Ian on tpt's Almanac

Last week, Ian had the pleasure of appearing as a guest on Twin Cities Public Television's Almanac show with Cathy Wurzer. Check out the video below to see what he has to say about the state of publishing today, upcoming Scarletta Press titles, and the best writing advice he's ever received.

A "Written" Review

Debbie White of Different Time, Different Place Book Reviews is the latest to give her take on Written on the Knee: A Diary from the Greek-Italian Front of WWII edited and translated by Helen Electrie Lindsay. Debbie writes:

"Written on the Knee is a war diary with related letters, photos, and maps included. There are also sections giving a brief history of the time before, during, and after the diary to put the diary in context. It's an interesting, personal look at what WWII was like on Greek-Italian front. Since it's a diary, he often writes a lot about some aspects (like the travel, finding food, finding ways to send letters, interpersonal relations, air raids) and less on others (actual patients and wounds treated and the fighting going on)."

Read the full review here: http://differenttimedifferentplace.blogspot.com/2009/07/written-on-knee-by-dr-theodore-electris.html

ForeWord Magazine's Review of the Day

A fantastic review of Yankee Invasion has just been posted on ForeWord Magazine's home page. Thank you to Lee Gooden for taking the time to share your thoughts on this novel of which we are very proud.

Gooden writes:

Yankee Invasion is historical fiction infused with an ontological and existential quest and a love story. There is no apparent loss of impact in Timothy G. Compton's English translation. Solares' prose contains a lyricism and a musicality that sings off the page. He writes, 'I turned toward the window, where the face of night pressed against the glass. Threads of frost were starting to form next to the window frames. In the distance I saw the vague, expressionless sky.'

Read the full review here: http://www.forewordmagazine.com/reviews/viewreviews.aspx?reviewid=4614&rssref=20090717

Reviews and awards!

Lots has been going on here at Scarletta Press. While working hard to promote our most recent release, Yankee Invasion by Ignacio Solares, two prominent newspapers have written fantastic reviews and we couldn't be more excited.

The first one came from the Austin American-Statesman where Yankee Invasion was included on their "Summer Books '09" list. Thank you to Tania Lara for the nice review! View the entire article here: http://www.statesman.com/life/content/life/stories/books/2009/06/13/0613summerbooks.html

The next day, the Star Tribune's Kathe Connair gave a very insightful review in an article titled, "Memories of loss and anguish in Mexico." Connair writes:

"This may be, as Fuentes says, an important book for Mexican audiences, but in bringing out an English Translation, Minnesota c0-publishers Scarletta Press and Aliform Publishing have performed a service for U.S. readers interested in current U.S./Mexico relations."

View the entire article here: http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/books/47878812.html?elr=KArksUUUU

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Equally exciting, two Scarletta Press titles were recognized by the IBPA's 2009 Benjamin Franklin Awards. The New Writer's Handbook Volume 2 edited by Philip Martin was a finalist in the Career category while Written on the Knee by Helen Electrie Lindsay was a finalist in the Cover Design - Small Format category. Congrats to both authors! To view the complete list of winners click here: http://www.ibpa-online.org/pubresources/benfrank2009_Winners.aspx

Cathy Sultan gets nod from ForeWord Magazine Awards

We are very excited to announce that ForeWord Magazine has released the winners for their 2008 Book of the Year Awards. Among that list is Scarletta Press author, Cathy Sultan,  who was given an Honorable Mention in the Political Science category for her book, Tragedy in South Lebanon: The Israeli-Hezbollah War of 2006.

Sultan combines compelling history and vivid personal interviews to relate the lives of the oft-ignored civilians of southern Lebanon and northern Israel during the July war of 2006. Throughout the book, these narratives of mothers, soldiers, activists and ambulance drivers on both sides are as memorable for their detail, honesty and the deep sense of tragedy they relate.

We are very proud of the message Sultan is able to voice on behalf of those often overlooked during this time and grateful ForeWord Magazine understood the importance of Tragedy in South Lebanon. 

For a complete list of winners, click here.

Twitter!

Scarletta Press now has a Twitter account! For those of you who aren't familiar with this new craze, Twitter is a social media tool which allows you to "follow" people as they update what's going on in their lives - all within 140 characters or less. I'll admit, I was skeptical about Twitter at first. Why do I need to know what people are doing at every second of the day? But once I realized how easy it was to connect with people (and companies!) of similar interests I quickly began to understand the power this tool can have when promoting yourself or your brand.

By utilizing Twitter, we hope to get in touch with book lovers, publishers, reviewers, authors and more to spread the word about Scarletta Press. So create an account or go to www.twitter.com/scarlettapress to keep up with what is going on in our world. Happy tweeting!

Kindle

So we have a Kindle in our office. I have now played with...the future.
Physically, I like the Kindle. The size and weight feel right. The gray colors of the text and screen are indeed crisp and clear.
The pretty screen begs to be touched, like an iPhone. Touching the screen, of course, does nothing on a Kindle. Instead there's a dodgy little "joystick." It was the source of much frustration.
Attempting to search the internet was pointless. When I tried to use Wikipedia, the dodgy little joystick kept switching the language to Dutch instead of entering my word choice ("Kindle"--original, no?).
We downloaded a free book. I liked the novelty of reading it on the nice screen. If you want to use Kindle just for reading, it's probably great. I'm a little dubious of its other capabilities, and have to imagine it will improve soon.
Of course, you could always just get the Kindle for iPhone app and be able to read as well as take photos, search the internet, get directions...