Going Out on Our Own

By Sara Thompto & Kristin Bivens

Here at Shiny Happy People Publishing, LLC, we have some HUGE news.

It has always been our intention to have Shiny Happy People be a publishing company, since the time we first started discussing starting a company, almost six years ago. 

Stationery came into play about a year ago. As owners, we (Kristin and Sara) both fell in love with designing. We decided to add stationery as a division to our publishing company, however today Shiny Happy People has become more about stationery and less about publishing.

We would like to rectify that, which is why we've come to the decision of separating the stationery side of our business from the publishing side.

Starting today, October 29, 2014, Shiny Happy People Publishing, LLC will solely deal in publishing books.

Here at SHPP we've talked to more than one up-and-coming author about releasing their first books with us. We do not have the release date set for these first few books, as our authors are still writing and editing their works.

Realistically, we may still take a year or two (or three) to get to the point where we're able to release the books online and maybe even a year longer to get them into a store near you... but, trust us, we're on our way. 

WHAT ABOUT THE STATIONERY SIDE OF THINGS!?!?!

Hold on - don't freak out. Our stationery products are not disappearing. 

Instead of being represented by Shiny Happy People, they're now going to be found through TWO new companies - No Coast Paper co., which will be run by Sara, and Hey Alice, which will be run by Kristin.

Why two companies?

Well, Sara currently calls sunny California home, all the way over on the west coast, in the Pacific time zone. Kristin, on the other hand, lives in the  mitten shaped state of Michigan, which is in the Eastern time zone.

Let us tell you - a three hour time difference is kind of huge when you're trying to discuss business details and both work day jobs. Throw in trying to make skype dates happen and trying to maintain a friendship that's not ALL about business... and it just doesn't happen how we would like it too. No matter how hard we work.

Running our own businesses will give us more freedom to make split second decisions that are sometimes needed when talking to buyers. Especially when people are trying to talk to you about sales and product details.

The second reason is that we want to curate our shops so they have more of our individual personalities, which we feel will make our product lines more successful. Although we adore each others designs and encourage each other artistically, we do come from different design perspectives, which leaves our combined work looking like more of a hodgepodge and less of a cohesive experience.

So without further adieu, let us introduce you to our new creations...


No Coast Paper Co.

Sara here, owner of No Coast Paper Co.

First off, I want to tell you how excited I am about this adventure. It's both exciting and terrifying to be on my own.

I imagine my personal collection to still have some of the funky and quirky designs Shiny Happy People has come to bring you, but also add in much more hand lettered creations, light and airy designs, and black ink drawings.

I've been pushing myself to learn new ways to create the designs I see in my head: taking watercolor classes with local artists here in Sacramento, watching instructive youtube video after instructive youtube video, and of course, experimenting on my own.

I hope you like the vibe of my new work and that you pass my shop along to anyone who might be interested.

Here are some ways to view my newest work!

View My entire collection via my website: www.nocoastpaperco.com

Shop now at my Etsy shop: www.etsy.com/shop/nocoastpaperco

You can also stay up to date on my current happenings by following my social media sites:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/No-Coast-Paper-Co/736312613082462

Instagram: @nocoastpaperco

If you don't have Instagram but want to check things out go to www.instagram.com/nocoastpaperco.

Hey Alice

I’m Kristin, owner and operator of Hey Alice, a stationery shop with a name inspired by my puppy dog, Alice. I’m sure that with my designs, Alice’s rambunctious personality will show through.

My stationery designs often contain my own sketches but I also use computer design.

I wouldn’t say I have a certain design technique, but I do enjoy kitschy, slightly off looking work. I’m a perfectionist, but sometimes I revel in the imperfections of a design. Because life, after all, is imperfect.

I find inspiration in my life experiences, the colors in life, and the simple idea of the joy when you receive a handwritten letter in the mail.

View Hey Alice, along with my other shop June and Roland here:

www.etsy.com/shop/shopheyalice

www.etsy.com/shop/juneandroland

Check out my one stop shop website at www.ohbivie.com

Instagram: @ohhbivie

Cheers!

Sara & Kristin

***Thank you for watching our business grow and thank you for reading our Shiny Happy People Publishing blog. The SHPP blog will continue to be around, but we will only be blogging on publishing, books, reviews, and writing instead of a mixture of publishing and stationery as before.

Series 6, Post 3: "Not That Kind of Girl"

By Kristin Bivens

Any of you out there ever heard of Lena Dunham? Or better yet, have you heard of the HBO show, Girls?

My boyfriend and I are a little bit addicted to Dunham's show, Girls, a television show that has a bit of Dunham's own personal experiences weaved into the plot line.

So obviously, when her new nonfiction book debuted September 30th, I downloaded it to my Nook as soon as I woke up.

And I'll be honest, I haven't finished it yet because

photo courtesy of fashion.vogue.com

I read before bed and tend to fall asleep five pages in, regardless of how good the book is that I am reading.

But so far, I can hear "Hannah" from Girls in this book. Dunham is Hannah and I feel like she's a friend of mine, as I read about her formative years. It is a great, fun read with self deprecating humor that I both write and enjoy.

The essays have a central theme but often take swerves and turns while trying to get there. She may bounce around thought wise but not in a way where I lose interest because her perspective and thoughts are always entertaining. The questions in her mind, the honesty she brings to the table about what enters her mind is refreshing. She's not afraid to say it, whatever "it" is.

Usually I'm not someone who enjoys reading about ladies' sexual encounters but with Dunham, she sprinkles it with embarrassment, laughter, complete awkwardness and the knowledge of what she is trying to accomplish with each guy.

And in true fashion, it isn't all about guys. It is about the uncomfortable reality of growing up and being a little messed up in the head. It's about being a girl.

Just like Dunham's character on Girls, Hannah, Dunham does let men treat her like crap despite her feminist views. I really like that both she and her character can be a feminist, but still be feminine and still pine for a boy to like her. It is a pleasing change of pace! Feminism doesn't have to be an extreme.

Another thing I find endearing about Lena Dunham is that she'll be going along with some sort of hilarity- making you laugh- and then she hits you in the face with real life, with reality. I was reading along in one essay and after chuckling, I got to a part where I thought to myself- "whoa, this is serious." My mood flipped immediately. A good writer can pull that off. And Lena Dunham, well, she's a good writer.

Catch Girls on HBO. Look for Lena's new book "Not That Kind of Girl." You won't regret it.

Series 6, Post 2: Nonfiction about Strong Women and the Qualities they Share

My first experience with nonfiction, and perhaps most peoples first experience, was with the Diary of Anne Frank. 

I remember reading it and thinking it was hard to believe; that was someone's real life. Anne Frank went through such a dramatic and traumatic experience during her short life that it was hard to grasp the story being true. It's more than just a memoir, it's a personal journal. The entire book was moving, made more so by the fact that it was real. 

From there I went through a non-fiction stage. Nothing nearly as powerful as The Diary of Anne Frank, but mainly stories of women.

I went through a phase best known as my "Marilyn Monroe" years, where I became obsessed with knowing more about her. I know a bit too much about this iconic movie star. I can tell you her real name, the movies she starred in, the tragedy of her trying to become a mother, and all about her husbands and why the split. Want to talk about her death and the conspiracy theories which surround it? I know them all and I also have my favorite theories. 

Recently I started reading Orange is the New Black, a memoir about Piper Kerman, a lady in her mid-thirties who went to prison for a crime she committed 10 years prior. At times Kerman comes off a tad pretentious for my taste but overall this is another strong non-fiction work, lead by a strong female voice. She raises questions about our current prison system that I had heard about before, but never truly took the time to think on, until I read this book. 

Shiny Happy People Publishing may be full steam ahead with stationery products currently, but it's always been our goal to reach a point where we can start publishing our own books as well. 

One of the divisions we hope to achieve is a nonfiction division, mainly nonfiction works surrounding strong female figures. There are many women with powerful stories to share. 

As I mentioned above, whether a brave courageous person such as Anne Frank, a glamourous movie star like Marilyn Monroe, or a small taste of female prison life through Piper Kerman... many of the titles I've experienced in non-fiction are very heavily female dominant. 

These stories are moving, powerful and eye opening.  They are on a subject I cannot wait to someday publish under Shiny Happy People Publishing, LLC.

Book Review: Dorothy Must Die

By Kristin Bivens

When I was a kid, I wasn't so sure about the movie, The Wizard of Oz. Something about it always gave me the creeps. I'm guessing it was the Wicked Witch.

But, as I've grown, the classical Wizard of Oz has become more of an interest. A magical land with sparkly red shoes, how could I not like it?

This led me to buying Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige at Barnes and Noble several months back.

Dorothy Must Die is about what happens after Dorothy goes back to Kansas. You think Dorothy is this sweet, innocent, gingham print dressed little girl. But in this book, Dorothy is a power hungry, shall I say, witch?

The book provides an interestingly dark spin on a wholesome story, years and years afterward.

It took a few chapters to get into the book, but as I got used to being in a completely different Oz and learning all these new witches' names, I wanted to find out what it was Dorothy was up to in the Emerald City.

It was almost a tragic story of a good girl gone wrong.

And then it got worse.

Dorothy's three friends? Total jerks. The scarecrow is experimenting on brains and injecting his brain with other people's brains. The Tin Man is a soldier of doom. The Lion sucks fear out of humans and eats them for dessert. It was awful. The cute little cowardly Lion became the exact opposite. And Dorothy. Dorothy, Dorothy, Dorothy. She is just the worst. She's a princess with a sick and twisted mind.

I don't want to give it all away, but reading the last bit of this book just before bed was not a good idea. One of the creepiest/grossest/uncomfortable things I've ever read is contained within this book. Maybe I spook easy but…

I warned you.

Good luck.

Series 6, Post 1: A Look At (Funny) Nonfiction

By Kristin Bivens

how my stories sound when i try to write an interesting story about myself.

Being able to write quality nonfiction, probably more than creative writing, seems like such a feat to me. With creative writing, you can create a character and a world that is interesting, tweaking it to your demands. In nonfiction, you have to make the existing world interesting.

Of course, when nonfiction tells the story of some historical event, culture or some renowned person, I suppose it is a little "easier." Those events are big enough to already have a story. But what about us? What about the people who just write about themselves? Tell their funny stories? That, right there, is my favorite type of nonfiction.

In my own writing, I've tried to make myself interesting to other people. But you know those moments in life, those "just had to be there" moments, where no one else gets it but you? That's how I feel about my entire life.

Some awkward, funny, weird things have happened to me. Or at least, I think so. My family is entertaining. But how does that translate to good writing, to an interesting story? I just don't know sometimes. I try. I write it. And then I think, no one but those involved are really going to think this is remotely interesting. What's the point? You have failed!

There are talented people, though, that can make their lives interesting. Or really weird things happen to them. One of the other.

If you've never heard of Sloane Crosley, I highly recommend you read her. Now! Her first book of essays, I Was Told There'd Be Cake, was a book I strictly picked up because of its title. And the very first essay has to do with her collection of ponies. How much better can you get? But she spins an already great story in such a way as to ask the question, "What will people think of me if I die and they find my collection of ponies?" She's not just talking about her ponies, but making her pony collection have a purpose, making it that much more interesting. It makes you wonder yourself, what would people think? The entire story takes place around something as mundane as a weird collection and becomes this entire life experience. How she got all of the ponies, how she dealt with wanting to get rid of the ponies, while at the same time wanting to keep them.

It often amazes me the subjects a good nonfiction writer can make interesting. A plastic pony stash is one of them.

Then, of course, there is the great David Sedaris. Who can take finding a giant turd in the toilet the funniest thing in his book of essays. David is a bit long winded compared to some essay writers, but when he writes, you think man, "this guy has an awesome life." He's lived a lot of places. He's done a lot of things he shouldn't have. His perspective on life is priceless. I think this is something really good comedic essay writers all have in common--their perspectives in life are so different from the norm. I'd like to think I have a somewhat similar perspective like a lot of the greats do; I'm just not as good at putting it on paper.

To write funny nonfiction about yourself, I really think you just need to be funny. Your life can be sitting at a computer all day, but if you are funny, you can turn an entire book of sitting at your computer into a humorous adventure.

So, it isn't necessarily that those of us who want to write interesting stories about our lives aren't interesting enough. It's all about spinning it.

Someday I will write a memoir. But first, I think I need to learn to be a comedian.

Where She Went - Book Review

By Sara E Thompto

SPOILER ALERT -- Right off the bat this blog tells the ending of If I Stay. If you haven't read If I Stay but plan to and you care about spoilers, I don't recommend reading any further.

If I Stay ended with Mia's decision - to stay. 

She stayed for love, she stayed for passion and she stayed for music. But then what happened?

Where She Went answers that question. 

Gayle Forman starts the tale three years later, when Adam and Mia live on opposites sides of the country and are no longer together. Mia is at Juilliard and Adam is now a super-famous rock-star who lives in LA with his Hollywood girlfriend. 

But after a fateful night brings the two together again, in New York City, for the first time since "the split" we start to piece together just what happened to tear these two apart. From flashbacks from Adams point-of-view and a night of walking around NYC, the two start to connect in a way they haven't connected, since the crash. Adam and Mia are then faced with a new choice: to finally fully move forward with their individual lives, or get back together and face their demons.

Although the book started a bit slow, Forman wrote another solid novel with Where She Went. 

Like usual, I did have a couple things that bugged me.

The wording and descriptions were fumbled at times, holding up the flow of reading. Some of the over articulated words seem as though Forman was at a loss and simply pointed to a word in a thesaurus. This was something that also held me up in If I Stay, so I'm starting to think this might just be a trademark of Formans work. 

My other complaint is Adam. He's just a little too.... much. I understand he's hurting and anxious in this book, but some of his stories were painful to read. Not the type of painful that means I felt sad for him, but the type of painful that simply made me want to put the book aside for a while because I couldn't stand him and his complaining anymore. This was very limited though. 

With my minor complaints aside, Forman did a great job at wrapping up this sequel. Especially with the epilogue. 

I'm not a huge fan of how epilogues wrap up books usually, but Forman writes an epilogue that's truly a non-epilogue, epilogue. She uses her magazine journalism experience to write an article about Adam, another three years later, that ties up lose ends and finishes the story of Adam and Mia very nicely. 

Overall I would recommend this book to anyone who liked If I Stay, and wants to know more about Adam and Mia and where they end up. It offers good detail of what they've been up to, and is a nice and easy read that gives more closure to the emotional roller-coaster that was If I Stay.

Book vs Movie: If I Stay

By Sara E Thompto

The Book

If I Stay, written by Gayle Forman, follows the point of view of seventeen-year-old Mia Hall. Mia has always felt a bit out of sorts; she's a cellist in a rock 'n' roll family and isn't quite as outgoing as the people that surround her. She has a close friend, Kim, but even there she's always been in her own world.

She does have one person who fits her just right though, Adam. He may play guitar in a band gaining fame, Shooting Star, and he might be able to rock-talk with her parents, but he also loves Mia more than anything else and loves her deep passion for the cello.

But after her entire family is involved in a horrific car accident, leaving Mia in a coma, she has an out-of-body experience where she learns she has the choice: to stay and live, or to die, leaving her life and Adam behind.

Through flashbacks you learn all that Mia loves and holds dearly - her family, friends, Adam, and the cello. But, as the story continues we learn the decision is not as simple as it seems. What at first appears to be a cut and dry decision soon becomes more difficult than anyone could have ever guessed.

If I Stay is a true tear-jerker and I would highly recommend a box of tissues nearby while reading.

My only true complaint about the book is the wording used from time to time. It didn't really feel as though Mia and Adam were teenagers. I know they are both supposed to be more mature... but sometimes certain wording didn't flow well and it felt as though Forman hit the thesaurus verse working it out for herself.

With that said, I would still definitely recommend If I Stay. The plot was a nice change of pace for a young adult novel. It is well worth the emotional roller-coaster to learn more about the life of Mia Hall and the answer to the question, will she stay and live, or will she leave this world forever?

The Movie

Refreshingly, the movie follows the book quite closely; something that doesn't seem to happen regularly when it comes to turning a book into a movie. The movie kept the small details such as little conversations about coffee and "categories" Mia and her friend Kim are always putting people into, which helped the movie keep the same vibe as the book.

My only offenses with the movie are very small.

Chloë Grace Moretz and Jamie Blackley were well casted as Mia and Adam, making up the main roles of the movie. Leading up to the movie I noticed far more hype over Blackley than Moretz (especially on the movies official instagram) but after seeing the movie I think that hype needs to be switched. Moretz did a beautiful job playing Mia, especially the more emotional scenes when Mia deals with loss. Blackley on the other hand shined during his parts playing music, but seemed a little lackluster during the more emotional scenes. Sometimes he gave off an air of cockiness when he was supposed to be portraying his love for Mia.

Overall though Moretz and Blackley were a fantastic choice for Mia and Adam.

My one other minor complaint dealing with the actual portrayal of the characters was the major amount of kissing. Whether the script called for it, the director took liberties, or perhaps a bit of both... I do surely hope Moretz and Blackley had some attraction towards one another, because it felt as though at least 90% of their scenes together ended in a hefty make-out session.

Other than the fantastic acting and the wonderful story line, the other main reason to watch this movie is the music. The movie kept right on track with most of the music the book discusses, which presents a fabulous soundtrack. Adams music is on par with how it was described in the book as well, and Blackley did a great job, particularly with the last song in the movie.

My only problem with the music is also my only real big problem with the movie: the final song played.

Small spoiler alert ahead!

The last song is the song that helps Mia make her decision to stay or move on. In the movie Adam writes a song for Mia and plays it for her on his guitar, while she is in her coma. In the book Adam puts headphones on Mia while she is in a coma, and the song is done by cellist Yo-Yo Ma who plays Andante con poco e moto rubato. My issue with Adam being the one who plays the last song in the movie is that it makes it feel like Mia should stay for no other reason than to stay with him, where as in the book it makes it feel like Mia should stay because of her own passions for music and her own future. The symbolical differences between the two are huge.

Overall I would highly recommend this movie. The acting was good, the plot stuck close to the book, and the soundtrack is definitely worth a listen.

Just make sure you have some tissues handy. You'll need them.