Tag: facts

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Why My Opinion Doesn’t Matter…

October 18, 2019– Recently, I received an email from someone who submitted their work to me for consideration. There was one line in the email that hit me, “I’ll take your opinion to heart.”

I’m here to tell you NOT to take my opinion to heart when it comes to your writing. Why? Because it’s my opinion and not absolute, undisputed fact. Let’s face it, I have to send out a ton of rejection letters each month and it’s up there with being one of the worst parts of my job, but that’s the nature of the business. I find that sometimes, aspiring writers tend to get so discouraged when they get a rejection letter from a publisher that they stop writing altogether and that’s the worst thing that can happen. Yes, it’s difficult to accept that people don’t appreciate your work the way that you do, but art is subjective and writing is art. There are a hundred of reasons why your work may have been rejected and sometimes it just comes down to the House being full with upcoming projects.

Never stop writing, write the story that you want to read, and take all criticism with a grain of salt. Now, I’m not talking about being arrogant and saying that the professionals in the business have no idea what they’re saying and that you’re the greatest writer of our time and that we’re all idiots and that you’re the next Poe…(that’s a true example by the way) I’m talking about taking the criticism and doing something with it to improve your writing. A lot of times publishers don’t offer critiques and they just don’t respond at all, in that case, try and get an opinion on your story from a third party, not someone who is related to you or thinks you hung the moon. Get a beta reader group, ask an editor, or find someone that doesn’t like you, (I’m serious, they’ll tell you the truth) and have them read your manuscript and offer feedback.

Never give up. Continue to improve your craft and I promise that the magic will happen. The universe is in love with stubborn hearts.

X LLB

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Fun Facts about Canada! Happy Birthday!

Pandamonium Publishing House
Pandamonium Publishing House
Fun Facts about Canada! Happy Birthday!
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Check out our newest podcast by clicking on the link below! Happy Birthday, Canada.

https://www.podbean.com/eu/pb-6cpbs-b65cf6

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Fun Facts about Our Books!

December 10, 2018- This is super fun! Each one of our books is very special in their own right. Check out the details below on what’s hiding in our books!

Picture books: 

  • Did you know that in Miranda the Very LOUD Mouse, there is a hidden piece of cheese on almost every page? Can you find them? Also, on the page where Miranda is at the museum, there are some pretty famous art pieces that include Michelangelo’s David statue, Starry Night painting by Van Gogh, The Scream painting by Edvard Munch, and of course, The Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci.
  • The book Pants, by Tamara Botting, has different pieces of fabric that were digitally scanned in to get the colours and textures on the page. This book also contains colouring pages at the back for kids to design their very own pair of pants!
  • Martin the Tap-Dancing Frog and Spiders Wearing Sweaters are both hand painted and then scanned in digitally to an illustration program! That’s why both books have such a unique look. Also, Spiders Wearing Sweaters can be ordered with or without the adorable plush spider that came in your kit!
  • Sammy, the Singing Cat, features some very famous Jazz artists on the wall of one of the music schools; Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, and Frank Sinatra make a cameo, but this time in animal form!
  • The Adventures of Milan and Friends; Trouble with Trolls (A Halloween Tail) has the titles of our books on the spine of the books that are featured in the treehouse! Plus, there’s a tribute to all of our animal friends that we have lost, on the wall of the same page. Also, Milan is a real golden retriever in the author’s life!
  • Phillip Star has the best ending! You’ll have to read it😊
  • Panda, the Very Bad Cat, is based on the author’s real cat named Panda and a smug shot of said cat is featured in the back of the book. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this title is donated to animal shelters to help animals in need.
  • Deer Diary features a sneak peek on an overlapping character! There is a poster on the wall of the last page that features the character Frog from Martin the Tap-Dancing Frog.

 All of the books by Lacey L. Bakker, feature a PANDA in one form or another as a hat’s off to the book that started this entire company and adventure which was Panda, the Very Bad Cat!

Mid-Grade Books:

  • Unfrogged, by Tamara Botting, features a princess named Meredith who is based entirely on the author and how clumsy she is. Tamara let this book sit for ten years before getting it published!
  • The Old Farmer’s Treasure– is based on the author’s husband’s childhood in Northern Ontario. There is also a sequel to this book coming in 2019 where the boys are all grown up!

 Adults Only:

  • Obsessed with Her– Was consulted on by the head of the Toronto Homicide Unit for not only credibility in some scenes, but also accuracy! This book is rated R and had to have a sticker put on the front of it because of the complaints that we were receiving. It has mature themes, language, and violence, and is not for the easily offended or squeamish. Also, the PREQUEL to Obsessed with Her, titled, Becoming James Cass, will be available for pre-order on our site in January 2019 and will be released in February 2019. This book currently has a 4.5-star rating on Good Reads. While the author was writing this book, her husband was away for five weeks, and she had to stop writing because she was scared to be alone! A lot of people think the author of this book is a man, but they are mistaken. And one more thing? The front cover gives away the ending:)

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All About Audiobooks…

November 9, 2018- Ahhhh, audiobooks. There is nothing better than an audiobook, other than a paperback of course. In fact, I pick paperback first, then audiobook, then e-book. So what are the benefits of audiobooks and what place do they have in the literary community?

  1. Audiobooks can bring the characters to life, especially when the voice actor is amazing. Let me use an example; if you’ve ever read the Stephanie Plum series, One for the Money and so on, by Janet Evanovich, you’ll know what I’m talking about. The actor who does the voices for the audiobooks, Lorelei King, is so amazing that she sounds exactly how you would expect Stephanie and Lula to sound like in real life. This can also be a downfall, however! All it takes is a bad voice actor to ruin your favourite book. Like the person who reads the Murder, She Wrote series. Umm…why the hell is Angela Lansbury, not the voice? Exactly.
  2. Audiobooks are perfect for people who are on the go. You can listen to audiobooks anywhere, on planes, trains, and in automobiles. They are totally portable and you don’t even need wifi to use them. I bribe myself with an audiobook when I have to do things that I hate…such as the treadmill, or running. I plug in my earphones, turn on my audiobook and forget what I’m doing as I’m immersed in the story. Using audiobooks, I was able to “read” 60 books last year. I wouldn’t have been able to do it if I didn’t have audiobooks to listen to while I traveled.
  3. Audiobooks make non-fiction books go faster. A lot of non-fiction books can be utterly boring, especially when they’re about something that you’re not particularly interested in such as sales or the stock market. You can speed up your audiobook, skip to the end, and listen to them while you’re doing the dishes or making dinner. I know that audiobooks are different than Ted Talks, but I put them in the same category. Ask me when I don’t have a Ted Talk on…not very often! I think that we can learn things by listening and I’ve amazed myself more than once with the information I’ve retained by listening to audiobooks.
  4. Audiobook are excellent for auditory learners. I am an auditory learner in that I learn best by listening and not doing or seeing something. I’ve always learned this way and let me tell you, that schools do not accommodate this way of learning which is a shame. I was the kid that read each question out loud while doing homework because that’s how I learned. There are a bunch of different ways that people learn; Kinesthetic learners are people who learn by doing rather than by listening to a presentation or by watching a demonstration. Visual learners are those who learn by seeing something such as a graph, chart, or diagram. And as mentioned before, auditory learners who learn things by hearing/listening. I can’t tell you how much information I’ve learned from audiobooks, but it’s a lot!

So, if you’ve never downloaded an audiobook because you think it might not be for you, I urge you to reconsider! Give it a try, you just might love it.

X LLB

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