So Misguided

Plain words, uncommon sense

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Penguin UK and Harper Collins Canada

April 22, 2008 /

I have been remiss in my duties.

SoMisguided is my external brain. I like to post things here about clever online marketing campaigns and the book business but the first part of the year has totally had it’s way with me.

If you have a clever online campaign or if you’ve seen one your really liked, please let me know what I’ve missed. In turn, I promise to pay attention.

Here are 2 big ones I failed to write about in a timely fashion.

Penguin UK, We Tell Stories, www.wetellstories.co.uk
Penguin has a fantastic story generator on their website. Fairy tales and other works are revealed based on user input. I love it, really fun idea.

Harper Collins Canada March Mystery Madness
6 weeks, 64 books, 4 conferences, tonnes of “games,” and 1 winner. Deanna from Harper says, “essentially, it’s the NCAA basketball tournament only with mystery books.” A perfect description. I’ve totally missed on this one, but I understand there are 2 books left and you can still vote for your favourites in the poll here: http://www.harpercollins.ca/marchmysterymadness/poll.html

One person wins 64 books.

Know about a clever online marketing campaign involving books? Let me know.

Book Review: Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin

April 22, 2008 /

book review: Lavinia by Ursula K Le GuinLavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin is the story of the King’s daughter who Aeneas fights to claim in Vergil’s The Aeneid. I know this sounds heavy, but it’s not. Le Guin does a fantastic job of bringing a tertiary character to life.

Lavinia is about the war that takes place for Lavinia’s hand in marriage (which is really about the amount of land and goats the boy gets). Lavinia is a head-strong girl who grows up during the peaceful reign of her father and has to endure the trials and tribulations of suitors, her crazy mother who wants to marry her off to a cousin (ok in those days), and the war that takes place when a foreigner (Aeneas) arrives on the scene just after an oracle declares that Lavinia must be married to a foreigner. Despite seeing the guy once from a hilltop, Lavinia is super keen to follow orders. I think she’s looking for an escape from the cousin.

Trojan horses, Vergil’s The Aeneid, ancient Italy, prophecies and quick witted maidens: Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin offers a lot to like.

I give it a 4 out of 5. High entertainment value. The beginning was a little difficult to get into. I was having troubles figuring out who was narrating, Lavinian, Vergil? I’m sure the blame rests with me and not with Le Guin.

Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin, published by Harcourt Books.

Chronicle Book Reviews: Picture Books for Art Lovers

April 13, 2008 /

One of the great things about reviewing books is getting a chance to look at books that I wouldn’t normally choose for myself. For example, picture books. I have a small collection of picture books that I’ve bought because of the incredible artwork but these are not books I actively seek–unless I’m buying for my friends’ kids. (Ok, I secretly look at lots of picture books because I like illustration. I even hang out at “Make Things Night” with friends who are illustrators I just a hanger on.)

Raincoast Books recently sent me a couple of new Spring books from Chronicle Books that fall under the “beautiful artwork” category. They also have lovely stories.

Grandma Calls Me Beautiful: picture book from Chronicle BooksGrandma Calls Me Beautiful by Barbara M. Joosse and illustrated by Barbara Lavallee
Team Barbara is well known to me because they previously published a very popular series called Mama, Do You Love Me and Papa, Do You Love Me. These were simple story books about a parents unconditional love. Barbara Lavallee’s watercolour illustrations are spectacular. In this book the setting appears to be Hawaii. I love the way she depicts Hawaiians and Alaskans in her paintings.

Wave by Suzy Lee
No text in this book. It’s a great graphic story book about a little girl playing in the waves. This is a fun book. Simple, beautiful. Black, white, blue and fun all over. I wanted to play in the waves after looking at this book. If I’m not mistaken this is the same Suzy Lee who published a very cheeky book called The Black Bird.

Little Hoot by Amy Krouse Rosental and Jen Corace
Amy and Jen are the creators of Little Pea, one of my favourite picture books of all time. Little Pea is about a little pea whose parents force him to eat all his candy. It’s horrible: candy for breakfast, sweets at lunch, treats at dinner. Little Pea just wants his veggies. Little Hoot has a similar problem. He’s a little owl and his parents won’t let him go to bed early. Owls stay up late! And that’s that.

Only in Dreams: a Paul Frank Book by Parker Jacobs
Julius the Monkey is brought to life in the Paul Frank Books. I love this monkey. Who doesn’t love monkeys? The colours are bold! In this story Julius is off to dreamland. My favourite page is Julius paddling down a strawberry-milk river, near a frosted-cupcake village. I like this dream a lot.

Chronicle Books isn’t the only publisher with great picture books that take an irreverent approach to kids books. Harcourt Books has a fab book this season too.

Help Me, Mr. Mutt: Expert Answers for Dogs with People Problems by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel
“Are you always in the doghouse? Don’t yelp, get help! Write to Mr. Mutt, Canine Counselor … Speedy replies guaranteed, complete with diagrams and tips. Help Me, Mr. Mutt is a hilarious collection of letters from dogs seeking advice. Totally brilliant.

Enter the Harcourt Books Contest for a chance to win a copy of Help Me, Mr. Mutt.

Janet and Susan has have an interview about writing the book. Get the inside scoop. Mr. Mutt is super cute. Find out if he or any of the other pups are based on Janet or Susan’s pets.

Figure Skating Blog Rocks

April 8, 2008 /

I haven’t written about tap dancing for a while so let me tell you about figure skating.

My friend Julie, who I visited in Malta last year, is back in town and actively promoting her figure skating blog, called Boot and Blade.

It’s an interesting look into the figure skating world from the perspective of someone who spent an awful lot of time on the rink skating and coaching. I have a passing interest in figure skating but Julie definitely knows how to hook me. I think I even watched part of the World’s with her last year just so I could get the inside scoop on who should or shouldn’t win and what moves were tough vs. crowd pleasers.

Check out 8 of the Worst Figure-Skating Falls.

Here’s the first.

Boot and Blade: Figure-Skating Blog by Julie Szabo

Canadian Housing and Renewal Association

April 8, 2008 /

CHRA Annual Congress
Did you meet me at CHRA Annual Congress: Breaking New Ground, April 2-5?

I was recently asked to share my social media expertise as a speaker at the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association’s Breaking New Ground Conference in Vancouver. The conference focus was Canada’s social housing sector, with the purpose of questioning traditional approaches to housing issues and offering fresh perspectives. In my case we were looking at traditional media approaches and fresh perspectives on media, in particular how CHRA could use online media to get support for affordable housing issues.

Canadian Housing and Renewal Association was established in 1968 and is a national non-profit organization dedicated to supporting and strengthening the social housing sector.

My workshop was “Everything you wanted to know about blogging, Facebook, and independent daily online magazines but were afraid to ask…”

You can see the full write up on Boxcar Marketing.

And if you are interested in community planning or housing issues, check out Rachael Ashe’s recap of some of the examples we found of communities using online tools to do community planning: Community Planning Examples.

Attention Vancouver Publishing Folks

April 8, 2008 /

One of the publishing circles that I’m involved with is organizing a meet-up for young(ish) publishing folk.

Quote: You’re experienced, gifted and… an assistant. Or an intern–for the third year in a row. You’ve got big ideas and know that someday there’ll be a place for you at the top. Maybe you’re even thinking of starting your own publishing enterprise.

Are you ready? Is the industry ready?

The issue of succession is on the horizon. You’re the future of the Canadian publishing scene, but are you getting the training, opportunities and recognition you need? How can we make sure our industry thrives in the face of new technology, shrinking grants and a diversifying workforce? How can we become the next industry leaders?

Join us for a brainstorming session. We’ll be presenting ideas to the ABPBC and others and we want your input!

Thursday, April 10, 7:30pm at the Legion – 3917 Main St (@ 23rd)

Vote for Pixton

April 2, 2008 /

Back in January, I told you about a cool comic creator tool called Pixton

Here’s my first cartoon:
“Sam Goes on Holiday”

image

Well, the fab creators, Clive and Daina, were awarded “Site of the Day” by Adobe back in February. Interest in the site has continued to grow and now [big news drum roll] Pixton is a finalist in the “Flash in the Can” awards!

FITC (Flash in the Can) is sort of like the Oscars for websites. Prestige. Exposure. Red carpet glam. Actually, I’m not sure about the red carpet, but Clive was talking about flying out to the awards and being required to have an speech.

Pixton is also eligible for the “People’s Choice Award”. Please consider voting for Pixton at http://awards.fitc.ca/pc/

1. See Pixton in the “self-promotional” category.
2. Choose Pixton, enter your name and email address, and click “Submit Vote”. The system counts one vote per address.

Please pass this one.

http://www.pixton.com/comic/bhb99g2q
http://awards.fitc.ca/pc/

Good luck Clive + Daina!

Get Your Knives Out and Your Cigars

April 1, 2008 /

Two of my incredibly talented Toronto friends are musicians and they happen to be playing together on Wednesday, April 9.

If you’re in TO, please consider going.

Craig Konyu of Yukon Cigar is playing The Cameron House in Toronto, on Wednesday, April 9, 2008. He is joined by super musical pal, Patrick Brealey (who, contrary to my blog title will be playing without his Knives–it’s Patrick Brealey and The Knives).

Schedule yourselves accordingly:

9:00 to 10:00 = Patrick Brealey
10:00 to 11:00 = Yukon Cigar
11:00 to 12:00 = A set of Neil Young tunes performed by above singing sensations.

Need a sound preview: www.myspace.com/yukoncigar (or check out www.yukoncigar.com). Patrick can be found at www.patrickbrealey.com.

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