Lake Charles - Cajun Giant!

I-10 is not all concrete and asphalt!

Plenty of festive Cajun food, song and dance lubricated the conversations I had with the many interesting writers and communicators attending the Southeastern Outdoor Press Association's 49th annual conference in Lake Charles, Louisiana. One particularly interesting encounter was had with the luncheon's keynote speaker, Louisiana's Lieutenant Governor Jay Dardenne, and he was funny as all heck! Dardenne is both a great speaker and ambassador of Louisiana. I told the Lieutenant Governor he didn’t have a chance at being elected Governor because he actually has a sense of humor. Thankfully he laughed!

While it was a long road for Little Pond Publishing to get to Lake Charles—figuratively and literally—the last few months have been an extraordinary period of young growth for this emerging digital publishing house, and it’s gone by like the blink of an eye. A powerful, relatively small core group has been created as the foundation of Little Pond Publishing—an extremely insightful, skilled and passionate team, if I do say so myself.

While in Lake Charles, I rekindled a relationship with a 7th-generation Texas fishing guide, Captain Dr. Brandon Shuler. I'd first met this transformative conservation advocate, author and fishing guide at a Columbia Sportswear and Bass Pro Shops media event. These two outdoor industry corporate giants invited us writers to the Middle Keys to learn more about their work with partners like the Ocean Foundation and Seagrass Recovery. Check out the Ocean Foundation’s website to learn how they’re working together to restore healthy seagrass to heavily prop-scarred grass flats.

Dr. Shuler has recently earned his Ph.D. in literature and publishing from Texas Tech. As you may imagine, our conversation centered on digital publishing and what appears to be an extremely bright future for eBooks and publishers of digital works. We hope to be hearing more from Dr. Shuler on digital publishing in the near future.

During my trip I read Serpent's Curse. This eBook written by Mark Bradbury and published by Little Pond Publishing was an easy and entertaining read. The first of many, we hope, by Mr. Bradbury. To learn more about Mark Bradbury, check out his blog, MarkBradbury.blogspot.com.

Contact me if you know of any writers’ groups who would like Little Pond Publishing to host a mini-workshop.
 
‘Til next time!

Rodney Smith, CEO of Little Pond Publishing;and author of Catching Made Easy and Enjoying Life on the Indian River Lagoon is a visionary and community leader who like to share his tales. Download these books digitally on Amazon, iTunes and Barnes and Noble by searching "Rodney Smith+Name of book"; or order the soft-covered books online!  See all of Rodney's upcoming events and exploits at www.rodneysmithmedia.com.