Busy, busy, busy—there’s been a lot going on the last few weeks. On October 16th, my family and I headed up to the Whistler Writer’s Festival. It was a beautiful weekend, and the drive up was wonderful, although I had to put my faith in my car-sickness wristbands to keep me on an even keel.

Once there, we settled down at the elegant Aava Hotel, where the bulk of the Festival took place. My first order of duty was the panel discussion on e-books, at which my daughter’s latest book report subject (the rather hefty Drood) was my key prop in my argument for keeping the book as a lovely, papery tactile object. The discussion was most interesting, and I’m happy to report that it never got so boring as to turn to money. I also attended a panel hosted by Lisa Richardson, who gave us all ideas and inspiration for using social media to our advantage. Look at me, Lisa—I’m blogging! Are you proud of me? How ‘bout now?

During the dinner break, we gathered at Pasta Lupino in the village. Yum. After dinner we all headed to the Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre for the evening’s readings, where I was among the 10 readers/performers. Amazing talents on the stage from start to finish. Which is good, because after a huge plate of spaghetti and a glass of wine, listening to anything other than top-notch readers might have resulted in a wee nap.

The evening ended with the writers hunkered down at Fitzsimmons Pub. Cheap pints (it’s off season in Whistler!) kept some of us there until closing time… Special thanks to event host Stephen Vogler and his lovely wife Peggy for helping me and my new pal Russell Wangersky find our way back to the hotel and not get eaten by bears.

Next up is the Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival. I was expecting to be an interested observer there, but it turned out I got an invite to read! So I’ll be doing my thing at The Afternoon Tea this Sunday. Check out that lineup—I am playing with the big kids at this incredible event! I hope some of you can make it (ticket details are on the VIWF website), as it’s sure to be a face-melter. So many neat readings—if you don’t check out at least one or two, then we’re totally breaking up.

To kick off the festival, I attended the Literati Gala at the Four Seasons on October 18. I talked to a lot of super-nice people who support the festival (thankyouthankyouthankyou) and drank my share of the reception’s signature cocktail—Singapore Slings—double fisting them at one point, so keen were the wait staff. Shouts to Samid, the charming server who bought my book! Afterwards, a few of us broke in the hospitality suite on Granville Island. We came up with some good ideas to take to Dragon’s Den. Artistic Director Hal Wake might have missed his calling as an inventor…but I can’t say more, for fear he’ll ban me.