BlueBeary: Langley Advance and Arts Alive

Today Kathleen McMillan and BlueBeary have been given a full-page feature in the Langley Advance!

Tomorrow

Arts Alive!

BlueBeary storytime at Arts Alive in Langley, Aug 15th

Host: Open Eyes Books & BlueBeary

Time: 9:00AM Saturday, August 15th

Location: Downtown Langley, BC

Future

Aug 16 Children's Day at WhiteRock Farmers' Market
Aug 19 Surrey Urban Market
Aug 20 Royal City Farmers' Market
Aug 22 Burnaby Farmers' Market
Aug 26 Langley Farmers' Market

Become a fan of BlueBeary

Open Eyes Books & BlueBeary on Facebook

vote for the new cover

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I've been a bit pre-occupied with the Open Eyes book series. Here's what's been going on:

• Samantha's Story (September) is almost ready to go to the printer. We can't decide between two covers, so we're taking a poll. Cast your vote and be entered to win a copy of the new book: www.openeyes.ca/cover_contest.html.
• Angels and orders welcome!
  
• One small, brutal fact about the new book: financing. We could use some orders, preferably subscriptions, to help get the ball rolling. We've been promoting, but we've really just gotten started, so the flywheel is still turning slowly. We can't send to the printer until the money is in hand. Please recommend it to anyone and everyone you can think of. We think the subscription option is a great deal: 11 books for $100+tax = one free book and free shipping. Want several copies of the same book? We'll give bulk prices! You could also use the book for fundraisers. Other ideas? We're open.
  
• BlueBeary has his own Facebook page. Become a fan and enter to win prizes!
  

Open Eyes Books & BlueBeary on Facebook

Oh, and I've joined Twitter, so if I can figure out how to send tweets to the blog, maybe this thing will update more often! If you know something I don't about how this works, please let me know!

A wonderful thing happened today, which opened the door for another wonderful thing.

Donovan (the rep from our printing company) called me this morning to say that the physical proofs had arrived and that he realized I had not received the right eco-audit label, that ours should read "Siretona Creative saved the following resources by..." So he sent me a new personalized one and told me to drop it in and upload that page this evening FREE OF CHARGE because it was Friesens' miscommunication. We only "saved" $6.00, but it opened a window for this ...

The one thing we've been waiting on is the CIP (library) data for this little book. Wouldn't you know, it arrived in my inbox TODAY?!?!? God is good. I know that sometimes the righteous suffer, but I also know that sometimes they are treated to the most exquisite working out of detail, more than they could never have asked or imagined.

This is the new page 2:




















And here, for a visual treat, is the first spread in the actual story:

legally blind can read new font

My recently published book project, Notes from Over the Hill, involved hiring a designer to develop a new font that was both readable and aesthetically pleasing. My author and publisher and a few other people were skeptical: "Why do we need to pay for a new font? Can't we just use something like Helvetica? Who buys fonts anyway?" My designer, Travis, and I had lots of rationale, but the bottom line was instinctual and unexplainable: this font was necessary and important.

In the process of designing, Travis researched design elements that influence readability and we tested the font with several people, including some with poor eyesight. However, nothing could have prepared me for this feedback from the author, who lives in a large seniors' residence in Saskatoon:

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Everybody who buys it and who stops to chat about it comments on the font. People are interested in the font.

In fact--this is hard to believe but it's true. Two ladies here who are legally blind and have to have things read to them, bought the book because they find they can read it with the aid of their magnifying glass! One of them even started to read that back page about the font when she bought it, but that was too hard for her without the glass, so I read it to her. Everybody says it is even better than the usual large print because of the spaces between the lines and the extra space between paragraphs.

To these two ladies--and there are other like them--faces are a blur. They recognize people only by their voice or their walk, yet they can read Travis's font. Everybody admires the cover too--they love that old typewriter--but I've told you that before. Congratulations! You have done a splendid job.

Martha

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