Press Coverage Begins

Today we received our copy of "Have a Merry Chrismukkah" The O.C. soundtrack Mix 3 CD on the Warner Brothers label. While we like the title and the album art (which features a Menorah with Christmas lights in place of candles), we were disappointed to find only 1 Chanukah related song - a nice version of Rock of Ages. The other 8 tracks all had the word Christmas in their title. We sent out Chrismukkah press releases over the wire services this week and have begun receiving inquiries from journalists. The press releases seem to have been picked up by a number of internet press release distribution services and consequently, search engines have picked up on those, increasing our visibility on SE's - which can't hurt. We continue to receive orders daily with each day's orders larger than the last. However, I don't expect most people will begin to think about holiday cards until after the election is over. To encourage sampler orders, I extended free shipping through Halloween. Meanwhile, Michelle's new kiln had it's maiden firing in the barn studio. She fired a load of 20 pieces last night, and today she applied glazes to them. Michelle has also been busy doing freelence web design work for her former employer in San Francisco. While I was fielding press calls, Minna had a play date with her pal Fionn. The two of them were hilarious together.

Merry Mazeltov! - The Orders Are Rolling In

Between volunteering for the Kerry campaign and filling orders, there's hardly any time to Blog any more. The orders have been ariving in a steady stream these last few days. The word must be spreading. I've been posting to some OC fan sites, and writing to other web sites that appear to be simpatico. I need to hire a publicist... rr decide to do it myself. Perhaps I'll try to write a Chrismukkah press release this afternoon after the shipments go out.

Debates and links

3 debates down... one to go. We stayed up late last night watching the Sundance Channel's 6 hour A.C.T. (Americans Coming Together) concert live from Washington DC. It was incredibly inspiring and optimistic. Springsteen's impassioned and intense performance and commentary was certainly the highlight. While the email we receive has been overwhelmingly positive, my attempts to ask for link from organizations who promote Jewish interfaith marriage have been futile. On the positive side, we received a nice email from Bruce over at www.HanuKat.com. He's got a cute interfaith family oriented site all about Hanukkah. I was happy to receive a kind email from Wendy at www.Halfjew.com. They also appear to be kindred spirits.

Too far over the syncretistic edge?

Michelle, Minna and I took an afternoon drive down to Yellowstone Park today... 45 minutes down the road from our front door here in Livingston, MT. It was a beautiful warm fall day.... the Cottonwood and Aspen trees were at their brightest yellow-orange and the elk were everywhere. We got home in time to make Pizza for dinner. This week we finally launched the fully functioning Chrismukkah.com site... and began taking orders for cards. By week's end, we received our first order... from none other than Chrismukkah.org "blog brother from Boston" Jay Brewer. The next day, we received another order for cards from San Francisco. We've broken the ice! 2,000 orders to go and we'll have broken even! I spent a good deal of time this week writing to "interfaith" oriented sites, trying to encourage reciprocal links. We were turned down by each organization we contacted... apparently our cards are pushing an envelope. This response was typical: "Dear Ron: I've consulted the ****** Interfaith Institute Family board and the feeling is unanimously against our putting a link to you on our site--you're a little too far over the syncretistic edge for us. You're welcome to list us as a resource on your site, though. Thank you for your interest." I've been called a many things before, but "too far over the syncretistic edge" was a first. I had to look up the word. While there are still a number of tweaks remaining, for the most part, I'm happy with the way the site looks. Now all we have to do is try to get the word out. Google and Overture PPC advertising begin this week. If you're reading this, please help spread the word. And we'd love to hear from you.