How I'm spending my summer vacation

That's me standing up yesterday at Fort York in Toronto, site of one of the big battles of the War of 1812. I was guest speaker at the "Junior Authors" summer camp hosted by the Harbourfront Centre, home of the world-famous International Festival of Authors. I had great fun talking to a dozen young people, ages 10-15, about writing, and they asked very perceptive questions.

Meanwhile, I spent part of today working on some suggestions for the film adaptation of The Terminal Experiment that's in development; I'm actually a paid consultant on the film, in addition to the option fee for the underlying literary property. I've been enjoying fielding very insightful and tough questions from the director/screenwriter.

Sunday is the annual barbecue for The Fledglings, the writers' workshop I put together with the best writers who had come to see me when I was Writer in Residence at The Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation and Fantasy, back in 2003.

And on Monday, I'm off to the University of Toronto at Mississauga, where they teach my Mindscan in the summer science-fiction course, to speak to the students. Let's see if they can ask questions as good as those posed by the ten-year-olds yesterday! :)