Have you seen this?

 

 

Those dulcet tones belong to the charistmatic [and lovely] author of this new book, Jack Whyte. Jack is out touring this amazing new book now, and I planned to get my signed copy when he alights in Surrey this year for SiWC 2010. For those of you who are fans, there will be a public signing at the book fair on Saturday, October 23rd, at the Sheraton Guildford Hotel.

Book Fair details HERE. [I’ll be there, too — signing copies of FACING FIRE.]

Jack will also be at a special Gala event at the Strawberry Hills Chapters on Thursday, October 21, along with Diana Gabaldon, CC Humphreys, Julia Quinn, Anne Perry and Michael Slade.

Speaking of Diana, Herself has most graciously allowed Darby some space to visit her blog later this month. Topic of discussion: Time travel. Should be fun!

Diana’s new book The Exile has found it’s way to the usual resting ground for her books — second week atop the New York Times bestseller list. Care for a peek?

HUGE congratulations to both my dear friends for their new, beautiful novels. I can’t wait to get my copies! Darby’s blog-odyssey continues apace. Update tomorrow — or check HERE for the latest.

 

More soon… ~kc

…is going strong. Her most recent stop has been at author/designer/illustrator Kirsti-Anne Wakelin’s My Secret Elephant blog. And a beautiful place it is, too.

Darby’s been having way too much fun hanging out with friends, and there is much more to come. Visits with authors Jan Markley, Jaqueline Pearce, Arthur Slade and Diana Gabaldon are in the works. It’s going to be an amazing month.

And good things are happening elsewhere, too.

FACING FIRE has just been nominated as a 2010 Cybils contender in the Fantasy and Science Fiction Category.

 

 

And at the Waterloo Public Library, FACING FIRE is one of the featured Sizzling Staff Selections this month. Thanks Michael at the WPL!

 

Finally, I keep forgetting to link to this interview I did with lesleysays on the subject of writing epic fantasy. Great fun, and the last in a series, I believe, of posts aimed at inspiring writers to the ‘complete your draft’ challenge. Great fun — and if you’re a writer or you’d like to be one, go on and check it out!

More soon, of course…

 

~kc

Sheesh — that Darby gets around. Today’s she’s off to Terrace, British Columbia, to chat with the funny and talented writer Ev Bishop. [You can check out her gorgeous picture on Darby’s site right now, if you have a mind to…]. Ev is a writer for all seasons — she pens incredible short fiction that’s been widely published, she is a long-time journalist AND she offers editing services, too.

Darby’s actual post can be found right HERE, on Ev’s site. She’s got contest entrants all ready, but if you mosey on over and leave a comment, she’ll add your name to the draw!

And for today’s small taste of steampunk cool, check out THESE images of photoshopped clock and watch faces by surgeon David Pearson. There’s even a padlock dial! [via boingboing]

 

More soon!

 

~kc

Holy Crow — what a great day. My new book FACING FIRE hit the stores, and Darby continues to rampage through the internets, on the blog tour of the century! [In her case, actually of three centuries…]

For a step-by-step update on where she’s been and going, you can click HERE for Darby’s blog. Or, since I am supposed to be the more adult of the two of us, you can look at the elegantly organized list below….

Boris launches the blog tour here with A NOVEL WOMAN.

James McCann is off chasing zombies, and gives Darby room to say her piece HERE.

Yesterday, Kendra Kandlestar peeked out of the land of Eens to feature Darby HERE at her site. [Kendra shares the site with author Lee Edward Fodi, so Darby enjoyed her visit with both of them…]

And today, Author Tanya Lloyd Kyi sparks a fiery conversation with Darby on her site HERE.

 

HUGE thanks to all these authors [and characters!] who are hosting Darby during this crazy month of book launches. And there’s more to come…!

Check out Ev Bishop’s site tomorrow. Ev is a long-term columnist in Terrace, BC, and also writes some pretty darned amazing short fiction. And after her visit with Ev, Darby will be heading over to Victoria to hang out on Laura Bradbury’s site. Laura writes fiction, and her blog is usually about the perils of raising a Bi-continental Bevy. [Check it out and see!]  After that, Darby and her web-surfing skateboard roll back into Vancouver to chat with incredible artist [and author] Kirsti Wakelin.

Remember the contest details — if you comment on ANY of these sites, you’ll be eligible to win a copy of FACING FIRE. And a further tweet or link? Puts you in line to win BOTH books in the series. Pretty easy way to win! More details about all the sites on Darby’s blog odyssey can be found on HER blog HERE. So plug her into your RSS feed and enjoy the ride!

More soon…

 

~kc

 



My new book got here today.

Perhaps I should have brushed my hair before pressing ‘click’…

Anyway — there is nothing that compares to holding one’s new book in one’s hands. It NEVER gets old.  Many thanks to my most excellent and wonderful editor Amy Black for sending my copy on.

Coincidentally, I also saw the very first review of FACING FIRE on line. It’s HERE at Charlotte’s Library. TOTALLY made my day, Charlotte. Thank you.

[Charlotte also pointed out that FACING FIRE is also eligible for a Cybil nomination. I’m hoping it happens! You can read more about the nominations HERE.]

 

All in all, an auspicious arrival for Darby.

Later today…a list of upcoming stops on Darby’s whirlwind celebration blog tour.

 

More soon!

 

~kc

Well, here we are. The first day of October, and the celebration of the arrival of FACING FIRE begins!

Darby is going her own way on this, and beginning a blog tour today that will take her far and wide. Check the Upcoming Events page for her schedule. For her first foray into the Wide World of the Internets, she’s off to Lake Louisa, Quebec, and hanging out on the blog couch of A NOVEL WOMAN.

In the meantime, I’m doing my own thing to celebrate the book here.

Check this out:

Okay …so I admit it’s a leetle lame. But it’s my first attempt at a book trailer. So, here’s where the contest comes in. Welcome to the …

FACING FIRE Book Trailer Contest

Let’s see if you can do better! Make a book trailer for FACING FIRE [or for both of Darby’s adventures in FACING FIRE and A WALK THROUGH A WINDOW]. The trailer needs to be family-friendly [a bit scary is okay], between 15 and 30 seconds long, and postable on-line. Bonus points if you work in some fire or a stone window…

Then just send a link to me here at http://www.kcdyer.com along with your contact information, and you’re IN!

EVERY SINGLE ENTRY to the contest will win a signed copy of FACING FIRE. On Hallowe’en night, we’ll bring the judges together [ghosts and ghouls and a few zombies, perhaps] and hand out the prizes.

Now, we are going to add prizes as the month goes along, but for today, I’ll tell you that one of the prizes is a $100 gift card to Chapters.ca or Amazon.com!

You can enter as often as you like. Spread the word — let’s send Darby out into the world in style!

 

More soon…

 

~kc

 

 

…and there’s gonna be a conflagration!

The new book is here — like the cover? And Darby and I are in celebration mode. She’s back on her blog, [Darby Speaks] and about to launch more than a month’s long blog tour, spreading the joy and scattering books in her wake. Each day, Darby will be doing a guest blog somewhere out in the ether … keep your eyes peeled here for details.

AND, starting tomorrow, she’ll be launching an exciting new contest, with some pretty incredible prizes. So this is your heads up for FACING FIRE excitement…and it all begins October 1!

 

More soon…

 

~kc

…that when one is in the house alone for the very first time after knee surgery, enjoying one’s very first shower, a hard-wired smoke alarm in the ceiling above a stairwell has to malfunction and start buzzing like a jackhammer.

Further, the law must state that said events have to happen at 6:30 am, when one is desperately trying to keep the Very Large Dogs asleep until one’s generous and entirely-mobile offspring can return from school to take them out.

Also, an essential element of the law must state the requirement for travelling down two flights of stairs — one step at a time– to retrieve the step ladder, then returning — one step at a time, and markedly more slowly — to set up and ascend the ladder, only to find ancient smoke alarm has NO off switch.

Additionally, the law must require the descent of a further four flights of stairs — one step at a time, in this instance accompanied by a running commentary indicating a flatteringly vast vocabulary — to locate the fuses behind a large, unweildy-but-of-sufficient-size to-normally-conceal-the-ugly-fuse-box Impressionist print [Monet? Renoir?], to to subsequently remove the print and turn off every fuse in the house before quiet descends at last like a gentle blessing from the heavens above.

And finally, the law must clearly state the proviso that the moment one risks a single, exhausted sigh of relief as peace descends, one then must swing one’s recently-improved-but-now-throbbing knee INTO the framed print, where said print shall slowly tilt, harsh overhead lights of pre-dawn glinting fetchingly on the glass, and shatter against a stray bar bell left behind by exceedingly buff but occasionally forgetful offspring.

I know there’s a name for this law.  I suspect it may be adverbial in nature…

Suggestions?

 

~kc

So.

Been a bit of a busy time, lately. Lots going on. I plan to report much of the excitement with separate blog posts, but in short — the Surrey Conference is coming and going to be better than ever, Word on the Street Vancouver yesterday was a gas, met tonnes of fun and fabulous people, Darby is returning later this week — up to new adventures, and although it doesn’t look it today — I have quite a bit less of my left knee these days than I used to.

I’ll cover all the book biz in separate posts, but now that I am feeling sufficiently rested, unweepy and compos mentis, let’s talk about the ol’ knee, shall we?

[For those with Monday Morning stomach, now may well be the time to turn away…]

You may remember back in this post when I mentioned the meniscus I tore in my left knee. It’s been an interesting experience, but the end result is that I had surgery on Friday, and am now torn-cartelidge-free.

This is my knee last Friday morning, when I was merely suffering from pre-op fast and caffeine deprivation.

 

Right after surgery, things were looking in pretty good shape — three small incisions, not even a single stitch in my knee. [Had the surgery under a local and got to watch the scope of the interior of my knee on a monitor throughout — really cool, but I will respect the delicate sensibilities of my audience and leave it at that…]

[This shot taken with my iPhone. You get a nice view of the surgeon’s initials on my leg…]

After a bit too busy a day yesterday with Word On The Street Vancouver [but so much fun!] I ended up with pretty much a watermelon for a knee last night, but things are looking up today.

I’m not taking the narcotics they gave me, just advil and ice, and managed to sleep last night without too much discomfort. So, with the mobility issues looked after it’s back to books.

Now I’m onward and upward to a crazy-busy week, leading to the release of Darby’s new book, FACING FIRE.

More soon on all the celebrations to come…!

 

~kc

Holy crow — it’s coming fast!

The 18th annual SiWC is just around the corner. We’re just compiling the entries now from the scads of snail and e-mails received for the contest, and it’s looking pretty good. But if you haven’t checked the website lately, please do…SO much is happening!

Here are a few thoughts from one of our presenters this year — the astonishing Sam Sykes: http://samsykes.com/2010/09/surrey-international-writers-conference/

See? Sam loves the conference. And trust me — it is Very Hard to Disagree with Sam. [and live through it.]

So why try? Contests, announcements, awards — www.siwc.ca

Check it out.

…

And for a wee taste of steampunk cool to finish, check this out: The beauty of a squid’s eyeball. [via boingboing, of course].

More soon…

 

 

~kc