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Mary Casanova read about the frozen prostitute 20 years ago in a history of Koochiching County, and she couldn't get the image out of her head.

"Someone took this woman's body, put a liquor bottle in her hand and stood her up as a joke before a town meeting around 1909," recalled Casanova, who lives in Ranier, Minn., near the Canadian border.

"Who was that woman? I wanted to vindicate her, give her a voice. For a long time, I wasn't sure how to tell it; the image of her body used as a joke was so disturbing and compelling. But it wouldn't let me go. I kept working on it and leaving it, until finally it took shape in the voice of her daughter."

That daughter, Sadie Rose, is the central character in Casanova's new novel, "Frozen."

This is the first young-adult novel from Casanova, 55, an award-winning author who's done 30 picture books, kids books and chapter books for middle school readers.

"Frozen" is also Casanova's first book with a regional publisher, University of Minnesota Press, and UMP's first original youngadult fiction.

Rich in historical details and descriptions of the area around Rainy Lake, the story begins in 1920 with 16-year-old Sadie Rose unwilling to speak. Sadie was taken in by a politician and his wife when she was found almost frozen in a snowbank after following a man who was carrying her mother's body from the hotel/brothel where they lived.

When Sadie discovers some provocative old pictures of her mother, her speech returns

Casanova said she "didn't want to compete" in the world of paranormal novels currently hot with young adults, and that's just fine with Todd Orjala, senior acquisitions editor for University of Minnesota Press.

"We are going against the tide, since this book is not about vampires or mermaids," Orjala said. "But it is an edgy book. The protagonist is raised in a brothel, confronted by difficult circumstances. It's very realistic."

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University of Minnesota Press, author Mary Casanova partner on 'Frozen,' new YA fiction

Associated Press

In this photo taken Sept. 1, 2012 and released by Chinas Xinhua News Agency, Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping addresses the opening ceremony of the autumn semester of the Party School of the Communist Party of China in Beijing. Chinese micro-bloggers and overseas websites have come up with all kinds of creative speculation as to why President-in-waiting Xi has gone unseen for more than a week. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Li Tao)

BEIJING A Chinese spokesman on Tuesday said he had no information about the status of leader-in-waiting Xi Jinping, who dropped from sight 10 days ago and has canceled a series of meetings with foreign visitors.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said he had no information in this regard when asked about Xis condition and whereabouts at a news conference Tuesday.

Asked whether Xi was still alive, Hong replied: I hope you can ask more serious questions.

Xis absence and the complete lack of information from the government has sent the Chinese rumor mill into overdrive, with most speculation focusing on a health crisis ranging from a sore back to a stroke. Some of the more fanciful tales involve a staged car crash as part of a political feud, although no evidence has been offered to back that up.

The 59-year-old Xi is Chinas vice president and was picked five years ago to succeed President Hu Jintao. Xi is due to take over as head of the ruling Communist Party at a congress later this year, although no date for it has been announced yet.

Xis last public appearance was at the opening of the Communist Party training academys fall session on Sept. 1. Since then, he has canceled meetings with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt. On Sunday, he also missed an emergency meeting of the Central Military Commission, of which he is a vice chairman, called to discuss earthquake recovery work.

The mystery surrounding Xi is the latest in a string of unforeseen incidents that have threatened to derail the leaderships plans for a smooth handover of power to younger officials. Those began with the spectacular downfall of high-profile populist politician Bo Xilai and the unexplained reassignment of a top aide to Hu earlier this month.

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No word on status of China’s missing next leader

By Malcolm Morrison, The Canadian Press

TORONTO - The Canadian dollar closed at a 13-month high Tuesday amid expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will launch another round of stimulus to help the American economy.

The loonie was off the highs of the session, closing up 0.45 of a cent to 102.75 cents US after going as high as 102.91 cents US as the greenback weakened ahead of the Feds two-day meeting on interest rates.

The central bank could announce another round of quantitative easing Thursday, which would see the Fed print more money to buy up bonds in order to keep interest rates low and encourage lending.

Expectations that the Fed would provide another jolt for the economy increased after jobs data released Friday failed to meet modest expectations of 125,000 new jobs. Instead, the economy cranked out 97,000 jobs and employment numbers for June and July were revised downward.

However, there is a degree of uncertainty as to whether the Fed will act now, especially as it may not want to become a key point of debate in the upcoming U.S. presidential election.

The American currency weakened further Tuesday morning after Moody's Investors Service said it would likely cut its "Aaa" rating on U.S. government debt, probably by one notch, if federal budget negotiations fail. If the highly partisan Congress does not reach a budget deal, more than $600 billion in spending cuts and tax increases will kick in next year.

That scenario has been called the "fiscal cliff" because it is likely to send the U.S. economy back into recession and drive unemployment up.

Commodities were higher amid signs that the Chinese government may be moving to provide another round of stimulus measures to help a slowing economy.

A day after data showed Chinese imports and factory output continuing to slow, Chinas premier Wen Jiabao promised to do more to encourage growth through more tax cuts and measures to boost consumer spending.

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Canadian dollar at 13-month high ahead of expected Fed word on stimulus

Bohemia, NY (PRWEB) September 07, 2012

On September 7, 2012, social media marketing agency, fishbat, announced the inception of Reel Time, their weekly podcast series.

A leader in effective online marketing strategies, fishbat provides online marketing tools and innovative digital platform practices for all business strategies. Reel Time marks the genesis of fishbats newest method of disseminating social media and digital marketing advice to current and potential customers.

The objective of Reel Time is to keep businesses au courant with social media and digital marketing strategies. Anybody wanting to increase their knowledge of ways to increase brand awareness can receive advice from fishbats digital marketing experts. While creating engaging content and fine-tuning various aspects of operation on a digital platform, fishbat has reached a milestone in social media marketing. Each installment of Reel Time highlights and expands upon a specific online marketing advantage or innovation that companies may not be familiar with.

Scott Darrohn, COO of fishbat, Inc., states, Theres a lot of information out there that people arent familiar with in our industry. With fishbat being a leader in our industry we feel that being as social as we [fishbat] are, we want to have the ability to pass it forwardWe want to be able to share our information out with other people that are in our industry or many companies themselves that are looking to get involved on the digital platforms. And the best way really to do it is to have a weekly podcast go out that addresses each topic individually.

Reel Time, a fishbat Podcast, is downloadable on their podcast page and on iTunes.

fishbat, Inc. is a full service web marketing agency. Though social media management, search engine optimization (SEO), web design, and public relations, fishbat strives as a marketing firm to fully bring awareness regarding your brand and strengthen your corporate image.

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Originally posted here:
Social Media Marketing Agency, fishbat Announces Launch of Podcast: Reel Time

The venerable New Yorker is the latest casualty in Facebook's senseless war on boobs. The Facebook page for the New Yorker's cartoon department was temporarily disabled after they posted the cartoon above featuring a topless lady, according to a blog post by New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff.

After the ban, the cartoon was even redrawn by its author, Mick Stevens, to feature a clothed couple, though "the gain in clothes caused too great a loss in humor," Mankoff writes.

Mankoff believes Facebook temporarily axed the New Yorker's cartoon page because the cartoon broke content guidelines that prohibit "naked 'private parts' including female nipple bulges and naked butt cracks." (We obtained and published Facebook's detailed content guidelines earlier this year.) This would make sense. The social network mercilessly hunts down and censors pictures of bare breasts like Iranian computer scientists going after Stuxnet, even when they appear in the innocuous context of breastfeeding.

However, Facebook has voiced acceptance of artistic representations of breasts. Last year an art school got banned for posting a nude sketch. After a public outcry Facebook admitted they made a mistake and said they had an "unwritten policy that allows drawings or sculptures of nudes." So why did The New Yorker's cartoon department get heat for posting a minimalist cartoon featuring breasts? Who knows. Maybe one of the poorly-paid Third World moderators who help police Facebook just didn't get it.

[Cartoon via The New Yorker]

Excerpt from:
The New Yorker Got Temporarily Banned From Facebook for Posting Cartoon Boobs [Censorship]