#vancouver reading

[amandaleduc]

Magical Vancouver, magical times

Vancouver! Oh, beautiful city. So beautiful, in fact, that I took hardly any pictures while I was in town. I did, however, eat green curry from The Noodle Box. On two separate occasions. Not bad for a five-day stay. I also ate a cupcake from here, had a danish from here, ate gelato at this lovely place, had ice cream from another gelato bar a few days later, and ate pizza from here and Irish soda bread over here all in between. And I even managed to sell a couple of books in between all of that eating. The Vancouver reading came together with the help of Sierra Skye Gemma, aka Super Wonderful Wonderwoman. A few months ago, after some Twitter congrats (Sierra was named Best New Magazine Writer at this year's NMA's! Three cheers for her!), I emailed Sierra and asked her if she knew of any reading series taking place in Vancouver in the latter part of August. She got back to me almost right away and said that no, she didn't really know of anything, but if I wanted to pull a reading together she was totally game for something like that. And that, more or less, was what got the ball rolling. Sierra suggested a venue, Cottage Bistro, and when I suggested a magic realism theme for the evening, she put the word out to her fellow writers and compiled a stellar list of people ready and willing to read on the night. Said stellar list included the following lovely scribes: Jay Hosking, Andrea Hoff, Jen Neale, and Taylor Basso! I did some digging of my own as well, and got the wonderful folks at The Paper Hound to come on board and help sell books on the night. And it all went pretty much as well as one could want -- there was a good crowd, people all looked like they were enjoying themselves, and even the predictably shifty café lighting couldn't dim the upbeat mood...

Sierra, our Emcee Extraordinaire

Doc Hosking Himself

Andrea Hoff, and a tale of talking dogs...

Jen Neale, and Elk-Headed Man!

Taylor Basso and a rather racy read...

Yours truly, in the Official DIY Book Tour Shoes.

Dubious lighting aside -- or, more accurately, the dubious photographic skills of the iPhone in the face of café lighting aside -- I think they turned out pretty well. (We all have actual faces in real life. I swear.) I spent the rest of my time in Vancouver, as above, eating delicious things and going for walks on the beach. I even got a few hours of writing squeezed in one day. All in all, it was pretty magical. And now I am back on Vancouver Island, for a few days of relaxation before making my way out to the wilds of Fernie and the company of a certain, equally wild Angie Abdou and friends...

[amandaleduc]

Vagabonding!

It's officially begun now. But first! Check out the incredibly lovely poster that The Great and Amazing Troy Palmer did up for my reading in Vancouver! I'll be sharing the stage with four other amazing writers: Jay Hosking, Andrea Hoff, Taylor Basso, and Jen Neale, and I couldn't be happier about it. Here's the link to the Facebook event. Twenty-five days and counting!

The people who are subletting my wonderful little apartment arrived late at night on Thursday. In preparation for them, I spent the better part of Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday packing extraneous stuff  into boxes and shuttling it (and one hella-heavy oversized suitcase) all down my rickety apartment stairs. It's five days later now and I am still sore. Fun times! Anyway, it's all done now. Hurrah! The subletters are LOVELY, my stuff is packed neatly away, and I am officially a transient up-to-no-gooder for the next 2.5 months. Three cheers. I am currently house-and-dog-sitting for dear friends who, as it happens, live a short jaunt away from my apartment. Here's a picture of my new roommate. His name is Atticus, and he is wonderful:

I'll be housesitting until the 14th of August, at which point the travels begin in earnest. First stop: a night in Toronto, and a reading at the TO ChiSeries. And then: the world! (Or a scattered tour of the Canadian part of it, anyway.) I am very excited to go, not least of all because I'll be meeting so many of my Twitter acquaintances in real life for the very first time. Also, I'll be seeing and spending time with a great many old friends, which thrills me to no end. Who knows: I might even get some writing done. My enthusiasm for The New Novel has waned considerably, as anyone could probably have predicted, but I'd still like to have a revised, workable draft done by the end of August. Now that my things are packed up and the subletting taken care of, I'm hoping I'll be able to get some good work done over the next few weeks. There might be time for a writing blitz or two before the 14th. Eleven days! That's plenty of time, right? My fingers are crossed, anyway.