Indie Spotlight: Allison Izard of Pixalib

Indie Spotlight is our monthly column on self-publishing. This month Siobhan Daiko interviews Allison Izard, the Hong Kong country manager at Pixalib, an international company providing a publishing platform and online bookstore for visual books by indie authors.

The Frankfurt Book Fair / the Philippines is a focus county for 2016 / call for papers

For the second year, the Frankfurt Book Fair (19-23 October) and the trade magazine, Publishing Perspectives will host the markets: global publishing summit to help publishers around the world better understand and build relationships. It will feature seven important current and future markets, including the Philippines. the full list is:

This week in Asian Review of Books / Lion City Lit notes

See the Asian Review of Books for ever-interesting discussion. Here are links to its newest reviews, excerpts, letters, essays, listings, translations, news items, and round ups:

Simon Boccanegra comes to the HK Arts Festival 
Second opinions: books we’ve reviewed, reviewed elsewhere -- fiction, history, geopolitics 
Nanjing 1937: Battle for a Doomed City by Peter Harmsen reviewed by Bill Purves
The Translation of Love by Lynne Kutsukake reviewed by Todd Shimoda
"Write Stuff": industry talks and seminars 

Asian Books Blog is based in Singapore, the Lion City.  A quick note for any expats living here: if you want to join a book group, see my round-up for the Singapore Finder, here. 

The Sunday Post

The Sunday Post is suspended this week. Apologies for the slightly patchy nature of the blog at the moment.  There will be fewer posts than usual from now through to the end of March.  This is because I've got a lot of work on, and I can't keep up the blogging pace. By the end of March I should have cleared my backlog, and generally caught up with things. In the meantime, I will post as and when...

Just quickly...

You may be interested in two pieces I have out today:

Where Are the Places in Singapore Related to Sophia Raffles? / Singapore Finder. This is tied-to the UK publication of  Olivia & Sophia, my novel about Raffles' wives.

To buy or not to buy a £50,000 car in Singapore? My weekly blog about life in Singapore -  although from now on it will be monthly, not weekly!

Asain Review of Books / Olivia & Sophia

Click here if you want to read a review of my novel, Olivia & Sophia, in Asian Review of Books. Olivia & Sophia publishes in paperback in the UK on March 1.

This week in Asian Review of Books

See the Asian Review of Books for ever-interesting discussion. Here are links to its newest reviews, excerpts, letters, essays, listings, translations, news items, and round ups:

"Write Stuff": industry talks and seminars 
We Gotta Get Out of This Place: The Soundtrack of the Vietnam War by Doug Bradley and Craig Werne reviewed by Glyn Ford
Outside reading: links to essays, interviews and news on books, translation and writing 
Olivia and Sophia by Rosie Milne reviewed by Stephen Joyce
Ghachar Ghochar by Vivek Shanbhag, translated by Srinath Perur reviewed by Jane Wallace
The Three Body Problem and The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin, translated by Ken Liu and Joel Martinsen reviewed by Dave Haysom
Tales of Two Cities, stories edited by Edmund Price, Harmony Sin Alice Clark-Platts and S Mickey Lin reviewed by Rosie Milne
One Point Two Billion, stories by Mahesh Rao reviewed by Peter Gordon
Fiction in brief: Death by Water by Kenzaburo Oe and The Well of Trapped Words by Sema Kaygusuz reviewed by Melanie Ho

Lion City Lit: Books to mark the anniversary of the Fall of Singapore.

Asian Books Blog is based in Singapore. Lion City Lit explores what’s going on in the City-State, lit-wise. During World War Two, the Battle of Singapore, from 8–15 February 1942, ended with the fall of this city, Britain’s fortress in the East. Today marks the 74^th anniversary of the event, and NUS Press, which is associated with the National University of Singapore, offers a range of relevant titles.

The Sunday Post: Valentine's Day

The Sunday Post is a weekly round-up of items that caught my eye over the previous seven days. But since it's February 14th, I thought Asian Books Blog may as well join in with the annual orgy of hearts and flowers...

Just quickly...

You my be interested in my latest blog for the Telegraph, it's about Chinese New Year this week.  Click here to read it. 

Book of the Lunar Year: The Boy with a Bamboo Heart

All the votes are now counted, and the winner of the Asian Books Blog Book of the Lunar Year in the Year of the Ram / Goat, now drawing to a close, is The Boy with a Bamboo Heart, by Dr. Amporn Wathanavongs with Chantal Jauvin, published by Maverick House (Ireland). Click here to see the blog’s coverage of the book, last October.

Just quickly...

You may be interested in my review of Tales of Two Cities in Asian Review of Books. 

Tales of Two Cities is an anthology of stories from Hong Kong and Singapore. It's in the running for the blog's Book of the Lunar Year Award. Voting closes tomorrow at 9 a.m., so if you haven't done so yet, and you want to support one of the books on the shortlist, get cracking!! See here for details of the shortlist, and of how to vote.

Just quickly...

You may be interested in two pieces I have out today:

Who Was Olivia Cassivelaun Fancourt and What's Her Connection with Singapore? / The Singapore Finder

Expat problems: household help / The UK Telegraph (A jokey post for my regular Telegraph blog)

This week in Asian Review of Books

See the Asian Review of Books for ever-interesting discussion. Here are links to its newest reviews, excerpts, letters, essays, listings, translations, news items, and round ups:

Imperial Cities as Cultural Nodes: A View from Early Twentieth-Century Tokyo by Jordan Sand
Weekend reading: links to essays about poetry, prizes, authors 
Migration and Identity in Central Asia: The Uzbek Experience by Rano Turaeva reviewed by Joshua Bird
Dragons in Diamond Village by David Bandurski reviewed by Bill Purves
The China Boom: Why China Will Not Rule the World by Ho-fung Hung reviewed by Salvatore Babones
Russia and the Changing World Order by Francis P Sempa
Half of What I Say by Anil Menon reviewed by Jane Wallace
Recruit to Revolution: Adventure and Politics during the Indonesian Struggle for Independence by John Coast, edited by Laura Noszlopy reviewed by Tim Hannigan