Two months ago, He Yunni started dreaming about something that has gripped working mothers from Margaret Oliphant to J.K. Rowling: how to write a series of stories so successful that she could quit her day job.
'At this point, I'm still trying to figure out how to develop an angle,' says He, 35, a Singaporean lawyer, who has started working on a children's picture book with her seven-year-old daughter, Kaitlyn. Help is at hand for aspiring writers like He this week, as Singapore stages its third Asian Festival of Children's Content, which runs until May 29.
Festival highlights include a session titled 'Turning your manuscript into a best-seller', co-presented by Alvina Ling, editorial director of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; and Sarah Odedina, formerly of Bloomsbury Publishing, who oversaw Rowling's Harry Potter series.
Leonard S. Marcus, a noted American children's books historian and critic, will also deliver a keynote address on balancing education and entertainment in children's books, and Newbery Honour recipient Margarita Engle will talk about writing young adult novels in verse.
Other sessions include one on creating apps for toddlers, and another on writing for the Muslim community. Parents can also sit in on discussions about children's cyber wellness (looking at issues such as cyberbullying, game addiction and privacy), or motivating a child to read and write.
'There has been a great need for a festival like this for a very long time,' says festival director, R. Ramachandran. 'And now, with education spreading and pre-school education becoming a must, people are looking for books.'