Through the years, I’ve had a lot of experience using Canva to create flyers, signs, social media materials, bookmarks, and even playlist covers—almost entirely with a free Canva account with no subscription. Sure, there are more options available with a paid subscription, but even with a free account, Canva is still a valuable tool with a ton of resources and design templates. It’s amazing what you can create without spending anything. This year, in helping with the publicity for Jill Swenson’s memoir releasing in June, The Land of Everlasting Sky, I took on a new challenge of learning how to use Canva to create a book trailer. Making video content is not something I have done before, let alone creating a trailer from scratch. But after reading and watching several tutorials online, I found Canva makes the process fairly accessible. In the end, I’m happy with what I was able to create on a free Canva account with no previous video-making experience. And I’d like to share some of the insight and advice I picked up from this process so that maybe you, too, can create your own book trailer with Canva. The Script The first step in making a book trailer is to come up with a script. Basically, the script should be a short book description of no more than five sentences. To do this, I pulled lines and inspiration from the existing cover blurb and marketing materials for The Land of Everlasting Sky but then edited it…

For thirty years, the Minnesota Book Awards have recognized the best in writers, illlustrators, and book artists who are Minnesotans. Last Saturday evening in downtown St. Paul at the Intercontinental Hotel Riverfront, more than 800 people attended the awards ceremony emceed by Rohan Preston, theater critic for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. With more than 250 books submitted for the annual award, a panel of judges narrowed it down to four finalists across eight categories in January. Carolyn Porter, for Marcel’s Letters, had been named a finalist in the category of Memoir and Creative Nonfiction. On Valentine’s Day, she gave a talk at the Hamline Midway Library as part of the Fireside Reading Series which highlights the work of the finalists for the Minnesota Book Awards. The awards are sponsored by Education Minnesota and presented by the Friends of the St. Paul Public Library. There are too few moments in an author’s career when you receive critical acclaim and professional affirmation. I encourage you to grab these moments when you can. When your book is a finalist in a prestigious award category, it’s appropriate to pop the champagne and celebrate. Even if it doesn’t take first place, it’s still a winner. Deeply touched to have been invited to join Carolyn Porter and her husband, Aaron, for the awards ceremony, I enjoyed the evening and the chance to meet so many literary artists in one place at one time. The full list of winners in all categories of the Minnesota Book Award can…

No matter what season, there is often no pastime more pleasant than curling up with a good book. However, this fall, readers will have the chance to not only read their favorite authors, but also to meet them as well. The eleventh annual Fox Cities Book Festival is happening from October 8 to 14 at venues all across the Fox Cities and continues in its mission to connect readers and writers. This year’s festival has something for everyone, including panel discussions, craft presentations, workshops, and author events in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. There are even special events for the kids or for the entire family to enjoy together. There will be some familiar faces at the festival, including Carolyn Porter, author of Marcel’s Letters: A Font and the Search for One Man’s Fate, who will be there to talk about her award-winning book recounting her obsessive quest for answers about Marcel Heuzé, the World War II forced laborer whose handwriting inspired the font. She’ll be speaking on October 8 at 1:30 pm and 6:30 pm, at the Kaukauna Public Library and Gerard H. Van Hoof Memorial Library, respectively. Larry Scheckel will also be presenting at Fox Cities Book Festival. Author of four books, his most recent title, I Wondered About That, Too: 111 Questions and Answers about Science and Other Stuff, is a sequel to his widely popular book I Always Wondered About That and releases on November 1. During the Fox Cities Book Festival, Larry will be presenting his live Sensational Science…