Friday, February 10, 2012

Back to the Scene of the Crime

Tomorrow we leave for another trip to Las Vegas, this time to celebrate our wedding anniversary. We got married in Vegas..in a helicopter..flying over the strip at night, so it seems appropriate for us to head back there to celebrate the fact we're still together and both of us are still in one piece. We're planning to go out for dinner, catch a show (this time we're going to go to the Penn and Teller show at the Rio) and while Ross enters a big poker tournament at the Venetian, I'll be visiting the spa. Yes, indeed, we are looking forward to this trip. Happy Anniversary to us! :)





Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Mexicats and Mexikitties (must love cats)

I really have to get back to blogging so I thought I'd kick off 2012 with pictures of kittens to melt your hearts. If it doesn't melt your heart, you need to get that checked.

Before leaving on our trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, we arranged to visit a cat shelter there called the Purr Project. One of their volunteers, David, goes out once a week to visit the cats and agreed to take us on the twenty-five minute drive to the shelter. Once there, we were immediately mobbed by friendly kittens! They have two hundred cats at this shelter which runs on donations and they do their best to get as many cats adopted out to good homes as they can. They have a vet clinic on site to make sure no more little kitties are being born and to look after any sick animals. It's a really great organization and we're so glad we were able to spend some time with these adorable cats. We took them a bag of crochet blankets I made, some toys and some treats. Here's some photos from our visit.

David who drove us out and gave us a tour of the shelter:



Ross and a little kitten that couldn't get enough attention:



Ross set his backpack on a chair and this little guy really wanted to come back with us!



We didn't find out this one's name, but stuck out his tongue when you pet him and he loved to give head butts.



Treat time!!! (I should've brought a bigger bag!)





One of the blankets I made:



A few potraits of the Purr Project residents waiting for a good home:











How's that heart holding up? Go hug your pets, or better yet, visit a local shelter asap!

Monday, December 19, 2011

Dan Wells Interview

My interview with Dan Wells is up on Adventures in Sci Fi Publishing! Dan is the author of the three part series, I Am Not A Serial Killer, Mr Monster and I Don't Want to Kill You. He also has a YA novel called Partials coming out next year, an ebook called A Night of Blacker Darkness and another book coming out next July called The Hollow City.

I'm a big fan of Dan's work so I was thrilled when Shaun agreed to let me interview him for the podcast. It's probably redundant to say I highly recommend his books, but listen to the podcast and I know you'll want to check out Dan's books for yourself!

You can hear the podcast on the AISFP website HERE or download it from itunes.



Monday, October 17, 2011

Purple Knitted Caps Campaign

My Creative Geeks took on yet another charity project, this time for the PURPLE Program, to Prevent Shaken Baby Syndrome via BC Children's hospital. The program supplies new parents with knitted (and crocheted!) purple baby hats to raise awareness of Shaken Baby Syndrome, providing "edicuational information about the properties of normal infant crying and appropriate action steps that caregivers need to know. Inconsolable infant crying is the number one trigger that precedes a shaking event."

So, I recruited my Mom as well, we got ourselves some purple yarn and started making baby hats. My mom ended up making TWELVE, while I came in at a mere eight. It was a lot of fun to try new patterns and great to know it was for a good cause.

There is still time to make hats and hand them in! For more information on the PURPLE Program, visit Dontshake.ca

Friday, October 14, 2011

Sound Bites Podcast Interview with Mark Teppo

My Sound Bites podcast interview with author Mark Teppo is live at Bitten By Books! Stop by, listen to the podcast episode and leave comments to win copies of Mark's Codex of Souls books, Lightbreaker and Heartland. There are three sets to be won! Thanks for your support, I hope you enjoy the podcast and be sure to check out Mark's books!

Bitten by Books » Author Mark Teppo Sound Bites Podcast and Contest LIVE Here!


Thursday, October 13, 2011

RSVP at Bitten By Books

My Sound Bites interview with Mark Teppo will be airing tomorrow, October 14th. If you head on over to Bitten By Books today and RSVP, you'll get entries to win Mark's books! Here's the info from Bitten By Books and you can RSVP HERE.

Join us on 10/14 with author Mark Teppo for a Sound Bites Podcast, chat and contest. This event post goes up at noon Central and runs into the evening. Mark will start answering questions around 12:00 pm Central Daylight Time. For those visiting from outside of the US, here is the time conversion link. We are in the Chicago time zone: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/

He will be talking about his books and other things.

CONTEST INFO:  Open to readers in the US.

Prizes: 3 sets of the Codex of Souls series includes Lightbreaker and Heartland

RSVP and get 25 entries to the prize portion of the contest when you show up on the day of the event. If you don’t show up and mention your RSVP AND ask a question, your points won’t be entered into the contest.



Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Cross Post: A Year in the Inkpunks

To help with my goal of blogging three times a week, I'm totally cheating and posting my Inkpunks blog entry I posted today. Stop on by INKPUNKS.COM anytime, there are ten of us emerging authors, editors and artists that blog together. We have two blog posts a week about all aspects of writing, from creation to publication and all things inbetween, as well as some fantastic guest blog posts. Today was my turn, and here's my entry:

It’s been a year since I proposed the idea for this blog and the Inkpunks were formed. A whole year and while the time has flown by, we also can’t believe how much has happened for all us within that year.

We thought we’d take some time to reflect back on the year with the Inkpunks. The most obvious change is that we’ve grown and we’re now at ten members, but that’s not all. We’ve also grown an astounding amount in publishing, editing and slush reading credits, we have increased our readership, have had people asking us if they could guest blog (crazy, right?) and most of all we’ve grown as a group dynamic and as individuals. It’s amazing what can be accomplished by the uplifting force of positive, encouraging people come together to support each other and the writing community. I have learned so much from my Inkpunks, not just about the writing world, but about life in general, that I feel blessed to know each and every one of them.

In the last year, I’ve sold two stories, polished and queried a novel and written another one. Throughout the process, the Inkpunks have been there, to bounce ideas off of, to give critiques and most of all to provide encouragement along the way.

I attended so many great conferences and conventions over the past year, all of them highlights for different reasons, too many to go into in this blog post. I’ve gotten to be on panels at World Horror, World Fantasy and VCon, which I love. The absolute best part was this year I DID get to meet every single Inkpunk in person and give them real hugs instead of virtual ones. Every Inpunk is now the proud (or embarrassed) owners of a handmade scarf from me. I decided to make scarves to match their personalities because we’re all so unique and I love that about us.

Speaking of personalities, I split mine into two. I took my sandrawickham.com website and devoted it to writing and started a new one at sandrawickhamfitness.com that deals with my fitness career. I take this as a good sign, that I have enough going on with both that I needed two websites.

What else? This past year I’ve joined the Functional Nerds as the Fitness Nerd columnist, along with several other Inkpunks who also double as Functional Nerds. I started a podcast series for Bitten By Books where I interview my favourite urban fantasy authors and I’ve been interviewed myself for several podcasts. I’ve also become a slush reader for Lightspeed Magazine.

Another thing I’m proud of is that I’ve stuck with martial arts training. Last year at this time I would’ve been a gold belt, and now I’ve just promoted to my high purple belt. It’s helped me in my writing, I’ve sat on panels about writing about fighting and I can’t wait to keep moving up the ranks.

It truly has been a great year. I know I am probably forgetting things to highlight (we had TWO Inkpunk weddings this year!) but that’s the great thing about having a group behind you, whatever I’ve forgotten, someone else will be sure to point out in their post.

I keep a picture on my fridge that a friend’s daughter, Stephanie coloured. I keep it because it strikes me as an excellent example of how to live life every time I see it. At the top of the picture of a kitten, it clearly states, “Color all the spaces with a C gray. Color all the spaces with a c pink.” Stephanie has proceeded to colour the kitten with all the colours of the rainbow, blue, purple, red, orange, green and I love it. I think the kitten looks much more original, interesting and happy for its multi-coloured fur. That’s also how I think of the Inkpunks. Without them being such a big part of my life, I probably would still be colouring the proper sections with gray and pink. My Inkpunks make me want to colour with blue, purple, red, orange and green, in my writing and in my life and I know I’m a better person for it.

Thanks to the Inkpunks and all of those who support us. We look forward to another great year.