A Very Scary Christmas
A Scriborium Short Story Anthology

A collection of short stories by members of the Scriborium Writers' Guild.

What happens when you take seven published, but not yet well known authors, and give them this charter with a tight deadline: Write a short story in the horror or paranormal genre with a Christmas angle? This collection is the result and it is amazing how each has found a different theme to explore, yet the series feels like they knew each other well.

Some of the stories are scarier than others. Some are shorter than others. It all depends on your own bakground and point of view. But all make for a pleasant read, especially during the holiday times. So curl up by the fire with your laptop, iPad or Kindle and enjoy a story each night.

Editor: Kyra Dawson
Writers: Mark Sheldon, William Topek, Rosie Reay, Sean Hayden, Athol Foden, David Govett, Kyra Dawson

Not recommended for very young children.

Has Anyone Seen Kelvyn?
Book 3 - The Chimona Chronicles

Peace and quiet had finally settled once more over the lakeside. The weary MacKnavery family had finally been rescued after a harrowing night on the lake during a storm. Everyone had banded together during this family's hour of need, proving the bonds of friendship and comunity are strong within the Okanagan Lakeside.

Yes, all was well that ends well, and the MacKnaverys had decided to end their Okanagan adventure with super BBQ dinner. Chimona and Kelvyn had been invited and you know tha Kelvyn was going to eat to his heart's content. In fact, it is his tummy that lands him in a pickle, and the OLKs and the whole Lakeside are in for a surprise they did not see coming.

Oh, and what about Kelvyn? Read this book to see why he is in for the time of his life. For those who cannot read yet, follow along as usual with the detailed illustrations that tell a story by themselves.

Author: Rosie Reay
Ilustrator: GW Foden

Download your own PDF copy right away.

Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader

Salquin to the Rescue
Book 2 - The Chimona Chronicles

In Book 1 we learned all about the fun little critters of Lake Okanagan as they were brought to life. Now we see them in action, we see them solve a mystery, and we see them help some resort guests. Yes, they interact well with real people, and have similar lives. They will probably remind you of other kids and adults you know..

Parents, you will love it too as it also helps kids relate numbers as identifiers for things. And it is a lot easier to read over and over to your kids if you enjoy the story too.You might even miss the clues your first time through as well..

Author: Rosie Reay
Ilustrator: Candice McMullan

Download your own copy right away.

How Kelvyn Got His Name
Book 1 - The Chimona Chronicles

The story of how the Lake Okanagan critters come to life. A great story for early readers - 75 pages with illustrations. A lovely story that is also educational, showing kids how decisions are made, how to get advice and help, how to organize a meeting and have fun with names and places too. A fun kid's book about naming.

Parents, you will love it too. At least the first few times! Involve the younger ones through the characters and the illustrations when you read to them. Help them with the locations and glossary of new words. Load it on your laptop for the next roadtrip, then surprise the younglings when they get restless.

Author: Rosie Reay
Ilustrator: Candice McMullan

Download your own copy right away.

Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader

Tale of the Lost Swan Egg
Book 1 - The Persimmon Tales

The story of how the Lake Okanagan critters come to life. A great story for early readers - 75 pages with illustrations. A lovely story that is also educational, showing kids how decisions are made, how to get advice and help, how to organize a meeting and have fun with names and places too. A fun kid's book about naming.

Parents, you will love it too. At least the first few times! Involve the younger ones through the characters and the illustrations when you read to them. Help them with the locations and glossary of new words. Load it on your laptop for the next roadtrip, then surprise the younglings when they get restless.

Author: Rosie Reay
Ilustrator: Candice McMullan

Download your own copy right away.

Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader

Emergency Golf
How to survive your first rounds of golf

A very basic primer for those who have never played before

The ideal last minute "crib sheet" for those about to play golf at short notice - when they have never played before. When you don't have time for lessons. When you don't want to look like a fool. When you don't want to offend your playing partners.

Load this on your laptop and read it before you get to the sales meeting, the conference, the family reunion, the charity event or simply a round with your favorite Uncle or Aunt. It may not teach you a lot of golf, but at least you will be more comfortable, have more fun, and not have that big-eyed lost look on your face around the clubhouse and course.

If only someone had told me these hints before I made such a fool of myself!

Author: Athol M. Foden (the world's former worst beginner)

Now with FREE Supplement:
Professional Creative Name Generation Tricks

Brighter Names
Pragmatic Naming for the Smaller Business

The days of using a dictionary and a fat pencil to come up with a company or product name are long gone. Over 200,000 trademark registrations a year are filed each year in the USA alone. And there are already millions and millions of companies registered.

So how do you find a new name, with the right marketing image, that is legally clean? Scratch your head for a year, pay a naming consultant, or use this book and you too can run a project like the pros. It won't give you a dumb name list. Rather a professional procees, with all the steps and worksheets, to run a big project for a major corporation, or a small one for a sole proprietor.

A process proven for many years by professional agencies is all yours as soon as you down load this book and worksheets.

Author: Athol M. Foden

Brighter Branding
Best Practices for the Smaller Business

Start learning the practical, tactical way to brand your company or product. Even if you did not study marketing at college. Especially if you are not a dummy. Don't be misled by expensive consultants or agencies. Find out how to really create the experience that builds the brand. Here are proven methods and roadmaps to follow that are not about marketing imagery or consumer theory at big giants. Learn what a brand really is, and quickly motivate the whole company.

Roll up your sleeves and get this done...so you can get back to running the business. Read it on the plane or train, or print it all out. A fun read that will pay for itself the first day a couple of times over.

Author: Athol M. Foden

Spreadsheet Marketing
Planning for Success V3.0

Spreadsheets are not just for accountants. They make powerful tracking, checking, recording tools. All the checklists you need for basic marketing campaigns, with complete trade show, product, P.R., advertising, marketing plans and budgets. Plus all the forms for administering sales, from expenses and commission reports to forecasts, quotes, pricing, inventory and lead tracking, etc.

You couldn't make and debug any of these for the time and money the whole set costs. Includes books, notes, hints, sample spreadsheets and complete collection of ready-to-use Excel spreadsheets.

Bonus: All the telephone area codes so your salesmen have no excuses. International country codes and metric conversion calculator too.

Author: Athol M. Foden

Brighter SEO
Organic Search Engine Optimization

Start learning all the key concepts of what anyone can do to improve their search engine rankings. Will you be on page 1 or 2 of a Google or Yahoo search, or will you be lost way down in the noise? It is not accidental where you end up. You do not need to pay an offshore team to jigger the system -in fact that may now be a negative. This guide takes a step by step building block approach to creating your search engine pyramid. See how each piece is key, even though that might not be so obvious.

No dirty tricks, no behind the scenes shannigans. Just the proper way the web was meant to work and the way Google finds and ranks you, coupled with what are good marketing practices anyway. No need to be a programmer or web designer, but do be careful what they are doing to your site if you are not watching.

The exact same practical advice on which Athol built two businesses by using these low cost (almost free)lead generation techniques.

Authors: Athol M. Foden and Ben R. Foden

Are there Wheelchairs in Heaven?
And other questions to ask your gods?

If you could make one phone call to the Heaven Hotline, what would it be?

This little book provides some ideas and questions to get you started - before you have to make the call. Some are very profound and serious religious and philosophical questions. Many others are amusing as we look at how our religions have evolved over the years. Nowadays we still barely agree with others in other countries - and have localized our various Gods.

Designed as a set of questions to make you think, this booklet is also ideal for religious discussion groups. It encourages you to zoom out and see the whole world of religions, of all peoples living on earth today, before diving back into the idiosyncracies of any one chosen religion.

Author: Athol Foden