I have been VP of the Children's Writers and Illustrators of British Columbia for two years. During that time I have worked with a hugely energetic and enthusiastic group of people and it's been a lot of fun.
Next month, I shall retire back into the shadows to allow the new members of the executive to take over. The main reason I've stuck with the job over the past couple of years, however, is the persuasive power of this man:
This is James McCann. Nice smile, eh? He's the president of CWILL, and the guy that talked me into taking the job of VP. I like to think I've brought a little vice into the workplace over the past couple of years, but I'm not the only one.
One of the reasons James and I get along so well is that we really agree on food. First of all, we both love to eat. And I may be a vegetarian to his unrepentant carnivore, but we both know what we like.
As a result, almost all of the meetings we hold involve food. We've eaten sushi all over the city, drunk hot chocolate and coffee in endless cafes and never turn down a trip to Granville Island that involves lunch.
But closest to our hearts has to be...this place.
True Confections. A dessert-lovers dream.
This particular location is in Kitsilano, on the corner of Broadway and Alma.
On the days we meet here for lunch, we don't actually eat lunch. As a matter of fact, I don't eat breakfast on those days, either.
My love is the mile-high chocolate cake. NOT quite as good as the espresso chocolate cake, of the late lamented Capers in West Van. But close.
Very close.
One piece of chocolate cake can provide more than enough calories to compensate for two, perhaps nutritionally more sound, but infinitely less fun meals.
James, (remember him?) however, lives not for chocolate cake.
His love is the pie -- banana cream, to be exact.
So, just yesterday, James and I hauled all the folks helping to organize the upcoming Spring Book Hatching down to True Confections for our final planning meeting.
Look at how keen this group is...intensely discussing their plans. Kirsti Wakelin, Jacquie Pearce, Kathie Shoemaker, Lee Fodi, Joan Stuchner. Hardworking authors and illustrators, giving up their Sunday afternoon in the sun to meet with us.
But wait! Who is that on the end?
And what is that in sitting on the table front of him?
Remember that nice smile from the beginning of this post? Let's take a closer look, shall we?
Just look at the glint in those eyes.
He might be smiling, but it is the smile of the cat about to pounce on the canary....
The smile of the pirhana, gliding above the plump perch....
The smile of the cannibal, poised above the fleshy foot of the unwary tourist...
...wouldn't you say?
(Please note
decorus bottle of Diet Coke, which does NOT belong to the banana-cream-pie-devouring maniac, but to the sedate chocolate-cake-eating vegetarian. What? You see an incongruity in Diet Coke and chocolate cake? I can't think what you mean...)
Back to more important things.
Let's just take a closer peek at that slab o' pie, shall we?
That is one BIG piece of pie.
(For those who earlier objected to the Diet Coke, please note the extra-large Root Beer float that is being consumed along with the banana cream pie. Technically the float was Lee
Fodi's fault, but James managed to choke it down, all the same.)
In all fairness, everybody ate something. Jacquie enjoyed a berry crumble, and Lee ate some huge confection, too, along with his own root beer float.
I think Kathie had tea.
Kathie is the _class_ of the organization.
But nonetheless, we got all the loose ends for
Spring Book Hatching tied up, did a little planning for the video shoot that was to take place a bit later in the day, and...
James finished his pie.
This may have been our last executive meeting at True Confections, but since James and I are about to storm the Western provinces with our (aptly named) Chocolate & Chat tour this summer...
I think True Confections hasn't seen the last of us.
~kc
Here we go!
