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TOLKY MONKYS BLOG


Tuesday, September 29, 2009

This Weekend, you can find us in the Nomada Market.

With this one it'll be fourteen editions of Nomada Market, a festival where the young designers and creators of Spain and abroad get together to offer you the best of their repertoire in the form of clothes, accessories, paintings, etc.

But this isn't just any edition. Why? Well because this time it'll be celebrated in an immense site, right in the centre of Madrid. The premises, almost 1000 square meters distributed in two floors, shall harbor the future project Escaparate Atocha 24, an innovative shopping centre, but for now, we'll be over 100 young designers of clothes and accessories, illustrators and artists who will be showing and selling original and exclusive goods, limited handmade products at affordable prices. The place will also have a chill out zone that will be stage to different gigs and activities for all ages. An entertaining event that will include concerts, DJs, fashion shows and performances throughout the entire weekend.

The event will open it's doors to the public next Friday the 2nd of October as of 11am and will stay open until Sunday 4th of October 8pm. The schedule and opening times will be:

- Friday 2nd October: 11 in the morning till 10 at night.
- Saturday 3rd October: 11 in the morning till 10 at night.
- Sunday 4th October: 11 in the morning till 8 at night.

The address, how could it be otherwise, is calle Atocha 24. To get there, you can take the tube, from Tirso de Molina Station, Antón Martín Station, or Sol Station. Or on any bus numbered 6, 26, 32, 50 and 65, that will leave you in Jacinto Benavente. Whatever is easiest. So, it won't be because there's no way to get there.

See address in Google Maps

Monday, September 28, 2009

The Resales are back! NOOOOOoooooo!!!

When they left last year, we thought the twins Sally and Sally, the Resales, wouldn't ever come back. Again, surprisingly enough, they have presented themselves again at our studio. How naïve we were to assume that by changing our location they wouldn't be able to find us.

In less than an hour they have turned us topsy-turvy. Abram, our vampire, has had his costumes that were tucked away in his wardrobe thrown out, and they've only left him with a Yogui Bear one. We'll see what he has to say about it tonight. And on top if that, they're determined to once again make us do a 50% discount on all the Characters that we have in our store, excepting of course the posters and wallets: boy t-shirts, girl t-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts and polo shirts. They've created a special coupon just for you, the people who read us and visit us frequently, valid from Wednesday 24th till Thursday the 1st of October. Of course, you're gonna have to hurry because each coupon has limited use.

What do you have to do to get hold of one? The same as last year, they've sent the coupons to the Blogs that write about Tolky Monkys every once in a while. You simply have to take a look at these blogs, the ones that are in the sidebar, and it's very likely that there you will find a valid coupon. Bear in mind that these posts with the coupon info were written a few days ago, at the beginning of the week ;]

Oh, and we're gonna send a special coupon to our friends from the Newsletter. Aren't you subscribes yet? Awell, you're going to have to mosey on over to those blogs and take a look. Lots of luck on your search!

Monday, September 21, 2009

20 stories received and 9 remaining days to send in yours

As the majority of you who read this blog will probably know, on the 3rd of September we launched with Bubok, a platform of free books auto-publication, the first edition of the Tolky Monkys Short Story Contest. The goal is to publish a book at Christmas with short stories and illustrations of our Characters. Sweet, right?

18 days into the contest and 9 days to close, the time has come to make a first evaluation. For now, we have received 20 short stories of good quality, although we're very aware that “Spain is different” and that the server will be filling up in the last couple of days ;] How do we know this? It's easy, because up until now there have been more than 800 people who have read the rules and have been interested in our Characters for the contest. The truth is, we're really looking forward to choosing the winners, so we can start illustrating the book. It's going to be incredible!!

If you're still mulling over the idea of participating, stop mulling and go ahead. Better to think about a story idea instead of weather or not to participate ;] Like our grandparents always told us: “It's better late than never”. Publishing a book this Christmas with drawings of our Tolky Monkys Characters is definitely a good thing. Don´t wait more! ;]

Remember, you have until the night of September the 30th to present your story. You can upload it to Bubok or send it to info[at]tolkymonkys[dot]com. In this sense, and since we've been getting a lot of questions, we've created a little manual in which we explain the steps you should follow when uploading your story to Bubok so you can enter it in the contest:

Download the manual to publish the story [Only in Spanish]

And if you need to refresh your memory, visit contest section to better inform yourselves [Only in Spanish]:

See Contest Rules | See Characters availables for the Contest
Visit the Bubok blog | Know Bubok

Thursday, September 10, 2009

T Day – Tonight we await you in the Twestival of Madrid

As we told you a few days ago, today will be celebrated the 2nd edition of the Twestival of Madrid, an event that aims to bring together Tweeps from Madrid and it's outskirts, so that they can have a chance to meet with people with whom they speak by means of 140 characters at a time only. Additionally, this event shall be used to help out an NGO to achieve some social work. In this case, the funds raised will be donated to the “Federation of Animal Welfare and Protection of the region of Madrid

We remind you also that there will be a Tolky Monkys t-shirt raffle among all you attendees. Not bad, huh? And for all of those who helped publicize this little shin dig, wherever you may be from, we will jog your memory and remind you that if you post a RT of this phrase, you'll have a chance to win another 2 tees:

"This Thursday 10th of September you should go to @MadridTwestival ::: RT and win free t-shirts of @Tolky_Monkys http://bit.ly/W1fLR"

See y'all there!!

Monday, September 7, 2009

A few tips for writing Short Stories

As you already know, a couple of days ago we launched the first of our Short Story Contests with the help of Bubok. Since we are well aware that writing is a difficult task - especially the starting-off stage and facing that damn blank paper - and that some of you will have doubts about the key points, here we will copy some advice that our fellow bubokeers have posted on their blog.

1. Think of an idea and build the plot up around it. Outline the action:
> Beginning. Capture the readers' interest.
> Plot
> Ending. The finale is very important. It ought to be surprising.

2. Keep the plot well strung together.
3. Stay away from rhetoric and digression. Keep to the point!
4. Instead of explaining things in detail, play around with subtle suggestions.
5. Keep the narration interesting at all times.
6. Add an adjective only to the indispensable.
7. Stay away from periphrasing and circumlocution. (don't beat around the bush)
8. Choose adequate words. (There's nothing wrong with relying on an online dictionary http://www.rae.es/rae.html)
9. Avoid cacophonies and repetitions.
10. Find inspiration in the physical traits of the character that you have chosen, to work on their psychological characteristics and personality.
11. Don't explain, allow your character to do it.

We hope that these little literary tips help you achieve a better story for the Character that you like the most. You all know that you can write to us or leave a comment at any time ;]

See the Characters for the Contests
See the Complete Rules

Friday, September 4, 2009

Sintonizza. Music Festival in Santa Coloma de Gramanet

One of our stores, La Tienda, collaborates and manages Sintonizza festival, which is going to take place today Friday and tomorrow Saturday in Santa Coloma de Gramanet. If you visit Barcelona or you live nearby, you should go and listen good music: Lagartija Nick, Elastic Band, Extraperlo, Delorean... and enjoy all type of activities related with painting, photography and comic.

Here we leave the spot of the event. Without any doubt it is full of Characters:


If anyone goes, we hope you´ll let us know. See you soon!

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Short Story Contest Tolky Monkys – Bubok ::: 1st Edition

Hello again! We hope you've all gained strength this summer and that the holidays have served to recharge your creative batteries to the max!

A few days ago we started off backing up the Twestival Madrid, so today we announce our decision to publish a book for Christmas with stories and illustrations of our Characters.

With this goal in mind, we're launching a short story contest with a hand from Bubok, a platform of free autopublication, where anyone can be their own Editor and make their dream of publishing a book come true, written with his own hand. Yes, you read correct, A-N-Y-O-N-E can do this. And why with these guys? Because they have a fantastic community of writers and because once written, illustrated and printed into a demo, the book can be put up for sale directly on the it's site. So the question really ought to be: With who, if not them?

All of you who wish to participate have from the 2nd till the 30th of September to dust off your quills and write a story about one of our Characters available for the contest. But bear in mind that not all of them are available for this one. We've selected 15 of them [See list of Characters for the Contest].

A few basic things you will need to take into account before rushing off to write, which are: The number of words should be between 650 and 800, not including the title. There is a maximum of 3 stories per writer and never using more than one Character per story, although you may invent secondary characters if you wish. And one very important thing: be consistent in the existing story of your chosen Characcter. Lastly, to send in the short story, you will have to register at Bubok and upload the story with the name "Concurso Relatos Cortos Tolky Monkys Bubok" [See complete Rules for the Contest].

Out of all the stories we receive, on the 14th of October we will upload the preselection from 25 stories to Facebook so that EVERYONE can vote for them. On the 21st of October the voting will be closed. The three most-voted stories will be included in our book as “The Public's Favourites” and we will chose between 7 and 12 stories to include in it also. In total, we are counting on 10 to 15 stories for this publication.

As prizes, per each winning story, the author will receive:

- Publication of their story alongside name and surname, or pseudonym.
- Tolky Monkys Gift Certificate of 60€, exchangeable for any product of our on-line store.
- A copy of the book, printed and mailed to your home by courtesy of Bubok.
- Promotion and publicity by Bubok and Tolky Monkys in all media at our disposal: Blog, Facebook, Shops, Press releases, etc.

If this has piqued your curiosity and you would like to enter, don't wait another minute to start writing because time has started to fly since the moment we published this post ;] And of course,before you do a thing visit the info section of the contest:

NOTE: This first edition is only for spanish speaking writers. Sorry... =(

See Rules of Contest | See Available Characters
Visit Bubok Blog | Discover Bubok

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Win free t-shirts with Twestival Madrid and Tolky Monkys

In our never-failing eagerness to be where you're at, Tolky Mokys have decided to collaborate with the second edition of Twestival Madrid. First thing's first, respond to the question that is inevitably on all your minds: “What the hell is the Twestival Madrid?” Well, this event lies within another bigger festival called Twestival Local, which is just another of the many reasons to reunite youngsters like ourselves in one place, in the case “followers” and “followings” of Twitter, with the requirement that all money raised in this friendly reunion goes to a NGO. In Madrid's case, the money shall be donated to the “Federation of Animal Welfare of the Community of Madrid”. So, it's not just about meeting people, it has a very important social undertone.

And that's why we have decided to participate in it. Yes, it's a party, and yes, there will be live music and we'll drink, but we're also gonna help out, which is cool every now and then ;]

And how do we get involved? Well we've donated 4 t-shirts to hand out during the festival and give you guys another little reason to go, in case lending a hand and drinking is enough incentive =) To win one of these tees, the only thing you have to do is be there, that's right, be there. The entrance fee is a measly 1€ and the drinks are affordable, so money can't be an issue.

The festival is on Thrusday 10th of September in Madrid, and the premises is NeoLabels, who are working their skins off to organize it:

C/ Doctor Fourquet, 20
Metro-Tube: Lavapiés [L3] o Atocha [L1]
Benchmarks: Atocha Station

And to urge you just a tad more and to introduce Twestival Madrid, we're gonna give away another two t-shirts those of you who RT on your Twitter this exact phrase:

"Count me in for @MadridTwestival :: http://bit.ly/3sTa3e :: RT and win free t-shirts of @Tolky_Monkys http://bit.ly/W1fLR"

The prize winners for ReTwittering will be announced the same date as the Festival. If you're there, you can pick up your tee on the spot, and if not, not to worry, you can always come on over to our humble studio on Montera St. To pick it up.

Important: You will not have more participation entries for Retwittering more than once. Only one tweet will be accounted for, although we do appreciate lots of RT. And for goodness sake, take away the speech marks when you do ;]

So you all know what to do, go off and RT and we'll await you at the festival.

Buy Ticket in Amiando
See location on Google Maps