Mark's Blog

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

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

 . . . 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 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]> <![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-CA X-NONE X-NONE <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>

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

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 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

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

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

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 (

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

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

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

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 and prizes. And it is all FREE and something you can do without traveling at all.

Below is some great info from the organizers . . . (via their original post: Calling all writers/authors)



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CALLING ALL AUTHORS: FREE ADVICE, CHATS, AND PRIZES, OH MY!
If you're an author (or want to be), you must make plans to attend the Indie Revolution Conference, or as we like to call it: Indie ReCon - making Indie publishing a mission possible!  While the conference focuses on Indie publishing, there will be tons of advice that will benefit writers who utilize all publishing styles.  And during the conference, our presenters and partners will be giving out loads of prizes - including new kobo e-readers.  Some of the conference highlights include:
* live chats with best selling authors Bob Mayer, Denise Grover Swank, Darcie Chan, Samanatha Young, Rashelle Workman, CJ Lyons, Ali Cross, S.R. Johannes, Steena Holmes and her agent, Pamela Harty, and LM Preston
*  informative posts to help you decide if Indie is right for you, and learn all about creating a quality product, making a business plan, marketing, where Indie publishing is headed, and much, much more  (Click here for the schedule.)
*  learn tips from Hugh Howey, Michelle Leighton, Nancy Holder, Melissa Foster, Colleen Hoover, Sybil Nelson, Addison Moore, Richard Smith, and many more (Click here for a complete listing of our presenters.)
*  Prizes, prizes, prizes!
And perhaps best of all, you can attend all of this online, for FREE.  That means you can stay snuggled in your pajamas, sipping a beverage of your choice, while we deliver this invaluable content to you. The conference runs February 19 through the 21st.  Sign up now to ensure you don't miss important news and for a chance to win even more prizes.  (We promise we don't spam.)  So GO.  Sign up now.  You won't regret a single minute of this amazing free conference.
To win 2 Kobos, check out our contests  

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 Leslie" talking about my book Haunted Hamilton with Annette Hamm) But yesterday, I was there as "Mark Lefebvre" (he is slightly more mature and professional) and talking about Kobo, the Kobo family of eReaders and eReading in general (as an idea for last minute great gifts -- I like to think of it as beyond chocolates and flowers)

 



Here is a link to the video.

http://www.chch.com/morning-live-blog/item/11558-e-reader-for-valentines

There was a lot of Kobo love in the CHCH studio that morning. Everybody had a wonderful personal story to share about their own experiences as readers and as Kobo reader owners. (Annette and I share a passion for books - and in our discussion, I might just have peeked her curiosity to get a Kobo reader)

I was particularly pleased to see, when the Kobo Glo was being shot, that it showed my personal library where a few recent books I had been reading, including The Essential Guide To Getting Your Book Published by Arielle Eckstut & David Henry Sterry (The Book Doctors) and books by Kobo Writing Life authors Bella Andre and Moses Znaimer, where shown.  It's always great when I can use any opportunity to show some Kobo Writing Life authors a little extra love.

It is (or was) Valentine's Day, after all . . . .

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 until 2052.

Sigh.

When it is public domain it allows people the ability to those books into other languages, create Braille or audio versions for visually impaired readers, create interesting new enhanced versions of the books, or adapt them for film.

The article quotes an interesting note from the Center for the Study of Public Domain:

“Perhaps the most troubling aspect of the current copyright term is that in most cases, the cultural harm is not offset by any benefit to an author or rights holder. Unlike the famous works highlighted here, the vast majority of works from 1956 do not retain commercial value. This means that no one is benefiting from continued copyright, while the works remain both commercially unavailable and culturally off limits. The public loses the possibility of meaningful access for no good reason.”
The cultural ham is not offset by any benefit to an author or rights holder.

Then why.  Why?  Why?

Sigh. Oh wait, I already said that.