Susan Ross, Storyteller and Author

Susan Ross, former storyteller at Fanshawe Pioneer Village and London International Children's Festival is an author of books for children. Born in Toronto, Ontario she now lives in London with her husband Nathan and her menagerie of pets.

People used to tell Susan that she should write down her stories for her grandchildren (which she doesn't have yet). She spoke with David Carruthers, another children's author from London, about self-publishing. But then she laid her stories aside for some years. Finally she decided to "just do it". 

"It took me six months to find an artist who could do the illustrations the way I wanted," Susan told me. Then she found the perfect match in a graduate of BealArt here in London. Megan Stiver is currently at Sheridan College studying Illustration.

Susan's first book, "The Great Bellybutton Cover-Up" (ages 2-8), was published in 2008. She is currently producing one book per year. She published "The Kit Kat Caper" in 2009 and "'Say Please to the Honeybees" in 2010.

Look for her next book, a fairytale called "The Rose and the Lily" (ages 4-10) which will be available in 2011.

Check out Susan's new blog.    

THE TRAIN MAN

Long-time London resident Fred Zaza needed something to keep him occupied after he retired. So he built a workshop in his basement and started to make trains out of scrap materials. I spoke with Fred and his wife Donna at a small show a few weeks ago. Fred has made close to 100 trains since he began his hobby. He shows and sells them locally. Fred has taken part in the St. Thomas Model Railway Show and he made his largest model for the North American Railway Museum in St. Thomas. 

Fred says it takes him a couple of weeks to make one train engine. Discarded shredders from Office Depot provide some of the items he needs along with various car parts and anything else he can put to use for one of his creations. For one engine he used a small air purifier (see photo at bottom). Some even have working headlights.

Fred told me an interesting story about one show he did a while back. He had a number of trains on display when someone came along and started a conversation about the trains. Fred did not know then who he was speaking with. This man ended up purchasing all of the trains. When he asked who this man was he discovered it was the owner of  Farhi Holdings Corporation which owns much of downtown London. Founded in 1988 by Mr. Shmuel Farhi, Farhi Holdings Corporation currently owns and manages more than 4 million square feet of office, retail, industrial and residential space throughout Ontario. 

A few months later, Fred, curious as to what Mr. Farhi had wanted the trains for, went to his office in downtown London. There he discovered that the trains were simply sitting where they had been placed after Mr. Farhi purchased them. He didn't buy them for any particular purpose - simply to own them.  Just because he could.

Traffic from Social Media

Check out the latest recording of the TalkShoe program on getting traffic from social media. Chuck Bartok hosts this interactive call with members of Beginners Marketing Class.  Join us live every Wednesday evening at 6:30 PST, 9:30 EST. Ask questions on the current topic, offer your suggestions, share your experiences in building your business. Timely topics every week.
Phone number: 1-724-444-7444
Call ID 13372#
Hope to "see" you on the next call.

Canadian school board brings back ‘Christmas’ holidays | LifeSiteNews.com

Canadian school board brings back ‘Christmas’ holidays | LifeSiteNews.com

The Story of Jonah

This is the best story of Jonah I have ever heard. I'm sure you will enjoy it as much as I did.

The story of Jonah from Corinth Baptist Church on Vimeo.

Gestapo government orders family farm to commit financial suicide by destroying 50,000 pounds of cheese

Gestapo government orders family farm to commit financial suicide by destroying 50,000 pounds of cheese

Scouts Canada Hosts Annual Christmas Show

Yesterday I manned a table for David Carruthers in the gym at Spencer Hall, the Scouts Canada headquarters for London.
There were numerous vendors selling hand-crafted items from knitting to cards to jewelery to trains. There were wood products, home-made preserves and Christmas decorations as well as another children's author, Susan Ross, selling her picture books. (I will be highlighting Susan in another post.) For a $3.00 entrance fee you also received a lunch of sandwiches, veggies and sweets as well as tea and coffee.

It was great to meet and chat with other vendors and to speak with people as they stopped by David's table to browse. I was able to tell quite a few people about David's books and about his school and day care presentations. Of course I also sold some of his books to eager parents and grandparents.

CDs containing
all 17 of David's books.

David also has CDs on which all 17 of his stories are narrated.

Imaginative story about a boy
who wonders what it's like to
"hug an octopus","ride an octopus"
or "kiss a giraffe".

David's books are enthusiastically spoken of by all who have purchased them--children, teachers and parents all love them.

Rhyming picture book just for fun.

All about the letter "A"
to teach children
about the letter itself
and many words
beginning with it.
The purpose is to
enlarge their vocabulary
in a fun way.
A "Colour-Me" book

Along with David's books I also had some of my own children's books on display. These are books I published in 1988 but since I have been out of the craft show venue for so long they have been boxed up in my apartment. David was good enough to suggest I sell my books at his shows as well.