June 2010

What would a hockey book season be without Paul Romanuk's Hockey Superstars 2010-2011. For nearly two decades Romanuk has been churning out the popular Superstars series for Scholastic. Full of colour photography and interesting stories and always priced very reasonably, this is a great book for the young hockey fan on your Christmas shopping list.Buy The Book - Amazon.ca -  Chapters - Amazon.comAlso available in French Here's the specs:

• Paperback: 48 pages

2010 brings the sixth edition of the very popular series Hockey Now! by Mike Leonetti. Aimed at younger fans and newer fans, Leonetti looks at the best players in the game today in this book complete with lavish photography.Buy The Book - Amazon.ca -  Chapters - Amazon.comHere's the specs:

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Firefly Books; Sixth Edition edition (Aug 1 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1554076390
• ISBN-13: 978-1554076390

Here's more information from Firefly, the publisher:Hockey Now! provides hockey fans with the most up-to-date insider information on key playe...

for all their enthusiasm, can a group of dedicated amateurs really make a difference in the success of a book? Publishers think they can. Mulholland's Parker points to Kathleen Kent and her novel "The Heretic's Daughter," set in 17th century Salem, Mass. "As a debut author with a historical fiction novel that had a connection to her personal story, she really struck a chord with bloggers," she says, adding that Kent "really benefitted from blogger outreach."

Fast on the heels of news that President Obama had dismissed Gen. Stanley McChrystal, Simon & Schuster is releasing an eBook that chronicles another high-profile conflict between general and president. The eBook "Truman Fires MacArthur," a detailed accounting of Harry Truman's showdown with Gen. Douglas MacArthur, is out today -- just about 48 hours after news of McChrystal's departure.

Michael Jecks, who writes medieval crime fiction, said those who can afford to should pay about 15p each time they get out a book. He said free access to libraries should only be available for people on benefits.

Literary awards have been one of the last bastions of high culture, but in the week when the crime writer Peter Temple took Australia's top literary prize, the Miles Franklin award, Alison Flood examines whether a detective novel could ever win the Booker

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. "The Overton Window" by Glenn Beck (Threshold Editions)
2. "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" by Stieg Larsson (Knoph)

3. "The Lion" by Nelson DeMille (Grand Central Publishing)

4. "The Passage" by Justin Cronin (Ballantine)

5. "Whiplash" by Catherine Coulter (Putnam Adult)

6. "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett (Putnam Adult/Amy Einhorn)

7. "Frankenstein: Lost Souls: A Novel" by Dean Koontz (Bantam)

8. "The Spy" Clive Cussler and Justin Scott (Putnam Adult)

9. "61 Hours: A Reacher Novel" by Lee Child (Delacorte Press)

10."Dead in the Family" by Charlaine Harris (Ace)

11."Lowcountry Summer: A Plantation Novel" by Dorothea Benton Frank (William Morrow)

12."Spies of the Balkans: A Novel" by Alan Furst (Random House)

13."Innocent" by Scott Turow (Grand Central Publishing)

14."Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Objective" by Eric Van Lustbader (Grand Central Publishing)

15."Imperial Bedrooms" by Bret Easton Ellis (Knopf)

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. "Sh t My Dad Says" by Justin Halpern (It Books)

2. "Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook" by Anthony Bourdain (Ecco)

3. "Delivering Happiness: A Pa...

BLOODROOTAmy Greene, Alfred A. Knopf, Dutton, March 2008, $25.95,HC,464pp, 978-0-525-95054-7.Byrdie Lamb was said to be one of those witches from Chickweed Holler, one who as they say had “the touch”. She gave birth to five children and buried four. Her last child Clio has a wandering, adventurous spirit and is not happy staying at home with Byrdie, so it comes as no surprise when she runs away to get married. One day Clio and her husband are killed, leaving behind her daughter Myra. Byrdie’s relationship with Clio was never close, but she is devoted to Myra. They live together on Bloodroot Mountain, an inseparable pair. Brydie shares her ways with her, all is good until John Odom catches Myra's eye. Like her mama before her, Myra leaves Bloodroot Mountain to get married. At this point, the reader picks up the story from Myra’s children’s point of view. They are twins, a son and a daughter. Myra’s life unfolds in Greene’s intricate, multi-layered story that holds together like a carefully laid mosaic. Byrdie, Doug, John Odom, Laura Odom Blevins, and finally Myra share a piece of the tale adding dim...

BLOODROOTAmy Greene, Alfred A. Knopf, Dutton, March 2008, $25.95,HC,464pp, 978-0-525-95054-7.Byrdie Lamb was said to be one of those witches from Chickweed Holler, one who as they say had “the touch”. She gave birth to five children and buried four. Her last child Clio has a wandering, adventurous spirit and is not happy staying at home with Byrdie, so it comes as no surprise when she runs away to get married. One day Clio and her husband are killed, leaving behind her daughter Myra. Byrdie’s relationship with Clio was never close, but she is devoted to Myra. They live together on Bloodroot Mountain, an inseparable pair. Brydie shares her ways with her, all is good until John Odom catches Myra's eye. Like her mama before her, Myra leaves Bloodroot Mountain to get married. At this point, the reader picks up the story from Myra’s children’s point of view. They are twins, a son and a daughter. Myra’s life unfolds in Greene’s intricate, multi-layered story that holds together like a carefully laid mosaic. Byrdie, Doug, John Odom, Laura Odom Blevins, and finally Myra share a piece of the tale adding dime...

Babymouse Burns Rubber #12. Jennifer L. Holm & Matthew Holm. 2010. January 2010. Random House. 96 pages.Where will Babymouse's imagination lead her in this next adventure? How much trouble can this little mouse get into?In Babymouse Burns Rubber, Babymouse becomes excited about entering a local soapbox derby race. Ignoring one of the rules--that she has to build the car herself--she begs and pleads for help from her best friend in the whole world, Wilson. And even after her car is built, she is rushing trying to figure out how to drive it. Wilson is forced to come to her rescue again. And again. And again. But Wilson has his own interest in the race. In fact, this was his project first. The race means even more to him than it does to Babymouse. Can Babymouse learn the true value of friendship?I love Babymouse. I wasn't sure I would love this one. The premise didn't thrill me. But I must say that I haven't really read a Babymouse that didn't win me over sooner or later. I guess I just can't resist Babymouse's vivid imagination.My favorite sequence in this graphic novel is when she goes all Star Wars. (Chapter VII A New Cupcake: It is a dark time for the Rebellion. The brave pilot, ...

Sparkles and vegetarianism do not a sustainable villian base make. Neil Gaiman quoted first in the excerpt below:
“My next big novel was going to have a vampire. Now, I’m probably not. They are everywhere, they’re like cockroaches.”
He said he hoped that mainstream culture would lose its interest in the undead so that vampire fiction could regain its potency. “Maybe it’s time for this to play out and go away. It’s good sometimes to leave the field fallow. I think some of this stuff is being over-farmed,” he said.
Many in the horror fiction community felt that the rise of glamorous, fanged creations in books and shows such as True Blood (based on Charlaine Harris’s novels), the Night World series and The Vampire Diaries by LJ Smith, and Twilight, Stephanie Meyer’s series of books which have been turned into blockbuster films, have helped to create a new generation of “softer” vampires. Sam Stone, a member of the British Fantasy Society and creator of The Vampire Gene Trilogy, said the fault lay with the “huge influx on the ma...

“Get up!” screams the Goog shrilly. “You want some more of this?!?! GET UP!”
Viacom sued Google/YouTube for $1 billion in March, 2007, alleging massive copyright infringement. In March of this year, Google and Viacom each filed motions for summary judgment. In its motion, Viacom accused YouTube and Google of building a business on material the company knew to be infringing, and disputed Google’s claim to be a “safe harbor” under the DMCA. But in its motion, Google defended its “safe harbor” claim, illustrating a key point: copyrighted content is not necessarily unauthorized content, and Google has no way of judging which content being hosted on its site is infringing until a copyright holder steps forward.
“The crux of Viacom’s argument rests on trying to break the DMCA safe harbor because Google and YouTube execs knew that there was a lot of infringing content on the site,” Techdirt blogger Mike Masnick explained earlier this year. “But Viacom’s argument breaks down entirely when you realize it doesn’t explain how Goo...

Mindmapping is better than linear outlining because authors can use flexible thinking and relativity in writing their book. One can add and subtract a thought or phrase from a mindmap easily. Mindmapping is an excellent way to start, organize, and finish your book.
What is Mindmapping?
Mindmapping is a color-coded outline of main ideas, sub topics and details, printed on different colored branches connected to the center. In the center in a circle, you will list your main idea, such as your book or chapter title.
For “The One-Minute Sales Person”, Spencer’s mindmap would have had seven different colored vertical branches coming from that center, so details can be put on connected horizontal branches–much easier to read.
What are the advantages of Mindmapping?
First, a mindmap is open-ended and open-minded. No more squeezing new “ahas” or ideas into the strict, tight form of the linear outline. You can make mistakes in your mindmaps. Imperfection leads to creativity. When you get an idea for chapter one, you can just add another branch off the main one. Mindmapping expands flexible thinking, making for better writing.
Second, mindmaps use only three to five concrete or color words on a branch. These ke...

Literary debuts are increasingly difficult marketing propositions. Luckily, I am a household name.  Or I will be when I change my name legally to Mr. Clean. Watch for my first novel, Lemon-Scented Muscles, early next year.
The contraction of the high street and the dynamics of online retailing are putting extra pressure on literary publishers, with subscriptions plummeting to less than half their previous figures.
With Waterstone’s the only high street chain with a literary profile and Amazon working to a sales model with low initial subscriptions, publishers hoping to launch new names are facing particular challenges. Débuts which two years ago would have gained initial subs of 1,000–2,000 copies are now subscribing just 250–500. Established literary writers who would have gained subs of 5,000 copies two years ago are now subscribing just 2,000.
Hamish Hamilton publisher Simon Prosser said: “If you have established names, you can say to the retailers: ‘Look at their sales figures’ but launching new literary authors is a real challenge. You have to be more creative than ever.”

Alan Furst's latest historical espionage novel, Spies of the Balkans, centers on a police officer in the Greek port city of Salonika on the cusp of World War II who works to transport fleeing German Jews from Berlin through Greece to neutral Turkey, with Hitler's army on his heels.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

Jen of Devourer of Books is hosting Audiobook Week. She has discussion topics for each day this week. And if you link to your posts on audio books, or your reviews of audio books you could win a prize.My Recommendations:Cupid by Julius Lester. Narrated by Stephen McKinley Henderson. 5 hours and 36 minutes.Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Narrated by Allan Corduner. 14 Hours.The Teacher's Funeral: A Comedy in Three Parts by Richard Peck. Narrated by Dylan Baker. 4 hours and 40 minutes.Li...

This section of The New Entrepreneurs looks at the desalination technology of Vancouver’s Saltworks

I love doing these Friday Feedback posts, but they take a huge amount of time to write up. In last week's survey results post, I said I was going to continue doing them until I found a better way to respond to you guys where you might see it.

I poked around a little and realized that there's a link you can click under the comment box on each post to subscribe by email - this is for subscribing to that specific posts comments. I'll be responding to comments in the comments section from now on and if you want to hear my responses, be sure to click the link on each post you comment on or check back the next day.

Doing it this way, I'll be able to respond to all comments as opposed to only a select few. I'll also be able to do it daily instead of weekly. I hope this will make it easier to really get to know you guys, as the current format makes me feel kind of detached. If you really want to talk about something (anything really) hit me up on Twitter (@