Hello, everyone [from Sue]Or, in Canada-speak, Hi, guys, ....and other news.

Everything going well so far. Good flight, with spectacular views as we flew across Greenland and Northern Canada. The weather during the first week was lovely - sunny and warm with clear blue skies but as we entered our second week the cloud and rain moved in, bringing the temperatures down. Still, it hasn't stopped us enjoying ourselves!





On our first day here, the Queen and Prince Philip arrived to spend a day in Calgary, so we joined the throngs to see them drive by. We had a good view of Prince Philip waving from the car window, but couldn't see much of Liz apart from her hat. We have visited various sights and museums dealing with Canadian geography and history - the Indians, The Mounties, the trading posts, the lives of the ranching families. We have been on our first trip into the Rockies, visiting Banff and Jasper, seeing waterfalls and going on a Snow-coach ride onto the Athabasca Glacier - a very different experience.





This area is extremely varied - Calgary is only an hour away from the mountains yet there is also lots of rolling, arid prairie land. Mining was a big industry here once, so there are many museums and artifacts dealing with that. Drumheller is the site of the biggest dinosaur findings in Canada and has a fascinating museum dealing with the excavations and dinosaur history.





As for more modern wildlife, we haven't seen a great deal of it yet although there are warning notices and bear-proof bins throughout the Rockies region. We have seen several of the white-tailed deer that are very common here, but no big fellows such as elk, caribou or moose. We saw a huge beaver dam in one of the rivers, though no sign of the beavers. Black squirrels are quite common, we have also seen one red. There are lots of prairie ground squirrels, called gophers - they look more like a small weasel than a squirrel and live in burrows in the ground. We have seen several different species of birds: American robins, red-winged blackbirds and the very pretty Blue Mountainbirds.





We are currently back in Calgary, spending our second weekend with my cousin Terry and his wife Carol. They have made us very welcome, and we are enjoying a break from the sightseeing while we do some more normal, everyday things. On Monday, we set off again for another trip into the Rockies, returning to Terry and Carol for a final visit next weekend before we begin our trip across the mountains towards Vancouver.





I will send more news as we travel round. Meanwhile, love to everyone at home,





Sue.





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An email from Jan.





Whilst you have been to your Scribblers meeting tonight, I haven't been slacking as I've been busy sending off my microstories to Spread the Word's 4th annual writing competition. Have you heard about it?





Spread the Word wants short stories of just 50 words! - Something which I have found addictive. Once you write one then you want to write another! Prizes include £150 of book tokens. Why not give it a try? There is still plenty of time left as the closing date isn't until 1st August.





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... additional info from Spread the Word website:





Spread the Word's Fourth Annual Creative Writing Competition - Microstory



Stories - no more than 50 words - come in all shapes and sizes, and it can be about anything you like from a mini-saga to a love story, knife-edge thriller to a short, short tale of woe. There are two categories of entry, under 16, and 16 and over, the prizes are book tokens of £150 (1st Prize), £100 (2nd Prize), and £50 (3rd Prize).



Enter online by visiting Spread the Word’s microSTORY website at www.spreadtheword.org.uk/microstory/





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Dear Writing Group Secretary





As you may already know, The AA Independent Press Guide, with detailed information of over 2000 print magazines and publishers, is now hosted online at my website: http://www.thunderburst.co.uk/



This service is a completely free resource for writers, artists and editors. Recently I have added further resources, including links to over 700 internet zines. I’ve also added pages of links to writers’ resources, writers’ personal websites; and most recently, the websites of writing groups and circles.





If you would like me to link to your writing group, please send me the URL, name of your group and its geographical location.





I’d be grateful if you could link back to my website. Below I’ve pasted in HTML code, if you use banners and/or descriptions.





All the very best, Dee Rimbaud





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Dear editor,





Have you, or anyone you know, had a bad experience in the world of writing? Been ripped off? Had your hopes raised and your time wasted by people who promised fame and fortune but failed to deliver?



We at Can Write Will Write have opened a forum dedicated to exposing such sharp practice by encouraging people to tell others about their experiences. We want the parasites that leech off the energy, enthusiasm and money of dedicated writers to be named and shamed.





Serious or trivial, tragic or comic, we want to hear all the scams people get up to in order to destroy our dreams while separating us from our money. Forewarned is forearmed.





Please tell us your story so that others may be warned.



Our address is: http://www.canwritewillwrite.com/





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