Penticton Wrap-Up

BC Youth Write Camp has come to a close for 2009.





I cannot emphasize enough what a wonderful experience this was for the young writers who came to Penticton from across the province. Run by the dynamic Yasmine John-Thorpe under the auspices of Raise-A-Reader and Penticton Writers.














The kids who said good-bye yesterday headed home inspired and fired up by the experience.














Teachers -- if you teach in BC and have students who like to write -- direct them HERE next year -- they will be given a chance to take part in an experience they will never forget!





~kc

Pet Cemetery

Note to Stephen King fans...there is no 's' in this cemetery.

Yesterday, author James McCann and I took a little trip.

To the local pet cemetary.





The experience was not really creepy ...just a little sad. Sad to see all the loved animals gone.






But also sad to see how derelict a relatively new endeavour is. From what we could see, the place was inaugurated in 1987. But the day we went, it was overgrown in weeds, with path markers kicked down or destroyed.






I do have to admit that seeing this headstone gave us both pause...



















If you'd like to see more of my shots of the pet cemetary, check out my flickr page HERE.

And a final blog post will soon emerge, regarding the Most Wonderful BC Youth Write Camp 2009, which has just finished its run. Brilliant fun.

~kc

Penticton Wednesday

It's 11:09 pm and my camera is in the car, so no new pix for tonight. (I am in a deep, dark house in a deep, dark world and unfamiliar with the lights to take me to my car and said camera, she sez, verbosely explanitorially...).

Will check -- maybe I have a picture from yesterday to serve...

In the meantime, HERE is a link to a story in the Penticton Herald about our Youth Write endeavour here. I think we've made the paper every day while here, which is Very Nice. In other funny, nice news, Lee discovered a tribute video made for me and put up on YouTube by one of his ex-students. Very sweet.

What else? I have a whole blog post planned to illustrate with pictures of the pet cemetery (note spelling -- no 's' in cemetery!!!) we visited today. It was not creepy, but sad and desolate and wonderful. Tomorrow is technically the last day of YouthWrite, followed by a big signing event at the Coles in Cherry Lane Mall (please come, we'll have jelly beans!). On Friday, we have a book sale and signing at Okanagan College, where we've been holding the Youth Write event.

So, a whole lotta awesome for the rest of the week!

And, I did find a pic....

This is Shadow, and he is as big as a mountain. He belongs to Ed and Peggy Fodey, who have been our hosts this week. Shadow is Very Lovable...as are his owners.

Lots more tomorrow.

~kc

Penticton Tuesday

Another incredible class, loads of time travel rules and interestingly...more poetry to read.

I love poetry -- especially written by teens.

A great group of writers here, lots of stories to tell, lots of fun to be had.

First the work....







Then the play....



Yes, we seriously played minigolf this afternoon.

I won.




And finally, a shot of Lee's brother's dog Junior B, so anxious for me to throw the frisbee that he appeared willing to assist me off this bridge with whatever means necessary.

Of course, I threw it for him.












Another great day.

~kc

Penticton Monday

Rocking day today in Penticton at BC Youth Write Camp -- astonishing group of young writers discussing time-travel issues, poetry, story structure. I read a poem at the end of the class written by a young writer named Sean -- totally blew me away, man. These kids are good.

Here's Lt. Governor Stephen L. Point addressing the troops yesterday.










This is the whole whack of kids joining together to celebrate the on-set of some serious wordsmithing.









And here's all the proud parents (and a few organizers) wrassling the kids into the collection above, suitable for photographing.

The lady all in black is Yasmin John-Thorpe, the brains and the energy behind the whole Youth Write BC event.


Thanks, Yasmin -- it's been a blast already!

~kc