CONTEST! [and protest, while you're at it...]

For those who don't follow my twitter posts [@kcdyer], I just found out this evening from a friend [the astonishing Kari-Lynn Winters] that a picture of the cover of my latest book, A WALK THROUGH A WINDOW is featured on a poster at Chapters.

Now, I haven't seen this picture, but I love Kari-Lynn and count on her veracity...so I am having a sudden, twitter-inspired Canada-wide contest.

To win a signed copy of the book, be the first to send me a picture [camera phone or otherwise] of the poster at Chapters.

But wait...there's more!

If you can get a picture of the poster actually up on a window -- bonus kc dyer book, signed, sealed with a kiss and sent to anyone you love through Canada Post.

I'm excited! Any takers?

******

I've missed a few significant things lately what with all the to-ing and fro-ing, and I'd like to redress one of these omissions right now.

The BC Arts community is reeling after a series of stealth cuts have decimated Arts funding in the province by as much as 85%. Read a great article by Crawford Killian on writer Loranne Brown's blog HERE.

~kc

This week...

Happy thanksgiving! On my SiWC blog, I put up a turkey [with alien antennae...to go with our theme this year], but here? I'm allowed to let my veggie side show. Yeah, I cooked a turkey breast for my family, but I also had Indian food -- rice and curry and pakoras and salad.

And I was thankful. Yum. Cranberry sauce goes really well with Indian cusine.

Mostly I was thankful for a fairly peaceful day, as now I dive full bore into conference prep. Mostly dealing with details and last-minute disasters, but it's a busy time. I've got Fall Book Harvest and Vancouver BookCamp on the agenda this week, too, along with another writer-in-residence visit lined up with New Westminster Secondary.

Plus, I picniked myself into red-eyed little green writer. Not sure it's a good colour for me...

~kc

September 11.

Fall is here and I am spending this September day the way I have spent so many others in the past -- coordinating the details for the Surrey International Writers' Conference. This year the conference runs from October 23-25, with Master classes on October 22, 2009.


This will be my last year as the coordinator, and though I plan to stick around on the Board of Directors (since they don't know what else to do with this bad penny...) I am feeling a little nostalgic about each job as it gets completed.

This conference is one of the building blocks in my own career as a writer and [bias aside] I can't recommend it highly enough. If you are at all interested in being a writer, this is the place to start.

And if you already write for a living, SiWC is the place to go to refresh, rejuvinate, get new ideas and professional development.

One of our long-time presenters Elizabeth Lyon recently sent me a letter in which she called our conference the "best in the universe". Fine praise.  We're working hard to deserve it.

Elizabeth is just one of the strong American presence we have had at the conference over the years, and I cannot help but remember our American friends on this day. One of the best essays I've read on the memories of September 11, 2001 was written by author Rebecca Solnit and can be found here on the Mother Jones site: How 9/11 Should Be Remembered.

It's a brief, heartfelt and thoughtful piece.

Back to working on the conference. If you'd like to find out more, check out www.siwc.ca or leave me a comment and I'll answer any questions you have to the best of my ability.

And I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to seeing all my friends and colleagues in October!

~kc

Coquitlam & Surrey

Busy day yesterday. It was Literacy Day at Hillcrest Middle School in Coquitlam, BC, so I hied myself over there for a chat with the Grade 8 classes.

I had two groups to talk to -- the first had more than 100 kids and the second ...maybe around 60 or so. For such large groups, they were beautifully behaved and I was made to feel very welcome!

Many thanks to librarian Pam Fedoruk and all the kids and teachers at Hillcrest for a fun day.


After a short trip home, I headed back out, this time with Surrey as my destination. Surrey's become my second home in the Lower Mainland over the past few years and it looks like things will continue that way for a while. Yep...I did it.

While I'm talking about the SiWC blog, we are having our first book giveaway over there, and it's really easy to be eligible to win. Hop on over and have a peek!


~kc

Share The Wealth

Insanity time -- the week before the conference. A few things to note:









Got my galleys in last night (a day early, ho ho). A WALK THROUGH A WINDOW is on its way!

Last week I was thinking (and writing) about poverty.

Just read about this -- and if life slows down enough (and I'm hoping it will), I'd love to go:

"Share the Wealth"

Libraries Across Borders invites you to their gala Fund- raiser:
"Share the Wealth" on November 1, 2008 at 7 p.m. Alma Van Dusen Room, VPL, 350 West Georgia Street.

Help libraries in need in developing countries and here in First Nations Communities in BC. Find out about the 20 projects we have assisted. Learn how you can help. Share the Wealth!

Please register by October 30, 2008.

Sounds very cool.

Blogging more as I can!

~kc

SiWC Contest Time Again....

I could never do this without the amazing contest assistants Kathy Chung and Rose Holck.

We all share the same ailment, however...

For SiWC updates, be sure to check the blog on the site -- lots happening these days!

More soon -- after I get a little more reading done.


~kc

It's Back!

My wonderful, patient sister sent me my camera back. It came wrapped in a pink terrycloth bathing suit back -- fully lined, surrounded by odd twig-textured stuffing encased in a box, which was itself surrounded by foam shipping peanuts in yet another box.

THE most safely wrapped package I have ever received. And as you can see from the shot above, I am delighted. (What kind of weird techie geek takes a picture of herself taking a picture of herself on her computer camera?)

Off to Surrey for a SiWC meeting -- we are getting down to the wire. (Have you registered yet? Details here: SiWC 2008)

Lots of news about the conference in the days to come --and also about a tour I will be taking of the Kootneys at the end of September. More soon!

~kc
Also blogging at SiWC

Camera Down...

I left my camera in Calgary two weeks ago. Entirely my own fault -- and en route to New York City, too. As a result, most of the pics my girl and I garnered from the trip are of this variety from the American Natural History Museum -- fuzzy and indistinct. (Just to clarify, that's the dino on the right...)

My very patient sister is planning to mail my camera back to me, before I go into total withdrawal.



With the SiWC Contest closing, booking all the presenters' travel for this year's conference,
AND my copy edits for A WALK THROUGH A WINDOW arriving all in one day, you'd think I wouldn't have time to miss the camera.

But I do!



~kc

Does This Look Like the Face of Someone Who Knows Where They Are Going?

Everywhere I go, people ask me for directions.

Everywhere.

I have been asked directions in Portland, Toronto, New York, Calgary and Vancouver in just the last couple of months alone. Rural Ontario last November. Kamloops, BC. Red Deer, Alberta.

And I just don't get it. I am virtually always lost. This is my last day in New York, and on this trip I have been lost or headed off in the wrong direction so many times I cannot count them.

You'd think my non-existent sense of direction would hang about my person like a shroud. And yet...

In the past 4 days, I have been asked directions at least a dozen times. Once, I had a map on me and was able to help the person get where they were going. [success!] But the rest? Nada.

Usually the best I can offer is to be lost together, but I have actually stopped offering that -- not because creepy people have taken me up on it, but because the direction-asker generally rolls their eyes and runs off to ask someone else. I must have an honest-enough face for the initial inquiry, but perhaps my appearance becomes increasingly untrustworthy as the conversation continues. Or maybe my karmic shroud of lost begins to shine through my eyes.

I want to tell these poor souls that I make my living being lost -- and that I like it, in fairly small doses, when it doesn't involve dark alleys. (Actually, I rather like dark alleys, now that I think of it. A lot of potential in dark alleys...)

But I digress. Tomorrow I'm off to Toronto, and I can guarantee you that someone will ask me how to get somewhere. I guess I should just consider myself lucky that they aren't telling me where to go!

~kc*

*It's the final week for the SiWC Writing Contest! Check out my blog here for more details, or click on the SiWC contest page to find out more.

SiWC 2008 Registration Now LIVE

Whew.

Spent the day whirling through the funnel cloud of first-day issues, but it looks like all is well, and after a few glitches, things are running smoothly.

If you have no idea what SiWC is -- check out the freshly updated website here. When I'm not gallivanting around the countryside promoting books, or writing the things, I'm usually hanging with the Surrey crowd, lending a hand with the annual conference. This year promises to be stellar, and we've had a record crowd turn out to register the first day, so it bodes well for another sell-out event. Just wrote a new e-newsletter (which will likely go out tomorrow), or if you'd like to see a blog post or two, head over here and all will become clear.

I have to admit, I am groovin' on this new Picnik shareware. I like playing with my pictures! Thanks to Kirsti Wakelin for steering me towards it.

~kc

Chocolate & Chat Chugging Along Charmingly

The latest version of the C&C tour is really starting to come together. We now have seven (or maybe eight) stops along the way from Vancouver through Calgary to Red Deer and back. Dates will be from July 7-15th, 2008.

James and I will be stopping in Banff, Cochrane, Kelowna and Salmon Arm, along with several dates in Calgary. We've got room for maybe one more gig and that's it -- a full itinerary!

This trip is all about the writing -- we'll be talking about our own books, of course, but also about how to go about becoming a published writer, particularly if you want to write for children or teens.

We'll be blogging and podcasting the tour along the way -- so if you are interested in learning more about the process of getting published, or if you'd just like to listen to someone read to you for a while, we'll see you on the road! One of our sponsors will be Comic Life, so we'll be having some amazing give-aways, too. I'll put up the final itinerary here as soon as we get everything confirmed.

***

In SiWC news, make sure to head over to the site at www.siwc.ca and take a peek at the new 'SiWC In The Media' page. You'll find it as the first listing under the News & Media link on the home page (or by clicking here). It's where we'll be listing anything exciting we find in traditional media, in blogs or on-line about SiWC and its denizens.

I spent the day today ironing out some of the last corrections for the SiWC brochure today, and once everything is in place, it'll be off to the printers. This means that you can expect programming for this year to start appearing on the website very soon...

I am really happy to find myself also in the midst of working on the edits for my next book, coming out next spring with Doubleday. The book is called A WALK THROUGH THE WINDOW, and it is the first of a new series of time-shift novels set in and among some of the most exciting events in Canada's past.

Not much time for sleep these days...

~kc

One thing at a time...

I'm actually so tired that I just typed 'One thong at a time' for my title, and then had to pause a moment to think about how just one letter made such a difference -- AND a better blog entry title. Perhaps another day...

Really, the title is a reference to my little over-commitment problem, but instead of harping, I think I'll just get down to it.

Friday the 13th turned out to be a pretty auspicious night this month, as we had our 'pass the baton' party for CWILL BC.


James McCann and I bid our respective positions as Prez and VP of CWILL good-bye, and we welcomed the new leadership in the form of Pam Withers and Crystal Stranaghan. A good time was had by all.





After the official event, a few of us hied off to a local establishment to finish off the evening in style. Lee Fodi, Kirsti Wakelin, Crystal Stranaghan, James McCann and self joined Kari-Lynn Winters (who took this shot) for some girding of the loins in preparation for Spring Book Hatching, 2008, which was to begin bright and early the following morning.








SBH 2008 took place on an uncharacteristically sunny Vancouver day, but the weather, somehow, didn't keep the crowds from out of the downtown branch of the Vancouver Public Library.








The place was packed, and as befit the setting, was filled with all kinds of wild and wonderful creatures,











including a crazed fairy in drag, (aka Dan Bar-El, author of SUCH A PRINCE).











With the SPCA in attendance as a sponsor, even the dogs wanted to come and be a part of the celebration. (Please note: This is a GOOD dog, who came to the event, behaved like an angel and was a total asset to the procedings. This public service announcement is intended as a break from all the usual BAD dog posts you'll find around this joint.)



And we didn't stop there for animal kingdom contributions -- we also had a couple of cute chicks on hand to help direct the crowds...












All in all it was a huge success, and a happy way for James and me to hand over the reins of CWILL to Pam and Crystal. That incredibly organized duo will spearhead the Fall Book Harvest sometime in September. As always, keep an eye on this space -- you'll read all about it here first.

Enough for tonight, I think, except to say...


Make sure to check out the latest SiWC blog post here -- a big shout-out to the dear and delightful Janet Reid, who said some mighty fine things in her blog this weekend.

Crazy Season

Ay yi yi.

This is crazy season. I am currently gearing up for the CWILL BC wrap-up party and Spring Book Hatching this week. The edits on my new book are arriving Monday. Tour planning for the latest incarnation of the Chocolate & Chat Tour (with James McCann) is in high gear. Before that can happen, I have to nip over to Calgary and then up to Edmonton for the CAA CanWrite conference. The brochure and website for SiWC, 2008 are demanding daily attention.

(New post up for SiWC...with a little teaser here.)



But fiddle-dee-dee...I'll think about it all tomorrow. Because right smack in the middle of all of this...my girl is graduating high school.




This is a shot of her when she was just two -- the first Hallowe'en where she understood the whole costume thing. Her choice was to go as PuppyCat, the eponymous character in her favourite book of the time. (The stuffed version is beside her on the couch. And no cracks about the costume made out of a thermal onesie spotted with black magic marker-- I am a writer, not a seamstress, okay?)


On Saturday, she'll wear the dress she wore to her semi-formal this year. She's giving up a day of a big swim meet (apparently the kid suffers from a touch of the family's little over-commitment problem...) to traipse across the stage in order to please her mother, having eschewed all the other trappings of graduation this year as nonsense.



The look is a little different from Puppy Cat, but she chose this costume, too. Thankfully, her mother had nothing to do with costume design this time. (Here the stuffed friend is upgraded to the real thing -- her friend Berta, who will also graduate from grade 12 this spring.)


And, though I'm not really encouraged to say it aloud (and certainly all other expressions of outward affection or soppiness are MOST strongly discouraged)...

I'm pretty proud of her.


~kc

Today's Potpourri...

A hodge-podge of events to report...

Tomorrow I'm lending a hand to my buddy, writer-illustrator Lee Edward Fodi. (You'll remember him from a couple of posts ago -- nice smile, wizard hat...)

Lee's a busy guy these days, so tomorrow I'm looking forward to stepping into his shoes for a day and working with two of his CWC creative writing classes. More on how it all shakes down tomorrow.

***

Spent some time with the new novel today. (The picture you see right here is the Millennium Clock, from the Royal Museum in Edinburgh, and it plays a pivotal role in the story...)

I'm messing about with a new piece of software, too -- it's called Scrivener, and works really beautifully with my Mac's operating system. So far it's a lot of fun -- who knows where it'll take me?

What else....?

New blog post up at the SiWC site -- click here to read about Bob Dugoni, one of the amazing presenters we have coming to SiWC this year. The speaker's list is almost complete...an embarrassment of literary riches to choose from.

***

This week is a busy one -- Spring Book Hatching 2008 is coming, the final wrap-up for the CWILL BC season, I've got a chat lined up at UBC with some aspiring writers one night, and ...well, a whole lot more.

The rest will have to wait for now -- I've got lesson plans to review!

~kc

The Creature from the Black Blog...

...or perhaps the Black Creature from the Blog?



Whatever his current alias, he is presently chewing cowhide on the floor beside me. He ate a bit of my best rug today, which upset me so much I couldn't even photograph it. He also broke a glass yesterday, so is holding the puppy behaviour up to his usual high standards.

I like this shot of him, mostly because he is standing still.

This is not the norm.










It's kinda like photographing a whirlwind, actually. Most of the shots I take are useless -- blurry and painfully out of focus.




It's so hard to know where the thing will land next.







Or what kind of damage it will do when it does finally come down.







Silas Ermineskin and his reluctant brother Seamus missed out on a walk today with their canine companion Molly (and her mother, Meg). We're hoping the rains pull back tomorrow, long enough to let us traverse the paths of our favourite woodland park. Molly is the only dog I've met who can give Silas a run for his money -- time with her is pure gold.

***

In other news...


Planning for the upcoming July Chocolate & Chat Tour is well underway. As soon as all the locations are set, I'll put the itinerary up here. We're crossing the Rockies, baby!

***

And...

I've put up a new post on the subject of success stories on the SiWC blog, and a newsletter is going out this evening, too.

You know where to find 'em.

~kc

Surrey International Writers' Conference Blog goes LIVE

This is Lee Edward Fodi. Nice hat, eh?

Lee is one of the amazing presenters who will be attending SiWC 2008 this year. He is a writer-illustrator, and wears a very cool wizard's hat (tho' not all the time, I'm sorry to say...)

Speaking of wizards, I'm feeling pretty excited today, thanks to the wizardry of webmaster Dale McGladdery, as the blog for SiWC has just gone live. This means the email newsletter that goes out to the listserv every few weeks will now be supplemented by a daily blog, outlining all that is new and fresh for the conference -- and both are on RSS feeds.

Now, I've talked about this here before, but RSS feeds truly rule, and they make reading blogs WAY more fun, and WAY less of a chore.

SiWC's Wizardly Webmaster Dale McGladdery found this amazing video to explain the process. I LOVE it -- a fantastically simple and clear (and SHORT!) explanation of the whys and hows behind RSS feeds. Now, Dale is very cleverly going to post this on the SiWC upload page -- tomorrow, I think.

Not one to miss a scoop, I am going to post it here first. (The video is displayed under the specifications of its Creative Commons license.) It's by Lee LeFever, with CommonCraft, and is definitely worth a peek.





How great is that? A big tip o' the hat to Dale for finding this! (If you couldn't see the video, you can follow this link to find it on YouTube.)

But that's not all...

In addition to the newsletter and the blog, Dale is also setting up a 'What's New' section on the SiWC website home page. This will link you to all the changes and happenings within the conference and on the website itself. It should be up and running in the next few days.

So, if you haven't done it yet, hie yourself on over to the Surrey International Writers' Conference website and sign up for the newsletter and the blog feeds.

~kc

Surrey International Writers' Conference

...Newsletter went live today.

I may have mentioned before in this space that one of the things I do when I am not writing is coordinate the above-named conference. This job, while being a joy and a privilege, also eats my head upon occasion. And right now is a particularly busy time.

The remarkable Dale McGladdery, webmaster extraordinaire, has been working like a madman to update the SiWC site. Things are looking good, and if you want a sneak peek at some of the names of presenters, you can look here.

But it is nowhere near complete, so keep checking back. Dale is adding new content every day, including the names of a whole whack of other presenters. (I use the term collectively, of course.)

The BEST way of keeping track of all that is going on with SiWC is to grab the RSS feed that we will be running from both the newsletters and the new blog. But wait! It's not set up yet. Will be soon, though. So grab it then. When? I'll tell you.

So really, you are likely to hear it here first.





To finish, a gratuitous photo of my new canine nephew Ronan. My sister assures me he is not really this angelic when awake...




~kc

A Whole Lotta Shakin...

Board meeting in Surrey today to further the progress of this year's SiWC conference. The website is looking incredible, and will be available for public viewing (in all likelihood) within the next week. The text for the brochure is coming together and soon, soon, soon I'll be able to lift the curtain on the names of the presenters for this year.

***

Meanwhile...here is the press release for Spring Book Hatching, 2008:

Just in time for summer reading, the Children’s Writers and Illustrators of BC (CWILL BC) is pleased to announce the second annual Spring Book Hatching, a special event to celebrate the release of the latest books by local authors and artists.

Spring Book Hatching will be held June 14, 2008, from 1-3 pm in the Peter Kaye room and lower level at the Vancouver Public Library. This free event promises to have something for every young reader, with picture books, juvenile fiction, and young adult books all being showcased. The afternoon will feature live presentations, free autographs, displays, door prizes, a book sale and—best of all—the chance for lovers of children’s literature to meet their favourite BC author or illustrator.

“We have some incredible, award-winning authors and illustrators in this province,” says CWILL BC president James McCann. “We’re thrilled to have this opportunity to gather so much of our local talent together in one room. Last year, this event was an incredible success, and we can’t wait to show the public what we’ve all been up to since last year.”

To date, the following authors and illustrators are scheduled to appear at Spring Book Hatching: Caroline Adderson, Sue Ann Alderson, Ann Alma, Dan Bar-el, Lillian Boracks-Nemetz, Julie Burtinshaw, Kristin Butcher, Izabel Bzymek, Norma Charles, kc dyer

Lee Edward Födi, Dayle Campbell Gaetz, Patricia Godwin, James Heneghan, Shelley Hrdlitschka, Vi Hughes, Melanie Jackson, Katarina Jovanovik, Shar Levine, Tanya Lloyd Kyi, Laura Langston, Meomi, James Mccann, Gina Mcmurchy-Barber, Michelle Mulder, Rachel Dunstan Muller, Maxwell Newhouse, Cynthia Nugent, Jacqueline Pearce, Robin Stevenson, Crystal Stranaghan, Joan Betty Stuchner, Nikki Tate, Meg Tilly, Kirsti Anne Wakelin, Irene Watts, John Wilson, Kari-Lynn Winters, and Pam Withers.

CWILL BC is a lively group of published writers and illustrators for children. With close to 150 members across British Columbia, we exchange information about creating literary works for young people, we support one another and we help promote our books. Our volunteer, cooperative organization also communicates with other arts groups, schools and libraries in BC and Canada. Spring Book Hatching is hosted by CWILL BC, Pandora’s Collective, and the Vancouver Public Library.

-30-

***

And not only that...

Fellow Compuserve Books & Writers Forum denizens will know the names of Carol Spradling and Jennifer Hendren. Carol has a new book coming out this month (it's called COST OF FREEDOM, and is being released digitally by Wild Rose Press), and Jennifer is celebrating with a book give-away on her blog. Check it out!

~kc

Querelous Queries

As you know, I have recently made the leap into Mac ownership, and while I have not cast off my old PC completely (my kids still need it for school) I have been slowly trying to move things over to the new (and infinitely superior -- have I mentioned that before?) machine.


Today I had a little problem with this, as someone contacted me to whom I had originally replied from my old machine. Not surprisingly, they hadn't received my email, and in having to re-gather my thoughts, I realized I just might have something worthy of a blog post.

So here it is.

In my line of work, I am often asked by aspiring writers for a little help here or there. Mostly this involves: "I've just written a novel. NOW WHAT??!!??"

Today, this brought me back to the query letter -- the sort that one might send off to a prospective writer or agent, depending on one's propensity for that sort of thing.

I am a big believer in query letters. One of my own query letters led to my first manuscript being plucked out of a slush pile and fitted snugly between covers. (Note: This did NOT happen over night. Not at all. But it was all the more immensely satisfying when it did happen, for the wait, of course.)

In my humble opinion, the writing of a query letter FAR outshines the old stick-the-ms-in-an-envelope-for-an-exclusive-submission form of getting one's work published.

I've done both, and let's just say that the full manuscript option was less effective. Vastly.

Anyway, when you are ready to send your newly-completed, meticulously spell-checked and in every other way perfect new baby manuscript out into the world, my best suggestion to you is to not send it anywhere at all.

Instead, write a single-page query letter. The body of the letter should include a paragraph highlighting each of the following:

1) A brief synopsis of the story. Begin this with a one-sentence hook (prolly in the form of a question) to start with. For example...

What rough beast, its hour come at last, slouches towards Bethlehem, waiting to be born?*

(In fact, this is not a hook, but instead what I think might be my favourite line of poetry EVER. Can you name the author? If you need to cheat, peek at the bottom of this post...)

2) A brief (BRIEF!) summary of your very own self -- your writing history and anything particularly quirky about YOU that might catch the interest of the letter's recipient.

and

3) An explanation of why you are sending this query to the particular recipient. You need to do some research for this one -- make sure you convincingly note that picking up your story will be a good business decision for their company because...(they've published/agented others of this ilk before and done well with them, or they seem to appreciate a good story and this is one, or whatever is the best reason you can come up with.)

Once you've written your letter, run off the first 2 or 3 pages of your story and send the whole thing off in a business-sized envelope to every deserving publisher/agent you can think of.

When they reject you (which they will, likely, and quite often, too, until you find the right fit), roll with it, listen to any advice offered and KEEP TRYING!

Let me just finish by saying that there are a million writing books out there that you can refer to for wonderful advice, but I would also not hesitate to recommend a good writers' conference, if you are in the neighbourhood. Of course, my favourite is the Surrey International Writers' Conference , but go ahead and look around.

You know where to find me if you have any questions.


~kc (* with apologies to Yeats...)

Peanuts (though not Purple), Perambulations and Poetry*

(*with aPologies to Peggy Atwood....)



Silas found the Stellers Jays' peanuts last week.





He liked them. Apparently peanuts taste very good with a side serving of yellow duck boot.







As a result, I put him outside on the deck with his partner in crime. He felt the need to protest.








Please note these windows had been washed the day before by my dear friend Johnny, who loves washing windows and does a Very Good Job.


However, Silas likes to leave his mark.




When the howling didn'twork, he tried a fetching smile.
















And when that didn't work....











he ate a chair.






Does this expression look apologetic to you?








Silas is thinking of taking up acting.
In addition to mournful expressions, I believe he'll be a natural at chewing the scenery...

***

Had lunch in Bellingham yesterday with the SiWC Contest Assistants Rose Holck and Kathy Chung. (Rosie has another blog here, too. A blog-a-minute, that girl!)

The business part of our meeting went like this:
"You in this year?"
"Of course."
"Oh, yeah."
"Great!"
Not much standing on ceremony, I admit. But the contest is coming again, naturally, and the deadline will be September 5th this year. Check out the SiWC site for details.

The non-business part of our meeting was pretty fun, too. But since my camera was sitting on the kitchen counter, ready for dog-crime-scene documentation, I forgot it for the trip to Bellingham, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

***

And finally...





I just had word that Vancouver's Poet Laureate is launching his latest book. I met George McWhirter at SiWC last year, and he is a charming and highly accomplished writer. I LOVE the cover for his new book THE ANACHRONICLES, published by Ronsdale Press. If you are able to wish him well, you may do so at the Our Town Cafe (245 East Broadway, Vancouver), on Tuesday, April 22, from 7:00–9:00 p.m. This event is being held in conjunction with BC Book and Magazine Week.

Congratulations, George!

~kc