been there, wrote that, got the t-shirt

It has been a really big few days for this book baby of mine! (And I feel duty bound to record it here...)

The Toronto launch at Type Books was really fun, and the only thing I would have changed would have been to build in some book shopping time for myself because Type is an extremely enticing store.

Before and after the reading, I met some truly lovely people for the first time in person, and there were many friendly faces of friends formerly of Ottawa and Montreal.  It was really nice to see everyone!  I was a little giddy and huggy, and (I hope) more or less coherent when chatting to a number of attendees who were kind enough to buy books to have signed.

And there were mini-eggs!  And a whole bowl of red gummi Big Foots!  And wine and beer and Sun Chips.  Andrew Kaufman was as sweet and hilarious as his novels, and the wonderful Kyle Buckley asked some great conversation-sparking questions.

A photo from Twitter taken during Andrew's reading

The next day, I was on live national television on Canada AM!  This meant getting up at 6 a.m. to get ready (and explore the world of powdered, non dairy creamer via the hotel room coffeemaker), before publicist K drove us out to Scarborough to be on air at 8:40 a.m.

I did my own makeup and hair, but when they asked me if I wanted more makeup, I of course said yes!  The makeup artist let me take some photos of her huge kit, which I loved seeing.

Just out of the frame: approximately 50 MAC lipsticks

I still haven't watched the clip because a) I was there and b) it's much nicer to just believe what all my friends and family said about it, which is that it went really well!  But you can watch it online, if you like.

K, the producer, shared this photo on Twitter 

of Marci Ien and I chatting before the segment.

I also got to visit the House of Anansi office for the first time!  It is a gorgeous, good-vibes place full of extremely nice and stylish employees.  K, publicist extraordinaire, was nice enough to let me leave with a T-shirt* and a bag full of books, both of which made me feel positively gleeful.

Still feeling A-listy after a great trip to Toronto

Somehow, before the day was over, there were also two more photo shoots and an interview, and even more improbably (or is it??), each one was with someone kind, funny, and talented, who did their best to put me at ease.  There was also some extremely rapid shoe shopping, with some excellent results.

The post-live-national-television-appearance red boots.

Descending back into Montreal, a mere 24 hours later.

As soon as I got home, I lost whatever adrenaline was keeping my little cold from turning into a big one.  But I hope to be fully over it in time for this Thursday's Montreal launch for Bone and Bread!

* This Anansi T-shirt is not only in my favourite colours, but specifically in my favourite T-shirt colour (my cool dozen grey t-shirts actually led to the great T-shirt embargo of 2011, though free T-shirts are a notable exception) and it is a high quality Roots t-shirt, which will perfectly complement the Roots sweatpants that make up the usual bottom half of my writing uniform.  Whoop!

A banner day

Yesterday really was a banner day (and I've just realized the banner photo on this blog is of...a banner...one of the many, many bunting banners I sewed for my wedding day).  

Most thrilling for me is to have been (I think...this has been a long ongoing process of weeks and weeks...and I really hope I'm not jinxing it) chosen as one of the soloists in my upcoming choir concert.  Singing is my other love besides writing, and while I usually describe it as my only other talent, it is definitely something I have had to work hard at in terms of not choking during auditions.  Nervousness seems to attack my stomach and my vocal chords in equal measure in such instances, even though it doesn't seem to be an issue in actual performances.  Anyway, I am dance-around-the-apartment excited because I have literally been trying out for years and because this semester we are doing medleys from both of my favourite musicals from when I was younger: The Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables.  

Also totally thrilling: my author copy of my novel arrived, and it looks amazing!

I love how thick it is (448 pages).  

I also found out about and contributed to The Veronica Mars Movie Kickstarter project.  Veronica is one of my very favourite television shows of all time, and it is really looking as though this movie is going to happen.  (Insert an excited fan-girl squee to drown out all others.)

I also changed departments at my day job, and yesterday was my last day in my old office.  It was a very busy early half of the week trying to finish everything up.  Yesterday, we had lunch together and my coworkers gave me a very sweet card and a gift card to Paragraphe Bookstore (!), which I am carrying around like a magic ticket, trying to imagine what I will use it for, especially since I am totally spoiled by how many books I have been buying lately.

And....today was my first day in my new department, which is really my old department because I worked there for three years before as a casual employee.  I left five years ago, which is a terrifying thought because it really doesn't feel that long.  And not much seems to have changed. I mean that literally, because when I went to look for a notebook to start taking down phone messages, I reached for a spiral one shelved on the desk and it was my notebook, one I must have accidentally left behind, almost entirely full except for four pages.  

I'm so happy to be back among old friends, and so happy to be reunited with this amazing view of Mount Royal:

And just one week from today is my first Bone and Bread-related event, its book launch in Toronto at Type Books!  

Salty Ink, Type Books, and Oscar blabbing

Salty Ink, one of my favourite Can Lit websites has featured Bone and Bread in the first installment of its Spring Fiction Spotlight -- 15 Novels to Put on Your Reading Radar.  Hurray! 

Also, you have probably already seen this if you’re on Twitter (or if you live in Toronto!), but I love it too much not to belatedly share it here: a beautiful window display at Type Books by Kalpna Patel, who has one of my all-time favourite handles on Twitter and who snapped the photo below:

Display for Freedom to Read Week at Type Books

Did you watch the Oscars?  I watched the whole thing at a lovely, low-key Oscar party with delicious eats, but today I find I don’t have much to say about it besides a deeper love of Adele, whose performance of Skyfall was amazing and almost nonchalant, and who, in the context of these Hollywood award shows, just seems refreshingly real every time she opens her mouth.   Also, in the days leading up to the Oscars, I stumbled upon this insider’s look at Oscar voting, which was being linked to as some kind of shocking revelation (people vote without watching the movies!) but is not really very surprising at all. 

It was also a big night for Life of Pi, which I’m looking forward to seeing, and I felt some real Can Lit pride to see it do so well.  I was happy that at least two of the people who won (including Ang Lee for best director) acknowledged Yann Martel’s novel.  (I wonder…if a movie based on your book is nominated for an Oscar, do they stick you up in the balcony?)  

One of several delicious courses last night.  Carrot-apple-ginger soup by M, hostess extraordinare:

procrastination, book covers and yellow boots

The draft still looms. Instead of editing, I've been buying shoes. I've been working on freelance stuff. I've cleaned out and washed the inside of my refrigerator. (My main thought after finishing this last task was not the expected satisfaction of gleaming rails and orderly foodstuffs, but rather, what a waste of time.) I've toyed with (and discarded) the idea of entering Canada Writes for creative non-fiction ($6000 prize! A Leighton studio! Deadline: Feb. 1) and, relatedly, have been sidetracked at length into tracing genealogy via the Nova Scotia Historical Vital Statistics.

Tomorrow is February, which leaves me less than six weeks for an editing blitz. But I'm comforted by the thought that, sooner or later, I have to start. I will start.

Until then, though, in case you're somehow out of the viral video loop, here's a magical little film of a rainbow of books getting up to some nighttime antics at the wonderful Type Books. Apparently it took four full nights to film. And yes, although writers often make a number of comparisons between books and children that I do not necessarily support, I can definitely always pick my book out of a crowd. I was happy to see it in the video!




I can spot it at one hundred paces. The cover is a very particular shade of yellow (I love it).

Hmmm, that also makes me realize why I may have been coveting these boots for years. I finally bought them when they went on (super) sale this week.

Although I think the book goes with everything, I'm not sure the boots will. Suggestions welcome.