We have been celebrating all week long with our local literacy group, Literacy Alliance of the Shuswap Society (LASS). They have put a lot of work and effort into creating programs and events for our community to take part in for “Unplug and Play“. We specifically sponsored “Random Acts of Reading”, where local celebrities read books aloud to different community groups in various locations all week long. Here are a few pictures from our “Random Acts of Reading”. This is how we celebrate Family Literacy Week in the Shuswap:

Thank you to everyone who sponsored an event, took part in an event, and/or attended an event for Family Literacy Week in Salmon Arm. You have all helped to increase awareness of literacy needs in our community. We at Playfort Publishing are very pleased to have been a part of it!

Thanks everyone!

The PFP team

Yeah, as I was cleaning up the office on the last Friday before Christmas—trying to get it cleaned up enough that when we all returned it wouldn’t smell or anything—I was just finishing up cleaning the bathroom and went to wash out the sink and it wouldn’t drain. I tried everything; it was clogged. I told Lou before she left, but there wasn’t much I could do about it at the last minute on the Friday before holidays. So I packed up my gear and headed to the in-laws’ for a long weekend filled with eggnog, ninja-bread cookies (basically gingerbread ninjas), and Pictionary tournaments. When I returned this Tuesday the sink was still clogged up. We tried again to unclog it using boiling water, baking soda and vinegar, and finally a plunger, all to no avail. It was time to call in the pros. When the plumber took apart the pipes under the sink, the entire thing came off the wall! The sink was supposed to be securely attached to the wall, but turns out the only thing holding that porcelain sink up was the drain pipe! At any point that sink could’ve dropped and it would have done a lot of damage. So those Popsicle sticks and bottle cap that ended up clogging the drain were actually a blessing in disguise! Now we have a new sink (it’s actually a laundry tub sink).

I definitely needed the time away to relax. I have been so stressed for the past year (since just before I graduated from college) and having anxiety attacks monthly. I have been making myself sick worrying about every little thing, even if I had no control over it. Did I choose the right college course? Will I find a practicum placement? Will I get the job of my dreams? Then, after I graduated and accomplished those things, I stressed about other things. Will I be able to pay back my debts? Will I actually be able to do this job? Can I justify my working here and make the company enough money that I don’t get fired? Will I mess up so bad at work that I lose the company everything and they go bankrupt and I never get another job ever again? It was a vicious cycle. I was tormenting myself. I was worrying so much that it was making it harder to concentrate on everything, making it more likely that I would mess up.

As I was doing some year-end bookkeeping between Christmas and New Year’s from home and becoming increasingly stressed because it wasn’t going as smoothly as I would have liked, I had an epiphany. I realized that the entire fate of the company does not rest on my shoulders. And if I can’t figure out something in the bookkeeping I could ask our Accountant to figure it out for me (that is what he gets the big bucks for after all). And that worrying about the “what-ifs” was not going to get me closer to my goals or stop the company from going bankrupt (just to clarify, we aren’t going bankrupt). The only things that I have any control over are my actions and my reactions. All I can do is my job to the best of my ability and let others handle the rest.

Once I realized that, I relaxed and was actually able to get some real work done. Instead of running around in circles, staring at all the disorganized paperwork and my long, long list of things yet to be accomplished and stressing out to the point that I didn’t even want to go into work (which is totally lame because I love my job), I took a chill pill (not really) and stopped putting so much pressure on myself. After all, I am only one person, and although I am really super awesome if I do say so myself, the entire fate of the universe does not rest on my shoulders.

My New Year’s resolution is to stop stressing myself out. Here’s to a stress-reduced 2012!

Violet

Prize pack awarded to School District 37 Delta, BC

We are very excited to announce the winner of Playfort Publishing’s BC School District Prize Pack draw! To see a list of the school districts involved in the draw, please click here. After lunch I had Louise pull a name out of a hat (actually it was a little paper cup), and the winner is…

BC School District 37 Delta!

Congratulations! We will package up your prize pack and send it in the mail today. We wonder what you will do with the goodies, and we would love to hear about it!

Congratulations and happy holidays!

The PFP team

Our Reading Takes You Places poster

Back in the summer we sent our Reading Takes You Places posters to the librarians at each of the public elementary schools in British Columbia. I spent a LOT of time folding each poster, creating mailing labels, affixing the mailing labels, organizing into appropriate school district piles, creating and printing a letter to each of the school districts, packaging everything up, and mailing each package to its appropriate school district office. This took a lot of hours, caused some blisters and paper cuts, and took four trips up and down the “steepest stairs in the world” to get all those packages into my car to bring over to the post office (and another 4 trips from my car to the post office). But all’s fair in love and literacy!

At Playfort Publishing we know how important literacy is, and starting young is the best way to ensure strong literacy levels later in life. That is why we support librarians, literacy groups, and teachers, and why we created the Reading Takes You Places posters for school librarians.

So we sent these out to all the school districts in BC for free and asked them to distribute to each of the elementary schools’ librarians. We then explained that we would be doing a prize pack draw of books and material to go to a winning school district. All they had to do was send us an email saying they wanted to be included in the draw. Out of the 59 school district offices in BC, we got a response from 9. Well, that means there is a 1 in 9 chance of winning! The schools to be included in the draw are the following:

1. SD 27 Cariboo-Chilcotin
2. SD 35 Langley
3. SD 37 Delta
4. SD 61 Greater Victoria
5. SD 75 Mission
6. SD 78 Fraser-Cascade
7. SD 79 Cowachan Valley
8. SD 82 Coast Mountain
9. SD 83 North Okanagan-Shuswap

And the lucky winning school district will receive this wonderful prize pack from Playfort Publishing:

The prize pack

• 2 copies of The Lunch Bag Chronicles by Don Sawyer
• 2 copies of No Way Out by Melanie Jackson
• 2 copies of Raw Deal by Melanie Jackson
• 2 copies of Running by Don Sawyer
• 1 copy of our latest catalogue
• 1 chance to win a free Skype author presentation

This prize pack is an estimated value of $110.00 (does not include the value of the Skype session). Our titles are for reluctant readers and are great reads for boys (and girls). The books will be a wonderful addition to any school library. Thank you to all of the school librarians that put our posters up in their libraries and who spend their lives teaching and learning with kids. We will announce the winning school district tomorrow (Friday, December 15, 2011) at 2:00 pm P.S.T. (unless we still do not have Internet access in the office, which means it will be posted as soon as possible).

Good luck!

Violet

Congratulations to Don Sawyer on the most recent addition to your personally authored library! I have to say that I loved this book, and I’m not just saying that because I am biased—I know that this would have been a favourite of mine if it were around when I was in high school (before I had heard of Don or Playfort). It would make the perfect gift for any young adult or teen, boy or girl.

Running unboxing at Playfort Publishing

Running can be purchased from Playfort Publishing in paperback for $13.95, or in ebook (EPUB, PDF, or MOBI) for $8.95

Catch ya next time!

Violet

We found out that Running by Don Sawyer is ready! Now we just have to wait for them to show up on our doorstep… ah, the waiting game. Well worth it, though.

This story about three friends who run together in the Shuswap area of British Columbia was such a great one. I felt connected to the characters and could see clearly the picture Don Sawyer was painting with his descriptive narration. Even though it is about high school kids, I could identify with and relate to all of the characters—they’re so realistic. Here is the YA title synopsis:

Running is a fast-paced story about friendship, redemption, and the triumph of love. Louie and Paul come from very different worlds. Yet they have one thing in common—tragedies have shattered their families.  To bury their hurt, they run fast and relentlessly. A chance accident on the trails brings the two boys together, and an unlikely friendship grows. Joined by Annie, another loner who has secrets of her own, they form a threesome that runs like the wind in the hills above their town. But a disastrous attempt by Paul to join the school’s cross country squad and an explosive encounter with their star runner turns the alliance upside down. Overcoming their anger and loneliness, the three find a way to become a team again—and hatch an outrageous plot along the way!

Although we don’t yet have the physical copies in hand, the ebook is up online already at a very reasonable price.

Until next time,

Violet

Well, I found out that there’s much more involved than just making a facebook page and tweeting about our office lunches

I have been doing a lot of research and all the social media marketing experts agree that a business has to have a comprehensive plan in place before embarking down that path. So I spent the day coming up with a list of questions that we must answer before we go live with our pages and accounts. It’s a pretty long list…

The short of it is that a business should know these key things before they start anything:

• What is our objective?
• Who is our audience?
• What is our message?
• How do we measure our success?

There are a lot more in-depth questions that help you to get to the core of why you should use social media for your business and how you can make it work best in your business’s situation. Because having a build-it-and-they-will-come mentality about social media won’t get you very far. The point is that you cannot know where you are going without a plan, and creating and sticking to a road map is the best way for a business to navigate through the social media network that is our world.

Tweet ya later!

Violet

Running proof gets the stamp of approval

Wow, things are really moving along right now. Last Friday we received Raw Deal by Melanie Jackson all printed and bound and boxed up. It looked so good, and it was especially exciting for me because it was the first book I have been able to work on. I was so excited, in fact, that I grabbed a copy from the box, jumped in my car, and drove up to Okanagan College to bring it to my instructor from the Administrative Assistant program I graduated from. I just had to give her a copy and show her what I was able to accomplish with the training I received and her connection with my now boss, Louise (which is how I got in contact with her to start my internship).

This week is another ball game. We finished off Running by Don Sawyer and sent it to the printers on Monday, and by today (Wednesday) the proofs came in! It looks great so far. I wish this book were around when I was in high school, because I know I would have loved and appreciated it even more then. Either way, it is a great story about family, friendship, and overcoming life obstacles and tough times. I cried at the end, and I’m sure you will, too.

Here is our author Melanie Jackson talking about her most recent title with us, Raw Deal, which we just received from the printers last Friday! It really is an awesome mystery for young adults

Raw Deal unboxing

The much-awaited Young Adult novel by Melanie Jackson, Raw Deal, is finally here! We got the message that it was ready at the printers, and Louise went down to pick up a box. She did the honour of cutting open the box to reveal our newest title. How exciting! A big ‘Congratulations’ to our own Melanie Jackson. Click here to order your copy of Raw Deal today!