Hola writing comrades,

Hope all of you who choose to are NaNo-ing up a storm today. What better way to forget the storms of November than to write your way through them? Speaking personally, I've never actually NaNoWriMo'd, though November has always been an excellent writing month for me. [See -- storms, above.]

However, when you need to connect with all those other writers out there to share your pain, what to do? What to do, indeed! Those of you clever sorts who attended our Saturday panel on social media for writers know how -- social media, of course! So for those who attended our slammin' panel, and even for those who missed out, here are links to as many of the topics covered as I can remember. As always, if you have any specific questions, I'm happy to answer -- just ping me on the internets and my ears will all be yours!

Here's an exciting upcoming event from long-time friend of SiWC Sean Cranbury.

You can join Sean to watch the Giller Prizes being awarded [via satellite!] at an event right here in the heart of the Downtown Eastside at the incredible new W2 Media Centre.

Check the announcement here: http://gillervancouver.com/2011/10/27/announcing-the-giller-vancouver-2011-hosts-hal-wake-and-dina-del-bucchia/

Event details:

Giller Light Bash Vancouver 2011 in support of Frontier College

WHEN: Tuesday, November 8th. 5PM - Midnight (klive broadcast of awards ceremony at 530 to 7ish)
WHERE: W2 Media Cafe 111 West Hastings Street Vancouver
HOW MUCH: $25
WHY: Because it'll be the best literary party since VIWF11
WHO: You and all your friends.
MORE DETAILS: www.gillervancouver.com

Come out and join us!

~kc

SiWC Society Director

www.kcdyer.com

sweetly tweeting @kcdyer

Welcome Wednesday has rolled around once again. (Is it just me, or are the weeks flying by? SiWC will be here before we know it!)

I have a handful of presenters to introduce to you today. What strikes me about all of them - and all our presenters - is what multi-facted, multi-talented people they are. It's a good reminder to me when I look at their bios: step away from the computer once in awhile and fill the well with other inspirations.

Meet Mary Robinette Kowal, Verna Dreisbach, I.J. Schecter, Kari-Lynn Winters, and Sean Cranbury.

Mary Robinette Kowal is the author of Shades of Milk and Honey (Tor 2010). In 2008 she won the Campbell Award for Best New Writer and has been a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards. Her stories have appeared in Strange Horizons, Asimov’s, and several Year’s Best anthologies as well as in her collection Scenting the Dark and Other Stories from Subterranean.
Mary, a professional puppeteer and voice actor, has performed for LazyTown (CBS), the Center for Puppetry Arts, Jim Henson Pictures and founded Other Hand Productions. Her designs have garnered two UNIMA-USA Citations of Excellence, the highest award an American puppeteer can achieve. She also records fiction for authors such as Kage Baker, Cory Doctorow and John Scalzi.
She is the Vice President of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Mary lives in Portland, OR with her husband Rob and over a dozen manual typewriters.

SiWC 2009 presenter Sean Cranbury [proprietor of www.Booksonthe Radio.ca] is so close to the cutting edge of digital rights issues he's cut himself a few times! In case you missed his talk at BookCamp Vancouver this year,  a peek at  his presentation can be seen HERE

Whether you are a writer or a publisher ...or even just a reader, there is some fascinating stuff here. Enjoy!

~kc

also blogging as leftwriter

sweetly tweeting @kcdyer & @siwctweets

Edited to correct and enliven link...