Mark Leslie's Blog

Amazing Things Do Happen

mark@markleslie.ca (Mark Leslie) — Thu, 23 May 2013 05:37:38 PDT

An amazing thing happened several months ago. C.C. Chapman visited Kobo's head office and his good friend Mitch Joel interviewed him for a Kobo in Conversation video. It was one of those serendipitous moments that couldn't be planned, and yet it was likely based on an ongoing stream of constant and consistent community building. Authors regularly ask me questions about marketing and how

Top 10 Takeaway Quotes From Superstars Writing Seminars 2013

mark@markleslie.ca (Mark Leslie) — Wed, 22 May 2013 08:31:12 PDT

Last week I had the great fortune of attending the 2013 Superstars Writing Seminars in Colorado Springs as a guest speaker. With a core faculty of bestselling authors such as Kevin J. Anderson, Rebecca Moesta, Eric Flint, David Farland and Brandon Sanderson, the annual seminar series also brings in guest instructors such as Tracy Hickman, Joan Johnston, James A. Owen and Jim Minz. The three

A Tip For Ontario Procrastinators

mark@markleslie.ca (Mark Leslie) — Mon, 06 May 2013 04:54:35 PDT

So last night I was panicking - every year when my birthday rolls around, I always leave getting the new stickers for my license plates renewed. And, honestly, I tend to forget when my own birthday is coming around. As a father, I'm WAY more excited about my son's forthcoming birthday than I am about my own -- it was my wife who reminded me about my birthday when she started baking a cake

Culture By The Minute

mark@markleslie.ca (Mark Leslie) — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 09:28:45 PDT

Earlier this week I appeared on a local Cable 14 program called "Culture by the Minute" Mark Leslie and Jill Downie Hosted by Jeremy Freiburger from CoBALT Connects, the show airs every second Monday at 5, 6, 8, 9 and 11:30pm, spotlighting Hamilton community, art, and creativity. Mark Leslie, writer (not Mark Lefebvre or Mark Leslie Lefebvre) ;) The focus this week was on a couple of

They Say You Want A Revolution . . .

mark@markleslie.ca (Mark Leslie) — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 06:17:09 PDT

. . . well, you know, we all want to change the world. Sorry, I couldn't resist the title for this blog post. Not when it's about Emily Craven's E-Book Revolution Podcast. She wants to change the world for the better, and her blog and podcast are two places where she does that, by providing interesting and valuable content for authors. I had the pleasure of meeting Emily at World Fantasy

I Swear This Is A Guest Post by Julie Czerneda

mark@markleslie.ca (Mark Leslie) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 05:00:03 PDT

I am delighted that this blog is part of Julie Czerneda's blog tour celebrating the launch of her fantastic new novel A Turn of Light.  <!--[if gte mso 9]>

From Beyond The Grave

mark@markleslie.ca (Mark Leslie) — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 04:30:02 PDT

Carol Weekes and I co-wrote a story that was published recently in the Grinning Skull Press anthology From Beyond the Grave edited by Michael J. Evans. For some, death is not the end. There are those who are doomed to walk the earth for all eternity, those who are trapped between one plain of existence and the next, those who, for whatever reason, cannot or will not let go of the lives they

Où est Waldo

mark@markleslie.ca (Mark Leslie) — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 23:25:12 PDT

Now I know why I could never find Waldo, despite his very distinctive look. It's because he is hiding in France under an assumed name. The French version of "Where's Waldo?" - at Salon du Livre, Paris, France (March 2013) Où est Charlie, indeed. He's crafty, that Waldo guy.

I Can't Explain

mark@markleslie.ca (Mark Leslie) — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 05:23:14 PDT

I wrote a recent guest post entitled An Obsession I Can't Fully Explain for Dundurn's Defining Canada blog. It was a nice break from all the recent work I have been doing on my forthcoming Dundurn book (Spooky Sudbury - which I'm writing with Jenny Jelen) and the editing that I'm doing for the forthcoming Atomic Fez novel I, Death to compose this post. For the post, I tried to explain why I

It Has Been Ten Years, Dad

mark@markleslie.ca (Mark Leslie) — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 07:03:29 PDT

Ten years ago today my Dad died. I still miss him, and I still love him. I still wish I could have just one more minute to spend with him, drink one more beer with him, exchange one more joke, hear one more story or fishing tale. And I would give all of those things up (were they presented to me) for the opportunity of having my son and my father meet. I know that my dad would have loved

Books & Beer Hangout

mark@markleslie.ca (Mark Leslie) — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 17:25:13 PDT

I was delighted to be a guest this past week on the Books & Beer Hangout -- a hangout produced by Evo Terra and Jeff Moriarty of ePublish Unum. ePublish Unum exists to help authors compete in the digital world of publishing by giving authors everything they need to embrace the digital publishing landscape. (Here is one of their books available on Kobo - Evo is also one of the authors of

The Ides of March Are Come (Again)

mark@markleslie.ca (Mark Leslie) — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 05:10:31 PDT

Despite that warning from the soothsayer, I continue to survive The Ides of March . . . . . . perhaps it is because I'm not a snowman . . . Another thing that survives is one of my more popular dark humour/horror snowmen stories by the same name. It appears in my two story digital collection: SNOWMAN SHIVERS. And you can get it free on virtually every ereading, platform: Kobo, Kindle (

Writing And EPublishing Workshops

mark@markleslie.ca (Mark Leslie) — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 05:21:33 PDT

This past weekend I just booked another ePublishing workshop with a writer's group that will be taking place in June. While booking that, I took a look at my schedule for the next few months, and noticed a series of writing and ePublishing workshops forthcoming. Here are a few of them. Hamilton, Ontario - Wed March 13th Hamilton Public Library - Central Branch "Be Afraid: Write Effective

Aye, It's March

mark@markleslie.ca (Mark Leslie) — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 05:59:55 PST

I was pleased to learn that my FREE digital story collection "Snowman Shivers" is featured on Storyfinds today. SNOWMAN SHIVERS contains two of my snowmen stories, "That Old Silk Hat They Found" and "Ides of March" Even though the first of these stories was originally published back in the 90's these are stories that continue to get great reviews from customers. One of my favourite reviews

Can They Sell? Listen Bub . . .

mark@markleslie.ca (Mark Leslie) — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 06:36:02 PST

In the interest of exploring various ways to promote the sale of ebooks, I'm always up for experimentation. I was thus delighted when my better half gave me permission to invest some marketing money towards a relatively new ebook promotional company to try to generate some sales of one of my ebooks. BookBub is the place. (Thus explaining the old 1970's Spider-Man theme song that I was

IndieReCon

mark@markleslie.ca (Mark Leslie) — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 07:26:57 PDT

I am delighted to be presenting/participating in IndieReCon (Indie Revolution Conference) which starts tomorrow (Feb 19th) and runs through to the 21st. I will be doing a session talking about how indie authors can work with their local bookstores, even when selling eBooks. It takes place Thursday afternoon. But the con itself is chalk-full of amazing content, live chats, tips, tricks, tools

Back on CHCH Morning Live

mark@markleslie.ca (Mark Leslie) — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 05:44:00 PST

I'm feeling the Valentine's Day love. Yes, I know, Valentine's Day was yesterday. But this morning Ben, Kerry and Shawna on Y108 were talking about having a Boxing Day for Valentine's Day - a Voxing Day . . . and so I thought it might be safe to mention V-Day on today's blog post. Yesterday I was back in the CHCH Morning Live studios. (Back in October, I was there as my author persona "Mark

Forgotten And Lost

mark@markleslie.ca (Mark Leslie) — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 04:40:40 PST

I was reading this frustrating report on Melville House this morning, entitled "Absolutely nothing will enter the public domain in 2013" What could have entered the public domain in 2013 - screen shot from Center for the Study of Public Domain The reason it is frustrating is due to the revisions made to US copyright law that pushes certain works from coming into the public domain today

Trouble With Handheld Devices

mark@markleslie.ca (Mark Leslie) — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 05:34:00 PST

Our eight year old son has a plethora of hand-held devices, and he pulls them out at almost every opportunity. And it seems like, more and more, Francine and I are frustrated with how consumed he can become in these little things which you can take virtually anywhere; we are constantly competing with a portable little device for his attention. He is continually distracted by these things. At

Meta Spam

mark@markleslie.ca (Mark Leslie) — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 02:34:11 PST

I have to laugh. Last year I posted a cheeky tale called "Fun with Telemarketers" outlining an ongoing frustration about telemarketers - specifically ones that are calling about duct cleaning. It documented the call I received. You know the ones that start out like this: TELEMARKETER: Hello, may I speak with Mr. Lefjlkaliufdkjlalkflj [indeterminable gibberish as he tries, desperately, to

It's Fun To Talk To The WCYR

mark@markleslie.ca (Mark Leslie) — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 05:46:00 PST

Young man, there's no need to feel down! I said - young man, pick yourself off the ground I said - young man, 'cause you're in a new town There's no need to be unhappy . . . Yeah, I know, the title of this blog post doesn't roll off the tongue the way that Y.M.C.A. by The Village People does, but it just came to me in the way that unexpected lyrical earworms hit you. I've been putting

Writing Resolution 2012 Recap

mark@markleslie.ca (Mark Leslie) — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 05:39:30 PST

Each year for the past several years I have tried to lay down some basic goals for the forthcoming year. Here's a look at how I did compared with the goals I "publicly" decried on this blog on Jan 3, 2012. The goals are listed first, along with commentary on how I did WRITING GOALS FOR 20121) Complete the Tesseracts Anthology. (IE, read submissions, select stories, get book to publisher) -

Mark-ing Time With Authors

mark@markleslie.ca (Mark Leslie) — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 09:31:05 PST

The other day, when I was compiling some of my favourite pictures from 2012, I realized that, due to the awesome job I have at Kobo (Director of Self-Publishing & Author Relations), one of the side-effects of my job is that I get to meet and hang out with authors. What a wonderful perk that fits perfectly with something I love to do anyway. I mean, books and authors (and the fact that I'm a

Favourite Picture?

mark@markleslie.ca (Mark Leslie) — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 07:45:57 PST

Each year, as we count down the days to a fresh new year, I'm always tempted to post some of my favourite things from the previous twelve months. I will post a "favourite reads of 2012" and "writing in 2012" recap early in 2013 (and yes, I wait until the year is 100% complete, because I'm still reading and writing up until the bitter end). But I thought it might be fun to pause and share a few