There are a couple of exciting new developments to mention today: The first Eastlit app for tablets and smart phones, and Eastlit Live.

Eastlit Live

Eastlit Live is an attempt to move beyond just written words. Now we are in the 21st century. That means multimedia and mobility. In an attempt to keep up with the world, we are introducing a new concept. We call this Eastlit Live. At Eastlit we want to introduce a multimedia approach to literature.

This approach though melds the new and traditional. We all know of poetry readings and storytelling. Both have a long history. Or maybe it should be something more modern limited only by the imagination of the creator.

Well now we have set up an Eastlit You Tube channel called Eastlitlive so that you can showcase your poetry reading, readings of your short stories, interviews or other artistic offerings. We want this to be a service for our contributors. And we see it as a way you can promote yourself. We accept anything that is within the normal guidelines. This means connected to or from East and Southeast Asia and not of an adult nature. On Eastlit Live channel we will host anything submitted that meets our guidelines.This is slightly different from the Eastlit Journal where we scrutinize everything. However, what we highlight in the actual journal will still go through this process. And we will be highlighting the best of what we receive every month.

We plan on launching this new initiative as soon as we can. That relies on you, though. So get your videos in now! Oh if you have questions, please feel free to ask through our contact form or by e-mail contact. I will let you know more as this develops. As there is nothing up yet, just subscribe to the channel if interested. We hope it will not be long before we have something for you.

How do you send them? Well just send me a link to a Dropbox file, Google Drive file or any other way you can think of. You can submit these links or files through the normal submission e-mail, or through our g-mail. Submissions will be put up as soon as possible on You Tube. Plus, every monthly issue of Eastlit will feature a page highlighting and embedding what our editors liked most.

Android App

I have been talking about this since the launch of Eastlit. And the app is another aspect of the Eastlit Live concept. Well, now it is in the Google Playstore. You can find it via the link in the heading. You can also go the Play Store and search Eastlit. It would be great if all of you Android users could give it a go and send me some feedback to the normal e-mails etc. The version out is a simple one, but with 3000+ android phones it has to be I guess. At the moment you can access the whole site. I am not sure if that is the way to go on a mobile though. However, I thought it better to await feedback. There are also possibilities of including extra more social aspects. In the end I decided it was better to await feedback rather than decide myself.

This version does have a small mobile adverts panel. It costs to add these developments to Eastlit, so I have little choice but to seek some ways of recouping a little of that cost. If there is interest in iPhone or Windows Phone apps, let me know. These can be created too. Development though for both is more expensive.

Anyway, I would appreciate any feedback on:

• What you would like to see included.
• What pages you would like to see removed.
• Comments on design, aesthetics etc

Other News:

Anna Yin has sent a copy of her recent book Inhaling the Silence to be reviewed. Hopefully, that review will be in the September issue of Eastlit. Information on Anna’s book can be found at the site of Mosaic who published it.

Oh and of course don’t forget the next issue of Eastlit will be out on August 1, 2013.

Cheers.

Graham.