Blog News
October 19, 2010 9:41 AM
Notes From WordFest
Monday, Oct. 18, 2010
Phew - what a whirlwind this week has been! It’s Monday morning and I’m just catching my breath after three days of presentations for Wordfest in Calgary and Banff (note - this thin Rocky Mountain altitude doesn’t help the breathing thing).
It all started last Tuesday evening when I flew from Toronto to Calgary - chasing the sunset for much of the flight.
By the time I landed in Calgary we’d lost the race, it was too dark to see anything. And as it turned out, I was way too busy to really see much of the city aside from our lovely hotel, The Fairmont Palliser:
And some street art on a sunny walk along scenic Stephen Ave. on Thursday afternoon.
It all went by in a bit of a blur, but here’s a quick numeric summary of it all:
So over 3 days in Calgary and Banff, I presented LURE 5 times. - 4 of those times with superstar of kidlit, Kenneth Oppel. That’s about 1000 eager kids, 500 autographs signed, 300 bookmarks given away, 100 questions answered, 70 hands shaken, 50 photos posed for, 3 meals skipped for lack of time, 2 signing pens completely drained of ink, and 1 thrilled and overwhelmed author (that would be me).
As you might imagine, presenting with Kenneth Oppel was a huge treat. I knew he was a big deal, but I guess I hadn’t realized quite how big until this trip. When we walked through crowds together, kids would clap and scream and call out his name. Honestly, it was almost like I was touring with a rock star. But he’s a nice guy who’s somehow managed not to let his crazy success go to his head. So yeah, I felt lucky to be riding along on those famous coattails.
I was pretty certain that none of the kids packing our presentations were coming to see Deborah Kerbel.
Excuse me…Deborah who?
But after hearing me speak about LURE, the kids were clearly taken with the real-life ghost story theme of the book. After our first presentation, Ken Oppel turned to me and said: “Did you just sell more books than me?” Yeah, baby…I did (just that once, mind you). And by the end of the third presentation, I’d sold completely out of LURE! A mad scramble for more copies ensued (too bad I hadn’t packed any of my own).
On Thursday night, after a full day of presentations, a small group of kidlit authors packed our bags and moved on to Banff. We drove into the Rockies at dusk and the view of the mountains was spectacular.
Since arriving at the Banff Centre, I’ve met so many great book-ish people. The graphic novel duo of J. Torres and J. Bone, award-winning author Sharon McKay, renowned editor Barbara Berson, PB powerhouse Ruth Ohi, Aussie MG mystery writer Richard Newsome, French author Susie Morgenstern, agent extraordinaire John Pierce, and literary phenom Jane Urquhart to name a few.
No more presentations now…just time to hang with the other artists, soak up the view, and of course, catch that elusive breath. Sorry…did I mention the view?
Today, the sun is shining in Banff and the Rocky Mountains are covered with a light dusting of snow. A perfect day to open up a fresh document and start something new…
