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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