I'm tired. This writing business is hard work. The goal for the weekend is to hone in on the end of DEADLINE before real life leaps up to bite me again next week. A bit too much churning of the wheels today. I'm hoping for better tomorrow.
I'm sure there is more to report, but I can't remember any of it right now.
Happy Easter to all!
~kc
Working like a maniac on too many projects to count right now. Let's see...
I'm awaiting the page proofs for MS ZEPHYR'S NOTEBOOK, due out in May. (VERY excited to see how those will look...this book is quite a departure for me.)
Last year I wrote a novel for kids called A WALK THROUGH THE WINDOW, and I've just completed a bit of a re-working of that, so I hope it will be ready to meet the world pretty soon.
DEADLINE is still teetering on the brink of completion. My current goal is to get it done before I head off for a quick trip to New York later this month.
Also working to get the 2007 SiWC line-up off the ground. This is a VERY busy time of year, as all the presenters need to be put into place (likely 55+ this year) AND all the presentations have to be readied for the production of the conference brochure. Many hundreds of emails winging through the ether as a result.
I'm also leaping into the breach for this year's Lions Bay Telephone Directory -- my one remaining annual desk-topping project.
Progress continues apace on the CWILL BC Spring Book Hatching, coming this June. It's going to be a great party! We've got nearly 30 writers introducing their new books, and prizes and excitement galore.
Let's just say my life is pretty full these days.
I'm feeling quite bereft, as I finished Palin's Diaries of the Python Years last night. It has been quite fascinating to me to read of all the goings-on behind the scenes. Has quite brought me back to my own teenage years when I could recite the Parrot Sketch et al verbatim. However, I've also found the book very inspiring from a writer's point of view. I hadn't realized just how much of Michael Palin's life has been devoted to writing. His work ethic is admirable, all the more so because of the emphasis he placed on not isolating himself through the process. Fascinating read. (I spent a bit of time chasing Mr. Palin down through his 'people' to see if he might consider attending the Surrey conference this year, alas in vain. I hold out hope for some future year, though. I think he'd enjoy himself immensely in this setting.)
Am currently trying to fill the Palin breach by reading a book called RANCOUR by CWILL president (and friend) James McCann. I actually stole this book from James last year, but this is my first chance to read it. It has an exciting premise, with promise of werewolves, vampires and teen angst. (Not sure which will turn out to be the scariest of the three...) James has a new book coming out very shortly, titled PYRE. One thing is certain -- the man has an undeniable flair for coming up with riveting titles.
I also picked up a copy of my daughter's school book CHRONICLE OF A DEATH FORETOLD by Gabriel Garcia Marquez today, whilst the girl was in her piano lesson. Got irretrieveably hooked and had to finish the story before making dinner. Simply marvellous read.
It's not technically April Fool's Day anymore. It's now April 2nd, and I have just finished a rewrite of A WALK THROUGH THE WINDOW. I think it's more in a place where I want it to be, now. Ready to fly out into the real world, I hope.
I have been working on this manuscript to the exclusion of everything else for awhile, so it was not until last night at roughly two-ish, that I remembered the date. All that came to me at that hour, in the messing with kids's minds department, was to turn off the power to their most loved appliances. So I searched for the right buttons to push on both the circuit breaker boards in the house, and duly disconnected the power to both the TV and the X-box. I was anticipating a lot of teen anguish over the mysterious phantom power outage that killed their appliances but not the fridge or my computer.
Of course, things did not go as planned.
First of all, my son awoke around 5 to discover his clock was not working. (I'd had to turn the power off to all the outlets in his room.) Of course, he felt compelled to wake me with this news. Strike One.
When I finally emerged from my own bed in the morning, I could hear the tv going downstairs. My daughter just arched an eyebrow at me by way of greeting. I trooped all the way downstairs to find my 'April Fool's!' note, left tauntingly taped to the circuit panel, had been defaced.
'Never underestimate my brain,' it read. 'I figured it out right away.'
Strike Two.
On the front door, she left me her own cryptic note: Happy April Fool's Day. The note was accompanied by a little sketch of a pair of boots.
I glanced out the front door to see, stepping delicately down the 45 or so steps to the street, a single shoe on every riser. Each belonging to the perpetrator's mother.
Strike Three. April brings baseball with it, too, at least to one Fool who thinks she can pull something over on her children.
Also managed to squeeze in a great planning meeting with the Most Excellent Spring Book Hatching Planning Committee today. More on that soon.
All in all a very satisfactory April Fool's Day.
~kc
I have a million things to do. At least a hundred thousand, anyway. So why am I drawn to reading one particularly bad Fan Fiction writer? It's a truly sickening feeling -- makes me angry to even read the stuff. And yet, I can't seem to drag my eyes away.
Maybe my anger stems from the mockery fan fiction makes of imagination. Has anyone yet made a legitimate defence of this excreble pastime? I'd love to read it, if its out there.
~kc
Edits are due on Monday, which means a Sunday-night latest deadline.
Looming, of course, the way deadlines do.
The way the whole editing process works goes something like this -- once the book is accepted and all the contract details ironed out, the editor takes a look to see that the thing generally makes sense. During this substantive phase, he or she (in my case, he) is looking at the forest, not the trees. (Though the truth is, he will likely make a few tree-ish observations, scraping a little moss here and trimming a few branches there, just because he is fond of horticulture. He is _born_ to horticulture. His blood runs sap. One must just accept these things as given and move on.)
The work is then sent back to the author who takes a deep breath, surveys the forest and either pronounces it good or runs away and throws self into nearest lake. Either way, for a book to emerge at the end, the author must ultimately send the manuscript back to the editor with changes made or, at the very least, discussions entered into.
The next step is the one this particular book and I are in at present, both of us having survived the substantive edit remarkably intact. The copy editor (generally, though not always, a different soul from the substantive editor
This particular book has been quite a challenge for any number of reasons. The story does not develop in a linear fashion, and yet must still make sense as it unfolds. The format of the book is unconventional, certainly compared to my earlier books. The biggest design challenge we've had, in terms of text, anyway, in the earlier work was to include, in SECRET OF LIGHT, a copy of Leonardo's classic mirror-writing signature. MS. ZEPHYR'S NOTEBOOK, by contrast, is filled with memos, post-it notes, journal entries, correspondence written on various styles of letterhead, report cards, missing person's reports and so on.
More on this and other Zephyr-related vagaries soon. I have edits to finish...
~kc
Received the copyedits from my intrepid editor Barry Jowett for MS. ZEPHYR'S NOTEBOOK today. A looming deadline to get the book out by the end of May will necessitate a very quick turn-around, so the leisurely days of strolling the streets of San Francisco are melting into memory. Nose to keyboard is the new reality.
Ah, well. It is where I am happiest, after all.
I am very interested to see how this particular endeavour will appear between covers, as it takes an absolutely different form than any of my previous books. Am strangely excited by the prospect.
Had a picnic with my son and watched Casino Royale, tonight, as some bonding time was in order after recent trek to distant lands. Can safely say that Daniel Craig makes a truly fine Bond.
Still chugging through the Palin diaries (after brief abandonment to enjoy Burroughs), and have added Dorothy Parker to the nightstand for dipping.
~kc
Still here in the City by the Bay. Read RUNNING WITH SCISSORS in one sitting yesterday, when I should have been writing. Everything I've read about Augusten Burroughs says that he is one of the funniest men in America. He's been compared with David Sedaris (of whose writing it is no secret I am Seriously Enamoured). But I actually found his story terribly sad. Good book. Sad story.
In other news, we rode bikes through the city and across the Golden Gate bridge today. Lunch in Sausalito in the sunshine, while San Francisco spent the morning cloaked in fog.
A beautiful day.
~kc
I am in San Francisco, and have been for a few days; celebrating spring with my daughter. I hadn't planned to blog about it until we'd mande it home, but we had an exciting literary experience today that deserves sharing. Meaghan's teacher told her about City Lights bookstore, which we visited today. Miss Chamberlain officially rocks for sending us us to this very cool venue for books. One of the oldest bookstores in the city, and the oldest exclusively paperback bookstore in the country. (I do have to add that we found ourselves forced to buy a couple of hard-covers there, today, too...) This bookstore was founded around the time the Beat poets were making the scene here, and these is a quite fetching poster of a naked, hirsute Alan Ginsberg adorning one wall. I bought a Dorothy Parker compendium and RUNNING WITH SCISSORS by Augusten Burroughs. My girl bought a copy of 1984 and a book about the plague ravaging London, the title of which escapes me at the moment.
We've spent the past few days walking our feet to the bone around this beautiful and amazing city. More to come over the next few days.
~kc
Yep. I have one, so this post will be short. The cause? Just watched BORAT with my children. I haven't laughed so hard over a movie in years. Sascha Baron Cohen has no shame, but he also has the one thing that any good comic should kill for: no fear. He is frighteningly brilliant at putting himself in harm's way, using humour to probe some very sore spots on the Western psyche. A lovely piece of film-making.
~kc
Spent a good portion of the day mulling over writing contests. One of the myriad tasks that make up my life is overseeing the writing contest for the Surrey International Writers' Conference. After fifteen years, the time has come for an overhaul, as the contest's popularity has outstripped its resources. The board has agreed to some changes, and behind the scenes, they are underway. Most importantly, watch for a new deadline. In order to accomodate the changes required to make this contest all that it can be, the deadline has taken a great leap forward into the formerly lazy days of summer.
Watch for all the news coming this month (I hope!) on the website, which can be found at www.siwc.ca
Speaking of websites, I spent another chunk of day making a few changes in my own. If you'd like a peek, you can check it out at www.kcdyer.com
If, however, you're anxious to view the new material, you might need to wait a few days to allow my uber-cool web-techie Bryan Hoff time to work his magic. Bryan has done my website work from the very beginning, and he always does an amazing job. If you'd like to see some other examples of his work, you can check out
http://www.themeparkmultimedia.com/
In other news, I have discovered to my horror that the confession scene for DEADLINE has stretched into a nine-page historical treatise. Am mulling my options. If one only had access to a slightly-less verbose villain...
Oh, and my apologies to Sir Tristram, late of the Bloodless Revolution book I mentioned a couple of days ago. He is, in fact, a Stuart (tho' he may in fact also be a Wunderkind; he's a pretty good writer for a young fella). And the book is pretty good so far.
~kc
Gathering my forces for a large email blitz over the next few days. The line-up for the 15th Annual Surrey International Writers' Conference is almost complete. When it is, all will be unveiled on the website: http://www.siwc.ca/
I can say that the presenters we have coming this year are simply outstanding. I'm very excited to see this all begin to coalesce.
Also working on the upcoming launch for CWILL, June 9th. We're hoping the Spring Book Hatching will be an on-going event.
More soon!
~kc
Attended a most excellent meeting of CWILL BC tonight, where author and Tickle Trunk player Kari-Lynn Winters, whose first book is coming out in April, conducted a discussion on the subject of writing plays. She brought along the most esteemed Dennis Foon, well-known in his own right for not only establishing the Green Thumb theatre group in Vancouver, but authoring numerous plays, television prorams, films and a scad of marvellous books along the way. Also adding her wisdom was Irene Watts, late of Citadel Theatre in Edmonton and now of book and playwriting endeavours in Vancouver.
Left with a feeling that perhaps, indeed, the play's the thing.
Have completed the edits on the forthcoming MS. ZEPHYR'S NOTEBOOK, continue to toil on DEADLINE (and who in this line of work doesn't, one might parenthetically add...), plan to tweak A WALK THROUGH THE WINDOW, have had a simply marvellous idea (inspired by my beautious daughter) for the first Ceilidh book and am germinating an inkling of a play for teens.
This is what I get for deserting the blog for a month. Back with a vengeance, it would seem.
Continue to read Palin's Diaries from the 1970's and also had a look through the prologue of my new book by Tristram Wunderkind
And now to sleep.
~kc
I had to miss a meeting tonight, because life and work are overwhelming my other commitments at the present. I hate that. But it's got me thinking about the various writing communities I am privileged to be a party to these days.
The meeting I missed tonight was for CWILL BC, a group of Children's Writers and Illustrators in this province, of which (this year) I happen to be vice president. I am also, in no particular order, a member of the North Shore Writers' Association, the Writers' Union of Canada (holding a place on the TWUC library and curriculum committee), the Canadian Authors Association, CANSCAIP, and I sit on the board of the Surrey International Writers' Conference, as the conference coordinator for 2007.
I think that's it for physical groups. The hardbodies, so to speak.
But I also am a member of a number of more ephemeral groups -- that is, groups that remain rock-solid in nature, but with a more ether-ish media.
These include the once-Compuserve Literary Forum (these days, I think it is the Writers and Readers Forum, but I'm not quite sure). A subset of this forum is the KidCrit group, run by Marsha Skrypuch, where I have been known to pixelate now and again. An extension of that group has morphed into YAPS (Young Adult Print Scribes) who blog together in this very community, in spite of hailing from three countries on two continents. Then there are the crazy girls of the KickAss Writer Chicks, a group who really live up to their name. I also hang about on listservs for CANSCAIP, TWUC, CWILL, as well as being a devoted reader of a number of my friends' blogs.
Maybe this is why DEADLINE isn't done...
Nah.
More info on upcoming events in all my various book-ish incarnations in future posts. Right now, I need to get Charlie out of trouble again...
~karen
Edited to account for late-night sleepiness...(Thanks, Suze!)
Almost finished the latest opus, and finally am dragging my face out of the mire long enough to renew my acquantaince with the blog. My new book, DEADLINE, has taken longer than expected, but is almost there at last.
Currently reading Michael Palin's Diaries 1969-1979, The Python Years. Palin is such a likeable writer, and his diaries reinforce this. Recently completed David Sedaris' DRESS YOUR FAMILY... to much hilarity, and for comfort during writing stress, any of my large collection of P.G. Wodehouse.
More tomorrow.
~karen
...found around the house in the woods after nearly six days without power.
-> Sticks stolen from fireplace by dog, taken to previously dark room and chewed to bits
-> the horrific aftermath of a single pink popsicle left behind in a warm freezer
-> candlewax in the most interesting locales. I mean -- Everywhere.
-> pine needles in the beds
-> dirty laundry on every flat surface
-> cereal bowls near the fireplace
-> top half of 60' tree with a trunk diameter of 18" on top of son's now presciently-named tree house (missed actual house by comforting margin of eight feet or so)
I should be writing, but instead I am off to buy groceries as we currently have NO Food, due to the storm, of course. Tonight -- I write.
~kc
I have detected a worrysome trend in the content of this blog. Canadians have a peculiar affinity for discussions related to all things climatological. This stems from the undeniable commonality we all share in the buffeting, pummelling and general abuse we suffer as a nation at the hands of old lady Nature. It's also a relatively safe, polite topic of conversation. So, while it will be back to regularly scheduled programming for tomorrow, today the word of the day is WEATHER.
There has been nothing safe or polite about the weather around these parts over the last few weeks. And a particularly bad storm has kept me from my worship at the sacred shrine of computer for nearly six days now.
Last Wednesday, our little village was slammed by a rain and wind storm that shattered trees, brought down wires, clogged our water intakes and created chaos that has lasted nearly a week. Winds gusted to 125 kph. Waterspouts danced across the whitecaps on Howe Sound. Thunder (in November!) roared. It was a beautiful storm, but it closed the highway to the village for an entire day and brought down the wrath of the trees upon us in a big way.
It's easy to forget how vulnerable we are to the elements. That a little puff of wind could create such havoc has been a not-so-gentle reminder. Time to review the emergency supplies and systems.
We have been warned.
~kc
Man.
This month is a tough one, no matter how you look at it.
First the good news. I just read Neil Gaiman is 46 as of ...I think... yesterday. Quite a stunning development, actually, because I have become sort of used to being older than everyone, and it turns out he is actually older than me. By a couple of m0nths, anyway. Take that, Sandman! (However, I do believe he may suffer from terminal immaturity -- I recognize the signs from those I exhibit myself -- and therefore has my permission to remain a Boy Genius for as long as he likes.)
But other than Neil's news, November is tough, because, as you may have read earlier -- this is the month of the Big Push. And this year's Big Push is on a previous back-burner project now called (for working purposes) DEADLINE.
DEADLINE is a whole new ballgame for me, in spite of the fact that I have been noodling with the thing for almost six years. It's a contemporary mystery, aimed at adults. i'm hoping it will be the first of a series. And it's turning out to be a little cheeky, and both a little politically satirical and incorrect.
Standing in the way of the Big Push on DEADLINE, has been one scary mother of a storm. Here in the deep woods of the temperate rainforest on the side of the mountain, we have already welcomed Lady Rain. But when Madame Wind came to pay her respects, she distributed her calling cards all around the neighbourhood. She took the power away, knocked down a few trees and left a number of Trecherous Puddles in Dangerous Places.
This sort of behaviour on the part of Lady Rain and Madame Wind tends to put a bit of a crimp in the writing habits of your humble servant. And this, in point of fact, puts a further crimp in the word count.
However, your humble servant Pushes on, still busily scribbling on her laptop, and when the thing dies -- in her notebook. So when Madame Wind returns, perhaps even as soon as this evening, the Big Push will continue. I'm hoping a reasonable draft of DEADLINE will see the light of day by the end of this month. Optimistic? Perhaps. We shall see...
And now, a new addition -- Books recently perused:
Today I had another look at STORY by Robert McKee. Always find something interesting between THOSE covers. Still reading ARTEMIS FOWL: THE OPAL DECEPTION by Eowyn Colfer. Have now officially thrown SATURDAY by Ian McEwan across the room.
~kc
Last night David Sedaris came to Vancouver for his first public speaking engagement in Canada. He is the last speaker of the Vancouver Readers & Writers Festival season. Somehow his visit flew under my radar long enough for the event to sell out before I could get a ticket.
I couldn't let that happen.
He was set to speak at 8pm, so I showed up at the Chan Centre at about 5:30. Brought my current wip to work on while I waited, warm gloves and my dog.
Got there before they'd even put the lights on at the Chan. Seamus stayed in the car. =)
But the box office was open, and they set up a line for stand-by tickets. I was first in line -- and I got my ticket. A very gracious woman sold me the ticket her husband was unable to use and we both enjoyed Sedaris enormously. Even better live than on NPR!
The man is a tiny, imperfect genius -- the best kind, to my mind. He read several of his stories, including a piece that is about to run in the New Yorker. (I _live_ for the weeks that there is a piece by Sedaris in the New Yorker.)
The audience was packed, but the man stayed until every last person had a book signed if they wanted one. This was _hundreds_ of people. In person, at the signing, he was generous and a little shy, and took his time to address everyone. A shining star in the strange and often bizarre world of readers and writers. I must remember to add his name to my list of incredible writers whom I have heard read their work aloud.
Books I bought include HOLIDAYS ON ICE (a huge favourite of mine), and DRESS YOUR FAMILY IN CORDUROY AND DENIM, and ME TALK PRETTY ONE DAY.
My idea of a perfect night out.
~kc
Ah, November.
Last year at this time, I stopped the work I was doing on my Canadian historical fiction story (since completed as A WALK THROUGH THE WINDOW) and put a big push on to write a story that had been chewing in my brain like worms through wood. That story will be published this spring (May -June, 2007) as MS. ZEPHYR'S NOTEBOOK. I'm thrilled by this, as the story is quite different than much of my other published work. It is a story aimed at contemporary teens -- no magic or time travel. More on that soon.
But November is here again, and this time, my the first book in my latest series is getting put aside, so I can give WISHFUL THINKING the big push. This is another departure, as this story is a bit of political satire wrapped up in a mystery. It's also aimed at adults. I've had it on the back burner for almost five years, but now it's going to get the November Treatment.
We'll see if we both survive.
~kc
