Chocolate & Chat Farewell Comic

Homeward Bound

The 2008 Chocolate & Chat Tour is now history, finishing on a high note in Kelowna with distinguished guests including on-line friend, author and CWILL BC member Karen Autio, and the distinguished Jack Whyte (looking very dapper in his golfing hat). Many thanks to Curtis, Conrad and the staff at the Orchard Hill Chapters for making us feel so welcome.

After dinner, James and I went out for a celebratory ice cream, and while we were in line, we discussed the preponderance of body art in women compared to just a few years ago. This led me to remember a most remarkable video I had seen recently, depicting women in Art over a period of 500 years.

This video montage was put together by animation artist Phillip Scott Johnson, with music by Yoyo Ma. I love it for the sense of shifting fashions in beauty, and for the resultant sense of fragility in life and loveliness.

More tomorrow on the tour -- likely a Comic Life version. Don't forget to check James' blog, too -- for perhaps he has the strength to be more articulate than I right now.

~kc

C& C 2008 -- Final Stop -- Kelowna

We had a great day yesterday, after our surprisingly ghost-less stay the night before in Canmore. Wended our way through the Rockies (this is a shot of Castle Mountain, just past Banff) to Salmon Arm and set up our travelling road show tent at Spirit Quest Books near the centre of town.









James and I have decided that Spirit Quest owner Maggie and her team have a little white magic on their side, because we spent most of our time in the shop checking out some Very Cool things that we just had to have for future presentations.








I was especially taken by their selection of enchanting little fairies. When we were back at Monkeyshines in Calgary, I met and chatted with an aspiring writer named Cameron, who has written a whole collection of stories in a world of Faerie all her own. Cameron -- these fairies made me think of you!














We had a wonderful time in Salmon Arm and want to thank Maggie and Shannon and the rest of the staff at Spirit Quest Books for hosting this part of our tour.

Sadly, we were unable to find accommodation in Salmon Arm last night, so we beetled along the highway and managed to score what must have been the final rooms in Kelowna. This saves us from doing any driving today (for the first such day on the tour) and we have been able to get a bit of work done in town this afternoon before our gig this evening at Chapters in Orchard Park.

I'll just finish this post here with one of the shots I took last night of a fire-juggler on the beach at the waterfront park in Kelowna. There was a blues band playing live, people dancing in the streets , tons of vendors and food -- a wonderful summer Saturday night for everyone to share.


~kc

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.)

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

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

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

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

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

Spending the weekend with McKee...

Robert McKee, screenwriting guru. His seminar is back in Vancouver, and I am going, in spite of the fact that I have a million other things (including the last few words of DEADLINE) screaming for my attention.

This has left me a little crabby, along with the thought of having to sit still for so long -- the seminar lasts from 9:00 am to 8:30 pm three days in a row. This means juggling kids, dog and aforementioned other million items.

I`m hoping you`re worth it, Bob.

Scattered around these words are pictures from the various venues that hosted the `Chocolate & Chat` teacher appreciation events James McCann and I were a part of last month. We covered four municipalities in two days and had an amazing time at each and every stop. A big shout out to the warm welcome we received in the Strawberry Hill (Surrey), Langley and Vancouver (Granville & West Hastings) Chapters stores and the West Vancouver Indigo store. We`ll come back and visit any time -- you guys were fantastic hosts!

Looks like there might be another mini-tour in the works. More when I have further details to share.

*kc (this is NOT a typo --my tilde just died...)

DONE!

That's it.

The travel is all booked -- the scheds are all duled. Many, many little jobs remain (including clearing off some 600 + emails from my poor, over-loaded server), but SiWC 2007 is clearing it's throat, ready to sing.

I'm feeling pretty good. Evilly good, actually.

James McCann and I wrapped up our Chocolate & Chat Travelling Teacher Appreciation Road Show with four bookstore appearances in two days.

Will try to post a few pictures when I get them -- my camera died at the pivotal moment, sadly, and refused to regain consciousness, even with the infusion of new batteries.

It was hectic -- it was crazy. But it was FUN!

You know what I will remember? Not the sales or even the chocolate (since I forgot to eat any of it...) Nope. I will remember the lady of the broken glass.

On Sunday, as we dashed out into the downpour in Surrey to head to the Langley location, I zigged when I should have zagged and I dropped and shattered a glass plate on the road right in front of Chapters. Shards of glass EVERYWHERE. James stood guard, protecting with his life the tires belonging to the miscreants who shook their fists at this interloper (how DARE he stand in the middle of the road?) and tried to drive over him anyway. I ran for a box to collect the glass. As I started to pick it up, a woman ran out from the shelter of the bookstore.

"My parents used to tell me when I was a little girl in India," she said, "that broken glass is good luck." She proceeded to help me pick up the glass, all the while getting soaking wet and risking life and limb in the middle of the road with us. "They said that broken glass meant that the bad thing had already happened, so the rest of the day would be filled with good luck," she said.

Then she took the box of broken glass and put it in the garbage bin for us, while we stared after her, rain dripping down our glasses.

She was right, of course. We had a marvellous day after that.

Two more featured presenters from the conference -- this time the married Speculative Fiction Super-team of Diane Duane and Peter Morwood.

Diane Duane is author of numerous books, both on her own and with her husband as co-author, but she is held in the highest esteem in my family for her Young Wizards series. The combined facts that a new book in the series is due out this fall AND the author is coming to town have my girl in a state of nervous frenzy that somehow still can't manage to render her speechless. We are both looking forward to meeting this remarkable author when she comes to speak at the conference.

Diane Duane will jet from the home she shares in Ireland with her husband, Peter Morwood, who will himself be discussing speculative fiction at the conference. He'll talk about creating realistic heroes and spectacular villains, as well as his take on speculative fiction on the screen and on the page.

You can find out much more by checking out www.petermorwood.com and www.dianeduane.com

~kc

Chocolate and Chat

I LOVE this picture.


Meaghan took this shot, on a beautiful summer day, of James McCann discussing his books (RANCOUR & PYRE) with fellow author Meg Tilly and her partner Don.


This shot was taken at the second of our Chocolate & Chat Teacher Appreciation Travelling Road Show events. The Road Show found us at Edgemont Kidsbooks in North Vancouver for this particular event, and because the day was so beautiful, we set up our books outside. Meaghan was sitting behind the book display table when she took this shot. We had a great time talking with people who dropped by, and everyone (teacher or not) got their share of chocolate and chatting.


We have four more teacher appreciation events coming up on September 30 and October 1 in the Chapters stores in Surrey, Langley; the Park Royal Indigo in West Vancouver and the Chapters at Granville and West Broadway in Vancouver.

Please come to see us! We're launching our new books, but we are also sharing ideas with teachers as to how to get authors into the classroom. (And don't forget the chocolate!)

~kc