You may recall the recent blog post regarding my friend Jacqueline Pearce’s new book, MYSTERY OF THE MISSING LUCK. Well, we’ve done the draw, and the winner is:

LESLEY MCKNIGHT!

Yay, Lesley! Send me an email with your address to author.kc.dyer@gmail.com and we’ll get copies of Jacquie’s book and FACING FIRE to you right away. Congratulations to you AND to Jacquie on the publication of this very lovely book.

I’m in the midst of a massive email clean-up/crack-down, so a few other somewhat late items will be winging their way through the stratosphere in the next little while. Hopefully my catching up will not coincide too directly with Canada Post’s slowing down.

 

More soon…

 

~kc

…tomorrow, Tuesday, June 7th at noon.

Click HERE to take you to the front page of the site.

Kathy Chung, the brilliant writer and coordinator of this conference is posting all the details on the blog HERE.

The conference this year is going to be FANTASTIC. NINE Master Classes to kick things off, with presenters as diverse and talented as Hollywood film producer Luke Ryan on screenwriting, New York Uber-Agent Donald Maass on creating a gripping novel, brilliant writer and speaker extraordinaire Ivan Coyote on writing from life experience, and for the first time ever, New York Times Best Selling Author Diana Gabaldon offers a Master Class examining the devil in the details. PLUS six other amazing choices…and that’s just the beginning.

The conference is the biggest and best professional development conference for writers in Canada, [many have said in the whole world!] and there are more than 70 workshops, panels and special events offered in a jam-packed October weekend. Writers can pitch their work to acquiring editors, agents and publishers. A roster of internationally-recognized authors will talk about their own stories, their techniques AND give writing advice in Blue Pencil sessions. 

Also? Altogether too much fun is to be had in the bar. I’m just sayin’…

Registration opens tomorrow, and until the end of June, they are holding last year’s prices — a massive bargain. And if you book now, it’ll all be paid for by the time you get there!

To find out more, check out www.siwc.ca. Or ask me a question. I’m no longer the coordinator of this terrific event, but you’ll find me there, too!

 

More soon….

 

~kc

Taking a pause from celebrating the Canucks first win over Boston [hard-fought — way to go, Bruins!] to share a peek at what Mr. Wiz’s Langley class managed to create in the way of Time Travel Tardis homage…

 

First, a pretty traditional take, at least with regard to shape…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I sense a definate ghostly presence in this one.

And what about the layered, spiral take in this version?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Big thanks to the Langley gang for making me feel so welcome, and huge kudos for the awesome design skills. Travel on, dimension-skippers!

 

More soon…

 

~kc

Just realized that I neglected to post the visual evidence of some of the amazing [and edible!] time travel machines generated by the young authors I met in Kamloops.

 

Nothing like a sweet Tardis to inspire some decent spec fiction!

More soon…

 

~kc

Very happy to be at the Northern Voice blogging and social media conference for [I think] the 4th year in a row. Opening remarks are about to begin, and will be tweeting and live-blogging throughout the day.

The hashtag is #nv11 — check it out!

Update:

Excellent keynote from @Aprilfilms about social media opening up dialogues on the downtown eastside of Vancouver.

Right now I’m sitting in the Twitter & News panel with a selection of local journalists: Theresa Lalone, Bob Mackin, Yuliya Talmazan, Andrea Woo and Erin Loxam. Some interesting insights into the pros and cons of social media and dealing with politicians and their flacks.

Update:

Now sitting in ‘Your blog is Boring and your photos suck’. Hoping I go against type…

Update:

Most excellent day at Northern Voice*. Back again tomorrow — but first I see a little Friday-night mentoring in my future. 

 

 

More soon…

 

~kc

 

* For those who are interested, you can follow the Most Astounding Twitter Stream by checking out #nv11. Be prepared — a blogging conference has a lot to say when let loose on free wifi!

Been awhile since I’ve checked in on the walk-working front.

If you’re not interested in this whole running tally thing…look away now. More book-ish stuff soon, I promise!

We last had a look at this on January 1, 2011, when I was celebrating making past the 1000 km mark on my treadmill, walking while I worked. Since then, I’ve added a further 600+ km in 2011, bringing me up to 1630 km on the trek across Canada. This places me, as you can see here, somewhere in the wilds of Saskatchewan, still a bit west of Regina.

My knee [surgically repaired last October] is better than ever, and the other knee has gone back to its old role of being my ‘bad’ knee — having suffered grievous injury involving a man-o-war canoe, a broken dock, an ill-placed spike and 27 stitches when I was 15 years old. [You really don’t want to know more…].

This means that in the past couple of months I’ve added a bit of running here and there to the walking routine. It doesn’t technically qualify for walk-working time, but is a warm-up for working, so I count it anyway. I ran 22 km of my total distance in February, bumped it up to 113 km of the 258 km total in March. I was away on tour and other assorted events in April which meant I just squeaked past 100 km total, however more than half of it was running at 64 km.

So…what does all this mean? It’s kinda fun to measure my virtual progress across Canada, though redrawing and sorting the google map each time is a giant pain. And I really like that I am not sitting so much during my work day. The endorphins do good things for my brain. In all, I’m still enjoying the experiment, which is feeling much less like an experiment these days, and more like just the way things should be.

Not sure where I’ll be — virtually, at least — when next we talk about this. Manitoba is needing some love these days — the flood gates are literally about to open there. Sending good wishes from the road to all who need our help and support there!

 

More soon, of course…

 

~kc

My friend Meg Tilly, the wonderful author and actor, recently sent me this bittersweet video, an almost literal reflection of something we both are going through these days. We shared a good laugh over how the last little birdie makes sure to poop in the nest before he bolts for good.

Enjoy!

 

Robins – 4 Eggs, 4 Weeks from Fred Margulies on Vimeo.

More soon…!

 

~kc

…today, across British Columbia, as a matter of fact.

I’m heading out to participate in the Kamloops SD Young Authors’ Conference tonight and tomorrow. I’ll be talking time travel, time machines and more. Let’s just say there may be some tasty Tardis involvement…

Pictures [and more…] soon!

 

~kc

 

 

I’m very pleased to annouce a guest blogger for today’s post. My friend and fellow writer Jacquie Pearce has a new book out — and we are celebrating her wonderful accomplishment!

MYSTERY OF THE MISSING LUCK is an early chapter book, published by Orca Books in the Echoes imprint.

And to add to the festivities, I think a little contest is in order. Tune in at the bottom of this post to find out more. But first…here’s Jacquie!

 

Thanks, kc, for helping me celebrate the launch of my new chapter book, Mystery of the Missing Luck (Orca). The story (for kids ages 6-8) is about the relationship between a young girl and her grandmother and what happens when a lucky cat statue disappears from the grandmother’s Japanese bakery (more info on Orca’s website: HERE).

 

In this post, I thought I’d give you a glimpse into how the lucky cat got into the story in the first place.

The lucky cat statue with one raised paw is a popular welcoming figure in Japanese and Chinese businesses (especially restaurants). It’s often mistakenly called the Chinese Lucky Cat, but it’s actually from Japan (where it’s known as Maneko Neko, the beckoning cat). Maneki Neko’s beckoning paw is said to attract customers and good fortune.

I first became intrigued by the beckoning cat figure while travelling in Japan to research a contemporary YA novel and a possible historical novel. I found myself looking out for Maneki Neko statues and looking into the history and folklore around the Maneki Neko (the first Maneki Neko is said to have brought good luck to a poor temple near Edo in the 17th C).

I also came across Anpan Man, a popular Japanese cartoon character named after a Japanese bun filled with red bean paste. That took me off on a tangent of research on Japanese bakeries (the technique of making bread was introduced to Japan by the Portuguese in the late 19th C) – not to mention manga, anime and a bunch of other Japanese topics (including ninjas).

Does this sound like way too many ideas? That’s one of the dangers of story research (especially if it involves travel to another country where everything is novel and interesting). Even when I stick with one idea, I always end up with way more background information than I can use in a story (kc, I’m sure this happens to you as well).

[Yes sirree!!!]

 

I ended up writing both the contemporary YA novel set in Japan (Manga Touch, Orca 2007) and the picture book story, while the historical novel is still on the back-burner.

The picture book story about the first Maneki Neko was accepted by a publisher, then cancelled, and is currently sitting with another publisher. With the future of the picture book story uncertain, Maneki Neko somehow joined itself to the bakery research and found its way into a contemporary chapter book story involving a beckoning cat statue and a Japanese bakery, but set in North America. That’s how Mystery of the Missing Luck came into being. I’d also accumulated enough facts, stories and photos to create a
whole Maneki Neko-themed blog: http://luckymanekineko.wordpress.com/

If you’re still following this twisting tail, or even if you’ve jumped to the end, maybe you’re already a fan of Maneko Neko, the beckoning cat, or maybe you’re intrigued by this friendly-looking good luck figure. Or maybe you just like kids’ books. In any case, you’re welcome to visit my blog (http://wildink.wordpress.com/) or the Lucky Cat-Maneki Neko blog and enter the Lucky Cat contest (to win a Lucky Cat prize pack).

We’re also giving away a copy of Mystery of the Missing Luck here on kc’s blog (just leave a comment and let us know you’re interested). There will be more book giveaways on other stops on my blog tour, too (all draws on May 20). Next stop: the blog of Orca Book Publishers: http://orcabook.com/blog/

 

Hey — me again! Thanks so much for telling us the long and complicated tail of your Maneki-Neko story, Jacquie!

Now, you heard the author — there’s a chance to win a copy of her new book, if you comment here or on my facebook page. And if you link to this post or to Jacquie’s contest, I’ll throw in a copy of Darby’s latest story, FACING FIRE, too!

 

What are you waiting for?

 

~kc

…PE Island, with your lovely people, your beautiful scenery and your sketchy spring weather!

I’ve had a wonderful tour, with great school visits, lotsa cool travelling around and a not-so-bad bookstore event to wrap things up.

Right now I’m sitting in a bar in the Toronto airport [the only place I could find with an outlet…really!] drinking Bailey’s and surfing the free wifi long enough to at least get this post up.

This is a shot of my books in the window of the Indigo in Charlottetown. Many thanks to Kathy and Aaron for hosting my event there, and to my dear Leslie Clarke of the Strawberry Hills Chapters in Surrey for setting up the connections.

Met a bunch of readers, a few aspiring writers and sold a few books to boot. What more can a peripatetic writer ask?

I stayed in three different B & B’s while on the Island — all lovely, but I can HIGHLY recommend Dawson House, which was my Charlottetown abode. The house is vintage 1850’s, and can boast being home to at least one premier [Joe Ghiz]. Joe’s gone now and his son is sitting in the premier’s seat these days, but Dawson House carries on. Thanks to owner Randy and his overgrown puppy [Dawson herself, naturally] for being such great hosts.

And with this final look at what’s really hiding under that layer of PE Island snow, I’ll say goodbye to the dear place for now, with thanks and happy memories…and a little red mud on my shoes for good measure!

 

More soon…

 

~kc