So Misguided

Cross-posted on Boxcar Marketing ...

This Sunday was the 2008 AGM for the Association of Canadian Publishers. I moderated the first professional development session of the day, which was a panel discussion on online marketing.

The panelists were:

• David Caron, co-publishers of ECW Press
• Lynn Henry, publisher of House of Anansi Press
• Rick Wilks, co-founder and director of Annick Press

There were several interesting sites mentioned in the session that I’ll post here for audience members interested in following-up on those discussions. I plan to post some notes about our session too.

Annick Press Livebrary Blog: A great resources for publishers, educators, librarians and anyone interested in what’s happening online in children’s publishing.

Emarketing101.ca: A fantastic source of information on search marketing, pay-per-click campaigns, search engine optimization and anything related to search--the most cost effective online marketing spend.

SeenReading.com: Julie Wilson, also of House of Anansi, keeps a blog that is a perfect example of how to play with books and the web. Simple. Engaging. One of my favourite web sites.

MyNameIsKate.ca: Marketing and Technology Consultant Kate Trgovac’s personal blog, which is a hotbed of links and brilliant posts on marketing and technology.

W8NC is a Canadian marketing and communications company specializing in emerging technology.President is Wayne MacPhail.

OneDegree.ca: The best and most interesting source of marketing news, case studies and interviews related to marketing in Canada.

Boxcar Marketing’s Underwire Newsletter: Full-Support for Non-Techies: Monique Trottier’s monthly newsletter on online marketing, technology, social media tools and tips for web design and email marketing. Free advice. What more could you want?

HorsePigCow.com: A marketing blog for those who see the online world as a place for creativity, community, conversation and collaboration. This girl has it together. Another of my daily blog reads.

Follow the AnnickPress Twitter feed. See how it’s done.

Monique’s presentation to the Centre for Chief Marketing Executives: A list of Social Media Marketing Tools. See the list and examples of the tools being used by businesses.

A couple of years ago I was in Calgary at the Writers Festival, and I had the good fortune of meeting Rawi Hage in the Author’s Lounge.

I was inspired to hear his talk on a panel about “writers writing from away”. Since then I’ve wanted to read De Niro’s Game, but for some reason it’s taken me until now to do so.

De Niro’s Game is set in Beirut during the Lebanese civil war in the 1970s and 80s. De Niro is actually George, who is friends with Bassam, our narrator.

George and Bassam are just kids when the war breaks out. They hunt around for bullet casings, which they trade with neighbourhood kids. George and Bassam grow up to be thugs, the kind of thugs that develop because of civil war. George, I think goes a bit further than Bassam, joining the militia, doing cocaine, experimenting with--who knows what. Bassam is more silent. Perhaps he is just as bad but since he’s the narrator we don’t know about it.

De Niro’s Game by Rawi Hage is the story of George and Bassam and their escapes from the war. For Bassam, it means being smuggled out of the country to France. His escape and time in Paris forms the last third of the book, which I felt was the strongest writing in the novel.

A talented author, Rawi Hage is dynamite at conveying the complexities of his narrator’s character and the betrayals of war. The earlier part of the novel though was riddled with adjectives, annoyingly so:

Ten thousand bombs had landed on Beirut, that crowded city, and I was lying on a blue sofa covered with white sheets to protect it from dust and dirty feet.

Either the adjectives decreased throughout the story or my patience with them increased. Regardless, I did enjoy this tale of one man’s struggle with identity, war, friendships, betrayals and growing up.

Have you read it?
De Niro’s Game by Rawi Hage