Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

If you would like to share in the magic of the season, please visit http://stores.lulu.com/kakonged to purchase one of my 30 books.

Faith and the Media Symposium

I attended a Faith and the Media Symposium on Thursday night that went quite well. Along with myself, there was another media representative there who is the managing editor of the Brampton Guardian.

The event was organized by some Muslim community members and they were kind enough to arrange to have me driven to the event, as well as dropping me off at home after the event. I brought my books to sell, however there really was not enough time for me to sell any.

The focus of my presentation was pointing out that there really are not any journalism and religion courses at many schools and this is not preparing young reporters to go out in the field to cover the issues. Some of things I am hoping to do are to rectify this situation by perhaps proposing a journalism and religion course at one of the schools I teach at.

The night was overall a success and I had a terrific time. Went to bed way past my bedtime, however it was well worth it.

Marketing the Key to Self-Publishing

It always surprises me when I speak to someone and they tell me that their books are not selling. Each and every time it is usually because no effort is going into marketing.

There are a lot of writers out there who depend on the their publishing company to do the bulk of their marketing for them. I'm one of those people who is a true believer that you, the writer, have the golden key when it comes to selling your books.

This is not to say that my book sales have been fabulous this month. There are a whole lot of things I could be doing that I have not been doing and at least I recognize that. Every time I am on public transit, I could be slipping my business card to someone with a book in their hand and telling them about my books. I could be hanging around outside bookstores and letting people who are coming in and out know about my books. I could be talking about them in casual conversations every chance I get. Perhaps it is my Canadian politeness factor that keeps me from being that aggressive. However, I am fully aware that I would be selling more books this way.

On an up note, I will be going to a "Faith and the Media" symposium on Thursday, October 1st in Brampton, Ontario. There will be 500 people at this event and I definitely plan to discuss my books. As well, I'm hoping to go to a Simply People festival in October and get a table where I can showcase my books. I just need to work out the timing so it will go well with my teaching hours. Today, there is Word on the Street that is a huge book and magazine festival in Toronto. I was planning to get a booth right after the last one happened called Writer's Block. This is something I definitely hope to work out for next year. My approach to Word on the Street has been "manana, manana," always tomorrow, tomorrow. Honestly, I prefer going to the event and it would be great if I had some business cards to let people there know about my books too.

Here's to self-publishing!

The Best of Donna Magazine Published

Take Donna Magazine with you anywhere you go. You can buy it now in hardcover, paperback or as an ebook at: http://stores.lulu.com/kakonged.

Get 20 Per Cent Off My Books

Lulu.com is offering a 20 per cent discount off all of my books for this Labour Day Weekend only. Enter the code "WHITE" on checkout and receive your 20 per cent off many books, a CD and two audio downloads. The online store is at: http://stores.lulu.com/kakonged.

School Year Starting

I'm still really excited about the new semester starting. I feel as though I have had enough time off, even though I know I could always use more rest.

One of the interesting things I have set up for all of my courses are the assignments already listed in Gradebook. Gradebook is a tool that is part of Blackboard that has become the electronic way to do everything from having a virtual classroom, sending out email to the class, sometimes even taking glances of students' pictures before the class starts. It is wonderful to have this technology as part of teaching these days. They did not have anything such as this while I was in school.

Another thing I have set up is that all of my lesson plans for the semester are prepared. When I was a waitress, as well as art model at the Arts and Letters Club in Toronto, there was this great woman I met there who used to teach at Seneca College. She still teaches art at the Arts and Letters Club I believe. She gave me a hint about being organized that has truly helped me out and made it possible for me to teach so many courses such as I do.

She said she would prepare all of her lesson plans before the semester starts. I thought at the time and still do think this is brilliant. The reason why is because before I knew about this, my weekends would be devoted to preparing lesson plans for the upcoming week, as well as marking. This meant I would have no social life at all. With this woman's excellent tip - I have still found it possible to do some social things, as well as write on the weekends and the early mornings, plus the occasional evening.

If you find this information helpful which I hope you do - please feel free to take full advantage of it. You can also find more information about teaching in my book The Education Generation which can be purchased along with other books at: http://stores.lulu.com/kakonged. Enter "LULUBOOK" on checkout and you will receive 10 per cent off for this month.

The Perils of Freelance Teaching

It is a good thing that I keep my eggs in more than one basket. This fantastic course I was so psyched about teaching at one of the schools I am at needed to cancel the course due to low enrollment. Now, because the chair of the program is a good person, she offered me another section of the course to teach. This was extremely - and I mean extremely kind of her. The problem is that I do wear a lot of hats and I am already booked for a job that pays better in a similar time slot. It's a shame because I would have loved to teach that course and I hope it works out for the winter.

So, all this to say that now I'm teaching nine courses instead of 10. Oh well, this will give me more time to write for sure and look out for more books from me soon.