The Advice Show Airing Tonight on VoicePrint

Along with Bridget McDonough, I will be on air tonight though VoicePrint. Here is the link:

Enjoy!

Online Book Clubs

Yesterday I had a lot of fun sending out email invitations to people to join me on some online book club sites. Some of them have already joined and it is a great way to keep in touch with people, as well as to promote my books.

I am also working on getting in touch with the Library Service of Canada so I can have my books distributed through a wider library audience. I feel really excited about this because I have wanted my books in places such as the Toronto Public Library, the Ottawa Public Library and the Montreal Public Library system for a long time. As it stands now, I have my books in Seneca College's library system and a documentary in the Ottawa Public Library.

For a writer to get their books in the libraries is a wonderful thing. Plus, these online book clubs are a terrific way to get and stay connected with some people that you normally may not contact. Things are looking good.

Have a great day!

How to Write Creative Non-fiction

How to Write Creative Non-fiction by Donna Kay Kakonge

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Excellent book. Donna Kakonge has many more that can be found at: www.donnakakonge.com.


View all my reviews.

SUNDAY AFTERNOON

It’s after the rain on a Sunday afternoon in May in Toronto, Canada. It’s 20 degrees in Moscow and another siren goes off – heading north. I never know where it’s going but it makes me uneasy. I smoke and I often pray that the firefighters don’t have a reason to visit me.

On the railing of the brown balcony part of my apartment there are modules of water. The air is fresh and feels good for my lungs.

I’m in love with a monk. I’m in love with someone who doesn’t really like to be outside. I’m in love with someone who doesn’t listen to me because a part of him thinks I’m a dumb kid. He also listens really well and inspires me. He’s 49 and I’m 32.

I went to a funeral three weeks ago for my Uncle Al. He died from Alzheimer’s and diabetes. He fought in WWII. When I was 15 he told me on a golf course in Barbados that I had the “gift of gab.” Obviously he saw something in me I didn’t see in myself. I’m good over the phone. Good in small groups and one-on-one, but my presentation skills still need to be fine-tuned.

As I pick some grit from my nails I ponder on what else to do for this Sunday afternoon I dreamt about in winter. It is spring, the trees are in bloom – I have looming problems, opportunities and romances. The television is on to keep me company and keep me informed with Newsnet. The pen to paper is my form of intimacy. It’s my old-fashioned digital masturbation.

There goes another siren – shorter this time. It’s time for me to inside and smoke and be alone. Trying, trying very hard to learn to love myself.

Dropouts – poetry

When I first started working in radio I had a lot of dropouts
Poor reception of radio quality on the reel-to-reel
I would bike down to the CBC building on Front Street with my red Yakota bike
That bike was “stoked”
The saddest thing was a light being stolen
Why can people be so mean?
Why do I still remember?
It still happens today
Nine times I’ve worked with dropouts as a teacher and maybe I’m stealing their lights
I only hope the young will beat me in the race, I want them to be rich, I want them to feel worth $10 trillion CDN
I hope that money will be worth a lot globally at least to the end of the invention of the bicycle
That day may have already come.
My bicycle was stolen when it wasn’t locked outside my apartment building on Rue Bryan in Montreal
I bought a red Wheeler with my former sweetheart and brought it with me to Montreal – I left my cat Enid behind in good hands with a woman I used to work at Radio Canada International
The Wheeler sits outside my house unlocked
No one has stolen it for 12 weeks now
It’s time for it to come inside that the weather grows cold
The wheels are flat and need to be replaced
The squirrel who sat on it backwards didn’t mind though
I wonder when science will discover a way to teach squirrels how to ride bikes
Then maybe they could be put to work

Running a Business During the Recession

There can be disadvantages and advantages to running a business during a recession. I have found some promising things happening, as well as some not so promising things as well.

Due to the fact the recession does exist, I am finding it hard for my writers to actually get paid for their work. I feel bad about this because I was really hoping with my advertorial business model that all of my writers would receive an income. So far, although it has been about a month, this is not the case.

The promising news is that there are writers out there who are willing to work on a volunteer basis and this still creates fresh content for my online multimedia magazine Donna. I also plan to dip into my own funds and to transfer some of my VHS content into digital format so I can upload it onto the magazine. This way I can take advantage of the fact that I have been given the opportunity to include video material and to also have a more updated version of my documentaries and video stories.

So far, it also looks as though I will not be getting more work with Humber College and the University of Guelph-Humber for the time being. This is unfortunate because I had really depended on that income, however it is a good thing that I diversify my work. I still do have work with Seneca College, Centennial College and Trebas Institute - so I do not have to feel economically stranded.

My books are doing well. I managed to sell some during the month of May. I am hoping that sales will pick up even more this month. My Roxanne seems to be selling especially well. I also plan to start working on a new book this summer. I was going to work on a book called Story Ideas, however I found that I was not satisfied with what I had and would like to polish it some more. I may change the content of that book and actually turn it into a book of short stories which is something I am interested in writing again.

So...that is my latest update of my business efforts. I am managing to survive during this recession, however I will be very thankful when it is over. I am sure I am not alone in those thoughts.

Self-Publishing in Today's Age

I had started out trying to go the traditional route. I did not send out many manuscripts - in total I have probably sent out manuscripts to less than 10 publishing houses. I knew with my nature of wanting things done instantly, which comes from a journalism training where I have worked in a lot of newsrooms, waiting to get a book published is something beyond the patience of my current age of 36.

It was funny how I discovered Lulu.com. I actually received an email from a man (cannot even remember his name at the moment) from my old site with the same domain name: www.donnakakonge.com. What happened after that has changed the way I look at publishing for good I believe.

The man gave me the link to his site and when I went there an advertisement for Lulu.com was there too. When I clicked through to it, I was amazed that you could actually self-publish a book for free. I had been looking for something such as this for quite some time. I had considered getting my book published through Trafford Publishing, however considered it to be a vanity press - even though I have seen their finished products and they do look good.

The first book I published with Lulu.com was the book that came out of my graduate work, What Happened to the Afro? It used to be called Afro Forever, however I changed the name. Once I published that first book, that summer I worked on a project to create How to Write Creative Non-fiction. All of this happened back in 2006 and I have written now a total of 20 books, edited one, have one CD of radio documentaries and two audio story downloads, all through Lulu.com.

The fun part is getting ISBNs for them through the Library and Archive of Canada. It is a fun and easy process and the people who work there are great. One of the women who I believe still works there even called me the day before Christmas just to sort out some problem I was having with my ISBNs. So much for government workers not doing any work. I have always found them to be really hard-working and a pleasure to deal with. They will also be dilligent in making sure there is at least one copy of your book/s in their archive.

Now, I also have my books in Seneca College's library system. This also makes it available throughout the entire college library system in Ontario, Canada. My next goal is to get Centennial College where I also work to buy them (which they said they would), as well as to get them into the Toronto Public Library system, as well as other libraries across Canada and even in the States too if that works out. I believe in libraries and used to work in two of them.

So these are all of the adventures I have had in self-publishing. I recommend that if you have a story to be told - do not keep it buried away - let it see the light. Plus now, Robert Payne and I have a service where we can help you to tell your stories. Just contact me at: dkakonge@sympatico.ca if you are interested in finding out more about this service.