Rounding up school talks for 2014

This is a post to record the school talks and workshops we've conducted over the past few months. It has been challenging at times for Lesley-Anne - juggling lessons, homework and exams while making time to conduct these talks. Needless to say, I'm terribly proud of her for maintaining a cool head (for the most part) and not freaking out under the pressure!

Lesley-Anne was invited to speak to a group of p5 students from different schools at the MOE Creative Arts Programme. The audience consisted of about 50 kids, mostly from GEP, who were interested in writing. This session was great because the kids were very energetic and interactive. During the panel session, a bunch of boys were making quite a fair bit of noise and a girl piped up "I don't like irritating boys" to which a boy instantly retorted, "the action or the noun?" Heh. A little smart alecky but very fun bunch.

It was clear that Lesley-Anne connected very well with this group because after the talk, many of the kids came up to chat with Lesley-Anne and get her autograph. Some even showed her their stories and poems, and we were wowed by the level of creativity. One boy had written a series of alternative fairy tales in rhyme while another had penned reams and reams of stories. It's wonderful to meet kids who love writing so much. A special shout-out to Natalie, who told me she and her mum read my blog and showed me a lovely story she wrote about Erik the Hedgehog.

We also spoke at SJI International, our very first international school visit! We find international school kids bright-eyed and eager but at the same time, they're very well-mannered. They listen attentively and ask questions only at the end. A girl told us at the end of the session, "You know we're discussing superheroes, right? Well, you're our hero." Wah! *melts*

And finally, Lesley-Anne was invited to be an exhibitor and guest speaker at the Nanyang Girls' Expo in August. Here she is with Denise, our book agent.