kc dyer is Celebrating her Roots

kc dyer's new novel comes out this month, but it's preceded by four others: SEEDS OF TIME, SECRET OF LIGHT, SHADES OF RED, and MRS. ZEPHYR'S NOTEBOOK. The first three are a series about some time-travelling kids. (This means I must rec them to my neighbor who loves time-travel.)

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Hey Gang,

When Liviania asked me to participate in her month-long blogging party, I agreed without a second thought. This is a month of celebration for me, so I'm really happy to have the chance to share it with you, too. My new book, A WALK THROUGH A WINDOW, was just born this month, and like any new baby, it has brought me a great deal of joy. WALK is my fifth novel for young people, and as with any new baby, it's my favourite -- at least until the next one comes along.

This book is all about beginnings. Everybody comes from somewhere, and many people don't end up in the place where they began. Life's like that, eh?

Now, I've given you at least two hints in the previous sentences as to where I made my own beginnings. Can you tell? I was born in Canada, and I still live here, although at some considerable distance from where I first showed up, and after having taken a pretty convoluted path. These days I live outside the beautiful city of Vancouver, British Columbia, and I'm pretty happy about that. I love the place I live, but I also love all the other places I have lived before. And I am particularly interested in the places where my family lived, long before I was even an inkling.



My new book is all about a kid named Darby who is happy where she lives, and doesn't know or care too much about it, until she's forced to move away for the summer. And when she's unhappily esconced with her grandparents in a weird little one-lobster town, things start to happen. Things involving an old out-building with a stone window frame. Things that make her suddenly sit up and take notice -- for the first time -- not only where she came from, but where the other people she cares about came from, too. When she finds herself crawling on her hands and knees through 10,000 year-old snow, coming face to face with a polar bear, and riding the Atlantic waves on a coffin ship, Darby finds a lot more adventure than she ever expected in a sleepy little Maritime town.

Darby's adventures got me thinking. Where were YOU born? Do you still live near there? And what kind of adventures did YOUR family go through to get you where you are today?

If you'd like to share your ideas, leave your story in the comments. And I'm pretty sure Liviania will let me do a draw to give one of Darby's new books away.

If you'd like to read more about how Darby celebrated her new book, you can read her blog HERE. Or, if you'd like, you can read my blog here: http://kcdyer.blogspot.com/ And my website is here at http://www.kcdyer.com/I look forward to meeting you -- and hearing YOUR adventures.

~kc dyer

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Not only will I hold a draw, I'll hold one to give away two signed copies of A WALK THROUGH A WINDOW, one each to people who can follow rules.

Since this is my blog, I'll tell my story here instead of in the comments. I've never left the US, but Canada might be the first other country I visit. My sister now lives in N. Dakota, so when my mom and I drive up to see her we might as well drive the extra bit. This'll come before I leave for England.

I was born in a small suburb of Houston that is much larger now. My family moved to a suburb of Austin while I was still tiny, but moved back to that original 'burb before I entered elementary. I thought I would live there through high school, but my mother moved to be closer to her family after the divorce. Since then, my main residence has been in a Dallas/Fort Worth area suburb. I still visit my dad in Houston frequently. Plus, I go to college in Austin.

The odd thing about the college I chose is its the one my sister always wanted to go to. (She didn't.) I dreamed of Ivy Leagues and Rice until money slapped me in the face and laughed. But I'm really happy with the quality of my education.

So, there is one strip of Texas with which I'm really familiar. (Buy your klobasneki and kolaches at Hruska's in Ellinger, the Czech Stop in West, and Zamykal Gourmet Kolaches in Calvert.)