IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR A FUN AND ENTERTAINING WAY TO PROMOTE YOUR BOOK, you might follow Hal Friesen's example. I asked Hal to pen me a Guest Post explaining his Character Deathmatch, a marketing tool he created which encourages audience participation. I, along with seven other local writers including Hal, will be participating in this event on Saturday, June 28th, at Audrey's Books in Edmonton at 1:00 P.M. It's going to be a lot of fun. As you can see by the descriptions and placards that follow, Hal has put a lot of time and effort into this event. Thank you, Hal!
I'VE DONE A FEW BOOK EVENTS, and I always felt the spirit of the event should better capture the raucous enthusiasm some books engender. When I read a
good book, I want to run outside and scream about it to the world. I’m not
alone in this regard, so why then, do so many book events feel stifled? Peru
offered me the answer I was looking for: Lucha Libro, a twist on Lucha
Libre, Mexico’s pro wrestling. Known as “literary wrestling”, writers don
masks and are challenged to write a short story in five minutes. The winner
takes off his or her mask and proceeds through the tournament, with the final victor
having his or her first novel published.
Lucha Libro changes the idea that literature is
boring and tries to make it as exciting as possible. I wanted to have a
book event like that, where people got together and were excited about books. I wanted to engage
the audience, and most of all, I wanted it to be fun. That’s when I came up
with the notion of the Edmonton Character Deathmatch.
This is how it will work: two authors will duel by reading a sample of their
work, one after the other, with selections focusing on a particular character.
The audience, given creative action placards (such as “assimilates”, “judo
chops” and “baffles with brilliance”), will then vote on their favorite
character. It’s silly and fairly arbitrary, but it adds a level of engagement,
progression, and (hopefully) tension to the tournament. I’ve gotten Lucha Libre
masks for all the authors, but I can’t promise that everyone will want to wear
them.
The winners of the duels will be determined by
audience vote, and will take each other on as characters are eliminated from
the contest. The final victor will walk home with a trophy that is as
incredible and ridiculous as the event itself. To make sure the contestants
remain fresh in the audience’s mind, each character has a stat card, similar to
a sports trading card, that lists all of his or her qualities and weaknesses.
Here’s a snapshot of this year’s contestants:
Name: Angela Simonson, half-demon teen EMP
Appears in: The
Puzzle Box, Creator: Eileen Bell
Mission: To meet her father, while making life as
miserable as possible for her mother. Oh, and not destroying the world in the
process!
Special powers: She’s half demon, and can wreck most
electronics with a half-assed internal
EMP. However, a Djinn has just given her three wishes, so she can do
just about anything she wants (but only three times. And being half-demon
seems to really mess with the wishes, so she has to be very careful. Normally,
she’s not careful. Not at all.)
Name: Edgar Domingo Vincent, undead drunken playboy
Appears in: Edgar’s
Worst Sunday, Creator: Brad OH Inc.
About: In life, Edgar Vincent has been something of a
cad. Callous comments, thoughtless promiscuity, binge drinking and excess
sufficient to shame Caligula, are standard Saturday night fare.
Mission: When Edgar finds himself in the cloudy planes
of the afterlife on one particularly dreadful Sunday, he must put aside his
ever-present hangover and try to figure out how he ever got to this point, and
where he’s meant to be going now.
Weakness: Sundays.
Name: Eve Lopez, gravity manipulator
Appears in: Weightless,
Creator: Jay Bardyla
Mission: Before, it was learning to control her
abilities. Now, it's to save the world, repeatedly.
About: What do you do when something beyond your
control forces you to lose control? And what happens later when people want to
control you? A battle to maintain a sense of self is easier fought when the
whole world isn’t fighting over you but for Eve Lopez, the world’s sole
super-human, both battles are never-ending.
Name: Fra Francisco, drug-dealing double agent for the Papacy and Inglais
Appears in: The
Tattooed Seer, Creator: Susan MacGregor
Mission: To locate witches in Esbana, and to convince (or kidnap) them to
come to Inglais to aid Ilysabeth’s rise to the throne.
Special power(s): Deceit, drugs, espionage,
masquerade, acting, tumbling, kidnapping, assassination (but only the bad guys)
About: (This is a rare depiction of him, painted when he was much, much older. He also bears an uncanny resemblance to Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth 1st's Spymaster.)
Name: Haywire McGuire, altruistic Metis fugitive.
Appears in: The
Tenth Circle Project, Creator: Billie Milholland
Mission: To save children from slavery in the
post-apocalyptic City of Glory.
About: On the run from the law, wanted for an assassination
she didn’t commit, Haywire McGuire teams up with other fugitives to rescue
children from a life of servitude.
Interesting stat: She hangs out with ChloroMorphs
(people who can trade the iron atom in their hemoglobin for magnesium to
temporarily gain the power of photosynthesis).
Name: Lola Evangeline Starke, sharp-tongued
bare-knuckled bruiser
Appears in: Die
on Your Feet, Creator: S.G. Wong
Mission: To find the truth, no matter what the cost.
Weakness: Lola is haunted by a ghost named Aubrey
O’Connell, invisible to her (as all ghosts are to the living) but plenty
audible.
About: Happy to partake in all that the City’s swank
supper clubs and gambling joints have to offer, Lola is unafraid to mix it up
with the seedier elements of Crescent City’s dark underbelly when the job requires
it.
Name: Nestor Tark, helicopter father super trooper
Appears in: Shepherds
of Sparrows, Creator: Hal J. Friesen
Special power(s): Genetically modified Vrellish
Highborn, with exceptional strength and agility in gravity and in a
rel-fighter. Deadly with a sword.
Mission: To find somewhere he belongs, and where he
can raise his family.
Weakness: His physiology doesn’t allow him to eat
fruit or vegetables.
Name: Tad Klassen, post-rehab atheist anti-hero
Mission: To stay clean, and to reconcile with his
family on his terms.
About: At age eighteen, Tad was fed up with his
parents’ hypocritical faith and constant bickering, and he walked away without
a backward glance. A year later, fighting addiction, Tad returns from his
self-imposed exile to find his place in a family that’s slowly disintegrating.
THE JEERING HAS ALREADY STARTED ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER, and I’m sure there’ll be more playful jabbing throughout the event
(June 28 at 1:00 PM at Audrey’s Books). This is all tongue-in-cheek, however,
since everyone involved is really supporting each other and coming together to
make the event a success. Regardless of
who wins this Saturday, everyone should come out wearing a smile. Check it out! It’s something Edmonton has
never seen before.
(I second that, Hal. Thanks for all your hard work. It's going to be a great event. I know we're all looking forward to it! - Susan.)
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