Anne Kyle, CanWest News Service
Published: Saturday, July 29, 2006
REGINA - Kyle MacDonald has enjoyed more than his 15 minutes of fame as the Canadian Internet blogger bartering a red paper-clip for a house in Kipling, Sask.
He's now successfully parlayed his adventure into a book deal with Random House and a movie deal with DreamWorks.
"I'm pretty excited about this,'' said MacDonald Friday in a telephone interview from....Montreal.
"I was sitting in front of the computer with a paper-clip and that is all there was.
"Now, I am sitting down with some of the biggest producers in Hollywood and the largest publishers in the world."
MacDonald's blog about his desire to trade a paper-clip for something of equal or greater value, eventually trading up for a house, captured the imagination of people worldwide.
He said he was approached by about 40 book publishers and 50 production companies who were interested in his story.
The negotiations with Random House and DreamWorks went on for the past couple of months.
"I have to have the first draft of my story done in three months," said MacDonald, who's in the process of packing up in preparation for his move to Kipling, located 150 kilometres east of Regina where he plans on hosting the largest housewarming party Saskatchewan has ever seen.
MacDonald's new home community, which is named after the British author and poet Rudyard Kipling, is home to award-winning romance novelist Mary Balogh. It seems like the ideal place to crank out his life's story, which is scheduled to hit store shelves next summer.
During the next three weeks, MacDonald said he'll also be jetting to New York, Los Angeles and Vancouver making a number of guest appearances on talk shows and meeting with DreamWorks producers.
"I've had a lot of invites (for media interviews) and I'm just saying 'yes' to all of them so I can say the words 'Kipling and Saskatchewan' as many times as possible, because it is good fun," he said.
The book, to be published in four languages, will contain new material about his bartering experience, which began July 12, 2005, when he, his mother and girlfriend Dominique Dupuis stood in the parking lot of a 7-Eleven in Vancouver, where he traded a red paper-clip for a fish-shaped ballpoint pen.
The project and his Internet blog, One Red Paperclip, took off. Before he knew it, MacDonald traded the pen for a doorknob and then a Coleman stove, power generator, beer keg and neon Budweiser sign, snowmobile, and a trip to Yahk, B.C.
His aim was to trade up to something of almost no value and within a year parlay it into a house.
With six months to go, MacDonald found himself the proud owner of an aging cube van. He quickly traded in the van for a recording contract, which became his bargaining chip for a year's free lodging in a Phoenix bungalow. Next, he acquired an afternoon with rock icon Alice Cooper. He sealed his next swap with actor/director and snow globe collector Corbin Bernsen with a Kiss -- that is, a Kiss snow globe.
Armed with a role in Bernsen's upcoming movie, MacDonald landed his house when Kipling's community development officer saw an opportunity to get some free publicity for his community.
In exchange for the house, the town of Kipling will raffle off the movie role by throwing a giant casting call-cum-Labour Day street party with Bernsen as the honoured guest.
The Edmonton Journal 2006
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