New books galore this winter from members of our SiWC family. Here are just a few examples:

Michael Slade, long-time friend of the SiWC, has a new book out just in time to give you something to read on dark January nights, or maybe between periods of Olympic hockey or while the Zambonis clear the ice during the speed skating heats. Red Snow tackles the idea of a terrorist attack during the winter games. Check out the details here: http://www.news1130.com/news/local/article/15382--new-mystery-novel-focuses-on-possible-terror-attack-during-2010-games

2009 presenter Carol Mason has just revealed the cover of her new book, due out in February, and bound to sit on a totally different shelf from Slade's. The Love Market explores love and choices, divorce and first love. Information here: http://www.carolmasonbooks.com/carolmasonbooks.com/The_Love_Market.html

And our own Diana Gabaldon and co-writer Sam Sykes have a story in the anthology The Dragon Book, which she describes here: http://voyagesoftheartemis.blogspot.com/2009/12/dragon-book.html

Are you an SiWC attendee with good news to share? Post it here in the comments or email me at kathychung at siwc.ca. We'd love to hear about it!

Sharing the link love on this Turkey Day...

 Kamloops This Week Hearts Diana Gabaldon and mentions sending writers our way.

SF writer and wunderkind John Scalzi stops taunting the tauntable for long enough to laud SiWC success story Janice Hardy's new series. [and  she hearts SiWC along the way...!

In other news...

have you got your antennae yet?

~kc

also blogging as leftwriter

sweetly tweeting @kcdyer & @siwc2009

Our lovely Diana Gabaldon's new book AN ECHO IN THE BONE has arrived, and debuts at #2 on the New York Times Bestseller list.

 Hooray!!!!

Diana talks about hearing the news from her publisher [in a conversation that also included a bottle of scotch and Dan Brown], and you can read about it here in her blog.

I love this picture of Diana. I took it many years ago at the conference, and what you can't see is, along with her Ladies of Lallybroch t-shrt, she is wearing her pyjama bottoms. It was at the end of a long day, but she still came out to join the CompuServe gang at our annual Par-Tay. She is one of the most generous writers I know -- of her time, her expertise and her knowledge, and is a huge asset to our conference every year.

She'll be at the conference (AND at the Par-Tay) again this year, and now with something to celebrate.

Congratulations, Diana!

~kc

also blogging as leftwriter

tweeting @kcdyer & @SiWC2009

At last...the winners of the largest category -- the Storyteller's Award.

This award is sponsored by its judges -- let's meet them, shall we?

Diana Gabaldon is the author of the award-winning, NYT-bestselling Outlander novels, described by  Salon magazine as “the smartest historical sci-fi adventure-romance story ever written by a science Ph.D. with a background in scripting “Scrooge McDuck” comics.” The adventure began in 1991 with the classic Outlander (“historical fiction with a Moebius twist”), continued through four more New York Times-bestselling novels—Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn, and The Fiery Cross—
and a nonfiction (well, relatively) companion volume, The Outlandish Companion, which provides copious details on the settings, background, characters, research, and writing of the novels, and has most recently produced A Breath of Snow and Ashes,
winner of the 2006 Corine International Fiction Award, and the 2006 Quill Award for <ahem> “Science-Fiction, Fantasy and Horror.

http://www.its.caltech.edu/~gatti/gabaldon/

As usual, my buddy Michael Slade is up to No Good. 

This time, he's planning a Most Eventful evening for all Night Owls  after 9 pm on the Friday night of the conference. He's recruited some pretty amazing cast members to help him stage two very special...very creepy radio plays.

 The cast?

Slade himself, along with fellow best-selling authors

Diana Gabaldon

Jack Whyte, and

Anne Perry

Using all his devilish charm and wit, he's also managed to wrangle myself and his daughter (and go-writer) Rebecca Clarke to act as sound effects personnel.

The production?

THREE SKELETON KEY and THE THING ON THE FOURBLE BOARD.

Prepare to be thrilled and chilled!

~kc

also blogging as leftwriter

...and long-term favourite of this conference Diana Gabaldon just gave our Writing Contest a mention on her blog The Voyage of the Artemis. Diana and Jack Whyte got together several years ago to sponsor the fiction element of our writing contest, now called The Storyteller's Award. Not only do they sponsor this element of the contest, but they also judge the entries. We continue to be thrilled and honoured by their generosity to other writers -- a huge part of the spirit that keeps our conference alive from year to year.

Thank you to both Diana and Jack for their contributions -- and to our other roster of wonderful judges (Lois Peterson & Elizabeth Lyon for Non-fiction, Bernice Lever and Susan McCaslin for Poetry and Shelley Hrdlitschka for Writing for Young People) who ensure that the quality and judging in each of the four categories of our writing conference is held to the same high standard.

Have you sent in your writing contest entry yet? Check the website for details ...only 27 days to go!

~kc

also blogging as leftwriter 

This blog post involves a book, a search, two strangers with the same goal, and a dash of serendipity. And the police. But it's not what you think!

So what does one get the first woman Commissioner of the RCMP, Beverly Bussom, for her retirement? Her neighbor and friend Verna Brown thought The Red Wall by Jane Hall (one of the first female members of the RCMP) might be appropriate. She'd spotted Jane and her book at a book promotion, but didn't make the buy thinking surely her friend owned a copy. To her surprise she was wrong.

If a book is good, an autographed copy is even better! But could she contact Jane Hall in time for a signature before the retirement party?

Unbeknownst to Verna, Jane Hall was also a friend of Bev Bussom. Bev had even offered to write a forward to Jane's book (Jane declined, her book contains the bad as well the good and she feared Bev might catch some political fallout for visibly supporting her). Like Verna, Jane wanted to give Bev a copy of The Red Wall, but she'd lost track of Bev's address.