olive the woolly bugger
The Fly Fishing Show makes the rounds this time of year, stopping at a few large markets. In the past the show came to Bellevue, WA, which is a suburb of Seattle. Then it was gone for a few years. Now it’s back, only this time the show makes it appearance at the Convention Center in Lynnwood, which lies 17 miles to the north of Seattle.
This year I’ll be attending the show as a spectator eager to kick tires and test cast a new rod, but I’ll also be at the Author’s Booth signing Olive books. Stop on by if you’re at the show; bring your own copies of books or purchase at the show. I’ll be there at 11:oo AM on Saturday and 12:30 PM on Sunday.
Hope to see you there!
Last week a tweet came across the Twitter feed from Jimmy Kimmel. Yes, that Jimmy Kimmel. Of Jimmy Kimmel Live fame. I follow him on Twitter for a couple of reasons: First, he’s pretty funny. I occasionally stay up late enough to watch his show, and when I do I’m usually glad I did; secondly, he’s a fly fisherman.
The tweet in question from August 23rd said:
“my hobbies include updating software and compulsively recharging devices”.
That’s funny, if you’re prone to the same activities, and many of us are. In fact, I’d just finished updating apps on my iPhone and iPad, and had one of them plugged in, recharging (I was using the other). Jimmy’s tweet came just 2 days after Olive the Woolly Bugger and Chuckin’ Bugs went live in the the App Store, so I did as any rational person would have done; I replied to his tweet:
“@jimmykimmel recharge your iPad and Chuck some Bugs! http://chuckinbugs.com”
Of course my tweet fell on deaf ears, or rather blind eyes. After all, Jimmy Kimmel has 1,631,375 followers on Twitter. I have 746. He follows only 191 people. Jimmy Kimmel does not follow me. But, the way Twitter works is that you can tag someone and theoretically they will might see the message.
Well, I’ve decided my latest campaign is to get Jimmy Kimmel to see Chuckin’ Bugs. I want him to download the app onto his iPad. I mentioned that he’s a fly fisherman? Well, he’s probably way too busy to fish as much as he’d like, so why not spend a little time between shows chuckin’ some bugs away from the river?
If you are inclined toward Twitter, let’s call him out. Let’s get Jimmy to chuck some bugs. Maybe he’ll even chuck some on his show…stranger things have happened.
Just tweet this message:
Hey @jimmykimmel — recharge your iPad and chuck some bugs! http://chuckinbugs.com/ @olivewoollybugr #flyfishing
Sooner or later he’s going to see one of the tweets, and be curious.
Maybe.
August 21, 2012 at 10PM (Pacific Standard Time) Olive the Woolly Bugger and Chuckin’ Bugs 101 are officially available for download!
For detailed information about the apps, please check out this page HERE.
App descriptions are also available when you visit the App Store.
For Olive the Woolly Bugger, click this link.
For Chuckin’ Bugs 101, click this link.
Obviously I’m very excited to finally launch the apps. I would appreciate if you’d take time to review the apps once you’ve downloaded them.
Thanks for your continued support as Olive spreads the word that fly fishing is fun for kids!
This past week I had an opportunity to visit a local Montessori school and give an author presentation to about 30 kids, kindergarten through 3rd graders. Both of my kids attended kindergarten at this school (many years ago), so it was a homecoming of sorts for me, and a lot of fun.
As is the case every time I visit a school, the enthusiasm level of my audience ran very high. Because kids are easily excitable, sometimes I think that an author of a book titled, “How Paint Dries” would be a big hit with a youthful audience. But then I realize that kids are fascinated by fishing and fish. When I asked the group to raise their hands if they like fishing, nearly the entire room was filled with up-stretched arms. Not all of them had gone fishing, but they were all enthralled by the prospects of fishing.
Some of the audience members had even been fly fishing before, and while my presentation obviously emphasizes fly fishing, it’s really more about fishing in general. After all, the chances are much greater that kids will have dunked a worm or salmon egg than wet a line with a fly on the end.
The first phase of my presentation is Powerpoint slide show in which I reveal the great things about fly fishing: Having fun with friends and family; seeing beautiful new places; seeing cool things in nature, like wildlife; and of course fish. Then I talked about the process of writing and illustrating the Olive books. This always gets kids in the mood to do some drawing, so next up I drew Olive on a whiteboard.
It’s always fun to hear the kids’ reaction as I do this. Then, much to the horror of my audience, I erased my drawing! Next, I drew Olive again, but this time step-by-step as the kids followed along with each stroke of the pen. I love to see the widely-varied results of their efforts. Kids are very creative.
Lastly I asked the kids to each draw something having to do with fishing and write a short description of their artwork. Again, this was very entertaining and the subject matter ranged from a military tank made to look like a fish, to a fish tank with goldfish, just like the one in their classroom. One little boy even drew his own fishing fly in the style of Olive. One little girl named Brooke signed her name to her drawing, Brooke Trout!
At 2:44pm (my visit was scheduled to conclude at 2:45) one little boy, who had been particularly engaged throughout my presentation, came up to me and reminded me that I had to leave soon. I looked at the clock on the wall and told him that I didn’t have to dash out the door right away–I was enjoying the chance to observe all the creations the kids had just finished. He insisted that I had to leave at 2:45. Then I realized why he was so concerned that I leave right on schedule: recess began at 2:45.
Recently I’ve been talking about Olive’s plans for an iPad app, and it’s officially in development. Olive has also launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise awareness and hopefully funding for the project.
As a fan of Olive, I hope you’ll take a look and consider backing her project, which can be found HERE:
Thanks for your support!
In our modern, fast-paced world where mobile devices reign supreme, apps have become exceedingly popular. Unless you live under a rock you know that there are apps for just about everything imaginable, so the catch phrase, “there’s an app for that” isn’t really much of an exaggeration.
And soon, you’ll be able to say that about Olive, too.
Olive will be entering into the mobile world with an iPad app that will be a digital book featuring a condensed version of Olive the Little Woolly Bugger and Olive and The Big Stream. If your kids already gotten hooked on Olive’s print books, not to worry—this isn’t going to be just the stories translated to a digital medium. There will be interactive features so kids can learn about additional elements pertaining to the story. The text will scroll so that kids can read the story by themselves, or they’ll be able to switch on a mode whereby the story is narrated, with words high-lighted; a feature that will help early readers. There’ll also be some game play, including a fun little number called Chuckin’ Bugs.
A key point of the Olive books is to get kids interested in learning about fly fishing, and outside away from video games, cell phones and yes, iPads. So, you may be asking, ‘why jump on the bandwagon and become part of the nature-deficit problem?’ I don’t see this as becoming part of the problem at all, rather adopting the technology that kids (and everyone) have already embraced, and using it to communicate the value in getting outside. If kids are going to be sitting around playing with their iPads, they may as well play with something educational and entertaining that still encourages outdoor activity. There’s no app for actually going out and exploring a stream, turning over rocks to look at bugs, and wetting a line—but soon there will be an app that celebrates that.
By the way, if you’re a fly fishing company and would like to sponsor this app, I’m fielding inquiries.
No, seriously.
Kathy Nelson and Carissa Dunphy of Ovaleye Cloud Services recently had me on their show for an interview in which I go on (and on) about Olive the Woolly Bugger. I warned them ahead of time that once I get to talking about fly fishing and Olive, there’s no stopping me. And still, they wanted to go ahead with the interview, for which I am grateful.
Kathy is the CEO and Chief Decision Maker at OvalEye, where I have all my websites hosted. Kathy’s daughter, Jenn Donogh is the COO and Chief Brand Editor and they are great to work with. Carissa works for Ovaleye as Community Relations Manager and she also owns her own business, Caffeine Keyboard, in which she builds websites and offers great insight into optimizing your web presence. Of the many services offered by Ovaleye, promoting their clients via new web technologies is paramount. I’d like to thank them for the support and the opportunity to bring Olive the Woolly Bugger to a new audience.
Grab a couple cups of coffee, sit back, and (hopefully) enjoy the interview. Skype glitches provide for some unintended amusement.
Promoting goods via various means of marketing is what makes a business or product known in the marketplace. Reaching one’s target audience with a message that will hopefully entice them to purchase your product or service is relatively easy given the power of the internet today, but actually getting those audience members to act (make a purchase) requires considerably more effort.
Well, Olive has decided to try something a little different–something rather direct that goes against her soft-spoken nature. She has a huge favor to ask of her True Fans.
If you have or have not seen the books, please consider buying a set of all 3 and giving them to a kid–any kid–even (especially) if they’re not from a fly fishing family. Olive has a message for everyone, and it’s not just about fly fishing.
The fly fishing connection is obvious, but the messages in the stories about perseverance, discovering one’s talents, accepting others, that being different is good, friendship, etc are lessons everyone can identify with, whether or not they’ve ever wet a line. Olive wants everyone in the world to know about her, and that starts one book at a time. It starts with you, the True Fan of Olive. Please, give some very serious consideration to going out right this minute, and ordering a set of Olive books. Some lucky kid will thank you, and you may just find that you want to get a set for yourself. Big kids love Olive, too.
Share this on Facebook. Tweet it on Twitter. Tell your friends. Olive thanks you.
There are 3 books in the series
It was recently suggested that I needed to establish an account on Storify.com, and publish my story. Until this suggestion, I wasn’t aware of Storify so I had no idea what it was all about. Always one to do as I am told (OK, not so much actually), I did just that: I signed up and posted my story. My story is the story of how Olive the Woolly Bugger came to be. I’m not sure what results will be gained from posting on Storify, but it certainly can’t hurt to use another social media channel to my advantage. Time will tell.
If you’re interested, please click the link to view my story, titled From John Deere to Hollywood: Olive the Woolly Bugger
Thanks for reading, and for the support.
Christmas is still 16 days way, but I got an early present today. And it was quite a surprise.
Thanks to a Facebook post from Montana Fly Company today, I found out that Olive got shown some love in the press: on page 63 of the current issue of Fly Fisherman magazine (Gear Guide 2012). I had no idea this was planned–nobody ever tells me anything ;). I guess it’s a good thing when Olive is getting attention without me knowing about it…that means it wasn’t because I begged for the coverage. I see this as a sign that momentum is gaining, and I could not be happier. I’m pretty sure Montana Fly Company had something to do with it, so thanks for that, pardner.
My issue hasn’t shown up in the mail yet–now I’ll be waiting with baited breath for the next mail run.
For the visually challenged, which includes yours truly, the blurb reads as follows:
STARTING EARLY
Getting kids interested in fly fishing takes more than just time on the water. You can instill a passion for fly fishing between fishing events by tying flies together, and bringing the culture and entertainment of fly fishing into your home through books and DVDs. Olive the Little Woolly Bugger is a fictional character in a three-book series ($13 each, Johnson Books) created by Kirk Werner. Werner is the co-founder of the website takekidsflyfishing.com, and has done an excellent job of weaving fly fishing into a story line and illustrations that kids find captivating. The other books in the series are Olive and the Big Stream and Olive Goes for a Wild Ride. Montana Fly Company (mfc.com) also sells accessories with the Olive motif including Olive the Woolly Bugger nippers and plastic fly boxes with Olive on the front.