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Fall Writing…

Fall in Vancouver is an excellent time to be a writer. The skies are overcast, the rain falls and there is nowhere you’d rather be than hunkered down in your office, running your fingers across the keyboard.

I’m beginning to write a new book (one that I’ve been researching for a few months) and will be turning my full attention to this literary enterprise.
Blogging may be a little intermittent, as the book comes first. (But I’ll squeak in a post when I can.)
Have a happy and productive fall, everyone.
Cheers!

Winter Conference — Tempting!


When I opened up my email this morning, I found a notice for the SCBWI Winter Conference in New York. SCBWI is the acronym for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and they host fantastic conferences.

I attended the Winter Conference some years ago and learned a lot about the American children’s book market. It’s tempting to go again. Not only is it professionally a good thing to do, but you get to visit NEW YORK! I love that city.
If you’re interested, check out the conference link here.
I will contemplate attending, but I have a busy schedule this year that includes a book deadline, a writer-in-residence assignment, and some travelling.
Think about it. New York! Books! Very tempting.

Beautiful Store!

I made my inaugural visit to Sitka Books & Art this morning, and I was wowed! It’s a beautiful store, and I love the selection of books they are carrying. I could have bought a bookcase full. (I restrained myself and only took 4 books to the checkout counter.)

I will shop there regularly and do my best to keep them in business. Now it’s your turn! If you live in Vancouver, go visit. Buy a book. Show them we’re happy to have a wonderful independent bookstore back in our midst.
Sitka Books & Art: 2025 West 4th Ave.
Cheers!

Great News, Vancouver Booklovers!

Sitka Books and Art is Vancouver’s newest independent bookstore and its doors are open now! City booklovers have been waiting all summer for this exciting event.

Stop by, browse their shelves and buy a book. Let’s do our part to give them a great start. You can check out their website here, and also read about them on the Talon Books website here.
Sitka’s address is: 2025 West 4th Ave, and they are open 7 days a week from 10 am – 6 pm.
Hooray! See you there.

Weekend Events

If you’re looking for something literary to do this weekend, here are two events you might like to check out:

Celebrate Science: A BC Sciencefest at the brand-new Beaty Biodiversity Museum (home of the huge blue whale skeleton) at UBC. For details, go here.
And, the cross-Canada fall book celebration: Word on the Street. The program for Vancouver is here.
And where will I be this weekend? Speaking at both events. Hope to see you there!
Cheers!

Yukon Bound!

My presentation is ready and my bags are packed. I’m off to Whitehorse in a day or so to be a speaker at the Yukon Teacher’s Conference.
If you’d like to see the line-up of speakers (lots of my hard-working colleagues), you can download the conference schedule here.

I’m really looking forward to meeting old friends and making new ones — Yukoners are such friendly folks! — and being in midst of the beautiful Yukon scenery.
Last time I was in Whitehorse, I went to Kathleen Lake (see photo above) and thought it was possibly the most amazing wilderness I had ever encountered.
Rumour has it that we will be visiting Takhini Hot Springs on this trip. Exciting!
Back soon, with a full report.
Cheers!

The Book I Wish I’d Written…

This will come as no surprise to my parents and brothers, but I am a HUGE fan of bubble gum. I spent an inordinate amount of time as a child chewing gum and blowing big pink bubbles. (My teeth have paid the price.)

You can imagine my excitement when I read about the new book, POP: The Invention of Bubble Gum by Meghan McCarthy. I will track down a copy to read ASAP. It’s a book I really wish I had written (being somewhat of an expert on the topic).
When I first moved away from home and was teaching in a city away from my family, my Dad mailed me an entire tub of bubble gum to keep me company. What a guy!
Going to get the book now, and a package of Double Bubble. Chew, chew, blow, POP!

Day 3!

It’s Day 3 of the 3-Day Novel Contest, and as they say on the clever 3-Day website, today is fittingly titled, “Do or Die.” For more details on how to get through Day 3, check out the Survival Guide section of their website here.

For all of you hunched over your keyboards, while the rest of us are drinking tea, scanning the newspaper and enjoying the last leisurely moments of our holiday weekend, we wish you much strength on the final leg of the contest. It’s the literary home stretch.
You can do it! You’re almost there! Congratulations!
We’re impressed.
Cheers!

3 Day Novel Contest

Sharpen your pencils! The Labour Day weekend is upon us and it’s time, once again, for the 3 Day Novel Contest.

Although this is a contest I will likely never enter (can’t write novels, don’t write fast), I have such admiration for the writers who take part in this literary marathon. It requires talent, inspiration, dedication, stamina, nerves of steel and a lot of coffee.
Good luck to all the writers who are hunkered down with their computers this morning — especially my Dad, who had planned to start writing at 12:01 am — and may have stayed up all night getting his words on paper.
If you’d like to check on the progress of some of the writers, you can follow the twitter feed here.
We non-participating writers (who are slacking off this weekend) are very, very impressed. A novel in 72 hours! You 3 Day Novel folks all deserve a medal.
May the muse be with you!
Cheers!