Terrific blog post today from SiWC alum, board member, contest coordinator, former conference coordinator, presenter, and all-round amazing person kc dyer. Wondering what SiWC is like? Check out her post here: http://www.kcdyer.com/blog/2011/10/16/surrey.html

SiWC board members Carol, kc, and Ursula and I spent the day down at Word on the Street at Library Square in Vancouver yesterday, meeting tonnes of people and telling them all about our conference. A big thank you to everyone who stopped by to say hello. It was great to see so many people out and hear so much positive stuff about our conference. If you're visiting our site for the first time after meeting us yesterday, welcome! For you and for all of our regular readers, too, here are a few shots of what the day was like for us, all taken by the wonderful Ursula Maxwell-Lewis:

We woke up to pouring rain, so were very pleasantly surprised when it stopped - except for the odd sprinkle - by the time the event got started. Here's the main stage, right outside the library, and it was even dry enough for people to sit on the steps. Great turnout!

Our table was on Hamilton on what was called Literacy Lane. All kinds of great groups on our side of the event. We shared our side of the tent with the Vancouver Storytellers Assn, and just next door was the kids' tent with readings, panels, and events going on all day long.

SiWC board members kc dyer and Carol Monaghan at our table. Not even crutches could keep kc dyer from being her usual smiling, cheerful self.

Okay -- this is not really Janet. This is the image she sent me for our website -- the Great White Shark, still chomping away on her latest victim's legs.

This is the image she LIKES having out there.

Janet Reid came to SiWC for the first time last year, and was an instant hit. She fit right in -- just gets the whole vibe of what the conference is...and tries to be.

Janet is one of the stellar agents at FinePrint Literary Management in New York City, where she specializes in crime fiction. She's an incredible agent, AND I happen to know that she liked what she saw at SiWC so much last year, she's coming back to us again. We couldn't be more thrilled.

Janet is also an avid blogger, and among other places, you can find her blogging pretty regularly here.

This is Bob Dugoni. He is one of the astounding speakers who will be attending SiWC 2008 this year. We're pretty excited to have him...

He's a best-selling author of some amazing books.

As the conference coordinator, I find myself on the receiving end of a lot of email.

A LOT.

But some of the correspondence I get is more fun than the rest. I particularly enjoy the success stories -- folks who have come to the conference and in one way or another have struck gold.

Welcome to the very first post of our new SiWC Blog. This blog is not intended to take the place of our email newsletter, but simply to give you a more-frequent taste of some of the excitement we have planned for our conference this year.

This blog will be a GREAT place to get your questions answered, to make comments or give suggestions -- in other words, it's a chance for you to get interactive with those of us on the inside.