This may well be one of my last posts as a freelance publicist. I start a job on January 3 with the above-mentioned Kids Can Press, a children’s book publisher in the Corus Entertainment family. In the meantime they asked me to work on a PR gig for the launch of the very cool interactive e-book editions of their massively successful series Scaredy Squirrel before starting there full time and, naturellement I said yes! My press release (well, a collaborative effort, in fact) was posted on Open Book and the Canadian Children’s Book Centre and the industry trade magazine interviewed both the president of Kids Can Press, Lisa Lyons, and the VP of Brands, New Media and New Channel Revenue, Lisa Charters.

Hoping to see the e-book and game app (Scaredy SOS on iTunes) included in a Globe and Mail round-up on the best in children’s books in digital formats, too.

Published by Kids Can Press; e-book developed by Open Road Integrated Media

PS: After seven years away from full time work in an office,  I feel a bit like Scaredy Squirrel myself. 

What Doesn’t Kill Us

Stephen Joseph on The Current

Published by Basic Books

And… catch Linda on THE AGENDA on TVO this Thursday, November 17. She is on a panel discussing the psychological effects of the current recession on the middle class. http://theagenda.tvo.org/episode/141129/the-middle-class-squeeze

Published by Penguin Canada

The interview was booked to coincide with Obama’s proposed changes to corporate taxes, citing Warren Buffett’s claim that his secretary pays a higher rate of tax on her income than he does on his. The paperback landed in stores that week, too.

View it here {scroll to 47:15}: Linda McQuaig on Lang & O’Leary Exchange

Published by Penguin Canada

Here’s an excerpt from the interview:

Q What about for girls who can’t afford that brand new back-to-school wardrobe?
A I think this book is absolutely for those girls who want to figure out how to put their looks together based on what they have in their closet. I think [the question is] how do you find your own sense of style, and I think that that’s really important. But the other piece that’s so important about this book is that there are no hard and fast rules. You can decide one day that you’re going to put together a look that’s very girly, the next you’re going to be edgy, you might be boho on the weekends, you might try glam for a holiday party. You are meant to dip into the chapters and decide how you’re feeling in the moment.

Q What has the feedback been?
A Phenomenal. Oh my goodness. I am so warm in the heart about how girls have responded to this book. We’ve gotten tweets, we’ve gotten Facebook posts, we’ve gotten emails that girls are saying this is the book they wish they had had sooner, that they’re rushing out to the bookstores to get it. It’s really been a just over-the-top positive response from our readers.

Q What does Seventeen do to curb the pressures young girls feel today, especially if they’re looking through the pages of the guide and seeing a certain kind of girl portrayed?
A I think that diversity of body type, diversity of skin tone, diversity of hair texture, all of that is incredibly important to Seventeen, and I think if you look back you’ll see there is incredible diversity in the book. We do not have a narrow definition of beauty for our readers. In fact, we want to make sure every single girl can open the pages of Seventeen and feel validated by the girls she sees there. She’s going to find somebody who looks like her, and that is crucially important to Seventeen; it’s one of the cornerstones of our brand.

Published by Running Press

http://life.nationalpost.com/2011/08/20/qa-ann-shoket-editor-in-chief-of-seventeen-magazine/

Chris Shulgan, who writes a parenting column in The Grid (also author of Superdad, his memoir of fatherhood and addiction) was on board right away and wrote a great piece on sharing past and present issues of the magazine with his son and his son’s class. This was also picked up by the Toronto Star‘s ParentCentral page online.

There’s also a business story here and the Globe and Mail Report on Business’ media reporter Susan Krashinsky wrote an in-depth feature story on the success of OWL in a tough industry. It was featured prominently on the front banner of the cover of the ROB and included an interview with Owlkids group publisher Jennifer Canham, OWL editor Craig Battle and a fun photo of Jennifer, too.

Craig did a 10-min+ interview on CBC Radio’s “Here & Now” the day before the shared celebration at the CN Tower (also celebrating 35 years) and the last piece fell in place on July 2 with a graphic tribute to OWL magazine in the National Post‘s Books feature on children’s books:

National Post, July 2, 2011 celebrates OWL

It went really well and the client was very pleased.

Published by Bayard Press/Owlkids

Published by PublicAffairs

PATIENT COMMANDO is a one-of-a-kind production company in that Zal and his team (including the very wry and talented Brian Smith from Second City) produce live theatre, workshops and stand-up with the focus on the patient experience. One of the things they plan to do is take the idea of “humour therapy” into medical schools across the country, so that students understand the patient perspective early on in their medical training. Seeing a show like Stolfi’s  Cancer Can’t Dance Like This can only help bring an enlightened understanding to the rigors of chemo from someone who knows it first-hand.

I managed to get a bit of media already for PATIENT COMMANDO in the National Post and on CBC Radio’s “Here & Now” and there’ll be much more to come!

A lot has happened (an understatement if ever there was one) since the launch of the Patients’ Association of Canada, but I just want to highlight one particularly popular book this month: SELFISH REASONS TO HAVE MORE KIDS: Why Being a Great Parent is Less Work and More Fun Than You Think, by Bryan Caplan. Bryan was interviewed by Tralee Pearce in the Globe and Mail, he was a guest on CBC Radio’s The Current and he was also interviewed for the National Post’s Mother’s Day feature, all within a few days. Made for a high ranking on Amazon.ca (#56 0ver the weeekend).

The release went on the wire today. The Maclean’s interview  (see below) is now online and the CBC Radio “White Coat Black Art” interview with Dr. Brian Goldman will air on Saturday, Feb 12. Canadian Press will talk/photograph PAC president Sholom Glouberman today, local news and radio requests are coming in (CJOB in Winnipeg; three stations in Atlantic Canada). I’ve been working with Sholom and PAC since July on this project and the official launch of both the PAC and his Sholom’s book MY OPERATION: A Health Insider Becomes a Patient is next Tuesday in Toronto. Things are shaping up well. Book is available on Indigo and Amazon.ca, too!

Published by Health & Everything Publications