Author Photos For Spooky Sudbury

In early July, Alexander and I took a quick road trip up through Tobermory (where we did some fishing), took the ferry to Manitoulin Island (where I took some photos), and on to Sudbury and Levack (to visit my Mom and where I could take some more photos for use in my new book)

Part of the reason for the trip (apart from a fun "boys adventure) was so that Jenny Jelen and I could get some author promo pictures for use for our forthcoming release, Spooky Sudbury (coming in late Sept 2013)

One beautiful afternoon, Jenny and I met with John and Shelley Robbie (of Joro Photography) to have some photos taken at High Falls (a local tourist attraction in Onaping Falls, the community we all grew up in)

Barnaby, naturally, made it into some of the shots.

Barnaby Bones, Mark Leslie & Jenny Jelen - Photo by Joro Photography

Here is a grouping of some of the great pictures taken by John.

An Adventure To Choose To Support

Remember the old Choose Your Own Adventure books? How would you like to do one in real life?

When I was doing a talk at the Ontario Writers Conference last year on the topic Digital Storytelling 360° I made a point of bringing up the possibility of writers crafting a story or even a mystery based on the GPS and or QR code function of a person's smartphone (it's at about 10 minutes in to the video) that brings them to or relies on physical world locations.

Interestingly enough, being part of that dream happened. 

I am delighted to be one of a group of authors taking part in a new collaborative writing project.  The other writers and I are creating writing Choose Your Own Adventures that you can do in real life!

Not only will the readers/participants actually get to stand where the story is happening but they can dictate what happens next, while exploring the weird and wonderful features of a new (or old!) city.

I will be penning the story that takes place in Toronto, Ontario.

It's a pretty progressive plan and an exciting project to be a part of.

But we need your help to get this project off the ground.

To do this we have set up a crowdfunding page for our project http://pozible.com/chooseadventure.

If you don’t know what crowdfunding is, it’s all explained on the page. But one thing to keep in mind is it involves rewards and they are amazing, including everything from signed books to Skype conversations with the authors.

If you are interested in seeing such a project get kick-started and could pledge to this project I would be greatly appreciative. Even if the only thing you can afford is to pass the word onto your friends, family, and colleges or just pledge $5, every bit counts! It really does.

We launched a couple of weeks ago and the funding and support is coming from around the globe.  But we still have a long way to go and really could use whatever support you can offer.

I mentioned that I am writing the Toronto story, if this project is able to establish the funding required.  But it will cost a lot to get this going, ensure all the writers are paid and that the technology and physical world elements are all in place to make this happen effectively.

Here are some of the stellar writers who will also be writing a choose your own adventure for this project:

Isobelle Carmody, Marianne De Pierres, Sean Williams, Mindy Klasky, Sophie Masson, Michael Pryor, Tansy Rayer Roberts, Kim Wilkins, Angela Slatter, Lee Battersby, David B. Coe, Jennifer St George and Robert Shearman.

If you are able to donate or simply share this cool project I would greatly appreciate it.  And if this project gets off the ground, I look forward to working on the Toronto adventure and sharing updates about it.