So���I said yes to a few too many things without paying attention, and ended up with a bunch of promos all at once. My mistake���but hopefully your win!

Here���s the lineup:

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The summer market experiment continues���my first week at the fairgrounds was amazing (shoutout to all the new friends!), so I���m looking at shuffling my August line-up to get back there.

I also (finally) got around to rolling out my community literacy initiative���which is currently a whiteboard, lol.

I just feel like I end up talking a lot about the literacy crisis and empowering people to take control of their own stories and trying to inspire more reading and writing and (human! intentional! effortful!) creativity, and what better opportunity to actually get out there and do something about it?

This first attempt turned out really fun, because I initially was inviting people to suggest first lines with the offer that I���d choose the best of the summer���s and write it into a story (inspired by some of the old pulp storytellers who used to sit in bookstore windows and bash out stories in public on typewriters, and poets who do up poems on demand for events���) BUT after the first line or two, people started responding to the previous line, and it just naturally evolved into a little crowdsourced/collaborative microfiction.

They seized control of the means of storytelling, y���all! That���s the goal, right there!

So I���m definitely gonna keep that going. I actually have a little travel (���portable��� LOL) typewriter I���ve been cleaning up and I���m just waiting on some fresh ribbon for it, then I���ll try taking it and letting people write on it instead, or maybe have duelling stories running depending on whether folks are willing to scribble or type (I also offer to scribe for the ones who are shy about their writing/spelling but come up with ideas easily!)

I���ve seen some other cool participatory literacy game stuff in the wild that might be fun to work toward, but this definitely had the advantage of having a low bar to entry for both me and fairgoers���not much prep, cleanup, or gear to haul around! All in all, I call that a success. :D

I���m still going back and forth with local friends about collab dates/titles for upcoming markets, but here���s the current July lineup!

Jul. 18: Saturday Morning Market at the Fairgrounds (Courtenay) Jul. 19: She-Sells Market + Fundraiser (Parksville, BC) Jul. 24: Summer Farmer & Artisan Market at The Views (Comox) Aug. 1: Comox Valley Makers��� Market (Courtenay)

If you���re in the area, stop by to say hi and/or get a book signed! (If you���ve ever picked up a copy at a local Stockist etc., you���re more than welcome to bring that by for signing, too!) Contribute a line to the week���s crowdsourced story (results get posted on my IG!)

And if you���re away all summer, not to worry; plans are already in motion for the fall, including THE COOLEST (spookiest?) Halloween event at the Parksville Museum. (Work in programming or education and want to explore opportunities and ideas for creative ed and lit edutainment? Never too early to reach out!)

In other news, I���ve got (an alarming number of pages of) revision notes locked down and I���m slooowly wading through this draft of SONGSTRESS WIP���while juggling all. the. things. For some reason*, I���m also currently trying to take up papermaking and bookbinding, plus teaching myself to draw���

*All writers have their coping techniques; instead of cleaning, I take up new hobbies to skip out on deadlines. Whee!