“Papa tells me that my eyes shine with light too and that I must remember to look people in the eye so that they can see my light.” — Open – A Boy’s Wayang Adventure —

It’s not often that I get quoted.

And if I do, I’d like to be quoted for the right things and for saying something meaningful. Who wants to end up with a [hashtag] #dumbthingssaid, right? Certainly, not me.

I went into the publishers – Ethos Books – yesterday to sign some copies of my book. I wanted my first 50 readers to have a special signed copy. They deserve it for being so supportive.

For those following me here, you may already know that my tagline is –to a more open and inclusive world– which is found right under my humungous logo photo. It’s not that I wanted to make that picture of myself so big when viewing on desktop. It’s just that the theme I’ve chosen for the author website just makes my image come up this big. If you’re spooked, I suggest a friendlier sized picture of me on your mobile or tablet.

Back to quotes.

Of course, being at a publisher’s office means being surrounded by books, not just my own, of course. My eyes were attracted to the many wonderful book covers on display, the books which were still wrapped on the shelves, and new titles ready to hit the shops. So, what does a writer and lover of books do? She buys books, of course.

I was chuffed to be buying Charmaine Chan’s The Magic Circle and This is What Inequality Looks Like, essays by Teo You Yenn. I’ll be blogging about both books in this space later.

A shopper must carry her purchases in a bag.

The team at Ethos handed me my books in a canvas bag with lots of words on it. I didn’t take much notice of the words precisely except to note mentally that it’s really a very suitable shopping bag for two reasons: they’re a publisher so words are their raison d’être and canvas bags are environmentally friendly which always gets a thumbs up from me.

Then, Suning, my editor said, “Look, there’s a quote from your book.”

That got me excited and I squinted hard to find the line from Open amongst the sea of words. And there it was: “Papa tells me that my eyes shine with light too and that I must remember to look people in the eye so that they can see my light.”

My eyes lit up too. My vision blurry from the tears welling up. I was so touched to see that line on the canvas bag. This does something good for the ego which must get positive feedback to thrive. I now belong to the many people out there who are being quoted.

You can quote me on this.