richard Scarry. I booktalked Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli. And Zarah booktalked another of her favorite books, a thick YA fantasy novel - The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud.

Zarah's booktalk sparked an interesting discussion about books that feature magic, wizards, and witches - and how these books fare in the hands of gatekeepers like librarians. It was actually quite amazing as we had three librarians right there with us, that evening - Zarah from the grade school library of Xavier School, and Ethel and Rizchelle of Robinson's Children's Library. As Nikki said, bitin. That topic deserves a whole meeting by itself, for another day.

Having dispensed with the booktalk part, we settled down to listen to Christine Bellen's presentation about her writing, her research, and her field of expertise - Severino Reyes a.k.a. Lola Basyang. Ah, the wonders of modern technology. There we were, cozily esconed in armchairs 5 floors up in a mall, viewing on Christine's laptop some beautiful Lola Basyang visuals and reading on the screen Lola Basyang's original words as Christine recited them aloud in her lilting, effortlessly gliding Filipino, sprinkled here and there with peppery Spanish.

A surprise guest was Panch Alcaraz, one of the illustrators of Christine's ten Lola Basyang picture books. She was there especially because Christine brought along one piece of Panch's original art. It is something else to see the beautifully produced picture books, and to then to see and touch the original, exquisitely detailed art.

Before we adjourned, Christine showed us an advance copy of another of her Lola Basyang books. This one is Tahanan's compilation of Christine's selection of classic Lola Basyang stories, designed and illustrated by the now Leyte-based painter and children's book illustrator Felix Mago Miguel.

All in all, a very satisfying evening - a Booktalk and a Talk.

Beaulah's 2 Cents

A Meeting of Two Worlds

The Booktalk last Monday was very cozy. With just eight people present, we gathered round a small coffee table in Starbucks and were able to really interact with each other as we shared books and listened to our speaker, Christine Belen.

While it was unfortunate that only three of us brought books, this did not stop us from having a very lively discussion. Since there were three librarians in the group, much of the talk centered on books available for children in libraries. From here we branched out to the power of the librarian. Perhaps I should say, the importance of a librarian. These wonderful creatures could, through careful choice of books truly enrich a child's world. They can choose to strategically display a book or, sadly, they can choose to hide or censor the use of the book. This bit of the conversation could have gone on and on but being the sensible people that we were, we decided to reserve that topic for another day, when it would be tackled exclusively.

Christine spoke of Lola Basyang - their creator and the stories he created. This was of particular interest to me, Nikki of the CCP, because immediately I saw the marriage of my two worlds - literature and theater.

The writer of the Lola Basyang stories, Severino Reyes, was one of our greatest playwrights. A sarswelista, he wrote the libretto for "Walang Sugat", a wonderful musical about the revolution against Spain. Certainly one of my favorite plays. To discover that he wrote the stories which children have read and listened to for years was, well, it was to re-discover the marriage of my two worlds, theater and literature. As I said to Christine, no wonder his imagery was so vivid and his dialogue so good - theater siya!

Christine shared some of the discoveries with us, showed copies of the books published and told us how and why she revised some of the text. She spoke about how the stories had jumped from the page into television, movies and recently, theater. This launched a discussions on copyright and on the legitimacy of re-told works as a separate genre. Christine (whom we begin to believe is the re-incarnation of Lola Basyang) answered each question calmly and with great assurance.This was, after all, her masteral thesis! She had done her research and done it well.

From here, we went to suggest future Lola Basyang projects for Christine! A new movie, glossaries, etc. It was amazing to realize how much there was to do about what seemed such a simple topic!

I firmly believe we could have talked about Lola Basyang all night, but discipline, other appointments and the arrival of Christine's escort, the very talented Panch precluded that.

All in all, a very satisfying evening!

Nikki's Thoughts

Asian diaspora in kids' lit

"South Asia and the South Asian Dispora in Children's Literature" is the title of an annotated bibliography and work-in-progress.
http://www.poojamakhijani.com/sakidlit.html

Another site to check out is
http://sawnet.org/kidsbooks/

Beaulah's 2 Cents
(thanks to Chitra Soundar)