On November 12, the Malta Book Fair again played host to Merlin Publishers’ interactive slide show presentation Tsek-Tsik.
The evening was peppered with witticisms and cultural references ranging from Malta’s love for the Eurovision, Juventus and the late Steve Jobs- Martina Portelli
As one of the fair’s highly anticipated events at the Mediterranean Conference Centre in Valletta, Merlin Publishers gave the third edition a special spin by renaming it Tsek-Tsik: Sneak Peek. This promised to allow the audience a glance at what goes on ‘behind the scenes’ in the publishing world. They did not disappoint.
As the iconic theme tunes of Hawaii Five-0, The A-Team, Batman and Wonder Woman ushered the audience in to the theatre, all were on the edge of their seats to see what Merlin had in store for this year’s edition of Tsek-Tsik.
Inspired – with permission – by the UK Society of Young Publishers’ Canon Tales and Tokyo’s Pecha Kucha Nights, the premise behind Tsek-Tsik: Sneak Peek remained the same as in previous years: 10 speakers with 15 slides each and 20 seconds for each slide.
The added ‘sneak peek’ brought with it a varied mix of tsektsieka (the speakers), each talking about an interesting project in the Merlin pipeline, including new titles by Merlin stalwart Trevor Żahra, Clare Azzopardi, Mark Camillerias well as the work of debut authors Joe Pace with the recently published It-Tielet Teorija and Ivan Bugeja, winner of this year’s Teenage Literature Award with Gimgħa, Sibt u Ħadd.
Another fresh slant at this year’s Tsek-Tsik: Sneak Peek was inviting readers like columnist and music critic Wayne Flask, doctor Joseph Vella and actor and teacher Roderick Vassallo to give their own respective take on Simon Bartolo’s Deformity, Loranne Vella’s Magna Mater and John Bonello’s Is-Sitt Aħwa, the final offering from theIl-Logħba ta’ l-Allat trilogy.
It was left in the capable hands of Merlin Publishers’ director of publishing Chris Gruppetta and head of design Pierre Portelli to give the audience a look into the dynamics of publishing, hinting at the publisher’s ‘leap of faith’ when it comes to publishing a manuscript and at the work behind the evolution of a book cover.
Save for the ‘sneak peek’ theme and the 20 seconds per slide, no limitations were put on thetsektsieka, resulting in a varied mix of presentations throughout the evening.
Some chose to speak of the inspiration behind their work as well as the research that goes into writing a book, while others chose to impart some of the wisdom abstracted from the titles their tsektsika was built around.
Of course, the evening was peppered with witticisms and cultural references ranging from Malta’s love for the Eurovision, Juventus and the late Steve Jobs to the‘photocopying phenomenon’ of book piracy and the transport reform saga. All this was done in the clever, fast-paced format thatTsek-Tsik has become known for.
With exactly the right amount of hilarity and food for thought, Tsek-Tsik: Sneak Peek definitely lived up to the keywords of speed, creativity, fun and theatre as another feather in the Merlin Publishers’ cap.
“It’s the last one – for now,” director of publishing Gruppetta told The Sunday Times, but thanks to Tsek-Tsik: Sneak Peek we can look forward to all the interesting projects Merlin Publishers have in the offing.”