Today has been one of those rare, wonderful days when the words have come easily. Trust me when I tell you this is NOT something I take for granted. I’m rather tempted to go out in the moonlight and dance around a bit in celebration.

 

However, this being Vancouver [or at least near-ish to Vancouver], the moonlight tonight is of the dark, liquid variety, so instead I will cheer inwardly and post this podcast.

Tonight we’ll enter into the first two parts of Chapter Two of Elaine’s story, in which Lainie experiences a tiny epiphany that may echo beyond expectation.

I haven’t talked much about this story’s origins, but I can tell you it is a retelling of a very old tale, and as you’ll hear in the podcast, the idea came to me many years — maybe eight or nine? — ago.

Sometimes it just takes that long, y’know?

It’s a totally sad story — a tragedy, really, and yet the telling of it is bringing me joy. Not sure why, but there you go. This is what happens on days where the words come — I have written a tonne of good stuff, and I am the better person for it. So huzzah for that, and onward…to Elaine.

 

 

[By the way, I also baked bread tonight — chocolate chip challah, adapted from a recipe given me by @ANovelWoman, and so, apropos of nothing beyond a celebration of creativity in all forms, the bread is tonight’s accompanying photograph.

It smells…like happiness.

 

More soon…

 

~kc

Wishing you a lovely summer solstice!

Here is a shot of the solstice sky this evening, around ten pm here — not even full twilight yet.

Ahhh.

 

I’m trying to enjoy the moment, because it always seems to me so patently unfair that the first day of official summer is the longest of the year, and marks the beginning of shorter daylight.

But today, while I stood chatting with a friend in a little farmer’s market held in a church parking lot, a group of cheery people loudly counted down the last seconds to the ‘official’ start of summer, and I was glad.

Hope you are too. Happy Solstice!

 

More soon…

 

~kc

 

 

 

In which Lainie returns to her tower room, resumes her labours and recalls a long ago day on the river…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More soon… ~kc

 

 

 

As you can see, my wee triangle garden is doing quite well. Those little rows are lettuce and radish seedlings popping up their heads, and the rhubarb is extremely happy in his corner location.

 

 

 

 

 

 

But inspired by my bud [see what I did there?] @cogno, [aka Chris Mathieson’s] amazing container garden [below] I’ve added a few things.

Chris, who is indulging in a little project in June called Please Stop By, came over last week and made lustful sounds over my full-sun, south-facing deck, declaring it the perfect spot for tomatoes and peppers.

So I decided to take him at his word and try it out.

 

 

 

This little edamame bean has been in his new home for only a couple of days. But he’s so happy there, I think I need to learn how to stake beans — and fast! [All hints and tips welcome!]

 

 

I added several peppers, a few herbs and a cucumber plant. We’ll see how the container gardening thing goes, shall we?

 

In the meantime, here’s a link to another inspiring garden — one belonging to writer Tanya Lloyd Kyi. A few gorgeous pictures of a garden run by someone whose thumbs are more than just pale green, I’d say!

If you have any garden images you’d like to share, let me know and I’ll link to your shots in a future post. And if you know how to stake an edamame bean….please advise!

 

More soon…

 

~kc

Another little peek into the life of Lainie; a glimpse into the tower that is her home, her workplace, her prison. A bit of a futuristic take on a very old tale.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More soon…

 

 

~kc

Well, hopefully lots of writing will happen before then — it is still a whole summer away! But this October the Surrey International Writers’ Contest rolls around again, and registration opened [with a BANG!] yesterday. The virtual crowds were lined up at the gates and we had, I’m pretty sure, the best opening day ever for the conference registration.

If you are a writer, of ANY level of ability, you’ll get something great out of this conference. It is collegial, exciting, nerve-wracking, educational, inspirational and the most fun you’ll have in a Surrey hotel all year — guaranteed!

Are you sold?

Registration details can be found right HERE.

And if you need a little further incentive to put pen to paper, we’re accepting entries for our 20th annual contest as well. With more than $4600 in prizes, it’s well worth sending your best work into. Details HERE.

If you have any questions at all, you can post them right here, or email me at kcdyer@siwc.ca and I’ll do my best to give you all the information you need. See you in October!

 

More soon…

 

~kc

So, you likely know I live on the side of a mountain. Any gardening I have done in and around this particular abode has been of the shrubbish variety, and most of that has been in pots. But with the recent emergency reno…I’ve ended up with a little built-in plot of earth adjacent to my deck. It’s an interesting triangular shape, and was built to accomodate a few little mountainside anomolies [like the huckleberry bush that sits in the middle]. I was originally planning to fill it with perennials, but a little $1.49 strawberry seedling won my heart this weekend, and it looks like I’ve now got a small, pretty-much-veggie garden.

[The bench is there to facilitate garden-side writing…of course!]

I’ve done up a little schematic of the planting, as you can see, just to keep track of the various sproutlings. It was important for me that we keep the huckleberry, since it is destination central for the hummingbirds around the joint, so the rest of the garden is planted around it. In sum, I’ve now got lettuce, carrots, radishes, green onions, tomatoes, mint, basil, strawberries and rhubarb all nestled snug in their beds. Will report back periodically of any successes achieved, first with feeding and nurturing, and then with keeping the wildlife at bay from the bounty.

I’d love to see YOUR garden plot shots, if you have ’em. Would be delighted to repost them here or link to them — just let me know!

Hoping for a couple of green thumbs up — wish me luck!

 

More soon…

 

~kc

In which we meet Lainie at work and at home, and see the beginnings of the shadows cast upon her…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More soon….

 

 

~kc

Well, here we are, entering the final week of May already. Been a whirlwind of a month, I must say. Lots of writing done. Mondo editing, new story writing, short story writing and podcasting. I have a full day of work on SiWC2012 in front of me, but I thought I’d pause first and say hi to you.

So, yesterday was a gorgeous sunny reminder of all the good reasons to be alive. I spent the whole day writing apart from a stint on the treadmill in the morning, then a pause to make this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…as a reminder that I might like messing around with words, but when I decide to make a cheesecake, I make a KILLER cheesecake.

And then I wrote a bunch more before heading into town with my dogs to do this:

This being the price we have to pay for having TWO sets of mama bears, each with twins hanging around my little village lately. There are no bears at Ambleside beach, so we frolicked there while the sun went down.

Then we came back home and I worked on the giant chart I am making to keep track of the activities of all the characters in the ridicumongous timetravel steampunk saga I have been working on since 2006. It might even turn out to be a book someday. [Actually five books, if you want the sorry truth…]

But now, alas, it is to administrative tasks I turn. After I eat cheesecake for breakfast.

Happy Sunday!

 

More soon…

 

~kc

Holy crow. Another bedtime story appearing just under the wire. The stress! The deadlines!

Actually, you know by know this is the way I do everything, much as I try to be good and organized and get these things done ahead of time.

Anyway, here goes, with Chapter 2 of Nora’s Nunnery. No parental advisory on this one, as anything tricky is presented as innuendo. Gotta love that innuendo…

Got a new mic tonight, but still having a few mixing issues. This is a learn-as-I-go project, so thanks for being so patient with me.

Hope you enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More soon…

 

 

~kc