The Book Broads

 

 Youth Literacy: A Discussion with The Book Broads [28:18m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (370)

Kim and I sat down in Starbucks this afternoon to talk about youth literacy. As usual, we cover a variety of topics related to this huge issue.

Some books that we talk about in this recording are:

- Halo, by Alexadra Adornetto
-  The Guardian, by C.J. Gosling (to be released in 2011)

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What a delight to talk about WordPress, social media, eBooks, and other online opportunities for editors with participants in the Editors’ Association of Canada [#EAC] workshop. This workshop was held on the SFU campus at Harbour Centre in Vancouver, and we had a large and friendly group that participated eagerly with questions and discussion. George Plumley (yeah, Kim’s hubby, and Author of WordPress 24-Hour Trainer, and another new WordPress-related book coming out shortly) joined us as an Honourary Broad to spearhead our day with one of his famous WordPress talks.

The job of Editors is changing rapidly these days. Much of our discussion revolved around how Editors can profit from new opportunities in the world of digital publishing, whether it be in blogging, eBooks, or in creating and conceiving social media messaging and content. Content is what drives the new digital economy, and Editors are needed more now than ever.

Participants were very generous with their comments after the session, and we were very flattered to hear things like; ”Best communicators I’ve sat in any class with”, “Overall a very interesting [workshop] from a bunch of personable, intelligent, witty folks.”, and ”Brain full. Very full. Thank you! I learned a lot and am really glad I came.” You are most welcome – we’d love to do more of these sessions! WE LOVE EDITORS!

Thanks to everyone who attended the workshop, and to the EAC for having us as presenters. Please keep in touch with us, as we’d love to know how you use the materials.

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Kim says she’s not a writer. Peggy and Angela disagree.  In this podcast, we explore what makes a writer. We talk about having a story to tell, the process of writing and firmly agree that the length of a written work doesn’t matter. 

Tell us what you think Kim should write. Leave your thoughts in the comments and we’ll do a follow up podcast in future to let you know what happens.

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(Kim here) had the great pleasure to chat with Thora Howell. Thora is one of the people who is part of Nanaimo’s Bookfest. This great, fun kid’s book festival happens on May 1st. Check out www.bookfest.ca.

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Last weekend Peggy, Angela and moi, Kim, had a work retreat on Gabriola Island. We talked books, drank booze, ate great food and met with children’s book illustrator and author, Dianna Bonder. We had the great pleasure to hang out at her abode, peruse her studio and check out some of her new art work – we LOVED the pirate theme. Arrrrr!

Check out Dianna’s website at www.diannabonder.com. She does do some book store visits and she is a popular author for schools around Canada – she is heading to the Kelowna area soon… lucky kids who get to hear her talk about her work.  She is also a featured author/illustrator at Nanaimo’s Bookfest this Spring. More info to come on that.

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Nothing to do this month? It’s not too late to join at NanoWriMo.org, an alliance of authors each striving to write a 50,000 word novel by midnight Nov. 30th.

How does it work? You set up a profile, upload things like your avatar, a cover image for your book, a brief excerpt of your novel, and tell your account where you are on the planet.

Then you start writing. And writing. And writing some more. There are real-life meetups for particular cities where people get together with their laptops and write like fiends, fueled by caffeine and other sustenance, encouraging each other to keep up the daily word count.

Here’s the crux of it: once in a while, you copy the plain text of your entire manuscript, and paste it into a small field on your account at the site. A little javascript app performs an official word count of your book, and posts that count to your your public profile, but does not post the text of your novel. It promptly deletes the text you posted in there – nobody can go on to read your novel off the site.

The site organizers are very clear about this not being the next great piece of world literature, and that the focus is on quantity rather than quality. The act of writing is exciting, cathartic, energizing, and creative. It’s about the experience.

The organizers also run a fantastic youth writing program. Why not show your support by buying a T-shirt? Then write your own bad novel, just like I am!

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