I’m here with the gang in Penticton, getting ready for YouthWrite 2010. So while I’m getting ready, here’s a little steampunk cool for the day…

 

More soon!

 

~kc

For all my friends and fans south of the border, I will be on the road tomorrow, so in honour of your special Independence Day, I bring you some of my favourite, fuzzy Americans.

Enjoy!

 

More soon!

 

~kc

Hope it was a good one for you. It was…eventful around here. After a disasterous first-round wrestling match with the beautiful, local strawberries I found on a trek with my friend @kathychung in Richmond, I persevered and today remade 4 batches of Most Elegant Jam.

 

Now, a few things. Last week I had a great visit with the folks at CanWrite in Victoria. Lovely time talking about writing for young people. This weekend I head over to Write On Bowen to chat about writing historical fiction. Very excited about that — should be a marvellous time. And next week I’ll be blogging from Penticton, where I’ll be back at YouthWrite for another year. I’m thrilled beyond measure to be heading back there — had a ton of fun last year!

I’ve just finished a new book — no, not FACING FIRE, which will be on shelves this fall, but another new book. This one is a steampunk time-travel story — right now I’m calling it A CLOCKWORK CURIOUSITY, but that may change. Anyway, in honour of all things cool and steamy, you can expect to be connected with a few of the more interesting bits of steampunk arcana I stumble across in the next little while. Want to see more? Check out the tags for ‘steampunk cool’.

So, to begin, here’s a peek at the folks you might want to telegraph the next time you are dealing with a pesky poltergeist… the League of Steam!

 

More soon! ~kc

…we resume normal programming.

TONNES to blog about. I’ve been dipping into twitter feeds all day to follow the news from Toronto on the G8 & G20 protests. The $1B spent on security rankles when so much else is going lacking in our country right now.

More on that later, perhaps.

To begin, I must link to the brief movie made by my CWC class and shown on the final day of our term last week. It’s up under ‘limited viewing’ on YouTube, meaning you have to use the following link to get there…a search just won’t do it.

A taste of creativity from kc’s CWC Vancouver 2010 class!

 

More soon.

 

~kc

So, after the luscious foodiness of the last post, I figured it’s time to have a little recap on how things are going with the old walking desk. You may remember that on March 18th, I began a little experiment.

[Note: If you DO remember, please skip the following paragraph and advance to GO. Do not collect $200. ]

I have been a runner [albeit slow and wheezy] all my adult life, not through sheer love of the sport but more as a way to keep my inclination to avoirdupois in some kind of check. Last summer I injured my knee, which has landed me on the list for surgery and limited the running. Instead of forking out the big bucks for immediate surgery, I got in line with the rest of the poor knee-knackered sods awaiting the knife, and put the money into a new treadmill desk. I’ve been walking and writing rather than sitting and writing ever since. The idea for the treadmill desk was inspired by fellow writers Arthur Slade [whom I will meet this fall in person after being on-line friends for a LONG Time] and Helene Boudreau [also an on-line friend, but one with whom I have had the pleasure of hanging out several times.] In spite of the fact that Slade is sometimes seen in a tin hat and Boudreau has a thing for mermaids, their svelte physiques and general all-around hardiness cannot be denied. And they both walk & write.

So — time for an update.

First — a visual aid…

[Technical Note: I made this map by scanning a google map and prettying it up with Picnik. I’ve worked out the distances using the trip planning function. I tried another [commercial] system to keep track, but it gfaffed out on me, so this is whatcha get.]

I’ve been walking [with the exception of my trip to NYC, where I walked excessively in REAL time, anyway] just about every day. I usually try to rack up one session of 105 minutes long, which nets me about 5.6 km or so. When I can, I do a bit more. My longest walk so far was on April 9th, where I clocked 13.3 km. Sore feet THAT day! Had a good day today — 7.9 km.

So, as you can see from the map above, by the end of May I’d managed to walk just under 473 km while working on my computer. Since then, I’ve added another 65 km this month.

I’m pretty interested in this result. I had no idea I’d be able to go so far — I’m quite pleasantly surprised. I am walking very slowly — 3.3 km/hour. Any faster and I lose the ability to type on my computer. While I walk, I usually catch up on email, read my RSS feeds and twitter, and catch up on phone calls. IOW, mostly grunt-work, as opposed to the creating-story sort of work [though I have done a bit of that, too].

Other results? Well, I am NO thinner, I’ll tell you that. Not running for 9 months has really made a difference, and not in a good way. BUT — I am not hugely larger, either. Just a little on the pudgy side of where I usually am. [Too many grilled cheese sandwiches, you say? Perhaps. Perhaps.]

I am also distinctly less supple than I was 3 months ago. I have to seriously remember to stretch, and in the weeks where I miss my yoga class, I really notice it. My feet are often quite sore at night, but nothing that keeps me awake. My right hamstring is a little tight, but no real injuries to report. I am quite a bit hungrier than usual [and I am usually pretty hungry, anyway — see previous grilled cheese notes…]. I am sleeping very well — quality of sleep is good, whenever I can get it, and I am trying to allow myself more of it.

So my overall report is very positive. This thing makes me happy. And stories like this one show that I’m not the only one finding this crazy idea works pretty well.

I’m enjoying my virtual walk across Canada — and at well past 500 km so far, I’ll keep you updated as to my progress.

 

More soon…

 

~kc

Had a couple of interesting meetings this week. The first was when writer friends Dee-Ann LeBlanc, her husband Rob and Drupal webwizard Dale McGladdery and I all converged on a lovely new spot called Grilled Fromage. Billed as the cheesiest place on earth, we all enjoyed ourselves immensely, picking through the over 60 types of grilled cheese sandwiches on the menu.

Dale does a stellar [and much more thorough] write up on his blog HERE. If you are in Squamish any time soon, I’d suggest you RUN and get yourself a table. My zombie [cheddar with cranberries, shown here] was superb. Personally, I’m going back to try the PacMan table. Between the food and the cheesy album covers on the wall, the place hit a chord, man!

 

Today I tottered downtown to meet one CC Humphreys for a cup of tea at the new OZ Coffeeshop. It’s the other end of the kitsch scale, with spare, elegant furnishings, free wifi and a cheerful stereo-Aussie staff. You’ll find it on West Hastings Street, right across from Kidsbooks. [I’m not sure if they have a website, but I found THIS review site, which has left me bummed that I didn’t try the hot chocolate. I had a very nice cup of English Breakfast and Chris had some kind of tall macchiato which he pronounced excellent.]

 

Chris and I were catching up, and in the course of the conversation, he mentioned that he’ll be teaching a writing course at Christianne’s Lyceum this summer. As he is one of the most prolific writers for children AND adults I know, this is one class not to be missed. Details HERE.

So there you have it. The reason I will never be Tori Spelling’s size. And the fabulous Chris Humphreys course news, all in one, gooey package.

More soon…

~kc

 

My buddy, writer James McCann is launching his latest title this Sunday. It’s a fantastic novel about martial arts and growing up and high kicks — the coolest book ever. If you are able to attend, you won’t regret it, with live Tae Kwon Do demos and lots of other fun, it’s shaping up to be a GREAT event!

Details HERE.

 

If you can’t get there, pop into your nearest bookstore for the book.

 

It’s a winner.

 

More soon…

 

~kc

…and hard on the heels of Sean Cranbury’s Modest Proposal regarding digital rights management, we have the thoughts of Michael Geist, professor, thinker and internet savant [via boingboing]. Geist breaks down his thoughts on the proposed copyright legislatation in Canada, and where the weird little digital locks fail in the current scenario.

Provocative and interesting. HERE.

 

More soon, by the light of the moon…

 

~kc

A quick one tonight mostly because it is now tomorrow morning [how does this always happen?] and my ability to type coherently is rapidly ebbing.

Just a quick note here to hie over, if you are at all interested in the current Canadian copyright debate, to Sean Cranbury’s Books on the Radio blog. I like his proposal, but I fear the simplicity and logic of it will defeat Those With Final Say. Nevertheless, well worth a read. You’ll find it HERE.

More soon…

 

~kc

Registration opened this week for the Surrey International Writers’ Conference. If you haven’t been, or checked it out, or heard a peep…[and if so, whereyabeen? Under a rock?] scamper on over to www.siwc.ca and check out the plans for this October.

Because it’s going to be EPIC.

Can’t wait until the fall to scratch the writing itch? Here are a few other things I’ll be up to before then that might just liquefy the ink in your pen…

CanWrite 2010— the Canadian Authors Ass’n AGM and annual conference, this year in beautiful Victoria, BC. June 24-27, 2010. Details HERE.

Write On Bowen — the Bowen Island, BC gang is at it again with their third annual festival for readers and writers on the lovely little island off the coast of Vancouver. July 2-4, 2010. Details HERE. And HERE you’ll find a wee article from the Bowen Island Undercurrent, discussing my prediliction for grotesquerie. Or something.

Next on the agenda is YouthWrite, the Raise-A-Reader writing camp for kids, put on by Yasmin John-Thorpe and the Penticton Writers and Publishers. I’m going back for my second year, and it’s going to be FUN. If you are a writer under 18 or know someone who is, make sure you check this camp out. Details HERE.

 

Lots more coming up over the next few months, but this seems like a great start. Questions? Ask away in the comments. Hope to see you all at one of these events.

More soon…

 

~kc

[A sign of summer — last night, just before the sun set, I got a few good shots of my boy riding a vertical rock wall at the edge of the woods near our house. More shots on my flickr page HERE.]