C & C -- 1408

Heading out today for Salmon Arm. Yesterday we had a bit of time off; a chance to get caught up on email, take a quick tour of the Stampede and head off to a very tiny gathering at Pages in Kensington. Let's just say that the chairs outnumbered the aspiring writers by a substantial ratio. But it was a lovely day and we had fun. Thanks to Sonia and the rest of the crew at Pages for hosting us!

We decided to take some time off our drive to Salmon Arm, so hit the road for Canmore last night. It's a pretty drive, and a quick one, so there was still a sliver of daylight in the sky as we pulled into town, at the time talking about a shared favourite scene in a movie.

In this movie, called 1408, John Cusack plays an author who debunks ghost stories for a living. It's taken from a Stephen King novella, and is considered a horror movie because of all that happens to Cusack's character once he meets a truly haunted hotel room.

But King's little in-joke for writers is the scene where his author is faced with a book signing. He walks into a bookstore, and no one recognizes him from his publicity poster. Worse -- there are fifty chairs set out and perhaps three people show up. The quintessential mortification moment.

Back to Canmore.

The intrepid authors pull into town, looking at hotel rooms that backed right on the railroad tracks.

"Well," kc sez, cruising the main drag, "where do you want to stay?"

"D'you think we'll hear the trains if we stay in one of these places?" sez James.

"Nah," sez kc. "We're tired. Let's just find a place and go eat. Which one should we choose?"

"I dunno," sez James. "I guess as long as it doesn't have a room 1402, it'll be okay."

"Ha ha," chortles kc. "We've already had our '1402' moment today."

"You're right," sez James, and they laugh together ruefully. They drive maybe 100 metres. They pass a hotel which happens to back on the train tracks.

"How's that one look?" sez kc. "Did you see a vacancy sign?"

"You're not going to believe this," sez James...




So, of course -- we have to check it out. And the girl at the desk (an Aussie by the name of Jodi, with a tattoo of the 'Made in Australia' logo on the back of her neck) finds us the last two rooms in the place.

We take them.

Then, because she is funny and punchy from a long day at work, we have to tell Jodi the whole 1402 story, including a synopsis of the movie, since she hasn't seen it. (We also warn her that the hotel may, in fact, burn to the ground, due to the presence of the ghosts that we will invariably stir up by our presence.)

This story takes a long time to tell.

Jodi, like us, is wildly impressed. She gives us a BCAA discount on the rooms. (She would have done this anyway, but hey...)

We prepare to depart for the rooms, offering dire (dyer) predictions of our potential doom in Hotel 1402, when the other front desk clerk steps forward.

"I hate to tell you this," he says, and there is true regret in his voice. "But you've made a slight mathematical error. That movie was actually called 1408."

The only thing that haunted either of us all night were the trains that drove, at regular intervals, right through our rooms.

~kc
(comic version coming tomorrow. Check out James' version of events here.)

C & C Canmore --Heading Westward

Before the re-cap, a quick word about kindness.

This is a shot of James, about to fill up the car with gas provided by our friend Meg Tilly. Before we left town, Meg gave us a gas card as a Chocolate and Chat Tour parting gift, to help speed our tour on its way.

Meg is kindness personified, and both James and I want to thank her for her very thoughtful (and useful!) gift.

(Please note how James is somehow able to brandish the gas card, hold the nozzle AND stand on one foot all at once. Can this guy multi-task, or what?)

Meg hasn't blogged for a few days, so I like to think she is enjoying her family and the summer weather, inventing scrumptious recipes, and romping with her dog.



Back to the update.












This is Sue, manager of Monkeyshines Book Store in Calgary, still smiling after our workshop conducted with a group of amazing young writers. Thanks to Sue and Monkeyshines for hosting such a fun event for us!


As you might have noticed from the comic I posted this morning, our next stop was the wonderful Owl's Nest Book Store in the Britannia area of Calgary. We had a small, but enthusiastic crowd and shared wine, fruit and chocolate along with our conversation. Here is a shot of writer and bookseller Judith Duthie, hanging out with Virtual James.














After our marvellous visits with Sue and her staff at Monkeyshines and Mike and Anne and Judith from Owl's Nest Book store in Calgary, we headed north. The next day saw us on the road to Red Deer. Highway 2 is an adventurous experience at the best of times, but we had a particularly memorable drive, with a temperature that suddenly dropped to 6 degrees, lashing rain and Stephen Spielberg clouds, scudding along at different levels of the stratosphere.

"Look at this amazing sky," sez kc, snapping pictures through the open window.

"Why are these truckers driving at 150 kph through this storm?" sez James, tooling along at slightly over the speed limit himself and watching in awe as the semis roared by with their 100 tonne loads.

[kc pauses the narrative here to note that she just typed 100 tonne toads, and was briefly amused by the ensuing mental imagery...]

"What is that white stuff on the side of the road?" sez both kc and James together, in the curious sing-song style they have developed over the course of the tour.

In spite of questions remaining unanswered, they rolled safely into Red Deer and met up with James's long-lost friend Jen, now children's librarian at the main branch in town. Jen and her colleagues treated the authors to a marvellous lunch (thanks, Jen!) and then kc and James had a fantastic time speaking to a whole whack of young (and young-at-heart) writers for the afternoon. (This is Jen with James, both stricken by the sudden appearance of a Mysterious Stranger...)

We then (intrepidly) leapt into the car and hurtled through the wind and rain back down the highway to Cochrane, for a presentation at the Nan Boothby Memorial Library, under the kind eye of Head Librarian Terence Haxton. Terence had set up a cosy collection of chairs around a fire place -- much welcomed by the frozen travellers -- and a lovely evening was had by all.






It was not until a late-night viewing of email that all became clear -- the hail, the dropping temperatures, the speeding trucks...we had been driving through a tornado warning (with the radio off and the music blaring) and while we were unaware of the danger, those trucks and other drivers were clearly trying to get to their destinations ahead of any tornadoes that might appear!

Deep thanks to Jen and her staff in Red Deer and Terence and his staff in Cochrane for your kind hosting of our events. Again...kindness rears its head. A good way to finish, I think. Tomorrow we plan to avoid tornadoes...

~kc

C&C Day Three

In which kc and James take on Monkeyshines and Owl's Nest bookstores in Calgary...





~kc

Hokay -- Halfway There!

'Ohh-ohh we're halfway there, Oh-oh livin' on a prayer'*

*Clearly a direct result of driving long distances lately with a metal-head...



Will post most Comic Life pix tomorrow, depicting our wonderful little tour and the strange creature who appears to be stalking us...

(Having WAY too much fun turning my life into a comic book with this software. Comic Life has been a great sponsor to us -- blogging about our tour on their site, and giving us a pile o' software to give away. We are leaving many Comic Life Crazies in our wake...)

But for now, a written re-cap is in the cards. Let's see...

James McCann (aka the previously-referenced metal-head) and I left Vancouver on Monday morning, and after a small satellite-related detour through the back roads of Merritt, culminating in an unscheduled visit to the town heli-pad (as depicted in the comic above) we landed safely in Kamloops, secured lodging, free wireless access and a refreshing jolt of caffeine.






Our event at the Kamloops Chapters was just terrific. After a nice write-up by Mikelle Sasakamoose in Kamloops This Week (Her Story on History), we had a great turn-out, with folks from as far away as Williams Lake popping in to buy a book or two.






You can see if you smile prettily enough, James will even let you wear his magic Pyre hat!






The next day we sped off eastward for a short (but sweet) visit to Banff. It was sometime after our trip to the Welch's candy shop that we noticed the scurrying of tiny feet in our wake. But when we looked around...no one was there.







We made a late arrival in Calgary that night, and were joyfully greeted the next morning by the least-sleepy Dempster family member. Last week he ate my shoe, bringing him into the Silas Criminal-Family-Member Club. In this shot, Ronan gives his opinion as to any concern over my chewed shoe.










As a result, he became Ronan, Incarcerated, a state (I understand) he frequently is found in these days.







Next it was off to Monkeyshines, a very cool little bookstore right in the middle of Calgary's Marda Loop.

More on Monkeyshines -- with pictures! -- and our subsequent adventures in the next post, as it's burning past midnight here, and a long day has already been enjoyed. Make sure you check out James' blog for his take on our adventures, too.


~kc

Choc & Chat, 2008 Day One -- Comic Life Version

A day late and a dollar short....

MANY more details tomorrow!

~kc

A Warm Kamloops Welcome

Rocky Mountain Chocolate & Chat Tour, 2008: Day One

In which the intrepid authors brave the Coast Mountains, make minor detours in Merritt, have a great time in Kamloops and fall afoul of a few technical problems....

I'm writing this the morning after the night before, due to the aforementioned technical difficulties. As you might well determine from the fetching self-portrait (courtesy of Photo Booth), I discovered last night that I had left my camera cable at home, and was thus unable to bring to this blog all the pix I took yesterday of :

• the beautiful drive through the Fraser Valley
• the extent of the Mountain Pine Beetle damage (and repatriation efforts) in the interior
• the astounding ability of James (that would be my partner in this particular crime, the author James McCann) and kc to get _lost_ in Merritt, BC (a city of fewer than 7,000 souls) wending our way to a heli-pad airport before finding the highway once again...
• a fantastic gig at the Chapters in Kamloops, where we met some wonderful folks who all made us feel truly welcome

Then, I sat down last night after discovering the missing cable and wrote a lovely blog post, complete with Comic Life illustrated panel, only to have my system crash. I took that as a sign from the tech gods, and gave up, hence this morning missive.

One other technical note -- I have also discovered that my home email address will allow me to collect emails but not send them from the road -- so apologies to all those who have recently tried to communicate. I've received all your messages, but cannot send unless I use webmail, which first removes your messages -- so I will do all my replies when I get back. In the meantime, my gmail address is working just fine, so that's the best way to reach me these days.

James and I head on to Banff today, where I hope to find a computer cord and will post a more colourfully illustrated blog entry this evening. And if you'd like to read James' take on our day today, you can find it here.

~kc

Edmonton Under Fan

Am currently at the Canadian Authors Association CanWrite Conference in Edmonton, a hot town with plenty of cool writers these days.

Suzanne Harris and her gang have put on a fabulous event, and I listened to a number of excellent speakers today. This evening I watched a performance done by the Spoken Word Choir, under the direction of author and creative hurricane Gail Sidonie Sobat. The group is made up of a bunch of teens who love to write, and they gave a knock-down performance that wowed the audience gathered at the Timm Centre for the CAA national Literary Award Readings.

Unfortunately, my camera battery died mid-day today, (too many pictures of baby Ronan in Calgary, methinks), but I should have a few shots to post when I get home.

Just posted a discussion of the terms 'advanced' and 'master' writer at the SiWC blog, too.

Now off to escape the heat with a cold shower and a fan...

~kc

Parapatesis...

...is this a word? It should be, I think -- to describe the state of being parapatetic, which, if you want to get technical, is not a state, but a fluidity of movement, n'est-ce pas? All this to (most ridiculously) describe the upcoming bit of summertime. First, off to Calgary this week, with a side trip to Edmonton for the CAA CanWrite Conference. This Alberta jaunt is to be followed by another, when fellow author James McCann and I head off with the latest installment of the Chocolate & Chat Tour. Here's our media release: Chocolate & Chat: Writing for Teens and Young Adults Media Release Just in time for summer reading, authors James McCann and kc dyer are pleased to announce the ‘Chocolate & Chat: Writing for Teens and Young Adults’ tour. These prolific authors will be touring through Western Canada and the Rocky Mountains from July 7-15th, 2008, with stops in Banff, Calgary, Red Deer, Cochrane, Kamloops, Salmon Arm and Kelowna. They’ll be talking about their own novels and answering questions from people interested in writing for kids and teens. James and kc have spoken to thousands of children and adults about reading and writing. This free event promises to have something for readers and writers alike. At each location, the authors will be on hand to autograph copies of their books and give a presentation for aspiring writers about breaking into the Canadian writing market. Don’t miss the hottest event of the summer…they will bring the Chocolate and YOU bring the chat! ………………………………………………………………  I'm really looking forward to this -- it's going to be a blast and I'll blog as much of it as I can. Comic Life has come on board as a sponsor, so we'll be giving away very cool software packages at every stop. But first -- a pause for Canada Day, and the inherent celebration that will occur to mark the 16th year since the birth of my boy. An auspicious day! ~kc

One of those days...

...where a big, sudden project leaps up and bites away the entire day from all the other things that were supposed to get done. But now, all the information is in place for the programming of the new SiWC registration system, so that is a good thing. And my girl has sorted through the morass of registration for university in the fall, and is ready to throw herself on the mercy of the on-line registration system in the morning. Also a good thing.

The writing, editing and promoting that was supposed to happen today, however -- well, they just didn't.

However, tomorrow is the first day that both my offspring are officially done school for the year. Here's hoping the sun shines and the writing (etc.) time stays open while the teenagers sleep in!

And in honour of the Trickster's 9 month birthday which occurs this week sometime...here he is, in all his glory.



It amazes me how he can keep all four feet, tongue and ears in the air with so little apparant effort.

Silas has taken very fondly to his new jail cell, but still managed to get into the garbage twice this week, chew up his new ball AND Meaghan's just cracked HARDCOVER copy of Stephanie Meyer's new novel (the title of which escapes me at the moment, as it is 12:25 am and I have not yet kicked into my post-meridian second wind). Anyway, the book is beyond repair, and Silas is back in the hoosgow.

For those who might like to see what is new on the SiWC front, blog posts are here.

A demain...

~kc

Missing George

In mourning today for George Carlin, a comedian who brought a lot of pleasure to me over the years.

I spent my teenage life chortling at his jokes and marvelling at his fearlessness.

More recently, I have enjoyed his musings on the page. Yes -- George was a fan of words -- and more than just the seven of them you couldn't say on television.

His books include Sometimes a Little Brian Damage Can Help, Brain Droppings, Napalm & Silly Putty, When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops and Three Times Carlin: An Orgy of George.

I liked his books, but to see the real thing...well, there was only one George Carlin. Do yourself a favour -- hie on over to YouTube, punch in his name, and laugh yourself silly.

~kc

Slade and the Case of the Mysterious Floating Feet

My buddy Jay Clarke, who writes as Michael Slade, has been all over the news lately with his thoughts on the rash (if one can call it that...) of floating feet along the BC coast.

See... the interesting thing is that Michael Slade wrote a book with a very similar series of occurances just a few years ago. It's called DEATH'S DOOR and you can read all about it here.

A little tidbit from the Cemetery Dance website:

A mummy has been stolen in England. Authorities believe the motive is the treasure hidden in its fetid wrappings. THEY'RE WRONG.

Mutilated bodies of missing Hollywood stars are discovered washed ashore on West Coast beaches. Authorities think they're victims of a random serial killer. THEY'RE WRONG.

When Chief Superintendent Robert DeClercq and his team follow a clue to an underground snuff film operation, they believe they've encountered man's sickest desires. THEY'RE WRONG.

Something even more cunning, even more depraved is waiting for them. If they have the guts to follow the clues through Death's Door...


Here's the Vancouver Sun's take on it...

While some people have mooted a theory connecting the feet with a plane crash from a few years ago, but in spite of that line of investigation, the recovered DNA has not been matched.

Is life imitating Art?

What do you think?


~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

In Which the Author Apologizes to All and Sundry...

My dear dog-walking buddy and sister-in-words Meg Tilly and I went for a farewell jaunt through our favourite park today, with Molly, Silas and Seamus careening around our legs like park-mad pinballs. This was a farewell jaunt because I have a crazy-busy, here and there, in and out, been and gone summer in front of me ...(Stream-of-consciousness aside: Bean and Gone was the name I gave to the bus station coffee shop in Ms. Zephyr's Notebook. I think it was my favourite place-name in the book....) and it's unlikely we'll get to meet for our weekly walk for awhile.

Now, Meg is one of those heart-of-gold people you only meet a few times in a lifetime. She has been working her tail off all year promoting her third lovely book Porcupine, and is 90+ pages into a new novel. As anyone who is in the middle of slogging through a new manuscript can tell you -- it is hard work. And in my own defense, I was really just thinking of her welfare....

All the same, I feel compelled to hereby offer my heart-felt apology to all of Meg's blog fans for asking her if she was planning to take the summer off blogging. From the looks of this post (and the big grin on her face when she told me so), I think she might do just that.

Now, Meg LOVES blogging, but y'know...everyone is entitled to a little down time, right?

Right?

[kc ducks toll-house cookie, hurled by irate fan, made from recipe ONLY available on Meg's blog....]


Hey -- I said I was sorry!

~kc, who will miss her daily dose of Meg-blog, too...

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

Just In...

...from visiting a writing class at UBC, run by Tradewinds publisher Michael Katz. Michael will be a presenter at SiWC 2008, and it was great fun to talk to his group of budding author-illustrators.

One tool I can surely recommend is the new Comic Life software I've just lucked into. This is an amazing little piece of software (I bought the Magiq variety for a ridiculously low price) and I am having a blast with it. Author James McCann turned me on to it (and I think author and artist Cynthia Nugent clued him in) and I've been playing with it every day, checking out all the possibilities.

The poster you see here is an early effort -- (before I figured out how to crop pictures), but it's just a quick example of how cool this program is. I plan to post more of these comics -- and hopefully you'll see my style improve.

Last night my boy put his whole homework assignment (on Farenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury -- and may I just note -- that book NEVER grows old) together in Comic Life. Who knew homework could be so much fun?

Oh yeah... new SiWC blog post up here. Have you subscribed yet?

~kc

CWC Saturday...

Busy Saturday, most of it spent with the creative minds of the kids at CWC -- Creative Writing For Children. In the morning, I hied myself over to the Cameron Rec Centre in Burnaby, and we spend some time discussing The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles, by none other than the apparently prolific author Julie Andrews Edwards.






Yep, that Julie Andrews Edwards.


I must say, I had no idea of this facet to her career.





The CWC kids at Cameron Rec Centre were divided in their opinions about the book, tho' the group at Molly Nye House in the afternoon were unstinting in their praise.


We spent the rest of the time deep in discussion of biographies and testimonials and other things authorial. Oh...and making funny pictures with Photobooth (on the break, of course...)





PopArt...














Light-tunnel...














And of course, comic book heroes.









Finished the day with a look at the new Indiana Jones. It was not bad...which is to say I didn't hate it, anyway.

~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

The Bridge -- Part Two

On Friday, while my dogs were getting their hair cut and my car was getting its brakes de-squeaked, I had an appointment to meet James McCann (to pick up a big stamp for Spring Book Hatching, 2008 and talk about our upcoming Chocolate & Chat Tour) on Granville Island. So I decided to ride my bike.










It was the perfect day for a ride. A bit overcast in the morning -- a bit windy, but not too bad, and then the sun came out for the trip home. A great ride. But it was my first time across the Lions Gate since I rode the Golden Gate last year -- which led to this post.















It was fun to ride across the bridge again. It was actually a four-bridge bike ride for me, as I crossed the Lions Gate twice and the Burrard Bridge twice.


I really enjoyed riding through Stanley Park on the other side, checking out how things have recovered since the big storm.





(Still a ways to go -- say 300 years or so -- until the growth is back to where it was, as you can see...)






I've never felt the same about the Lions Gate since I saw The Bridge. It was interesting to ride across in light of all I have learned about it since seeing the movie. I noticed that there is no protective netting or fencing anywhere on the span, apart from this piece:







where they clearly don't want anything or anyone landing on the railroad tracks below.













But apart from that -- nothing.






I can't find the stats for people who jump off this and other bridges in the Lower Mainland, but I did find an article here in The Province, indicating that the Lions Gate will be equipped sometime this year with crisis phones.

For me, in the end, the bridge was a link to the city, a beautiful ride on a nice day. I wish it was the same for everyone.

~kc

Inter-world Vertigo

Bit of a brutal weekend.

Good for writing, bad for real-world function.

I spent the weekend doing a final clean-up of a manuscript. I seem to struggle with switching worlds -- I mean, I've always struggled with this, even as a reader. But it doesn't seem to be getting any easier, however many books in I am into this writing gig.

It's tough enough to rip myself out of whatever world I am in to deal with things like feeding children and so on, but Silas takes it as a special licence to shred everything in sight, which makes real-world emergence even more unpleasant. And last night I got into bed to find that my daughter, who had been holed up in the only room with access to the litter box, had the door closed all day. To paraphrase Dumbledore: Alas -- cat pee.

On top of that, I am out of chocolate -- like really out. Haven't had any for at least a week, and this is NOT good for the soul.




A lot going down this week, so I'll leave you for now with a peek at my boys swimming in the Capilano River with their new haircuts. At last -- real world food without dog hair in every bite! Silas is getting mondo attention for his new 'do, since for the first time, he actually looks like a puppy.








Check out those Sister Bertril ears!



Hoping to be more coherent tomorrow...


~kc