IWSG, ROW80, WRiTE CLUB, and Montreal Photos

nsecure Writer's Support Group day is here.

Thanks to Alex Cavanaugh for starting this group; I look forward to it every month.

On top of feeling insecure, there's also sad news - author Maeve Binchy and actor Geoffrey Hughes have passed away.

On the other hand, there's actually no time in August to be insecure:

There's my contest

There's DL Hammons' WRiTE CLUB (vote in Round One now!)

There's keeping up with ROW80 (I'm still writing every day!)

And... there's the Book Blog Olympics!

So far we've got the following categories: "funniest blog post, innovations in interviewing, speed reading or most books read in a 24 hour period, best flash fiction, and 'Twit-kwan-do', in which contenders would go head to head in 5-minute Twitter one-up contests."

If you have further suggestions for events, feel free! Funniest blog post ended last night, and I submitted a Nasreddin Hoca joke. Looking forward to that speed reading, of course.

I realised the other day that I keep sharing photos of travels, and hardly ever post any of Montreal! Michael has shared some of the skyline and architecture in his own gorgeous shots. Here're a handful I've taken in the past two months:

View of the downtown skyline from the Lachine Canal

John Cabot statue near Atwater Square, in Saughnessy Village

Close-up of Giovanni Caboto

I happened upon a filming of a Just for Laughs Festival Gags episode!

The little girl pretended to need help reading the map, and when an unsuspecting adult approached the map, a face appeared in it! Really just a little boy behind the booth. Notice the camerawoman/attendant in the back by the trees, with the headphones... (though I might have compressed the photograph too much for this to show up clearly)

Mural near the Burgundy Lion Pub

Old car in the same neighbourhood

I wish I could have ridden in it!

Tony the Sharpener!

Close-up of Tony Vecchiarelli's van. I always feel badly that I don't have any knives or scissors for him to sharpen; he's been in my neighbourhood since I was a kid, and I don't want him to go out of business!

Meanwhile, I leave you with a question... How would you take a snail to Constantinople?