Well, for one, I’ve been working on a second edition of MWP’s free toolkit, which should come out next year. I’ve been following Eco-Libris’s blog, and found an addition to my toolkit in their study on how green Kindle is compared to physical books. Their study is more exhaustive and has slightly different results than the Cleantech study I included in Moon Willow Press’s first edition toolkit. I would suggest reading their study if you, as a reader, author, or publisher, are interested in the math behind sustainable products.

There’s other news too. I’ve been working on our first title, by my brother, and in doing so decided to make an imprint that is strictly for people in my family to publish in — as long as their books are good! I made the Sands Family Imprint, and I suspect throughout the years that the very talented individuals in my family will occasionally publish through Moon Willow Press, at least I hope so. I come from a long line of artful, independent-minded, individualistic people, and if part of my legacy here on earth includes getting their words out, that is wonderful, in my opinion!

But of course, starting next year I have three titles by other authors planned so far and am still working on at least one that will fall under the press’s focus of non-fiction works, environmental in nature.

Fraser Riverkeeper is reaching out to corporations to help sponsor an incredible project that will be an excellent educational experience for students and teachers alike. It will help inspire artistic creativity, respect for nature, and pride in community and workmanship. The Art for the Sky Project will promote Fraser Basin community members’ understanding of their connection to the Fraser River system and the viability of its salmon; encourage them to share their knowledge with teachers, family, and friends; and inspire them to make behavioral changes to protect water quality for salmon and the Fraser Basin.

Fraser Riverkeeper will bring awareness to the larger community through the Art for the Sky “living painting”.

Art for the Sky, created and directed by world-renowned artist Daniel Dancer, has been enthusiastically employed by schools across North America.  This week-long cultural, economic, ecological, and educational project consists of a residency by Dancer and will culminate in the creation of an enormous “living painting” of a salmon composed of students (and natural materials) that makes sense only when seen from the sky. This project will offer an innovative, creative way for students to learn about the ecology and cultural economy of their home and give them real life history, art, and conservation instruction.

The project will begin on October 1 and will culminate on October 4 with the creation of a huge “living painting” of a salmon on the Britannia Elementary School’s athletic field. The painting itself will be composed of the students, wearing various colored T-shirts, and will contain the First Nation salmon image.

Please join RBC Blue Water Fund in supporting this project. We are seeking sponsorship for this monumental event!

Fraser Riverkeeper must raise $10,000 to cover to costs of t-shirts worn by 1,000 students of the Britannia School.  Sponsors are needed to underwrite the cost of the t-shirts that the students will wear to “paint” the giant salmon. The t-shirts will become beautiful reminders of the innovative, inspirational, and educational project.  Participation for the students is free — project sponsors will ensure that every student can be part of the big picture!

To donate, see http://www.fraserriverkeeper.ca and click the Donate Now button for donating online, or Contact button for sending a check. You will receive a charitable tax receipt.

Beautiful Sheridan Lake

We just got back from Sheridan Lake, in the interior of BC, where we spent one of our vacations. It has been a very busy summer, from a Mexico trip to La Paz in mid-June to a family reunion and a lot of hiking at Turkey Run in Indiana, to the past week at Loon Bay Resort. Somewhere between all this traveling, we also moved to beautiful Port Moody, and are still unpacking after having spent a week kayaking, canoeing, and enjoying the Great Outdoors.

Updates on the press: hopefully our first book will be published later this year. I will start a family imprint for members of my family to have a chance at publishing (as long as the books are good, and this one is). We are still waiting on the cover illustration, which we hope will be done before the end of the year. For next year, MWP has another fiction and two chapbooks planned so far.

I believe the press may move slowly on the planned focus of environmental study books, but if so, I am still happy with the quality of submissions that I’m getting — most are fiction or chapbook style books. I’m glad this press so far has been a hobby, because my work at Fraser Riverkeeper, which went full-time in June, and a lot of traveling this year, have kept me very occupied!

Summer reading material: 100 Years of Solitude (a re-read!)

Also, I heard back from Eco-Libris about MWP’s donation, based on Little Big Town, and found that 260 trees were planted by the Alliance for International Restoration (AIR) in Guatemala.

AIR sent a letter saying that they are planting only native trees and only for prosperity, not for harvesting. The pines that AIR has been planting, they say are helpful in preventing mudslides such as those caused by Hurricane Agatha.

AIR is concerned with addressing the causes of deforestation and hunger, and works comprehensively by training farmers and their families to assist in tree reforestation and nurseries.

We want to thank all contributors and readers of Jack Magazine, and invite you to continue to read the archives and check out Stanford University’s LOCKSS program, which has Jack in a permanent archive. LOCKSS stands for Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe. Jack will also reside on the current domain for a very long time.

In other news with the press, I now have 3-4 books scheduled for publishing, beginning either late this year or early next.

Next week I am going to La Paz, Mexico for a Waterkeeper Alliance conference. Our local Fraser River office  is taking on some great projects, including a salmon education campaign and work with other Waterkeepers and First Nations groups against oil tankers on BC’s West Coast as well as protesting the proposed Enbridge pipeline project.

Moon Willow Press is also moving mid-July, from Burnaby to Port Moody, BC, where the wildlife is grander and the mountains closer. I will update the mailing address at that point. Also in July are two vacations.

It’s looking to be a very busy summer, but I hope to have more to report soon!

Though the campaign for The Little Big Town has not officially ended, I’ve already donated the goal of $100.00 to Eco-Libris, which resulted in 200 books being planted! Eco-Libris blogged about it here. Now that the donation to Eco-Libris has been made, I’ve also reduced the price of the e-book to $0.99.

I’ve also got two books lined up for publication next year, but will talk more on them later after contracts are signed and development is on its way. I’m really looking forward to both!

I have a partnership offer underway with Waterkeeper Alliance, which is an international organization with about 200 member offices around the world, dedicated to protecting and defending local waterways. This organization is full of scientists, lawyers, and educators who care deeply about clean water and healthy marine ecology. In fact, my schedule with Fraser Riverkeeper, a British Columbia member of Waterkeeper Alliance, is becoming more robust. There are several key interventions we’ve done just this past month. Please see FRK’s website for all that has been happening . The Waterkeepers as a whole are currently rallying around our Gulf Waterkeepers, who are uniting together to work on recovery after the BP oil disaster. They’ve set up a site called Save Our Gulf, and are offering up-to-date news about what’s going on and asking for donations. Waterkeeper Alliance is a non-profit organization.

Because of that busy schedule I was talking about, I’ve decided to reduce or possibly omit the editorial services from MWP. There are a few reasons for this. The clients I am getting are all made through private correspondence, and these have been keeping me more than busy lately, which will be true for the future as well. I haven’t really gotten any new clients via press advertisements, but am still at the point that I am full of work. I will keep the service on my site for now, though in the future may only have time to do small editing or proofreading services on occasion. The press’s main focus is books.

Secondly, I was up until 3:00 a.m. reading a book proposal, a fictional novel that was so good it kept me up that late. I guess that’s all I can say for now!

Thirdly, Moon Willow Press is now a member of Green Press Initiative and Eco-Libris. Both these organizations have done great work in forestry sustainability and preservation, and have contributed largely to helping steer the book publishing industry into reducing impacts on our planet’s forests. Organizations like these were inspirational for starting the press.

Also, on the local front, a new organization called Ancient Rainforest Alliance is working to preserve old-growth forests in British Columbia. Their office is in Victoria, over on the island.

Speaking of that, my husband and I will be traveling to Victoria for our 4th wedding anniversary on Mother’s Day weekend in May to get away for some R&R as well as to visit some family. At the same time, famous biologist Alexandra Morton, who has been a prime mover in attempting to stop Norwegian fish farming in BC, will be finishing a trek down a good length of the island in order to raise awareness of the impact of fish farms on wild salmon. This journey starts on Earth Day (April 22) near Sointula. Fraser Riverkeeper, with whom I contract as Director of Outreach, will be joining in on the migration on its last leg of the journey, and final ceremony, in Victoria. Please join us if you’re in the vicinity. More information is at Salmonarescared.org, and a map of the route is there as well.

I’ve been working on a toolkit that will offer small publishers some tools for taking their presses to the next level of green practices, which includes everything from creative ideas for office practices and book fairs to a wealth of resources sourced by such organizations as Canopy Planet, Eco-Libris, Green Press Initiative, the FAO, and many others. A resource guide is at the end of this toolkit.

I guess the participatory part comes from its readers: Do you have any other good resources? What else would you like to see in such a kit?

I hope to have a first version final draft by early May, before my own first book fair here in Vancouver. The kit serves as a great backgrounder for MWP’s philosophy and commitments as well.

Another section I’d like to eventually include in this kit is a listing of other publishers, large and small, who have similar commitments to the our forest lands. If you are one, please contact me! I think together we can lead the industry into doing the right stuff.

I first looked at some green printers around Vancouver, and some had nice little Web apps, where you could upload your logo and design preferences, and then a couple weeks and $50.00 – $150.00 later, you would get 200 business cards printed on anything from 25% to 100% post-consumer paper, some with vegetable-based inks. There are a few excellent printers that practice forest stewardship in business.

But I still wanted to find something cheaper and was convinced that I could make my own cards. I found that having someone design my card would be even more expensive than just the printing. I finally modeled a card from the dimensions of Avery labels that you can freely download for Microsoft Word. Even so, I had trouble with margins and printing errors. I finally tweaked things here and there to get it just right.

Then I made a paper choice, and decided if I was going to design my own card, I might as well print it too. After some research, I chose Green Field Paper Company, which sells tree-free paper, including sheets of perforated business card hemp paper, which is what I ordered. They also sell garlic- and denim-based paper. I paid only $12.95 for enough paper for 100 business cards, quite a savings on having someone else design and print my cards. This company also sells seed-embedded paper, which you can plant after use. I was pretty impressed with the company, and love one of their campaigns that turns spam mail into a post-consumer “Recycle Earth” collection of stationery.

Green Field also doesn’t use acid or chlorine in their paper-making, and for the hemp paper uses 25% hemp and 75% recycled paper.

I like the final outcome of the business card, though I should warn anyone else trying this method to print a sheet and then let the printer cool down before printing another. On the later pages, I had some ink displacement on some of the cards. We have a laser printer, and the hemp is heavier than normal paper (like card stock), so must be loaded manually and fed through the printer.

Finally today, we have a business card, and I’m pleased with the outcome:

Home-made business card