Off to Pandora's annual Summer Dream Literary Arts Festival at Lumberman's Arch in Stanley Park today. I'll be reading from A WALK THROUGH A WINDOW at 4:30 pm on the children's stage if you plan to stop by.
Three stages full of entertainment, face painting, crafts, info booths -- a great way to find out what's going on in this vibrant arts community.
It's an amazing day of stories and poetry and song -- not to be missed! Find out more HERE.
See you there!
~kc
The August issue of Today's Parent Magazine gives a big thumbs up to Darby's relationship with her Nan and Gramps. Reviewer Stephanie Simpson McLellan sez:
Thirteen year old Darby is less than thrilled about spending the summer with her Nan and Gramps in Charlottetown. But then she finds a way to slip into Canada's past, where she meets her great-great-great-grandmother, and starts to understand her family's strength.
In other news, this week Darby interviews Caitlin Decter, star of Robert J. Sawyer's latest novel WAKE. You can win a signed copy of both WAKE and A WALK THROUGH A WINDOW by entering the contest here: http://tinyurl.com/mgrgwz
Tweet or blog about the contest for an extra chance to win!
~kc
A few of the interesting things the internets have brought me this week...
Beautiful visual depiction of the relative size of celestial bodies.
Nikon's take on the Universcale -- a metric-based depiction of the universe.
And finally -- some of the true mysteries of human life, as identified by the New Scientist. [I feel a particular affinity for number four...].
New blog teaser post up at Darby Speaks, too!
See you on Monday.
~kc
[Deer was a gentle visitor on a bike ride earlier in the week.]
You could do worse than to read THIS blog post by the Most Excellent Blogging Agent Nathan Bransford. A lovely glossary of all terms publishing-related.
In fact, if you are REALLY interested, or in the industry already, you should have Bransford's blog on your RSS feed. The guy uniformly posts excellent material. He, Janet Reid and Kristin Nelson are my must-reads for agent bloggers.
All truly excellent. Know any other excellently-blogging agents? List 'em in the comments!
In a somewhat tangentially related thought, when my newly vamped website is ready for public consumption, it will have an all-things-writing-related blog attached. Hoping for a September launch...
A bit of contest news -- it's three weeks until the deadline of the SIWC writing contest. Have you sent in your entry yet? Find out more HERE. With $4000 up for grabs in prizes, it's a no-brainer.
And speaking of contests, nip on over RIGHT NOW to Darby Speaks. You'll be just in time to get your name in to win an Aphra Connelly contest pack!
Hurry...run!
~kc
A hot summer day. Time for a swim.
A tiny dot in the Capilano River.
Time to investigate.
Inquiring minds want to know...just what makes a splash that size?
Uh...well, a beaver tail, actually.
Twenty minutes of frolic later -- they swam their separate ways.
And off she went.
And that would be the end of the story...if she hadn't come back and swum with him again the next day!
(Identity of beaver confirmed first by scuba diver, and then by sighting of massive tail, proudly slapped.)
~kc
Been doing so much blogging on other sites, I have been neglecting my own! Lots of news to be had over at www.siwc.ca -- the conference is coming together, and lists are being checked and crossed off. I just put up a post today about the search for someone to take over my job as coordinator after this year's conference...if you know anyone who might be interested, send 'em HERE.
In other news, Darby is running a great contest on her blog to win a book by Kelley Armstrong. Darby's done an interview with Kelley's Chloe Saunders character -- you can read it HERE and enter the contest, too!
When I'm not writing books or blogs,
I've been trying to bike the seawall around Stanley Park and through False Creek whenever I can -- this summer has been so hot and dry, it's perfect cycling weather.
I've included a shot here of the new bike lane on the Burrard Street bridge -- it's fantastic and seems to be working very well. Bikes take the lane to the left, pedestrians walk the sidewalk, and cars still get 2 lanes in this direction. Here's hoping it continues to work as smoothly when regular work and school commutes resume in September!
There is still -- for some reason I really can't fathom -- a lot of animosity in this city between drivers and cyclists. The Critical Mass events don't seem to be helping. What began as an attempt to show how cyclists can help reduce congestion on our roads and do something healthy for ourselves and the environment has somehow degenerated into a shouting match. I recently heard about an idea called Critical Manners -- now THAT sounds like a Canadian approach, even though it's begun in San Francisco!
A view of downtown Vancouver from the bike path along the south side of False Creek.
English Bay, with the mountains of the North Shore and West Van far across the water of Burrard Inlet.
You can see from these shots that this city is among the most beautiful in the world to ride through -- it's worth it to solve these cycling issues!
For those of you away from these climes -- do a little rain dance for us, will you? I live on the side of one of the mountains you can see in the distance across English Bay, and though it's technically a temperate rainforest, not a drop has fallen in weeks. Our trails are so dry that hikers have been banished. We need a good three day soak to put out some of the 500 fires that dot this province.
Okay -- back to work on the latest opus. If you'd like to follow me on twitter, I'm tweeting sweetly @kcdyer. Flittering off!
~kc
Edited to add: Forgot to say that I saw one of the new Vancouver Biennale Art Installations on the bike ride. You can see more of Michael Zheng's 'the Stop' HERE.
[tip of the hat to @SeanCranbury for the tweet reminder...]
