...as in Korea.

Still here in Asia, and having a great time with Superhero camp today. The sun came out for the first time, too. Evidence is this photo — my first true sunrise in Korea.

The kids are creative whirlwinds, building superheroes, concocting vicious villains, designing amulets and gadgets, sketching secret lairs and then weaving all the components into amazing stories.

 Here, Super Cosmo guards some of the astonishing amulets and special supergadgets that have been emerging from this creative crew.

Korean food fact of the day: I’ve been on a search for Raisin Bran to no avail, sadly. Kimchi for breakfast is more the status quo here, so I’ve been making do with Special K. Unfortunately, in this neck of the woods it’s more like Frosted Flakes, but that’s what I get for closing my mind to Korean breakfast cuisine. [To be fair, I did manage to score a couple of orange slices this morning, and lunch was watermelon and rice!]

 

More culinary — and other — adventures soon, I’m sure…

 

~kc

Woah.

Well, you know how it is. You go somewhere new and everyone there tells you that the weather is ‘never’ like this. But I have to tell you — monsoon season here is something else. And not only that, according to all my friends here, RAINY SEASON IS OVER.

This part of Korea is lovely — all rolling mountains and islands, mist low and clinging, cicadas providing the background music always, always. The storms since I’ve been here have been wonderous — thunder and lightning dancing, rain in sheets, soaking everything in an instant. Hot rain.

It’s amazing.

Hard to photograph, though, so my shots today are mostly of the indoor variety. Our first day of camp went — uh — swimmingly yesterday. At Superhero camp, Super Wiz and the kcellerator rule. For Lee’s [my partner-in-crime] view you can check out his blog post HERE.

As for me, I’m learning every minute.

New tech fact: In Korea, don’t push the button twice in the elevator, as it turns the floor you’ve selected off. Then you stand and wait until you figure it out.

New food fact: Whole grains are not a popular food choice. For them who does, BYOB, and by ‘B’ I mean Bran, baby.  [This is a shot of Kimchi and rice — the only vegetarian items on many menus…Rice has black beans in it, which is yummy, though. And purple.]

It is a truth, universally acknowledged, that a travelling kc dyer in possession of a full suitcase must be in want of a hairbrush.

Got one now!

 

More soon…

 

~kc

 

This is turning out to be somewhat of a paripatetic summer. I’m typing this from just outside Seoul, Korea. Here to talk to a group of kids about creative writing in the form of a Super Hero Camp. My frequent partner-in-crime Lee Edward Fodi [aka Mr. Wiz] is here with me and we have many tricks up our collective superhero sleeve to torture… I mean teach kids what it is to become a superhero, and how to bring the story to the page.

 

Yesterday after arriving, I had to cross the longest bridge in the country* — perhaps in all of this part of Asia — to get to the university. I’ll leave you with a picture of one of my first views of steamy summer South Korea.

 

More soon!

 

~kc

*Archetecture of the bridge look familiar to Vancouverites?  Yep — it was designed and built by the Hyundai team — the same folks who built the Alex Fraser bridge in the Lower Mainland!

…tho’ not much dreaming going on.

I’m here in LA for the Society of Children’s Writers and Illustrators [SCWIBI] 40th annual conference, and to meet up with friends for a few days. Cruising on  — uh– ‘borrowed’ wifi at the moment, so I’ll make this quick.

This is a shot of my whimsical California toes propped up on a snazzy Beverly Hills fire hydrant. [They are all painted glittery silver here…Surprised?]. The weather’s been gorgeous since I’ve been here, but for all that I’ve still managed to get a bit of writing in. Made a breakthrough on the new novel yesterday so I’m feeling pretty good about it at the moment. However, I still have to get my lesson plans organized before the trip to Korea in a week, so there will be no resting on laurels around here.

Aside from meeting up with old friends, the highlight of the conference so far has been Libba Bray’s keynote today on the importance of “writing wrong”. Funny, ascerbic, subversive and passionate speaker.

Okay — I’m pretty sure I’m supposed to be at the published author’s cocktail party, so I guess I’ll wrest myself away from the keyboard for the moment, anyhow.

[Just in case you thought I was kidding about the keyboard thing — here’s a shot of my ‘office’ last night. Work, work, work….]

 

More soon…

 

~kc

Spent yesterday with my daughter, scaling The Stawamus Chief. It’s a good-sized piece of granite found in Squamish, and was a fun way to spend BC Day here in this beautiful place. [I did get us lost at the bottom to begin with, so our hike was about 2 km longer than planned…]

The Chief is said to be second in size only to the Rock of Gibraltar as far as granite monoliths go, and has an amazing front face very popular with rock climbers. We passed many a climber scampering back down the mountain — you could tell from afar by the jingling of their carabiners and other equipment. 

 

 

 The girl and I hiked up the path around the back. No rock walls, but lots of rock steps and a few chains and ladders thrown in to make the final ascent to the peak interesting. The view made all the sweat and blood worth the trip, though — it’s breathtaking up there!

Tomorrow I head off to LA for the SCBWI conference. Mostly I’m going there to meet up with writer friends — Linda Gerber, Marsha Skrypuch, Kate Coombs and others. Just heard my frequent partner in crime Kari-Lynn Winters is going to be there as well. Stay tuned — I’ll be sure to keep you up to date with all the shenanigans of this crazy crew.

More soon….

 

~kc

[all pix, apart from the final triumphant pose taken by her mother, credited to Meaghan Dyer]

 

This guy was found today around 3:15 pm on the Sea-to-Sky highway near Ansell Place, above Horseshoe Bay. He was safely picked up and delivered to the West Vancouver SPCA this afternoon. If he’s yours, you can call them tomorrow at 604-922-4622. Actually, they may well be closed tomorrow because of the stat holiday, but normally they are open 9 am -5 pm.

He was worried but not injured. He was also wearing a collar, but no contact number.

[I love the WVSPCA. They have a no-kill policy and do SUCH a good job to place the animals in their care. You can read more about them HERE.]

Spread the word so we can get this guy back to his family, okay? We’ll be checking in, so when his family finds him, I’ll post it here, too.

 

More soon…

 

~kc

…to all! The sun has come out at last here, on the west side of the world, and I am grateful.

I’ve had a bit of reconnecting with family time this month, but work heats back up for August. Lots going on with a conference trip to Los Angeles, a Summer Dream keynote, a super-hero jaunt to Korea and a Montreal meet-up all lined up and ready to go. Also have a few website upgrades planned, so stay tuned for those as well.

 

In the meantime, I’ll share a bit of link love, in order to close some of the myriad tabs on my browser. Perfect for idly perusing on a sunny day!

 

So, to begin, a couple of writing-related links.

First, for the students in my short story class, a link to make you smile. We studied Edgar Allan Poe this year, and took a look at some of his horror stories. One of the favourites [or perhaps the most feared] was The Black Cat — and here’s a peek at a casting call for the film version in 1961. [via boingboing]

Next, a very cool little clip about a type-face for people with dyslexia. It’s a neat idea, and since this scourge rages in my own family, one I really appreciate. The font is more heavily weighted on the bottom. It’s called Dyslexie. What do you think?

 

Hanging about in northern BC and in the mood for a little writing this summer? Follow THIS LINK to the lovely Ev Bishop’s blog to find out more about Northwords 2011 — a writing camp for kids AND adults in Terrace, BC this August.

And finally, if the black cats just aren’t scary and you need some inspiration for a horror story of your own, how about THIS? It’s a tiny, microscopic worm, found near the hydrothermic vents at the bottom of the world’s oceans. But man…I think it might be related to one of the title characters in the Cowboys & Aliens movie I saw this week! [via HuffPo].

More soon!

 

~kc

Hola Comrades!

Looks like summer has finally arrived here in Vancouvertown — tho’ I know for certain the very statement may bring the rain back! Time for a quick update on the Live Writer Walking front. Those of you who regularly follow this blog know that I’ve been using a treadmill desk for a bit over a year now — first to keep me moving after a knee injury, with the added benefit of helping me combat the side effects of my very sedentary occupation. I have a few other writer friends who walk-work — you can check out how they are doing on their blogs if you are interested: Art Slade, Marsha Skrypuch, & Helene Boudreau.

Since my knee surgery, I’ve added a bit of running to my routine, but most of my kilometrage comes from walking while I work — blogging, emailling, phone calls. I try to get in a session every day, or at least six days a week.

 

Just for fun, I’ve been mapping my virtual journey across Canada.

This latest update takes me to the end of June, 2011, where I have walk-worked my way from my home in Lions Bay, BC [just north of Vancouver on the side of a mountain] almost all the way to the Manitoba border — a distance of 1906 km. That’s about 880 kms this year, and since February when I started running again, 362 of those kilometres have been running. Can’t work while I run, I have to admit, but I usually just do a short stint before I begin, to wake myself up.

This just began as a way to keep the tallying interesting, and it definitely works. I’m pretty excited to have made it so far!

Apart from the short runs, I don’t consider it exercise — still do my yoga and pilates classes regularly. But the way I see it, the time I spend walking keeps me from spreading in my chair, and that cheers me up a whole lot!

Would love to hear YOUR techniques for keeping yourself physically moving, especially if your job [like mine] calls for a lot of sitting still!

 

More soon…

 

~kc

This week marks the end of Canada’s combat mission in Afghanistan. More than 2800 soldiers will be returning to their relieved families. 157 will not, along with a Canadian journalist, a diplomat and two aid workers. So here’s my question.

Was it worth it?

Do the families of the lost soldiers and civilians think so? Do you?

What about the soldiers who return forever marked by the war, physically and emotionally?  Was this war worth it to them?

Canada’s combat involvement is over, but our country will continue to help out in Afghanistan as the people in this war-torn region carry on trying to cope with strife that has marked the area for thousands of years. The war is not over for the Afghanis. But are things better because Canadians were there?

I’ve written here before about the soldiers we’ve lost to this war. I grew up in a nation that was known around the world for its peacekeeping role in war-torn regions, and I opposed this war from the start. I marched against Canada’s military involvement [a futile gesture, some would say, for all the good it did in swaying the government], and the intervening years have not changed my mind. I just can’t see today, upon our withdrawal, how our military involvement has helped things in any way.

Here’s what I’m asking. If you _do_ believe Canada’s military involvement has made a difference to the people of Afghanistan [as opposed to any peace-keeping or strictly rebuilding efforts this country has made], please leave a comment. I would dearly love to know that the lives of those 157 Canadians and 4 civilians were given for a real, valid reason. Or many of them. If you don’t know of any positive result, I challenge you to ask your friends — ask someone who knows more than I about the value of Canada’s military intervention in Afghanistan. I promise to publish any and all comments.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and would really appreciate your thoughts. My own thoughts today go to the families of those who will not return.

 

More soon…

 

~kc

 

Edited to add: Okay, so from my perspective, the only positive to come out of Canada’s role in this war is the art that has emerged. Meg Tilly wrote a beautiful book called PORCUPINE about a young girl whose father is killed in Afghanistan. The rapper K’naan performs a gorgeous song called PEOPLE LIKE ME which has a segment devoted to a Canadian soldier fighting in Afghanistan. And CBC radio has been running the remarkable series AFGHANADA for five long seasons, which has dramatized the lives of Canadian soldiers fighting in the war.

Can you suggest any good that has come out of this terrible war?

Observation: When one is sitting in a coffee shop in an attempt to cure writer melancholia by getting out in the world, once should, perhaps, not listen to Rufus Wainwright singing his painfully beautiful version of Cohen’s HALLELUJAH. Or, for that matter, Johnny Cash’s aching interpretation of Trent Reznor’s HURT. _Great_ songs. Just a little sad.

So, to elevate the mood, how about a few interesting links to pursue? I am sorely behind in my Interesting Things For The Blog file, so let’s leap right in, shall we?

For example — did you know that today is International Steampunk Day? Yes, indeed — June 14th was HG Wells’s birthday and in celebration, you can follow THIS link to all kinds of steampunky goodness. Go on…you know you want to!

Okay — what’s next? On my agenda later this summer is a trip to teach in Korea. It’ll be my first time to Asia, and I’m really looking forward to it. Have a look at this astonishingly beautiful time-lapse of Seoul. With the mountains, water and city, from some angles it looks a bit like Vancouver, doesn’t it? I suspect the experience will be unique and wonderful. Can’t wait!

Also this summer I’ll be a part of Canadian Storytelling Camp. This is going to be a very cool experience — a chance to work with a group of kids who don’t often get to share in a camp setting. Most of the kids coming to the camp have some form of learning difference, typically dyslexia. As a life-long learner and long-time teacher and mentor, I have pretty strong views on how differently every person approaches learning, and what a poor job most conventional teaching situations make of addressing kids who don’t fit some mythical ‘norm’. The Storytelling Camp has, as one of its goals, to help dyslexic kids from grades 5-7 learn how to be storytellers. The camp runs from August 2-5, 2011 in Vancouver. Follow THIS link to find out more. And if you know a kid who might want to come, be sure to tell them they’ll be warmly welcomed!

And to finish — from the ‘We Live in an Astonishing World’ file, HERE is a link to some pix from the Chilean Puyehue volcano, taken earlier this month. I am particularly gobsmacked by the volcano-induced lightning.

Holy Crow.

And, can you hear it? Tom Waits has just come on, to sing LITTLE DROP OF POISON. Tough to maintain a decent bout of melancholy when we live in such an amazing world, isn’t it?

 

More soon…

 

~kc