What motivated this move, given publishing isn’t the easiest business in Singapore?Įliza: I approached a few publishers in Singapore to publish my books, but wasn’t too impressed by their operations. She’s really a strange and eccentric child and many of the things that happen in my books are in some way or other inspired by things she has done.ģ) You went from writing to publishing other authors in a short span of time under your Bubbly Books imprint. She gives me so much material for my books. The real-life Ellie, being the second child, is more adventurous, daring and cheeky. Both my daughters – Ellie and Gabby – appear as characters in my Ellie Belly series. I was also a contributor to Chronicle of Singapore – a landmark non-fiction historical book chronicling Singapore’s 50 years of history as seen through newspaper articles.Ģ) What inspired your popular Ellie Belly series? Have your daughters influenced you in your story contents?Įliza: Ellie Belly is based on my younger daughter Ellie. Some fun stuff I did in between was: Two luxury travel books under Edition Didier Miller’s Chic Collection (Honeymoon Chic and Singapore Chic). I helped with strategic marketing and communications for these firms. Over the years, I have worked at The Straits Times as a copytaster on the foreign desk, an entertainment reporter for Life! section, a political journalist and a sub-editor.Īfter the birth of my two children (Gabby and Ellie), I worked as an editorial consultant working with government bodies and corporations. So I decided I wanted to be a journalist and signed on as a scholar with SPH. Those days, if you wanted to be a writer, there really weren’t that many career options – jounalist, teacher or academic. That was why even though I was a science student till A-levels (I did Math C, Further Math, Chemistry and Physics!!), I switched to Literature when I went to university. So, I had to hear more about her very successful start to writing and publishing children’s fiction in Singapore.ġ) Tell us 3 things about your past work life before you started writing children’s books.Įliza: I knew from a very young age – from when I was in Primary 2 – that I wanted to be a writer. I had the pleasure of being on the same panel as Eliza at the Asian Festival of Children’s Content in 2013 where we had interesting conversations on our panel topic Survival and Success as a Singaporean Author. Today, Mummum talks to Eliza Teoh, author of the popular middle grade Ellie Belly Series and publisher of Bubbly Books.

Eliza teoh books