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Franke James’ “Bothered By My Green Conscience” Wins 2010 Green Book Award

Green Book Festival Medal by Franke James

May 2010: Bothered by My Green Conscience is the winner of the 2010 Green Book Festival Award for Graphic Novels. The award honors books that, “… contribute to greater understanding, respect for and positive action on the changing worldwide environment.” Bruce Haring at the Green Book Festival said, “Franke’s book is a sheer delight and the judges are proud to honor it with this award.”

Author and artist, Franke James commented, “I’m absolutely thrilled it won the Green Book Festival Award for Graphic Novels! Book awards catch the attention of the media — and are therefore a great way to get the core message of my book to the public, and that is, ‘Do the hardest thing first.’ And then brag about it, shamelessly!”

“Do the hardest thing first.”

“Tell everyone about the wonderful green thing you did! Pretty soon, you’ll discover it’s fun and you’ll be inspiring others. Your friends and family may feel envious at first — but before you know it, they’ll be doing their own ‘hard green thing.’ And then we’ll have a real green revolution happening! And we need that.

“We’re treating our world as though it was disposable, and we had another shiny new one just waiting on a shelf for us. But we don’t! We need to get serious about protecting the environment, so that our children and grandchildren will have a healthy planet to live on. We can do a lot to fix the world, but we need to get ambitious now — and not wait for the politicians to save us.

“Do the hardest thing first. You’ll be surprised how fun it is, and how good it makes you feel!”

Franke James’ book is in good company — other Canadians who won the US Award…

climate cover up cover James Hoggan and Richard Littlemore won the overall Green Book Festival prize for Climate Cover-Up (Non-fiction). It is a book I highly recommend. It’s a fascinating, and illuminating read about the crusade to deny global warming.  It will give you insight into the inner-workings of the PR campaigns (financed by the fossil fuel industries) that are sewing climate confusion, and in many cases, using outright deception to fool the gullible public.

The campaign to deny global warming mirrors the campaign by the tobacco industry to convince people that smoking was safe. And we all know how that ended up. Decades were wasted, lives lost, all unnecessarily, because society refused to face the scientific truth.

Now every cigarette pack in Canada comes with warning labels, such as “Smoking Kills.” What warning label should we put on our planet that will wake people up? Please leave your suggestions in the comments.

smoking illustration by Franke James

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Franke James’ “Dear Office-Politics” game-book wins Axiom Book Award

Photo imposition of Axiom Award medal on Dear Office-Politics book cover
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 17, 2010 -– Toronto, Canada

Dear Office-Politics, the game everyone plays is the winner of a 2010 Axiom Business Book Award.

Franke James’ innovative game-book was awarded the Bronze Medal in the HR/Employee Training category. Dear Office-Politics is a role-playing game that encourages lively discussion of workplace issues. It helps people exercise their ethical muscles, analyze power, increase empathy, and understand why the “right” course of action is actually in their — and the company’s best interests.

jamesAuthor Franke James responded, “It’s really exciting that Axiom chose to recognize Dear Office-Politics — because it’s a radical departure from standard business books. It’s a Game and a Book — all rolled into one. It’s filled with fun, splashy, full-color graphics. It looks very entertaining. But at its core, it’s an educational, training game that sneaks up and surprises people. You can learn a lot by observing how your coworkers “explain” their ethical decisions. And gain deeper insight — and empathy — into why people behave the way they do.

“So, it’s just great fun that Axiom chose to give it an award. I’m thrilled! On behalf of all the Office-Politics advisers who have helped me in creating this book — and the many people who have written into the site since 2002, I want to thank Axiom for this award! Yeah!! It’s a special victory. Thank you!”

Axiom Award Honors the Best Business Books in North America

Axiom Award medalThe Axiom Business Book Awards are dedicated to identifying the best business books published each year for the North American market. The awards are highly competitive and attract entries from a wide range of publishers. The Axiom Awards are the only U.S.-based award contest focused solely on business books. The awards are presented by Jenkins Group Inc., a Michigan-based book publishing company that has operated the IPPY Book Awards since 1996. Sponsors also include Inc. Magazine and PR firm, Padilla Speer Beardsley.

Dear Office-Politics merges education and entertainment to teach ethics

Dear Office-Politics, the game everyone plays is the dilemma-based social game that teaches you how to play (and laugh at) office politics. Players step into the role of “Office-Politics Advisers” and offer their best, sage advice on thorny issues (drawing on the well-known fact that everyone knows what the other person should do to fix their problems!) It provides a safe way to discuss difficult workplace issues, as well as the opportunity to practice ethical decision-making and creative problem-solving. (And it gives workers the opportunity to observe how their colleagues make ethical decisions — which can be very revealing!) Continue reading “Franke James’ “Dear Office-Politics” game-book wins Axiom Book Award”