At the Cowichan Bay Maritime Centre this weekend, I saw this table set up with supplies and tools for kids. It reminded me of sitting on the back doorstep when I was a kid with offcuts of wood, a small hammer and some nails. At the time I thought it was pretty boring. Maybe if the wood had been cut into boat-shaped pieces…?
Have you tried this with your kids?
Did you know there is such a thing as Free Comic Book Day? Turns out there is, and it’s this coming Saturday – May 4, 2013. If you or your kids like comics, you’ll want to check this out. Participating book shops give away comics to anyone who comes into their stores. Here’s a Store Locator to find a participating store near you.
And here’s a short video to explain what it’s all about.
Today my publisher sent me a copy of my catalog page. It’s pretty exciting to see that PROVE IT, JOSH now has an ISBN number!
Chances are, if you’re like me and you follow lots of interesting blogs, you might be using an RSS feed reader so that you can check all your blogs in one place. If a blog provides an RSS feed, you’ll see an icon that looks something like this:
or 
One of the most popular RSS readers, and my favorite, has been Google Reader. But Google recently announced that they are retiring Google Reader. So what’s a girl to do?
I’ve been trying out other readers, but none of them fit – I’m like Prince Charming searching for the owner of Cinderella’s slipper. Part of the problem is that in Google Reader I starred a bunch of posts so I can easily find them again, and when I import my RSS feeds into other readers, I lose those starred posts.
But then I tried Feedly.
With Feedly, I can log in with my Google Reader credentials, so it can grab all my RSS feeds AND it adds my starred posts to the Saved For Later group. And when Google Reader finally goes away, all the data will be pulled onto a Feedly server.
The icing on the cake, is that just as I was starting to get comfortable with Feedly, I (and other Google Reader outcasts) received a lovely welcome message from Edwin, CEO of Feedly, including a link to show us how to optimize Feedly to make it look similar to Google Reader. Now that is service!
If you’re looking for an RSS reader, give Feedly a whirl. I think you’ll like it!
It actually felt like spring here today, so a couple of us decided to scout for locations for a photo shoot for the cover of PROVE IT, JOSH. That’s one of the fun things about working with Sono Nis Press – I actually get to have some input into the cover design, which is pretty unusual if you go the traditional publishing route. I shot a bunch of photos of the boatyard and surroundings, so I thought I’d share a few here.
Here’s the boatyard at Brentwood Bay with the ferry dock in the background:
This is the ways (marine railway) used for hauling boats out of the water for repair:
Here’s the Brentwood Bay – Mill Bay ferry – just a small one compared to the ferries that run between Vancouver and Vancouver Island:
And finally, in one of the scenes in the book, the kids watch a seagull trying to eat a seastar. If you’ve never seen this for yourself, it’s quite a sight!
We even discovered a secret beach, but I can’t show you pictures of that, because then it won’t be secret anymore!
I saw a woman dragging a sea-foam green chest down her stairs. I wonder what was inside that was so heavy…?
