GUEST BLOG: A Furry Muse by Theresa Peluso
I am so lucky to know Theresa Peluso (always Teri to me). I’ve worked with her for my entire 15 years at HCI, laughed with her, battled with her, but mostly have learned from her. One of the smartest, most productive people I know, she’s largely responsible for putting together our latest Ultimate series of books. Teri, I mean Theresa’s sharing a great story about a puppy dog named Jack and his rising star in the video contest world. But, look for the words of encouragement she’s offering to the creative part in all of us. Enjoy!
When Stephanie Longinetti saw a blurb on the internet about a publisher wanting stories and photographs of dogs, cats and horses for an upcoming series of books, she grabbed her camera and her puppy and started shooting.
Meanwhile, I was culling through the thousands of photos submitted when Jack’s smiling face popped up on my screen. Jack’s photo met all our criteria and was among 70 photos published in The Ultimate Dog Lover, an anthology of stories, photos, and expert tips which give the reader a nice mix of material in a short-attention-span format.
Jack’s all grown up now and Mom has continued to cultivate her creative side using Jack for inspiration. While Jack was counter-surfing one day, Stephanie grabbed her video and captured his antics. Soon after, she saw a call-out for entries in the “Marley and Me” video contest.
Stephanie’s talent for capturing Jack’s charm paid off. Their video is one of 12 finalists!
The videos will be shown during commercial breaks on Thanksgiving Day during the National Dog Show on NBC and the winner gets a trip to Hollywood for the premiere of the movie, “Marley and Me.” You can view the videos and vote for your favorite at http://www.longliveyourdog.com/Dogpark/overview/videocontest.aspx
Who knows what may be next…a trip down the red carpet; and agent; contracts that stipulate Milkbones in every green room.
(arf!)
Comments (1)The recession’s got me depressed, or is it the depression’s got me recessed?
Recession, depression, whichever way you slice it, times in the publishing business ain’t so happy. It’s just too darn quiet and we can no longer blame the presidential race for hogging all the media time. It’s all about cutting back, finding ways to stretch our dollars, shivering in our boots about our jobs.
It’s real life. And, sometimes it’s scary.
We try to put in practice some of the things we read. Keep a positive attitude, keep a smile on our faces. Act “as if.” Maybe if we keep our spirits high the law of attraction will reward us with abundance. Doesn’t that sound nice? Tell that to the people at General Motors, or all the laid off folks at Rodale or Citibank.
The upper classes are feeling the pinch that we down lower having been feeling for five years. (Only in their case, their multi-million fortunes may now just be mini-millions.) Our budgets stretched beyond reason with gas and food prices going off the charts. One friend puts it pretty accurately, “we’re working twice as hard for the same money.”
At least, those of us who are still working. And, however we regarded the unpleasant nuances of our jobs, we’re now all appreciative of every little unpleasantry, annoying coworker, any piece of work we thought was beneath us. I think God’s hearing a cacophony of prayers from people he/she never heard from before. When they’re not praying, they’re giving thanks. Good time of year for that.
Everyone’s got religion all of a sudden.
Our hope in the publishing biz is that people will regard books as still one of the most worthwhile gifts one can give for the impending holidays. Books are a nominal investment, cheap to ship, easy to wrap, and certainly have meaning to many of us.
Buy books. Keep the industry alive. Do your part.
Buy some from your local independent. Buy some from Barnes & Noble. Borders and even amazon. Everyone needs your book bucks now. But most importantly buy books from HCI. Just kidding.
Sort of.
Comments (0)Before the sunrise, clouds look like mountains
Here on the southern tip of the eastern seaboard, clouds look like mountains before sunrise. Compared to the infinity of Florida flatness it is our moment to pretend.
(why am I up so early, don’t ask…)
Comments (0)Dark chocolate, chianti, music and a little kaizen, anyone?
Dark Ghirardelli chocolate, a glass of chianti, and Lucinda Drayton singing in the background, all is well in the world. (If only) It’s a feast for the senses. Lucinda’s an angel on earth, and even though I have more exotic chocolate preferences, the 60% cacao squares will do just fine.
It’s the eve of a new work week and the brain reluctantly moves from one side of the skull to the other making ready to make sense. Dollars and cents.
The mind is what I’ll be delving into this week as the promotion cycle begins for a book called, The Vigorous Mind by communications strategist, Ingrid Cummings. I’ll have more to say about it later in the week, but at this early stage, I am delighted and intrigued.
Ingrid will show us in her book how to cross train our brains to become more well-rounded, like those we historically call “Renaissance people.” She employs a technique well-regarded in the workplace in Japan called Kaizen. In fact, the Toyota corporation practices the principles of kaizen, even here in the U.S. Soon we’ll be sharing with the media Ingrid’s take on how General Motors might have had a better shot had they used it.
Stay tuned.
Apparently, our minds can make significant progress with just a simple 20-minute concentration exercise daily. I don’t know about you, but I’d give 20 minutes to kick start my graying gray matter.
The Vigorous Mind will be released in January just in time for all of you who are making grand resolutions. Perhaps cross training your mind or aspiring to be a contemporary Renaissance man or woman will make your list. In the book business we always say that the beginning of the year is the “new year, new you” season.
I don’t think you’ll lose weight with kaizen, but I could be wrong. You can prepare to trim some of the fat from your brain. Sounds a little gruesome but I’m sure we’re all carrying around some extra fatty mental baggage that we no longer need.
May the kaizen force be with you (and GM)!
And me.
Note: Be one of the first to get a copy of The Vigorous Mind by writing to me. FREE copy to the first 10 people to ask.
Comments (4)Life’s a beach…
-
- …and then you sigh
Next Page »
