NEW BLOG

To anyone and everyone who has looked at this blog:

I've moved everything over to WordPress. I'll probably update this periodically, lohazelo.wordpress.com is my main blog from now on!

Cheers!

-Peach

Christmas Wish List

Kiehl's Midnight Recovery Concentrate
Aritzia Cocoon Coat
Doctor Who: Complete Fifth Series
Amethyst Cluster Dreamcatcher (Green Earth)
Community 'Troy and Abed in the Morning' Mug
Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab 'Dorian' Scent
Kobo Touch E-Reader Case with Light
Pendleton Dopp Bag
Rose Gold Slave Bracelet by Adelina Mictlan

New Things

1. White Witch Mohair Dress by French Connection with Vintage Bag and Lita Boots by Jeffrey Campbell

2. Vintage Cream Dress, Jeffries, Assorted Rings, My new favourite book

3. Chelsea Shearling Coat by UNIF, AA Thigh High Socks, Vintage Circle Bag, Jeffries

4. (Clockwise from Top Left)

Assorted Vintage Clutches, Tartan Gloves

Malaysian Wooden Ring, Crystal Ring by Laurie Fleming

American Eagle Clogs

Vintage Sunnies, Assorted Jewellery Cases

Aritzia Camel Lace Dress, Vintage Bag

Vintage Necklace, Bismuth Necklace by Laurie Fleming

-peach

Tall, Dark and Bitter

Here's a collection of what my boyfriend calls "Morticia" clothes. In love with them all. idgaf if I'm neo-Morticia, besides, I'm way too goddamned tanned for that.

(Bat Dress by Cheap Monday, Jagger Gown by Free People, Striped Maxi Dress by Free People, Fleamadonna Cape from Pixie Market, Rush Cape Dress by Stylestalker, Petal Tunic Dress by Jones and Jones for Top Shop, Twisted Maxi Dress from Nasty Gal, Forget It Dress by UNIF, Two-tone Dippy Wedge by Jeffrey Campbell)


-peach

These Are Nasty

I'm thinking that these will be my two major purchases for fall:

UNIF Chelesea Shearling Coat, and Jeffrey Campbell Lita Boots.

I found them on Nasty Gal, and I am majorly in love with both. I'm thinking they both go with maxi skirts, crop tops, leggings and oversized cardigans (ultimate staples of my wardrobe). Now, I'm off to find money and to write a dissertation about how I just need both of these items.

-peach

Things I Did on My 24-Hour Road Trip

1. Schemed to steal corn; yelled "CORN" every time I saw a corn field; looked longingly at a corn maze.

2. Decided to open a speakeasy for Amish people consisting of an internet cafe hidden in the haystacks of unassuming barns. Later, learned that I don't know anything about the Amish.

3. Contemplated becoming Amish. Later, contemplated somehow becoming Iroquoian.

3. Planned to tell Customs that I am bringing one peach into the US. Later, chickened out and hid my peach.

4. Made a semi-effective cooler out of a laundry bag, hotel garbage can and an ice bucket.

5. Drank six cups of coffee; felt sick.

6. Ate a steak with my hands while boyfriend looked on in admiration.

7. Stared at every truck driver until they looked at me.

8. Watched a Kardashian marathon alone in a king-sized bed.

9. Had a conversation in roars with my stuffed lion companion Rupert.

10. Watched boyfriend sleep; felt creepy.

11. Debated Milla Jovovich vs. Marion Cotillard; lost.

12. Debated Aragorn, Heir of Isildur vs. Trent Reznor; lost.

13. Listened to Freebird in its entirety.

14. Went to White Castle; found that it was closed; tried to Harold and Kumar it; failed and ate at Big Boy instead.

15. Napped in a parking lot.

-peach

Baptism by Fire: PubFighting with BNC Staffers

The first impression:

When I started my internship at BookNet, I just nodded nervously whenever someone mentioned the elusive Pubfight. As a former Ryerson Publishing student, the word had floated in and out of my consciousness for over a year. I wasn’t sure how it worked, but I knew people got excited about it. Then again, it could have easily turned out to be a poorly-hidden basement-of-a-library fight club for publishers. I was confused but intrigued.

The prep:

I gained some clarity when Sam Francis asked me to collect catalogues for PubFight’s master list. I googled my heart out; I bothered my publishing friends for catalogues; I almost broke my computer with fancy pdfs. It was good times. Seriously speaking though, I learned a ton from this task. I gained an understanding of publishing trends for the year, house objectives and interests, and lots of insight into what people are reading and what to pay attention to in the upcoming season.

The strategy:

 Auction time was fast approaching. Seeing as how I’d racked up numerous Kobo reading awards and spent an embarrassing amount of money and time at bookstores, I thought it would be a breeze to pick smashing titles for this year’s PubFight. Then my rational editorial side kicked in. There were questions to be answered: Should I pick titles I’d personally read? Should I pick titles I’d never read but that would certainly sell? Should I take a chance on new authors, or go vintage? I decided to do some research, explore SalesData, and look at the bestsellers from last year.

The auction:

When auction day came around, our boardroom was a whirl of anticipation, shameless tweeting, beer-sipping and free pizza. It was a good day to be an intern.

The auction started off innocently enough, but soon transformed into a roundtable of boasting, empty threats, side-eyes, questionable risks, self-destructive spending, and heckling. My BookNet colleagues are fierce under their tough metadata armour, it seems. By the end of it, everyone had pulled together impressive, slightly quirky lists, and I’d had a thoroughly engaging afternoon.

The outcome:

I came away with a list that combined personal preference and a mass audience scope, and both celebrated authors and up-and-comers – a mixed bag of literary goodness that I called Fancy Nerd Press (taken from one of the many jests overheard during auction). There’s new Murakami, Atwood and R.A. Salvatore in there, alongside bright young things like Maggie Stiefvater, Pittacus Lore and Larry Doyle.

The reason (for the season):

Pubfight gives me another way to pay attention to the publishing world, get excited about new releases, attend events and launches, blog about books more often and get to know authors I don’t know. It engages and connects publishing professionals and students alike, and provides a fun overview of trends and topics that are relevant right now.  

Now I’m busy figuring out print runs with the help of SalesData and advice from seasoned Pubfighters, and I can’t wait for the real battle to begin. It all starts next week!

 Bring it, bookworms!

-peach

Check out what PubFight is all about here.  

(x-posted to BookNet Canada's Blog) 

Thanks to Sam Francis for the title and the edits. 

Book Summit: Chekov, E-Reading, and Transmedia

BookNet Canada was at the 10th Book Summit in June to witness a collective train of thought that included biodiversity, Chekov, video games, and fan fiction. How, you ask? Well, listen up:

“From Scrolls to Scrolling”

The day was kicked off by Lev Grossman, the technology writer and book reviewer for Time Magazine, who posed a tough early morning question:

“What do we give up by reading an e-book?”

He spoke of the print book or ‘codex’ as an example of information technology that is undergoing its first major format change since the time of tablets and scrolls. Grossman’s argument was a daring one. He posited that e-books signal a change in what we read, how we read and what we expect from reading.

Even the most futuristic techie couldn’t ignore his over-arching point: e-books lend the reader a different kind of — and sometimes less — control over their texts.

Grossman posited that while e-readers (and e-book files) are more compact and portable than the traditional print book, we sacrifice the literal searchability of paper books. While paper books encourage us to read non-linearly, with a personal connection to the text, and to continue “reading” long after we’ve put down a book; e-readers and e-books may signal a different type of reading — something impermanent (more throwaway), less personal, more distracted, and ultimately less meditative.

He played the cautious devil’s advocate in rapidly changing times. He encouraged his audience to stop and ask “Why?” amongst the sea of perpetual “Why not?” that surrounds technological innovation. Grossman concluded that this format change will “give way to biodiversity”: both the p-book and e-book with strengths and weaknesses. They will coexist, albeit in a complex way.

“The Reading of Narrative” Panel

The panelists in this session shared their findings on the psychology behind the act of reading. Their study is based on the definition of stories as model worlds that allow the reader to be both themselves and someone else at once. They compared the experiences of reading Chekov in his original form and re-written in plain language to find out whether content or literary quality causes both social- and self-transformation.

The panel worked at pinpointing why literary quality (and not content) makes the mind more malleable, leading to transformations in personality and emotion. This quality is elusive, of course. To bring it all back to technology, the panel ended by posing the question: “How are new technologies changing they way we experience self-transformation through narrative?”

Check out archived research, studies and papers about “The Reading of Narrative” at www.onfiction.ca.

“Transmedia: What It Means”

I admit that I knew almost nothing about transmedia before this workshop. Keith Clayton, the Director of Publishing and Creative Content at Random House Worlds in the US, led this workshop. He generated an enlightening discussion about storytelling across multiple media platforms (and Star Wars).

Clayton told us how Random House Worlds has partnered with a video game company, and together they create transmedia products alongside the development of Random House titles. The attitude of transmedia grounds itself far away from anything that resembles spin-offs, tie-ins or merchandise. Clayton explained that Random House Worlds aims to use the specific strengths of each media platform (blogs, fan fiction, fan communities, video games, comics, movies, events) to tell a larger story. This means that readers can use different entry points into the story world. In successful transmedia, the story and characters remain at the centre of all endeavors, and the whole is more satisfying than the parts.

While Clayton hailed transmedia efforts, he also laid bare the challenges that it introduces with regard to rights, intellectual property, and the ever-present struggle to get the material in front of readers. Transmedia expands the book world from the personal to the interactive, from individual authorship to collective creativity.

Check out transmedia at RH.

Book Summit 2011 was about tackling the changes that digital content brings to publishing. How does it change what we want to read, how we read, and what we expect from a story?

In the closing panel, the discussion came down to this: Reading is individual; readers should be able to access the story world with choice in order to get what they want out of the experience. And, as panelist Keith Clayton concluded, “The walls are down between different mediums.” What will happen next?

-peach

 (x-posted to BookNet Canada's Blog)

all i need

i put this shit all over. all the time. so simple, so awesome. 

i use bronner's soap as face wash, body wash and shampoo. it smells heavenly and it doesn't have random extra crap in it. i have a problem with  extra-moisturizing soaps. so much gunk. gross.

rosebud minted balm is perfect. i find vaseline useless and burt's bees is good for the winter months and as a primer for lipstick, but rosebud balm has a bit of colour, which is nice. makes me feel peachy.

i've yet to try the other lush face masks, but brazened honey works like a dream so i've never needed to use the others. it's almondy, with lime, rosemary, some other witchy things and of course, honey. my skin feels freakishly soft after. dang. 

i just bought B&B surf spray and it's so magical. i straighten my hair to get it under control, and this spray makes it look natural. and by natural i mean like a dirty hippie. i love it.

make everything MAXI and SHEER

(wilfred riviera shorts in watercolour stream, free people moonbeam maxi skirt, free people vintage gauze tier dress, free people vintage hand-dyed 1940s slip, free people vintage knit short sleeve tunic, motel celeste dress, blak sheer chiffon floral dress, pixie market beige lace maxi skirt, house of balfour lilac cut-out back shirt, top shop knitted embroidered crochet tank, top shop sheer rose print maxi dress, shakuhachi day tripper maxi skirt, reformed blanche skirt, wilfred ninon sleeveless blouse)