....and another thing....

It has been over a month since the last blog entry and what a busy month it has been.  There’s lots of news so let’s jump right in…

First, there was a sale.  My short story PACT has been purchased (I use that term in the loosest sense.  No money has changed hands) and will be published in an upcoming issue of Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine (should be # 11, I’m told), but not for about eight months.

I was asked to join the committee for The Elora Writer’s Festival.  I was interviewed on our local cable station’s show, Over the Fence, to spread the word about this year’s line-up. You can check out the line-up by following this link. This year’s festival takes place on May 27^th.  If you can make it, join us for a day of readings.

I’ve been working on Herne, fleshing it out to novel length.

I’ve written a short story for a new anthology called Urban Green Man. 

There was a review of Evolve Two and Symbiosis was again favourably reviewed.  Peter Tennant for the UK's Black Static Magazine had this to say about my story:

        "This section of the book closes with the emotive‘Symbiosis’ by David Beynon, a sad and lonely man coming to an agreement with a hungry vampire, each attempting to give the other what he needs most, the story character driven and with a bitter sadness and compassion underneath the text."

And then there’s the BIG project.   Remember a while back when I posted a couple of sketches of a garage/office concept?  Well, the concept is beginning to take shape:

And not just on paper:

First the carport needed to come down.  I tore off the sides, stripped the shingles and unhooked the electrical.  It took me a week. The contractor came in with his little yellow digger and had the rest of it down in a couple of hours.  I'm convinced I must have loosened all the nails...

It was an impressive little machine, as my son will attest.  

Next a base of gravel was applied by a marvel of technology - the Stone Slinger.

Now we have forms up - more gravel, some re-bar and Styrofoam - all in preparation for the big concrete pour.  I'll post more when that happens.

Caws and Effect

Last time I promised to relate the strange X-File / Fringe moments we encountered in Vancouver.  Oddly enough, both incidents happened at shopping malls.

One day we decided to accompany our friend and her baby daughter to the Oakridge Mall.  We heard really good things about David's Tea and were looking for some decent rain gear for the boy and the missus. Besides, while the others shopped it gave me more opportunity to hang out with the baby and convince her that "Dave" ought to be her first word.

We went into David's Tea. I took a seat at a bistro table and pulled the stroller close.  A few moments later, a wonderful salesperson came over with a sampler cup of the best mint tea I've ever tasted.  I took small sips and made faces at the baby.  While I was doing this my daughter came over and asked me how I liked the tea.

"It's really good, isn't it?" she said, then coughed.  She went back to the counter to get some more.

Less than a minute later my son came over and made a fuss of the baby.  He took a sip of his little cup of tea.

"Wow," he said.  "That's great tea."  Then he coughed.  He coughed again, then went over to see what his mother was buying.

I coughed.

The baby's mom came over.

"How's she doing?" she asked.  This was followed by a pair of rapid coughs.

My eyes drifted to the sampler cup in her hand, then about the store.  In the next five seconds over eighty percent of the patrons coughed.

Jesus, I thought, there's something wrong with the tea!


The baby coughed.

Not the tea.


I looked out into the mall.  At first there were one or two people moving with purpose toward the exit.  They were coughing.

A woman came to me from the mall.  She was coughing.

"You should - cough - get that baby out of here - cough- there's something wrong with the air."

I don't need more than one creepy warning from a stranger-lady.  I gathered the kids together and told the baby's mom I was heading for fresh air.  She said, amid  coughs, that she'd make her purchase and join us outside near the exit.  I took the stroller by the handles and was about to head into the mall.  I froze for a moment.

Dozens of people were streaming from deeper in the mall past the tea shop we were in.  All of them were coughing.  Some of them had their collars pulled over their noses.  A few had tears in their eyes.

Jesus wept!  I thought.  I've gotta get this baby outta here!


I slid into the crowd and, making sure my kids were close by, got clear of the mall and into fresh air.  All of us, the baby included, continued to cough for several minutes even out in fresh air.  The coughing was disconcerting.  There was apparent reason for the coughing. I felt no irritation, at least not consciously, yet every few second I would cough.

The coughs subsided but that was the end of our mall visit for the day.  We later found out on the news that a trio of teenagers had been messing around with bear spray in the mall near the Apple Store.  The Apple Store was at least two hundred metres from the tea shop we were in.  I guess bear spray is pretty powerful stuff.


The other incident took place outside of Lynn Valley Mall near spectacular Lynn Canyon.  The kids were hungry and wanted to stop off for a bite to eat before we took the Sea Taxi back to downtown Vancouver.

We were once again with our friend and her baby and as we were unloading the stroller from her car, a crow swooped down and landed on the car parked right across from us.  It seemed to look at us and cawed.  A few seconds later, a second crow landed on the nearby car, then a third.  In a matter of seconds there were dozens of crows descending on the parking lot, landing on other cars and filling the trees.  In the time it took us to unload the stroller, secure the baby and joke nervously about Alfred Hitchcock's famous move, a hundred crows must have come to the lot.  It was made all the more intense as the newest ones were swooping a little too close for comfort.  I felt the rush of air on my face as one crow passed inches away from my face.

It was an amazing, unnerving experience to be surrounded by these wonderful birds.  They took to cawing to each other and the chaos that followed was incredible.  As we headed indoors, more and more crows joined their fellows in the parking lot until black blotted out the roofs of many of the cars.

When we came out not a single crow remained.  There wasn't even a speck of birdshit to say they had ever been there.

Everybody into the Van..

Vancouver, that is.

Just about eight months ago friends of mine brought into the world a long awaited bundle of joy.  This gorgeous girl has been growing steadily larger, more beautiful and increasingly interesting and interactive over the intervening time. Last week was the kids' school break and seemed the perfect opportunity to introduce ourselves to this captivating little girl.

Since their place was a little crowded , we stayed here:

It was a lovely Bed and Breakfast.  We had a basement suite with separate entrance and the place was in the perfect location - exactly 397 steps from our door to the front door of our friends' apartment.

Vancouver boasts things that you just don't find elsewhere in Canada.  Here's a vehicle that I haven't seen anywhere else.  I want one:

I will call it the Beynon Battle Van.

And here's a sign that, in Vancouver, could mean just about anything:

But cool vans and unusual signs can only go so far.  We had kids to entertain, so a trip to Science World was in order.  The current themed display was Lego, so the kids were thrilled before we walked through the door.  But there was more than Lego for the curious young mind:

This spiny vortexy water tank thingie demonstrated the power of hydrodynamics by drawing the floating ball from the surface to the very bottom of the tank eventually.

And this wind vortex generator took a foggy mist (at least I hope it was some sort of foggy mist - that's my daughter stepping into the thing, after all) and created a mini-cyclone that someone could step right into.









The Vancouver Art Gallery was a joy and we feasted on their numerous Emily Carr paintings.  No photos from the art gallery  - they have a "no camera" policy.

A trip to the Vancouver Aquarium was in order.  Located in Stanley Park, the Aquarium was highlighting "babies" while we were there.  Mosquito-sized baby seahorse and jelly fish the size of pencil-erasers fascinated us.  Speaking of jellies - there were these beauties:

 
And just down the hall was the magnificent and graceful Roxy:

She was absolute poetry in motion.

We had a brief trip to the beach in Stanley Park before rain chased us away:

During a break in the rains, we visited Lynn Valley.  There were big trees:

And yes, that is actually the sun making an appearance in Vancouver in March.  Lynn Valley also boasts this:

Apparently there has been a suspension bridge at this location since the beginning of the 20th century.  This one looks a little sturdier than the one pictured in black and white on the interpretive plaque on the other side of the gorge.

A visit to the Museum of Anthropology at UBC was on the agenda.  The kids were enthralled by Bill Reid's carving, Raven and the First Men.  

I mean, really, how often do you get to be up close and personal with artwork that has found its way onto your country's currency?  (It's on the 20)

UBC's Rose Garden offers a spectacular view:

I don't think this photo does it justice.  All Universities have book stores and the Beynon family finds it damn near impossible to walk past a book store.  I was please to see this on the shelves of the UBC bookstore's SF section:

The spine was facing out when I got there, but when I left I had performed the simple act that authors everywhere ought to do for books their work appears in:

Always, always give the cover a chance to sell the book.


Next time I'll talk about the two X-Files / Fringe sort of moments that happened while in Vancouver and I'll probably mention the Aurora Awards, too.