• I write books.

    I do! It's true. I have written for all sorts of different audiences. My first book was literary adult fiction and I've written many many books that have fallen into the category "juvenile fiction" and "YA fiction". I talk about my books and writing in general on my other site, which is at www.karenrivers.com. (I don't know how to make that a live link, so you may have to copy and paste.) (Sorry.) THIS site is about me, my hair, my kids, my appliances, and that time that I rode my bike down a cliff and then got stung by a bee. It may not all be appropriately awesome (or even slightly interesting) to kids, so if you are young, LOOK AWAY. That said, there is nothing harmful here, except the occasional swear, which I ask you to edit out with your eyes. Blink blink.
  • I take pictures.

    Parksville, Day 3

    Thetis Lake, Thursday

    Thetis Lake, Thursday

    More Photos
  • Is it safe to eat raw bacon?

    No. You shouldn't eat any raw pork products. You could get trichinosis and no doubt a number of other food-borne illnesses. With the recent change in food safety standards, I'd frankly cook the crap out of any meat product I purchased before eating it. Even if it's already cooked. Seriously. Keep in mind that I am not a raw bacon expert, I just play one on the web.

  • I Flock
  • Categories

People Talking, People Laughing, A Man Selling Ice Cream.

Guess what song is in my head?   If you can’t guess, that means you are young.   Enjoy your youth.   Before you know it, you are humming lyrics that no one around you recognizes.   Because you are old.   Irrelevant.   Past your prime. So the other day I was on one [...]

New Feature: Pointless Overshare Wednesday!

1.  I was sitting on the couch just now, doing what I do — which alternates between obsessively checking my e-mail to see if anyone is interested in validating me today, reading about how Jake Pavelka was on The Bachelor for the $500,000 and was (bad) acting the whole time (raise your hand if you’re [...]

This Blog Post is Titled: Miscellaneous.

1.   When L’Oreal introduced its new foundation that came with a little roller, meant to end the horror which was “streaked foundation” that was sweeping the nation like a plague of zombies, I laughed and said, “That’s brilliant!  Create a problem that doesn’t exist and then fix it!   What idiots!  They think we [...]

Writers write. But sometimes they also go shopping, have a grilled cheese sandwich and read a book.

For the last little while, technically it will be a year in July, I’ve been working again.   And by “working”, I mean “writing” because that is the only work I know how to do.   I am between agents but I did sell my own WIP to a publisher and it will be out [...]

Vintage Spuddle: Who’s that chubby baby?

Why yes, that IS me. Aren’t I a little chunk of cuteness?     

I watched The Cove last night, BRACE YOURSELF.

I know you probably come to this blog because you genuinely care how tall Jake Pavelka is (short!) and how much Jillian Harris weighs (not much!) and now you’re all, “Wha-huh?” because I’m talking a lot about whales in captivity in the light of what just happened at Seaworld and generally I get a bit [...]

The Cove.

    

I covet stuff, which is a sin no doubt, so it’s a good thing I’m not religious.

I haven’t done a covet post for a while so I thought I’d do one now.   Because why not?  There are at least ten things I SHOULD be doing so blogging a random “shopping” list of my wants seems like a totally appropriate use of time.   My excuse is that I actually have [...]

As it turns out, I’m afraid of heights. I mean, like real, full on, can’t breathe, OMG am gonna die AFRAID.

The thing with a lifelong fear of heights is that as a person who is afraid of heights, you tend to avoid heights, period, and then you lose touch with EXACTLY HOW AFRAID YOU ARE.   If “you” are “me”, that is.  You forget.   You think — because you are an idiot — that [...]

On Choosing Your Cause and Believing, Against All Odds, In The Power Of People to Actually Change Their Minds.

Seaworld spokespeople are now saying that perhaps they won’t use “Tilly” in any more performance-based shows.   This is what we call “spin”.   They are facing a lot of pressure from activist groups.    They are going to play the middle ground until this story drops out of the news. Then Tilly will perform [...]