Reason # 417 To Hire A Copywriter: You could be making our day

I’m not going to talk about their sales or anything like that – but I have to say something about this Old Spice campaign.

If you don’t know about it, go here, and then come back. We won’t wait, but this post is magically timed to be here for you when and as you need it…so don’t worry, you won’t miss a thing.

So, I’ve been imagining the scene. Here’s how it looked to me:

A comfy room with couches and such—and a huge table in the center. It’s piled high with all kinds of food…and likely booze, maybe even some pot brownies. And four bright and shiny MacBook Pros. And in front of them—fingers dashing across keyboards, eyes bright, mouths shouting out ideas—sit The Writers.

Yes, the football player/spokesdude is hot and his voice is perfection. But he wouldn’t be as charming or witty or funny or addictive if the right words weren’t coming out of his mouth.

And as far as I’m concerned, these Writers had just about the best gig ever with Old Spice.

“So basically,” the Marketing Director told them (in my imagination), “We want you to watch Twitter and all of the crazy things that famous and non-famous people are saying to the Old Spice Guy—and then write the most ridiculous, over-the-top, nutso responses. We’ll give you whatever props you want. Just don’t swear or offend anyone—especially the mothers. This is all about the mothers. Okay, go.”

In my dream, these writers were paid handsomely for their Word Juice. Man, I hope that part’s true. (…and the pot brownies, too…would explain so much…)

Image credit: Joe Shlabotnik

Writing Perceptions: Theirs and Yours

Here’s the thing: if you ever go out in public (live or on the web), people are going to see you, judge you, tell stories about who they think you are (in their heads and out loud), like you or not like you.

There’s literally nothing you can do about it.

I recently read an interview with actress Kristen Stewart where she compared the attention, privacy invasion and paparazzi that surround her as rape. She’s been taken to task for that understandably and she’s apologized, but she does make a point. It is unwanted and it is abuse. Anyway, it was a simile, she did not mean to be literal. She says:

What you don’t see are the cameras shoved in my face and the bizarre intrusive questions being asked, or the people falling over themselves, screaming and taunting to get a reaction. All you see is an actor or a celebrity lit up by a flash. Your little persona is made up of all the places that people have seen you and what has been said about you.

The celebrity example is extreme, but with social media—and massive, sudden access to people’s information. It’s not that far off from our realities. Just the other day, someone I follow on Twitter said they decide whether to follow someone based on their last tweet. Ouch. Sometimes my last tweet isn’t brilliant, you know? Sometimes it’s a reaction to someone else or part of a longer conversation I’ve been having.

Because these interwebs move so fast, we are often quick to see, interpret, judge and decide.

And it’s not all negative, mind you. Just like some of those celeb photos are gorgeous, the snapshot glimpses the public gets of you on the web are often stunning.

But, if you’re a celebrity and you know the cameras are going to be there, either take massive steps to avoid them (some do this very well) and garner yourself some privacy or get your hair ‘did’ before you go outside. Your only other option is to not care.

It’s the same with us normal people, you know.

We do have a wee, little, tiny, microscopic bit of control. We can be careful what we post, tweet, update, etc. We can be careful in our interactions with others. We can always be our truest, bestest selves.

But, most importantly, our control lies in our understanding that it’s going to happen. It is! We will be perceived by others—however they want to perceive us.

Think about it. And think about it as you, inevitably, write your perceptions of those around you.

The images in this post were created by my favorite artist, Traeger di Pietro. His perception of my logo was done with paint, his perception of the Geek Girl logo with mixed media—I wish you could see it in person, the layers and bits are so inspired. If you want him to judge you in this beautiful way, visit his site, email him or just let me know (I’ve got his numbah).

Reason #4343 to hire a copywriter: Seeing eye to eye

One of the best things about walking out from behind your computer screen and going to conferences is meeting people that heretofore you only knew as an avatar.

Let me fill you in on something. No one looks like their avatar. Some look worse, some look better (Oh! How my fingers ache to put examples behind those statements!) and they’re all decidedly warmer. But, no one looks like you think they will.

Case in point, Steve Sherlock came to find me at SOBCon. There were big hugs, “I’m so glad to finally meet you”s, and on and on. And then there was my realization that he was roughly 8 feet tall. And that I’m not (I forget this fact a lot – sort of like a chihuahua). He noticed too, saying, “Wow, from your Twitter avatar, I thought you’d be much taller!”

“She’s larger than life,” said my dear friend Andi. God bless ‘er.

This ‘in person’ thing is the only time I don’t like being short – ’cause otherwise, I really like it:

• I curl up in chairs easily.
• My feet have never hung off the end of a bed or stuck out of the covers.
• I can be carried easily in cases of emergency (or passion).
• Falling down hurts less.
• I’m afraid of heights.

But, when I’m talking to a peer and I have to look up at them to converse, a power imbalance ensues. And, unless the tall person gets off on intimidation and lording over others or unless the short person thinks of themself as unworthy and, well, small – I don’t think it’s comfortable for either party.

Personally, I simply won’t stand for it. I want to look into your eyes, not up your nose. So I did this (see below) and it was caught on camera and tweeted by Steve Woodruff.

@Swoodruff: Julie @writingroads strategy for having face time with tall people

(Ignore the face I’m making in this photo, I’ve run through every word I know and I can’t find one that causes that face.)

See, it’s like I told you the other day, I’m not above stepping on things to get what I need.

The Power of the copywriter

Good copywriters solve problems. If your competition or your dream clients are ‘taller’ or ‘shorter’ than you, copywriters and content creators (and social media strategists) should be able to figure out a way to get you to eye level, to position your message and brand in a way that creates a natural conversation, connection and relationship.

Interruption marketing just isn’t cutting it anymore. It’s done from a perspective where the company is decidedly bigger or smaller than their customer, and therefore, has to scream to get their attention. Interruption tactics include:

• TV commercials
• Radio commercials
• Let’s face it: all commercials
• Blinking, obnoxious ‘BUY THIS’ windows that open when you’re just trying to read a post
• Pushing your products on people
• Not listening, just talking/yelling/shouting
• Taking, sucking and bogarting the energy

As opposed to relationship, or relational or human, marketing. Blogging and social media tools can be used quite effectively as a means to this relationship building, by the way.

• Meeting people where they are.
• Listening to what clients and customers need.
• Solving their problems.
• Not pushing your product on them.
• Giving, not taking.
• Being a real person.
• Building a relationship of trust.

All difficult things to do when you’re staring into someone’s belly button.

The cock block.

This memory is crystal clear.

I was on the train with my mom and my big brothers heading from Chicago to St. Louis. And I was sicker than sick. It was the stomach flu – and the rocking of the train was not helping. I remember my brothers being fine and behaving (because that’s mostly what they did). I remember the flat coke my mom had me sip (because back then we thought pouring poisonous chemicals and high fructose corn syrup into people made them feel better). I remember that coke always tasted really different when I was sick – medicinal, like it was sick too.

My five-year old self wrote a story about this stomach flu. My five-year old imagination thought that Chicago had made me sick. Because Chicago didn’t make me feel good.

Chicago…

…is my dad’s home town. And we went there often. And I didn’t like it. Please know that I love my dad more than anything, he is my most favorite man I know – but it was always a mystery to me how he came from them. Let’s see, how can I explain this to you…

• I spent a lot of time from 0-10 either on my dad’s lap or wedged next to him on his recliner.
• I have no memory of snuggling with or sitting on or being carried by my grandparents.
• My mom is a pretty darn great.
• There are two ‘Mother-in-Law Manuals’. My grandmother read the one with the skull & crossbones on it.
• My big brother Jon – who was hands-down one of the cutest kids ever (we don’t know what happened, but the tube socks of the 70′s had something to do with it, I’m sure) – was the oldest grandchild and he named my grandmother. Trying to say ‘grandma’, it came out ‘manga’. We all called her that for the rest of her life.
• How cute is that? Well, she hated it.
• I have 3 memories of my grandfather who passed away when I was 10.
• He smoked, he played the organ and would let me sit with him on his bench while he played and he called me ‘sugar’.
• At his funeral, my scary, sceevy cousin tried really hard to kiss me.
• Not in a cousinly way.

Are you getting the gist? In a childhood full of roses, the Chicago slice wasn’t.

The Stomach Flu

What happened next was very interesting – and I like to think proof of my psychic powers. For the next 8 years – ending with an 8th grade field trip – just about every time I went to Chicago (probably 7-8 more times), I got the stomach flu.

Swear to god. Ask my mom – she’s here reading with you.

The Cock Block

So, eventually around age 13, I decided I’d had enough. And so I did what anyone in my position would do – I decided that I hated Chicago. And I stopped going. I cock blocked Chicago for 23 years. Twenty-three. Believe me, I know how to hold a grudge. The most thorough astrological reading I’ve ever read about myself ends with: “July 13′s (Cancers) do not put up with duplicitous nonsense.” Cough, cough - Chicago.

Yesterday, I ended the hiatus. I’m in Chicago for an incredible conference, SOBCon. Here are some things about my stay so far:

• The architecture is beautiful.
• The only thing you need to do to get a cab is to have the thought, “A cab would be nice right about now.” (Seriously)
• I ran 6 miles this morning along the river and Lake Michigan and it was glorious.
• I’m meeting amazing people.
• The number of things I’m learning! (I’ve been here for 5 hours and I have 10 blog posts started, stay tuned)

But these are not the reasons I broke my grudge, these are simply the rewards for having done so. The reason I broke my grudge was this: I realized that it was not helping me any longer. Because as it turns out, the only one getting the cock block from the grudge – is me.

_______________________________

I’m off to look for more of these grudges (I’m sure I have additional ones in the hopper), so that I can annihilate them. You?

Image credit: Sarkasmo

A Twitter love story (for the disbelievers)

There was a while there, last fall, where I lost my mojo for Twitter. I was sick of listening to people trying to be funny or clever or whatever. And I was a little tired of watching myself do it. I just wasn’t coming up with stuff to ‘say’ naturally. And I was bored by the same old, same old articles being retweeted – and the same old, same old people being pimped out. So, I said very little…for a bit. (and you can only imagine how this pained me)

It was like those days when you’re sick of every single song on the radio and you wonder if there will ever be a new song that thrills every cell in your body again.

It was like I’d been dancing my ass off at the hoedown and then I just had to sit a few out. In the corner, at a table in the shadows, with my tall glass of lemonade, just watching everyone else.

And then, one day, I decided to step back into my cowboy boots and saunter back out to the dance floor again.

And, well, I’m just so glad I did. Talking, sharing, listening – they’ve brought the Twitter goods over the last few months, including:

• A regular guest spot on Copyblogger.
• Connecting with some stellar people like Jonathan Fields and Kelly Diels.
• Much fruition for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo social media campaign.
• Work, work and more work – client work, that is.
• (p.s. this is not meant to be boastful, just providing statistical data).

But the thing that made me want to write about Twitter today, is this: I’m working on a mega big project for an incredible company called FlexPaths (we’re creating a flexible work revolution, totally kicks ass, just you wait, links to come) that involves a ginormous federal government contract. And I was tasked with finding a Drupal team of developers to handle some overtly complicated, customized, specialized web development. And it was a down-to-the-wire task, mind you.

Here’s what went down…

Friday afternoon:

• 4:30 pm EST: I tweeted, “Does anyone know of a GOOD Drupal development team? Huge project, ongoing.”
• 4:32 pm EST: My friend, @ron_miller retweeted my tweet.
• 4:35 pm EST: Ron’s trusted friend and colleague, @Robert_Rose responded to both of us with, “Talk to Michael Weiss at @Imagistic – they are top-notch and do great work.” (or something awfully close to that)
• 4:36 pm EST: I followed @Imagistic and jumped in my car to head home.
• 4:45 pm EST: Michael Weiss, CEO of Imagistic, DM’d me: “Would love to hear about the project. Call me: (818) 706-9100″.
• 4:46 EST: I called him, loved him, gave him the run down and emailed him specs. We set a meeting with his team for 7:30 that night.
• 5:00 – 7:30 I was a mom.
• 7:30 Met with the Imagistic team in CA via phone to walk them through the project specs. They were brilliant, asked great questions…they made me laugh and (more importantly) laughed at my jokes, (for which they got massive piles of bonus points).

Saturday Morning – Sunday Night

• Woke up to their proposal/estimate for the work.
• Fielded negotiations between Imagistic and FlexPaths.

Monday Morning

• Had a signed contract.

Two weeks later

• Imagistic did a phenomenal job and is on tap for phase 2 of the project. They are partners for life as far as I’m concerned, my go-to guys for Drupal/Web development and more…and the FlexPaths team is happy, happy and beyond happy.

And that, my friends, is the end – or more aptly the beginning – of this Twitter love story.

Image credit: .imelda (and fyi, don’t search for squaredancing images on Creative Commons…yikes!)

Our web connection, my blog setup and your blog writing

Our Web Connection

They don’t call this a web for nuthin’. We’re all connected, sometimes in strange ways, by its invisible strings.

Seriously, the number of times that I write something, then read another post and blink with surprise that my message is right there on someone else’s blog wrapped up in different words – is astounding. The reverse is also true, just look at the comments in my posts – it seems at least once a day someone links me to a brilliant post they wrote that connects right in or exclaims, ‘I was just thinking/writing/talking about this!”

I absolutely love this. To me, it’s like the air around us is ripe with these ideas and we’re all just plucking them off the tree and making them ours. To share this brain and thought process with so many other people is like getting to swim in that pool with the pods in it in Cocoon – I think it actually feeds us and makes us better. Sometimes it even glows.

So, I was not shocked when I woke up this morning and saw Chris Brogan’s post on the necessity of purpose and focus for your blog, when I was sitting here with the guts of a post with a similar vein. My post is about my blog and about yours…

My Blog Setup

Well, really my whole site. Way back when I started my copywriting business, I thought it was all about the website – so I got one. And I loved it. When I quickly discovered the world of blogging, I dove in full force – for my clients – helping them write and leverage this platform for their own businesses. But I didn’t blog for myself.

Eventually, the uber-talented illustrator, Elizabeth Whelan – after hearing me go on and on about what blogging could do for a shared client we had, asked me where my blog was. Uh, er, um, well… She told me she wouldn’t speak to me again until my blog was up and running. THANK YOU, Elizabeth. I pulled a WordPress blog onto the writingroads.com site and my life hasn’t been the same since.

And then, recently, I’ve been finding myself in another one of these ‘do as I say, not as I do’ situations. I’m telling people left and right…

• to just build a blog, not a traditional website
• and add static pages
• for SEO purposes
• for ease of use, content management
• for UI (user interface) or VEO (visitor enhanced optimization)
• to use plugins for expansion and growth
• to maximize sidebar real estate

And the whole time, I’m eyeballing my blog with a sideways glance. The cobbler has no shoes, the therapist’s family is full of nutjobs, and yes, the blogger’s blog is out of whack.

So, finally, with the help of the lovely, Shauna Callaghan, I’ve redone my site – the right way. You might not even notice, because it’s likely you didn’t ever click on those typewriter keys up above that shot you over to the ‘web’site and off the blog. But now when you click on them, they keep you here whilst showcasing my work and services. And www.writingroads.com gets you here now as well (no more need for writingroads.com/blog). Ahhh…c’est fini! (besides the incessant tweaking I’m doing). My wish is that it’s easier now for visitors to know who I am and what I do…

What does your blog/site need? How can you tweak it so to perform better?

Your Blog Writing

The other thing on my mind is your blog. This morning, when I tweeted CB’s post about blog focus and purpose, I added this: “(and if you need help focusing/purposing, call me)” – and several people responded with messages that looked something like, “Please help me!!!” in varying degrees of agony.

So, I thought it was worth putting it out there, but this time here: I help you figure out the blogosphere by helping you answer these questions:

• What is my blog’s purpose?
• What is my blog’s theme?
• How do I define and rein in my scope?
• What do I write about?
• How do I write it?
• How do I focus my content and outreach?
• Should I talk to other bloggers?
• Which ones?
• How do I do that?
• What plugins do I need?
• What is a plugin?
• Do I need to use Twitter and Facebook?
• How do I ______? (fill in the blank)
• …and on and on.

Let me know if you need help…after all, with the way this web connectivity thing is going, you were probably just thinking about all of this anyway…

Image credit: Jeff Smallwood

Quite dirty, Quite hilarious

It’s Friday. And because I’m so busy – with Dragon Tattoo (contest launches March 10th!), Geek Girl Camp (teaching SIX workshops tomorrow!), my best in the world clients and writing a new eBOOK (very, very excited about this) – that my brain just threatened to quit (or at least go on strike) AND because I want to make sure that you’re on top of the latest social media craze, I thought we could all use a little time with my boyfriend today.

FYI, depending on where you work, this might not be totally appropriate. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

(And, Jon – my love – I’ll be in the City at the end of the month, if you want to grab a drink. I take my vodka on the rocks with as many olives as you can fit in the glass. Oh, and, I love you.)

What’s security anyway?

I got a phone call yesterday afternoon. Well, first I got a message via LinkedIn requesting the call, then I got the call.

It was from a recruiter. Offering a very (very) high paid job at a company in Boston. For those of you who read this blog regularly and saw yesterday’s post, you can join me in a good laugh here: the position was to create and manage the social media department – wait for it – for a PR firm.

I know. As an old friend used to say, you just can’t make this stuff up.

It turned out that the job wasn’t right for me, the company’s looking for someone with strong social media experience and hands-on programming experience (HTML, Javascript, AJAX, XML, etc.) Which would be like asking me if I could write and do chemistry…which I couldn’t, can’t and, quite frankly, won’t. (If this is YOU, let me know and I’ll guide you right to this recruiter!!! And don’t let the Boston thing scare you, they’re even willing to pay for relo.)

Even though that particular job wasn’t for me, we got to talking – and said recruiter was very excited about what it is that I do, how I do it and why I do it. To be honest, I was excited about my answers too. And this confirmed that it would be sorta hard to woo me away from my present situation – owning my own company, being my own boss, freelancing and the randomness that comes with it.

Let’s be honest.

An actual job has some things going for it: a steady paycheck, health insurance, VACATION TIME, SICK TIME               sorry – I’m back, I think I just fainted for a minute there.

But, and it’s a big BUT – how secure would this job really be? As it stands, my success is entirely dependent on me. It’s a lot of pressure, but at least it’s mine. I do well when I work hard, seize opportunity, smear my gumption all over people…and things like that. I do poorly when I don’t do those things. And I have no one to blame but myself. Really. Even if I get screwed over or let down by a client, it’s up to me whether I cry about it and sling responsibility (and we all deserve at least 5 minutes of this) or whether I just get up and go find another one, a better one. Companies fold all the time or it’s just not a good fit or…there are so many things that could make this opportunity crumble.*

So, what I told her was, “Of course, I’ll send my resume, but:

• I’d be more interest in working as a contractor,
• Or as a consultant,
• Or on a special project for a few weeks to several months,
• And I’d need to telecommute,
• But I’d be happy to travel in on a regular basis.”

I’m not closing any doors. If a job-job came along that was just perfect (and had a sizable signing bonus), I would heavily consider it. As always, there is no definitive path…but there’s a helluva lot of excitement and possibility.

What about you? If you had your choice, would you go it alone or pull your chair up to a cubicle?

*I’m really not a pessimist. The other night, a loud truck with flashing lights woke me up in the middle of the night – my first and only thought was, why are they cleaning the streets at this hour? When, in fact and of course, it was a snowplow and we were in the middle of a snowstorm on March 1st. I think this is a sign of my deeply embedded optimism. (Which is why, for now, I’m putting my chips on Writing Roads.)

Image credit: Lokner

Who needs statistics when we’ve got reality.

While many of my friends spent our junior year abroad in exotic places like Florence, Tanzania, Nepal, Paris and Argentina, I opted for the wilds of St. Louis, MO.

My main gig was volunteering at a domestic violence agency where I researched and wrote the organization’s history, taught dating violence prevention in local schools and worked on the 24-hour crisis hotline. And in order to do this terrifying and terribly important hotline work, I went through an intense and long training program.

• I learned why women stay in abusive relationships when it seems so obvious to the rest of us that they should leave.
• I learned that violence is a vicious cycle.
• And, I learned a number of statistics.

Most of theses numbers have stuck in my brain like gnarly, nasty pieces of chewed gum stuck under the lunch table – ugly to look at, hard to touch, easy to pretend they aren’t there. One of the stats goes like this: The day with the highest rate of domestic violence in the U.S. is Super Bowl Sunday.

Colts vs. Saints

Two days ago, as I sat at my computer working and occasionally watching the Facebook and Twitter streams of Super Bowl brouhaha pass me by, I found it hard to ignore this stuck-in-my-head statistic. I felt rising panic at what was likely going on as the Colts looked good…and then really bad, as the alcohol was consumed, as the chips ran out, as the bets were lost.

So, I put up a tweet and a FB status update telling people about the stat and offering up the number for the National Domestic Violence Hotline. 1-800-799-SAFE (7233), or 1-800-787-3224 (TTY)

What happened next utterly, totally and completely floored me.

Some women, women, came after me. They said the stat was bogus. One said, and I quote: “That is an unfounded myth propogated by the media and womens activist groups. Set the record straight.” (spelling/grammar errors are listed verbatim)

Can you imagine? Women-centric activist groups having the nerve to tell the world that on a day when alcohol, tension and the chance for losing large sums of money are high, there is a greater incidence of domestic violence? The horror. Don’t get me started on the idea that these groups have been lumped in with ‘the media’.

I’ve since learned there are many sides to the validity of the actual stat.

This comment also included the following quote, “On January 31, 1993, when Ken Ringle of The Washington Post questioned the information mentioned in the press release, other news media quickly retracted their articles covering the domestic violence story. The damage was done. The myth continues and Super Bowl Sunday is still sometimes referred to as Bloody Sunday, Abuse Bowl, a Day of Dread, and the Most Dangerous Day in America.”

The damage was done. Yes. Citizens of this country were once again made to look at the fact that women and children are beaten in their own homes every single day by the people who are supposed to love and cherish them. And how dare we disrupt Super Bowl Sunday with this blasphemy! Oh holy, holy day!

My question is, who cares about the validity of this stat? IS THIS WHAT WE SHOULD BE WASTING OUR BREATH ARGUING ABOUT? Domestic Violence is true, real, happening  - right now. And what made these women flare up against me and my status update about this? It confounds me!!! For heaven’s sake, use your breath to help someone, not squabble over what Snopes says!

And how can we believe that information from Ken Ringle up above. Hello? How many lies are we fed every day by industries with ulterior motives!?! I mean, do you really think Cheerios will save you from getting heart disease? PLEASE!!! The fight against the Super Bowl stat is based in the fact that it is a huge day for advertisers and TV: ‘Don’t fuck it up for us with your downer information, thank you’ is, I believe, their message.

My mom

My mother, bless her, has spent roughly 20 years of her life tirelessly working to bring awareness to and raise money for the ugly reality of domestic violence – and she isn’t done yet. Having retired from her role as Development Director, she’s now taking the training again so that she’s up to date and ready to again volunteer on the crisis hotline at Safe Connections in St. Louis.

In her training session this past Saturday (the day before the Big Game), someone (coincidentally) asked about the Super Bowl statistic. And the Director of the hotline said there’s a lot of discrepancy about the statistic. But that the organization personally tracks all of their calls, and every year, every year calls and DV reports spike on Super Bowl Sunday and the entire week that follows.

Statistic are hard to get. Especially when they surround an issue that people keep quiet, viciously undercover – so they don’t get arrested (the abuser) or so that they don’t get killed by their abuser (the abusee). Another stat: the chance an abused woman will be killed by her abuser if she tries to leave the situation increases roughly 75%.

What we do know is that an agency in downtown St. Louis, Missouri (middle America, right in the heartland) has their own stats. And they aren’t good.

If you or someone you know is being hurt, please reach out. Everyone deserves to be safe.

1-800-799-SAFE (7233), or 1-800-787-3224 (TTY)

Image credit: sinosplice

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo meets Writing Roads (another girl with a tattoo or three)

I’m bad at picking books to read at the bookstore, you know, when it’s just me and shelves of beautifully packaged words. Apparently I missed that gene. I get swayed by the cover or the fact that the author’s name kind of looks like mine and I’m blinded by the dream of being published. Anywho, the ones I pick up on my own almost always disappoint.

Thank the good lord, I’m very good at taking book orders recommendations.

I might be a little annoying about it too. I ask a million questions, like: Do any animals get hurt? (I literally can’t take it) and Is it scary? and How fast, exactly, do you think I’ll be able to read it? (Because the world has to stop until I finish). I like to get the full review before I invest my time and I like to know what I’m getting myself into it. I demand full ‘word of mouth’ service.

As a result, I end up with superb books. Books that smart people told me I had to read. Or else.

Even though I like girls with tattoos…

And so it was with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. First of all, I never would have picked this book up on my own. Even though I like girls with tattoos, I’m not into dragons. And it’s a murder mystery type of book, not my usual genre. But, my parents – who have a superb reading record (I did get that gene) – gave it to me for Christmas. And I saw their eyes light up when I ripped the wrapping paper away. And I knew that even though this book promised some unpleasant subject matter, and even though it started out with a lot of hooha about banking and business (yawn) – this book was going to be a keeper.

Turns out, it’s a trilogy: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest. Adding to the intrigue is that the author, Stieg Larsson, died of a heart attack right after he handed in his manuscripts. He has no idea that he’s sold millions of books, that this book is becoming a raving hit and that three movies have been made based on the trilogy. A writer’s life is just full of ironical detours, eh?

Is fiction ever really fiction?

There’s also more intrigue in that his life oddly mirrors much of his protagonist’s life. You know how I love when art imitates life and when fiction isn’t really all that fictional. And, for the geeky among us, this is the first book I’ve read where modern technology (laptops, email, the internet, hackers) are seamlessly interwoven into the story without seeming artificial.

My latest GIG…

And then the planets collided and I was hired to do the social media marketing campaign for the first movie. The author, the books and the movie are all Swedish, and they’ve reached cult status overseas, both the books and the movie have won prestigious awards over there. My campaign over here is going to be very bloggy. I’m staging a mystery for readers to solve across the blogosphere...so stay tuned. You could win premier tickets, meet-ups with the actual girl with the dragon tattoo, shirts, books…the whole bit.

I think books are best found through word of mouth…and now I’ve been charged with the task of putting this book into as many wordy mouths as humanly possible. How cool is that?

And, between you and me, the book is that good. So, read it. Or else. And then, tell everyone you know about it. Or else. And then, go see the movie. Or else. And then, tell everyone you know to see it. You know, or else.