One of our featured authors at Readings@Seksan last Saturday has not just one but two titles newly released - both of them with different publishers, and both of them blurbed by me! (Professional!)
Ellen Whyte is someone I wanted very much to meet when I read her
Katz Tales columns in The Star and realised that she was as feline crazy as me. And anyone doing PR on behalf of our furry friends, in a country where pets are too often neglected and abandoned, can only be a good thing.
I'm really delighted that she now has out
Katz Tales : Under the Velvet Paw (anyone who has been owned by a cat will really appreciate the title!)
To quote myself on the back cover :
Ellen Whyte has the uncanny ability to think herself into the mind of a cat, and writes with great charm while managing to imparting a great deal of practical information. Scoop, Au and Target deserve to be Malaysia's first feline superstars.
I think my words may have gone to Au's head, as you will see later.
The second book Ellen has out is a compilation of
her Logomania columns for
The Star's
Mind Our English page.
Logomania : Where Common Phrases Come From and How to Use Them is published by MPH. And to ahem - quote myself again :
Logomania is a fascinating and very enjoyable exploration of some of the quirkier phrases in the English language and of the historical circumstances and cultural practices that gave rise to them. Ellen Whyte also provides plenty of examples of the expressions in use so you can comfortably slip these new expressions into everyday conversation.
I have learned a lot about my own language that I didn't know before, and remain fascinated about how the words we use are actually artefacts.
Check out some more of her very readable columns
here and
here.
Her blog is also a very enjoyable read, and she put up a very useful piece after the publishing symposium we attended in Singapore last week on h
ow to put stuff online without giving your content away. (A problem we are both concerned about.)
Now then, just because I feel naughty, thought I'd put up a pic I took of Ellen and a blow-up doll in Singapore last week. Ellen is the one on the left.
4 comments:
"Ellen is the one on the left."
*falls off chair howling with laughter*
Are you sure Ellen is the one on the left?
Haha! Nice book! Should get it for mom, that's if she will understand the words. We have a house full of cats! I lost count on how many we have fed abd took care of over the years.
:-) didn't think you'd do it! Thanks for the kind words...
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