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midsummer is a new summer floral range that is available now in paperchase stores and online. the design is a result of a collaboration between paperchase and designer jillian phillips and features a lovely collage of vintage elements and patterns. as its a female range you can find midsummer not only on stationery but also on picture frames, bags, purses, a compact mirror, and much more.
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talking of femine designs we end this 'paperchase week' with lovely floral designs on accessories on this collection from french designer label lalé, available now in paperchase at tottenham court road in london.
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Guest author Sarah Albee is visiting Teachers Write to talk nonfiction and images today. I got to spend a few days writing with Sarah at our retreat on Lake Champlain recently, and she is the sort of person you wish lived next door all the time instead of just for a few days a year. Sarah wrote POOP HAPPENED: A HISTORY OF THE WORLD FROM THE BOTTOM UP, which immediately tells you that a) she is a history and science geek, and b) she has a great sense of humor. You can get to know her a little more at her website. Now…here’s Sarah!
Hello, teachers and librarians! Welcome to Nonfiction Friday! (I just made that up. Hope you don’t mind, Kate.)
I am honored to have been invited by Kate to participate in this virtual summer writing camp. I’ve been following your daily postings and am amazed at the high-level discussions about craft, character, and setting. If you’re up for putting on your nonfiction-writers’ hats today, I thought I’d launch the discussion by talking about how I approach nonfiction—and particularly history.
I’m going to start by sharing with you the shrewdest career move I ever made: *drumroll* I married a history teacher. I have learned a lot from my husband about how to make history fun, and interesting, and relevant. My goal as a writer is pretty close to his goal as a teacher: to reach that ever-elusive group of kids who think they don’t like history, and to get them excited about it. Wait. We’ve gone too long without a visual. Here’s a picture of my husband:
Photo by Gaby Hoffman
Here’s another thing I’ve learned from my history-teacher-husband: there are always going to be those self-motivated, naturally-curious, superstar kids who are born loving history. But by the time kids land in his high school classroom, the vast majority of them have decided that history is boring. These are the kids he has to win over. As a middle-grade writer, my goal is to start converting them earlier.
I’m constantly scheming up ways to snag the attention of a reluctant reader, to get him or her to open my book or read my history blog. I try to approach my topic from an offbeat angle, something a kid will relate to. Like the history of how civilizations from the Stone Age to the present have dealt with their waste. Or how bugs have affected human history.
I also try to use humor wherever possible. Kids of all ages love to laugh. Maybe this approach stems from my Sesame Street background (I worked there for nine years). We subversively disguised our preschool teaching curriculum in the form of game shows, TV commercials, silly songs, and parodies. (My book Brought to you by the Letter B! is still one of my proudest achievements!)
But my most effective attention-grabbing strategy is to use visuals to enhance my topic. This will come as a surprise to none of you, of course—you’re all educators. But you’re wearing your writers’ hats today.
I’m constantly asking myself, what makes a compelling picture? What will draw kids into the book?
On my blog, I like to lead with the coolest picture I can find. Like this one in a post about what babies used to wear.
I've been copy-editing all day - that is, answering the copy editor's queries. Emailing back with the solutions – with what I hope are the solutions – I was a bit discouraged to see how short the document was, considering it was a day's work. Or, six hours, to be precise – because I do feel the need to be precise, and correct, and maybe even a bit pedantic, because that's what copy editing is. That's probably why these three sentences have already been rewritten several times. (Three because I'm just counting the first three, not the explanatory fourth, or this explanatory fifth.)
But I think the real reason copy editing takes so long and feels so draining, is that we need to jump back and forth between the pedantry of noticing unintended rhymes (yes, even after reading aloud, a few creep in), or of the two words that have been repeated in one sentence, or the phrase that has been lovingly, sickeningly, reused six times in the book. My editor once told me that every author seems to have one word or phrase that they get stuck on for different books, but it's little comfort. They're often words I don't even particularly like, and I have no idea why they've snuck in so persistently.
That unfinished comparison was of course a trick to see if you were paying attention with good copy-editing eyes. To start again: We need to jump back and forth between pedantry and creativity. It's very easy to get stuck on replacing the word that seems to be the problem: replace 'too' with 'also' because you used 'too' in the previous sentence. Except that for some reason, 'also' just sounds awkward there. And you can't replace the previous one because it's the other meaning of too.
At that point you need to get up, walk away from the computer, let the dog out, call the dog back in from digging in the mud, wash the dog, wash the floor (okay, maybe the copy editing wasn't six hours straight). But often the instant you walk away from the screen, you see a completely different, even simpler, and much better way of saying that very simple sentence.
(If you're curious, this copy edit was on the fifth Rainbow Street Shelter series: STOLEN! A Pony Called Pebbles. ABANDONED! A Lion Called Kiki has just been released, so I think Pebbles will be published in November this year. With a bit of luck, we'll even have finished the copy edits by then.)
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For your consideration - a half dozen new stories to stir the imagination and ignite the emotions. Something for everyone in this collection.
But first, a sneak peak at the movie version of Bless Me, Ultima, slated for a premiere in El Paso later this year. A movie, at last. Very appropriate as the world celebrates the 40th anniversary of the publication of one of America's greatest novels.
Published for the first time in English, an atmospheric, brilliant novel from an internationally bestselling literary luminary.
Roberto Ampuero’s novels starring the wonderfully roguish Cayetano Brulé are an international sensation. In The Neruda Case, readers are introduced to Cayetano as he takes on his first case as a private eye. Set against the fraught political world of pre-Pinochet Chile, Castro’s Cuba, and perilous behind-the-Wall East Berlin, this mystery spans countries, cultures, and political ideas, and features one of literature’s most beloved figures—Pablo Neruda.
Cayetano meets the poet at a party in Chile in the 1970s. The dying Neruda recruits Cayetano to help him solve the last great mystery of his life. As Cayetano fumbles around his first case, finding it hard to embrace the new inspector identity foisted upon him, he begins to learn more about Neruda’s hidden agenda. Neruda sends him on a whirlwind expedition around the world, ending back in Chile, where Pinochet’s coup plays out against the final revelations of their journey.
Evocative, romantic, and full of intrigue, Ampuero’s novel is both a glimpse into the life of Pablo Neruda as death approaches and a political thriller that unfolds during the fiercely convulsive end of an era.
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Austin Mahone is an average 16-year-old 10th grader from San Antonio, Texas. . . except that he has a massive number of fans on his video channel where he puts up his own music videos. He now has 2 original songs, "11:11" and his newest song which I am addicted to, "Say Somethin." Marie Morreale, famous for her interview with One Direction, met Austin a few weeks ago and got the scoop on this all-American hottie. Read on for the interview and the adorable picture of Austin in his room with all his fan mail plastered all over the walls.
Q: You started this on your own. How did you do it? Austin: I started putting videos on YouTube about 2 years ago with my best friend, and then I made a separate channel and just made covers of popular songs. Then I started travelling to do like birthday parties, and meeting lots of different people and travelling to different states and doing live performances.
Q: When did you first decide that you wanted to become a performer? Austin: My first instrument was drums and I started playing that when I was 6, and then I played guitar at 14 and piano like a couple months ago. And the more I play music and practice all those instruments, the more it just felt like this is what I wanted to do, like that’s what was like supposed to happen for me.
Q: Who are your musical influences? Austin: Probably Drake and Justin [Bieber] and Ne-Yo. I just met Justin Bieber today at the Z100 New York Elvis Duran show.
Q: What would your perfect day be? Austin: Today. Today was a perfect day. I got up. I didn't feel tired even though I got up at 6 o'clock, had a very nice breakfast, got a nice ride to ride in, very comfortable. I met my biggest inspiration. I met this really big radio guy, got to be on like the biggest radio station ever, and just doing interviews like this. It's so much fun.
Q: Your fans have a fun nickname. How did that come about? Austin: Mahomies. It was actually, me and my friend were talking about how clever “beliebers” were, and we were trying to come up with like fan names. Like two years ago we were like, “If we had a fan base, what would our fans be called?” I just came up with Mahomies and I thought it sounded cool.
Q: What’s your most unusual hidden talent? Austin: Um, there’s so many. [Laughter] I can wiggle my ears. I’m double-jointed on my thumbs. I can pull it back. It looks like I broke it.
Q: What's your favorite sport? Austin: Basketball. I used to play point guard when I was playing in school. And I used to play football. I was a wide receiver.
Q: What is your favorite team? Austin: Um, the Spurs. Gotta root for the home team.
Q: What kind of music do you listen to? Austin: I listen to a lot of R&B, hip hop, pop, some o
Category: Young Adult Paranormal Fiction Keywords: Slovakia, folklore, prejudice, bullying Format: Hardcover Source: Sent for review by Lee & Low
Synopsis:
When Tomas was six, someone — something — tried to drown him. And burn him to a crisp. Tomas survived, but whatever was trying to kill him freaked out his parents enough to convince them to move from Slovakia to the United States.
Now sixteen-year-old Tomas and his family are back in Slovakia, and that something still lurks somewhere. Nearby. It wants to drown him again and put his soul in a teacup. And that’s not all. There’s also the fire víla, the water ghost, pitchfork-happy city folk, and Death herself who are after him.
If Tomas wants to survive, he'll have to embrace the meaning behind the Slovak proverb, So smrťou ešte nik zmluvu neurobil. With Death, nobody makes a pact.
Alethea's review:
I will admit, I was a little sidetracked by the cover when I first received this book. There's just something too unreal about Tomas's face and the cutesy reaper logo on his shirt. He's a little too smirky. When I finally started the book, there were all these references to movies and American culture that I felt were a bit gratuitous and designed to draw in the reluctant reader. I put the book down for a while.
When I started it a second time (months later), I couldn't put it down! I could understand the culture shock that Tomas was going through, having gone back to my homeland to live (permanently, or so I thought at the time) after spending a few years in America. I found myself trying to sound out the Slovak as I went along. Vodník definitely gets points for originality--this is pretty uncommon territory for mainstream young adult novels.
I really enjoyed the storytelling and characterization in this novel. After a few chapters it became apparent to me that this was much more than an attempt to be different--Moore really engages the reader not just with geek references and creepy folktales, but also with family dynamics. The way Tomas interacts with his parents, his cousin Katka, and Uncle Lubos grounds this fantastic story and made him relatable despite the far-out mythology surrounding him.
2 Comments on Vodnik - Review, last added: 7/15/2012
At Muslimah Media Watch they report on Censorship and contemporary Hausa literature, with a focus on littattafan soyayya -- the 'Onitsha market literature' of the north (of Nigeria), centered in Kano.
They report on the efforts to censor and control local literary production -- but, at least for now:
Despite the precariousness of being under this constant threat of censorship however, the popular novels knowns littattafan soyayya continue to thrive today, providing a source of entertainment for a wide and growing audience.
(Disappointingly, I haven't come across any examples of littattafan soyayya in translation yet; there are, however, numerous works of Onitsha market literature under review at the complete review; Kurt Thometz's collection, Life Turns Man Up and Down is a good place to start.)
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In The Daily Iowan Lu Shen reports on this year's University of Iowa's 'Life of Discovery' exchange program between the International Writing Program and the China Writers' Association, in Young Iowan, Chinese writers connect through literature; see also the official page.
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of João Ubaldo Ribeiro's House of the Fortunate Buddhas -- his contribution to Brazilian publisher Objetiva's Plenos Pecados-series on the seven deadly sins (in his case, the best of all: lust)
(There's actually another one of these under review at the site: Luis Fernando Verissimo's take on gluttony, The Club of Angels.)
Agent at Sheldon Fogelman Agency has agreed to be our Guest Critiquer for July. Sean works on children’s books for all ages at the Sheldon Fogelman Agency in NYC. His clients include Zachariah O’Hora, Hyewon Yum, Mark Fearing and Hillary Homzie.
He is drawn to flawed, multi-faceted characters with devastatingly concise writing in YA, and boy-friendly mysteries or adventures in MG. In picture books, he looks more for unforgettable characters, off-beat humor, and especially clever endings. He is actively looking for new clients, but he is not currently interested in high fantasy, message-driven stories, historical fiction or query letters that pose too many questions.
WRITERS: Please attach your double spaced, 12 point font, 23 line first page to an e-mail and send it to kathy(dot)temean(at)gmail(dot)com. Also cut and paste it into the body of the e-mail. Put “July 23rd First Page Prompt” in the subject line.
ILLUSTRATORS: You still have until July 26th to submit an illustration for June. I’m looking for illustrations that are “Out of this world”. I am going to let you interpret that and use your imagination. So show off a little and send it something for July. I will post the illustrations as they come in during the month, but I will definitely post all by July 31st. Please make sure the illustration is at least 500 pixels wide and include a blurb about yourself and a link to see more of your work. Please send it to kathy(dot)temean(at)gmail(dot)com and put “June Illustration” in the subject box.
The first bit of publicity I was asked to do for the US launch of Wolfborn was a letter to my teenage self for a blog called "Dear Teen Me" (I spotted Tristan Bancks there, didn't know he started life as an actor!). Okay, I can do that easily enough. I'm working on it. Author bio? Check! Author photo? No problem!
Then they asked for a pic of the author as a teenager. Now, that was a problem. There are not as many photos of me as you might think, given what a camera ham I am. I love having my photo taken as long as I can pose, because unposed photos make me look awful. I always posed for the camera when newspapers or TV journalists were in sight. I have a tattered photo of me with some other students taken at Monash University when we were being political, but by then I was about twenty. There was one amazing picture taken of a long line of Monash students for the Age newspaper. Even tiny and one of a huge crowd, I was recognisable, and friends said, "Hey, Sue, is that you?" It was. I'm a ham, I tell you!
But family-wise I tend to be on the other side of the camera and forget to get my own picture taken. And there are very few informal family/friend photos of me over the age of ten or eleven.
The other night I happened to be at my mother's home, where all my childhood photos are kept. I was tempted to scan one of the photos of me in my early twenties, which I only know are in my twenties because they had the family dog, Bimbo, who only appeared in our lives when I was about twenty. Hey, no one would notice!
But I decided not to cheat unless I absolutely had to. And while all the photos of me as a teenager were taken by a professional photographer for a special occasion such as a wedding, there were one or two that might work for me. I had the beehive hairdo so popular when I was growing up and hated it then as I do now. In fact, when my sister had her engagement party, I got a haircut just so I wouldn't have to have my hair done up by the hairdresser.
And I found and scanned this photo, in which I have short hair and a pixie-ish grin. You get to see this before Dear Teen Me, though I will, of course, post a link when it appears much later this year.
Here it is.
It feels strange looking back over the years at that day, through this photo. We had the party at my Dad's cousin Helen's home, which was bigger than ours (we lived in a flat at the time - a decent-sized flat, but still too small for a party and the neighbours wouldn't like it). It was a fine day and I invited my friends Harvey and Denise. The three of us went for a walk when Denise was a little dizzy.
My brother-in-law-to-be asked my mother, "Do you mind if I call you Mum?" and he has done that ever since, and treated her as a mother.
And here I am in the garden, posing as usual! :-)
I would have liked to find the picture of me at seventeen in the school production of Bye, Bye Birdie, a photo taken backstage; I think I had just made a joke and those around me are looking at me and smiling. That was in the school magazine and who knows where THAT is?
So this will have to be it. Hope you like it!
3 Comments on Preparing for Publicity Over There..., last added: 7/14/2012
Thanks! I ony found out Wednesday morning. I got an email with no subject line from someone whose name I didn't recognise and thought it might be another review request. And instead it was from a lady who said she was handling the publicity for my book over there and could I please write something for this blog. my eyes bulged out of my head! But sure enough, there was a CC to the rights day at RHA. All aboveboard, nobody playing a joke on me. I really, really needed some good news about then.
Thanks for liking the photo - and every photo has a story, doesn't t? :-)
1. Well this has been a $$$ week. Our water heater died. You'd think, no problem. Just go to Home Depot and buy another one, right?
Wrong. We found out our city requires a permit for any home improvement like water heaters. We have to file a permit and have a safety inspector come out and make sure our water heater meets the safety code.
Yes, seriously. And yes, our $500 heater ended up costing over double that as the safety code is changed every 3 years and our heater lasted 14 years. On the upside? I now can have a warm shower.
2. I did read this:
What can I say? Denise nails down the conflict/struggles sisters have. Only in this one the so-called 'perfect' sister has a deadly secret. What I love about this book is that secret is woven in at the beginning and also the emotions are right on the mark!
YA Books Central review coming soon!
3. Starting the latest Heather Wells story by Meg Cabot
4. Loving these Starbucks Refresher drinks that now are in individual packages.
I add fresh boysenberries and diet Sprite to my drinks. Nommy!
5. Want to start reading some of these short stories in the DIVERSE ENERGIES anthology by Tu Books
Love this publisher because it recognizes the need for more multicultural YAs. I'm a huge supporter of publishers that publish books that reflect not only my own multiracial background but others as well.
**Guilty pleasure:
My city is going to have it's first Farmer's Market:
Can't wait to see what nommy fruits/veggies are available.
Edison and the Dinosaur Zoo is the debut novel by award winning animation director Nick Mackie.
Schoolboy Edison Hope’s greatest wish has just come true—he has been given a dream job at the worlds only Dinosaur Zoo! However a violent robbery at the zoo sets in motion a series of events that puts Edison’s teenage life in danger.
When a mysterious stranger starts to stalk him after a serious accident Edison has to make some life changing decisions. How far will he go to protect his family, his job and the zoo?
It’s not the dinosaurs that Edison needs to be wary of—it’s the people!
A coming of age story, that builds to a dangerous and shocking conclusion.
Edison and the Dinosaur Zoo is available as kindle and paperback from Amazon and the author site.
About the Author: Nick Mackie is an award-winning animator, director and illustrator.
As a creative he has worked for many years in the animation industry including many years at the Oscar winning Aardman Animations.
Nick has won a BBC Talent and a Royal Television Society award for his animation work. His films have been screened around the globe in film festivals such as Annecy, Edinburgh, Portland, London and numerous others.
He lives in the South West of England with his family.
Presently he is writing the second book in the ‘Dinosaur Zoo’ series and working on a pre-school children’s television project.
Trust Me Too is the second anthology published by Ford Street Publishing, because Trust Me!, the first one, was so very popular that publisher Paul Collins decided to do a second one and that one looks like being a hit also. I have stories in both books - historical fiction set in the 1960s. The current anthology features my story "Call Him Ringo", about a teenage girl fan of the Beatles who plays the drums and has an unexpected encounter with the Beatles drummer who isn't Ringo. I'm making my delighted way through the anthology - who would have thought I'd be in there with the likes of Isobelle Carmody, Lucy Sussex, Doug McLeod, Kerry Greenwood, Jack Heath, George Ivanoff... oh, there are so many! And the genres are widespread - history, crime, science fiction, fantasy, "Twilight Zone", humour, take your pick. Isobelle Carmody's story is set in the universe of Obernewtyn and if you want to read it, you have to get this book! ;-)
Naturally, Ford Street wants to launch this. Last time it was at the State Library of Victoria and there was a huge signing in the upstairs room where we usually have nibbles before Booktalkers, after the official launch at the Village Roadshow Theatrette. This time, Paul decided to run a competition for secondary schools in Melbourne and Sydney and the winners, who will get to have a large bunch of writers descend on them in the evening are Paramatta High next week and Princes Hill Secondary College in Melbourne Friday July 27th. The events are free and all welcome, but you need to book. If you're going in Sydney, you'll get to see the likes of the wonderful Oliver Phommavanh, who had my students rolling around laughing when we went to see him at the State Library, and here's the list for Melbourne, as Paul Collins sent it to libraries:
"How would you like the following authors and illustrators to attend your school or municipal library FREE?
Krista Bell Sue Bursztynski Isobelle Carmody Paul Collins Meredith Costain George Ivanoff Felicity Marshall Marc McBride Hazel Edwards David Miller Sean McMullen Michael Panckridge Leigh Hobbs Wendy Orr Corinne Fenton Judith Rossell Lucy Sussex Kim Kane Gabrielle Wang Jenny Mounfield Margaret Clark Janeen Brian Kirsty Murray*
Sounds too good to be true? It's not! Isobelle Carmody will read from her Obernewtyn prequel and launch Trust Me Too on July 27. We're looking at a commencement time of around 6 pm."
Notice what it says about Isobelle Carmody? She's reading from her story! If you've been following the Obernewtyn
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From Dancing on Mountains : An Anthology of Women's Spiritual Writings by Kathy Keay, pg. 126.
Courage
A candle is a protest at midnight.
It is a non-conformist.
It says to the darkness,
'I beg to differ'.
An Indian Proverb: Do not be afraid of standing up for what you believe; what you do, no matter how small, will make a difference.
A novel, a poem, a picture book, a song, a greeting card
8 Comments on No Matter How Small, last added: 7/13/2012
Letters! ah, personal letters ARE a dying art form. To say what you mean transparently yet beautifully used to be common practice.<br /><br />Now, of course, we have much more convenient forms of communication.<br /><br />Thanks for the reminder, Carol.<br /><br />Jean
Baltimore Illustrator Jaime Zollars is one of my favorites. Even after lots of time has passed, I will find myself reminded of Jaime's work for whatever reason and I'll Google her name to see what she's been up to. This year, it looks like Jaime redesigned her web site. She's got a LOT of work up, in the many genres she works in, all neatly organized and thoughtfully categorized. In fact, you'd never know what an art treasure trove lies under the surface of the site, judging by the simple, clean design. The Gallery, Print and Fun pages each have several subsections detailing specific genres and/or projects (and of course children's books is in there!). She's also got a tour of her Baltimore studio (what person, artist or not, doesn't enjoy peeking into another artists' studio?) There is a blog too which is part of the overall new site. I'd be remiss if I did not mention her old blog as well, which is off-the-grid now, but it's findable by Googling. Check out some of her other assignment work here --much of it for children's market. Look, I'm not even mentioning all of the goodies she has for you. Check out her site for yourself. It's full of goodies... speacking of goodies, she also has a shop-- so check that out, too. :D
1 Comments on Jaime Zollars, last added: 7/13/2012
It’s Comicon. There’s a lot going on, and it’s easy to miss what’s been happening. Here’s a list of stories we ran on Thursday, starting in the morning and ending with Neil Gaiman’s return to Sandman.
While at ALA Annual, I was super excited to see some of the new additions to familiar series that are forthcoming and it started me thinking about why series books are so popular, both for patrons and librarians.
Series books are all about familiarity. Patrons recognize characters from an early age and will eagerly settle into a new adventure with an old friend. Similarly librarians know that if they offer a Pigeon book to a young reader, there will be more books for that young reader to devour once they are done.
But my personal favorite way to use series books are in storytime. Librarians can easily use series books as a way to update older storytime plans. You’ve got a llama theme? Make sure you put the newest LLama LLama book in there and it’s suddenly fresh again.
It’s obvious why we should include these books in storytime, when kids suddenly shout delighted, “That’s an OLIVIA BOOK.” Their eyes light up and you see them settle down on the rug for a familiar character, for a brand-new adventure, for an excellent story.
Here are some other favorites to use in storytime, though I’m aiming to be a bit more contemporary since everyone knows about Arthur, Max and Ruby, and Curious George already:
Baby Owl, originally from I’m Not Cute by Jonathan Allen
Bear, originally from Bear In Underwear by Todd Doodler
Elephant and Piggie, originally from Today I Will Fly! by Mo Willems
Little Quack, originally from Little Quack by Lauren Thompson
Llama Llama, originally from Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney
Olivia, originally from Olivia by Ian Falconer
The Peas, originally from LMNO Peas by Keith Baker
Pete the Cat, originally from Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes by James Dean and Eric Litwin
Pigeon, originally from Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems
Rocket, originally from How Rocket Learned to Read by Tad Hills
Scaredy Squirrel, originally from Scaredy Squirrel by Melanie Watt
Splat the Cat, originally from Splat the Cat by Rob Scotton
But which series books are your favorites to use in storytime? Am I missing any that you love? Let me know in the comments!
Well, our crack Team Beat Elite are swarming all over San Diego, filing reports, having fun, and experiencing the Con in all its glory. (Been there, done that, got the tote bag.)
Meanwhile, back here at Stately Beat Manor, at what we’ve sardonically dubbed “The Undisclosed Location” (just in case someone decides to recreate Lex Luthor’s beachfront plan with a few nuclear missiles aimed at California), we’ve been monitoring the systems, editing reports, and excavating the chest freezer (we’re making a jambalaya of the freezer-burnt meat tonight, to have for tomorrow).
This isn’t quite a “studio coffee run” post, as I tend to ignore the many celebrity sightings at CCI, and because other staff do a better job. (I also don’t recognize most of the boldfaced names, so that’s another layer of disinterest.) But I do love animation, and while I don’t have a television, I am somewhat cognizant of the various media tribes and denominations which comprise the Great Geek Nation.
That said, here are some links of various reports. Stay tuned for reports for panels!
So, here we go!
➠ Nerdy Bird Jill Pantozzi interviews Thor Parker, Midtown Comics’ Social Marketing and Events Director, about National Geographic’s upcoming “Comic Store Heroes”. There’s a special airing on the NG Channel Friday at 8 PM ET.
Jill: And that brings up something the press, and fans, are likely to be talking about. What you just described is similar to what AMC did with Kevin Smith’sComic Book Men. It had a mixed reaction in the community as to how it portrayed us. I know I certainly had a strong opinion on it. What are your thoughts on that and the inevitable comparisons?
Thor: We all watched Comic Book Men when it came out. We’ve got a lot of big Kevin Smith fans at the store. When I saw it I could help but want more out of it I guess. I know that Kevin Smith’s name doesn’t go hand in hand with highbrow entertainment, but I think, and I beleive a lot of other people thought, the show could be so much more. I don’t blame the show for not providing the things the modern comic fan is looking for. That’s where we’ll come in I suppose. We’re striving to show how positive comics and the comic community as a whole is and can be. I don’t think Comic Book Men had a mission statement, but that would be close to what ours is.
National Geographic. Comics. *sniffle* The dream is coming true…
Here we go again, another July, another parade of movie stars and executives heading south to peddle their wares at Comic-Con. But before we all spend crazy money jetting in talent, booking lavish parties and crafting just the right teaser-trailer package, think for a moment: Is the Comic-Con crowd still the best audience on which to be blowing our marketing budget? A decade after Hall H became Hollywood’s must-stop venue on the path to the multiplex, what if Comic-Con is sort of over?
11 Comments on SDCC12: Watchtower Thursday: Media Edition, last added: 7/13/2012
You have to admit, though, that Comic-Con back in the ’90s isn’t the third/quarter of what it is NOW.
Hell, compare-and-contrast the SDCC captured in Mark Hamill’s COMIC BOOK: The Movie (filmed during the 2002 Con) and Morgan Spurlock’s COMIC-CON EPISODE IV (filmed at SDCC ‘10): what a difference just eight years make!
It’s a COMPLETELY different experience. And I don’t remember any Comic-Con tote bags from the ’90s; they just had those white plastic baggies with Rick Geary’s old Toucan logo on them… the ginormous WB bags just started appearing in the last 5 years…
Just sayin’.
/SDCCist
/SDCC ‘12 Day 1
Jimmie Robinson said, on 7/12/2012 11:17:00 PM
“Think [movie one] meets [movie two] by way of [movie three]!”
Okay, I got this comic…
Think BEYOND THUNDERDOME meets WANTED by way of ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK.
Where do I sign for my millions?
sroman said, on 7/13/2012 4:44:00 AM
“Think [movie one] meets [movie two] by way of [movie three]!”
Oh, then you’ve overheard my sales pitch at cons when I’m selling copies of THE SAGA OF PANDORA ZWIEBACK, my YA novel series, have you? ;-)
“It’s about a 16-year-old Goth who teams up with a 400-year-old, shape-shifting monster hunter. Think Ellen Page and Salma Hayek in a Hellboy movie.”
(Actually, I get the biggest laugh from that wordy description of the monster hunter, but the Hollywood high concept line is the punch line.)
He’s a benighted umbrella-wielding paramedic in drag. She’s a radical French-Canadian Valkyrie who can talk to animals. They fight crime!
He’s a war-weary overambitious matador whom everyone believes is mad. She’s a transdimensional gold-digging wrestler who hides her beauty behind a pair of thick-framed spectacles. They fight crime!
He’s a bookish native American rock star living undercover at Ringling Bros. Circus. She’s a blind nymphomaniac pearl diver from aristocratic European stock. They fight crime!
WriterGirl said, on 7/13/2012 8:03:00 AM
“Think [movie one] meets [movie two] by way of [movie three]!”
Yipee! It’s Mad Libs for movies!
sroman said, on 7/13/2012 8:25:00 AM
“Yipee! It’s Mad Libs for movies!”
And now you understand the awesome power of the “Hollywood high concept!” :D The most famous one is how SPEED was pitched: “It’s Die Hard…on a bus!”
Actually, this approach does work to get your idea across, especially when you’ve got maybe thirty seconds to a minute to pitch your project (book, comic, etc.) to any visitor to your convention booth.
If you can boil your concept down to one or two sentences, people will remember it. The “Ellen Page/Salma Hayek” line might sound goofy, but I’ve seen people quote it online when they mention my Pandora Zwieback series, and had others recall it when they see me at a show the following year. It’s a very effective method.
Torsten Adair said, on 7/13/2012 9:25:00 AM
2002 was my last Comic-Con.
I don’t remember any totes either, except for maybe some plastic bags. I think Viz might have done a few back then… I have most of the variations. Nowadays, I organize each show by stuffing all the loose papers into whatever free tote I pick up there. Then I toss it in a corner of my apartment.
I’m still searching for a picture of the petite waif who took the big red Smallville bag and turned it into a tube dress.
As for the new totes, it is not uncommon for attendees to sew the Warner bags into clothing. (dagnabbit! I can’t find a single photo! I coulda sworn I posted one from a previous Con!) Not just as as simple dresses, but as full Victorian clothing!
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By: Bowie Style,
on 7/12/2012
By: Kate Messner,
on 7/12/2012
Guest author Sarah Albee is visiting Teachers Write to talk nonfiction and images today. I got to spend a few days writing with Sarah at our retreat on Lake Champlain recently, and she is the sort of person you wish lived next door all the time instead of just for a few days a year. Sarah wrote POOP HAPPENED: A HISTORY OF THE WORLD FROM THE BOTTOM UP, which immediately tells you that a) she is a history and science geek, and b) she has a great sense of humor. You can get to know her a little more at her website. Now…here’s Sarah!
By: Wendy Orr,
on 7/12/2012
By: Manuel Ramos,
on 7/12/2012
By: Sonja C.,
on 7/12/2012
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By: alethea aka frootjoos,
on 7/12/2012
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Series books are all about familiarity. Patrons recognize characters from an early age and will eagerly settle into a new adventure with an old friend. Similarly librarians know that if they offer a Pigeon book to a young reader, there will be more books for that young reader to devour once they are done. 
It’s obvious why we should include these books in storytime, when kids suddenly shout delighted, “That’s an OLIVIA BOOK.” Their eyes light up and you see them settle down on the rug for a familiar character, for a brand-new adventure, for an excellent story. 
This one seems interesting. I often visit Slovakia and I love this country, so I think I could love this book too! :D
That quote is hilarious!!!!
I would definitely want to visit Slovakia!
Did you notice the face behind the guy on the cover?