Seasonal Suggestions -- December 10th, plus a little pagan sun-worship...

A pagan pause to enjoy a recent mid-day sunset in Lions Bay. (Okay, it only felt like mid-day, but it WAS before 4:30, for goodness' sake!)

Still, the fire in the sky was worth every moment. My camera battery died after I squeezed off just a couple of shots, but these pictures are straight-out-of-the-camera -- not a touch-up in sight.

I plan to do Winter Solstice up right this year, with candles and fire and anything else I can come up with to appease the Sun, and encourage his return. The dark days are so long right now....

Now, back to a few festive thoughts to chase away the dark. Time for:




Okay, so my friend artist and illustrator Kirsti Wakelin told me about this very fun, FREE program a few months back -- maybe a year ago. I didn't try it for ages, and then started messing around with it one day when I was procrastinating some piece of work that _really_ needed to get done.

The result was I got hooked. When I realized I was using the program nearly every day to adjust, goo-ify or in some way play with the pictures I was using on this blog (and the others I contribute to), I signed up for the premium package.

The program is called Picnik, and if you are a photography lover -- nay, even a PhotoShop user, I defy you to try this program and not have a blast. It's fun, it's free -- and if you like it, spend the whopping $25 a year it'll cost you to go to the premium package. Support these people -- they put a whole lot of the fun into blogging (for me, at least) and if you have anyone near as nerdish as I am in your life, a premium package of Picnik would make a great gift. See the Christmas tree, above? Picniked.

(Disclaimer....the Picnik people don't even know I exist, beyond taking my money for their product. I've no reason to endorse them beyond sharing a good thing with you, dear reader. Now click that link and give Picnik a try!)

A quick final note -- author Chris Humphreys (you may know him as CC Humphreys) is doing a reading of his recent novel new novel: 'Vlad, The Last Confession' at the VPL, Central Library downtown, Alma van Dusen Room, on December 12th at 7.30. Guaranteed to add a little bite to your season!

~kc

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