My Evil Reaction To LAUREL vs YANNY

I'm not sure where that dark part of my imagination comes from.

But ever since I have been writing, my mind regularly turns to the shadows, pulls something either darkly humorous or perhaps just dark in general.

Below are two examples.

During the recent LAUREL vs YANNY audio debates (where, based on a released file, some people hear "Laurel" and other people hear "Yanny") I had two different, yet somewhat similar reactions.

One was dark humour.

The other was just dark and a bit mean and evil.

Depending on your own preferred poison, I present, for you, a choice from two videos that display how my twisted mind works.

Here is the dark humor one:

 

And here is the more evil one:

You may not want to watch either one.

As I said, I can be twisted. 

Don't say I didn't warn you.

Talk at Kitchener Public Library: Success in Self Publishing

[UPDATE:  This event has been cancelled in May and re-scheduled to later in the year]

I'll be giving a talk at the Kitchener Public Library in a few weeks.

It's called SUCCESS IN SELF PUBLISHING and it'll run Saturday May 26th from 10 AM until Noon.

I love being able to share with writers the fact that they have more choice, more options and more control over their writing journey than ever before. Yes, I embrace and celebrate self-publishing and I enjoy reminding authors of just how empowered they can be; but I'm also cautiously optimistic in my approach and also like to ensure writers recognize that there's no single path for success, just like there are multiple publishing paths that a single author can take.

After all, I have made conscious business-driven decisions to embrace both self-publishing and traditional publishing for different book projects.

During the two hour session, we'll take a look at some common themes and patterns that successful self-published, hybrid and traditionally published authors have in common. We'll explore how authors can get started, strategies for optimizing your author brand, the importance of understanding the business of writing and publishing and much more.

[VIDEO REMOVED]

Below is a description from the website where you can register for one of the limited spots available: Register here


With Mark Leslie Lefebvre and Natalie Gibbons, Manager Collections KPL, and Rob Dawson, Georgetown Publications

Your writing is great, but where are you going to publish? Join industry professional Mark Leslie Lefebvre for top tips to self-publishing success. Under the name Mark Leslie, he’s published more than a dozen books, including fiction paranormal explorations for Dundurn. He has worked in every type of bookstore and has thrived on innovation in digital publishing. Mark also worked for six years as the Director of Self-Publishing and Author Relations for Kobo where he was the driving force behind the creation of Kobo Writing Life, a free and easy to use author/small-publisher friendly platform.

Following this event, meet with other writers in a reception room.

Registration required

How To Annoy a Science-Fiction Nerd Today

It is May the 4th! Star Wars day!

May the 4th be with you!

Of course, if you like to have a little fun, either in an attempt to annoy science-fiction nerds or perhaps just to throw a little confusion into the mix, you can share one of the many silly memes that involve mixing memes or confusing popular quotes from a variety of sources. And, of course, providing fictional attribution at the same time.

Here's one I was toying with earlier today.

 

If I counted correctly, I think this visual meme refers to thirteen different movies or television shows. I suppose I could have tried to add more, but I was already getting dizzy. Can you name the thirteen that I referenced?

Tell Me About The Early Days of Self-Publishing, George

The other day, while putting together material for my forthcoming Free Friday Frights, I was looking into the origin of the chapbook Active Reader that I had initially created in print.

It led back to 2008 when I had purchased an Espresso Book Machine for the then-bookstore at McMaster University which had been called Titles Bookstore, and we launched a "Titles on Demand" business using a large print-on-demand machine from On Demand Books.

We were the 2nd location in Canada and the 9th in the world to own an Espresso Book Machine. Exciting times.

And, of course, it was the early days of what was about to become the large self-publishing "Gold Rush" of 2011 / 2012. (To be honest, we're still in the early days of self-publishing, as, each year, thousands of more authors learn about the amazing possibilities of what they can do related to selling eBooks globally)

An article from the Dec 2008 McMaster Times

It was my work helping local authors who were interested in print (POD) self-publishing that eventually led me to my role as Director of Self-Publishing & Author Relations at Kobo. Because, as amazing as the machine and having print-on-demand access was, I was still running into the issue of people in countries on the other side of the globe wanting access to locally produced books. So I helped the authors create eBook versions to load to Kindle and Kobo, so we didn't have to worry about shipping costs or logistics.

Pic from Hamilton Spectator article - The EBM, Donna (Bookstore Director) & me

Because the machine required a lot of testing; and, particularly in the early days of the machine, we were doing dozens of tours and demonstrations of it, we needed to create some smaller books so that we could go through the demonstrations quickly (also, without using a ton of paper - ie, printing a 300 page book). So I created a chapbook of about 50 pages that contained three of my previously published short stories. It was easier to use one of my own pieces of writing that I had the rights to than to worry about violating some sort of copyright.

I called the chapbook Active Reader: And Other Cautionary Tales from the Book World.

Of course, once I moved from McMaster to Kobo, and needed to have files to test the eBook self-publishing system (Kobo Writing Life) I had been responsible for creating there, I converted the book into eBook format.

 And, in mid 2017, I then had the book converted into audiobook format using Findaway Voices.
 

It was interesting how, when doing a book in print, you needed to have a minimum page count in order for the book to be properly bound using certain binding technologies. (For POD, I think the minimum page count that worked well might be somewhere between 30 and 40 pages). The maximum page count for an Espresso Book Machine was somewhere in the 550 to 600 page range. Of course, for ebooks, there's no minimum and no limit. As I have enjoyed sharing when talking to audiences who aren't familiar with ebooks, "you aren't limited to the standard format of 300 pages bound between two pieces of cloth."

Funny to look back about ten years ago and see what I had been up to.

Remembering how cutting-edge this POD machine in a bookstore was, I was only beginning to understand the power of digital publishing.

Who would have guessed what these past ten years have actually entailed?

In many ways it feels like only a few years have passed since I was cranking out POD books at the bookstore at McMaster and sharing the possibilities of that brave new world with anyone who would listen; in other ways, it feels like at least twenty years ago.