So I just got home from Word on the Street Halifax. I was flown from one coast to the other, thanks to the wonderful fact that “The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen” has been nominated for the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award (thank you Canadian Children’s Book Centre). They have some sort of partnership with the CBC, and money was found to fly me to the Atlantic Coast.
It was a whirlwind trip and I had a blast. What a great city. My event was fantastic; I was interviewed by local CBC personality Carmen Klassen and four amazing 12-year-olds who’d won a contest to be in the CBC book club.
I love this photo, minus my muffin top. God, I can’t stop staring at it, and thinking I should have stood up. Yes, I waste precious time thinking about things like this. But really, these kids were great, really smart, and it was a fun hour. And we had Canadian celebrities in our midst! I looked up at one point and was tickled to see two of the stars of SEED sitting in the audience, Adam Korson and William Ainscough (and William’s beautiful actress mom, Nicole Oliver).
I met them afterward and they were lovely. Adam is, well, hubba-hubba – and a very nice man, who’s making a documentary about bullying. And William, good god, I wanted to take him home in my suitcase, but I don’t think his mom would have liked that. These two are so perfectly cast as father and son! Plus they both bought my book, so now I also know they have excellent taste in literature. 🙂
The star attraction of Word on the Street Halifax was none other than Jian Ghomeshi. Because he was also appearing in the CBC tent, the CBC arranged for me to have a “private audience” with him (okay, that’s my term, not theirs). I bought his memoir, “1982,” beforehand.
Man, is that guy good-lookin’. We all know this from his posters, but he’s even cuter in real life. And he was really kind and gracious, and made me feel at ease. It was actually quite funny because he went right into interviewer mode, and started asking me questions! But we had a pleasant chat about writing, and about writing in the young adult voice (because he had to do so in some of his memoir), and writing first-person, etc. Here is my half-out-of-focus photo.
I’m really looking forward to reading his book. Later that night, after a delightful dinner with fellow YA author Vicki Grant (check out her blog about her latest project, it sounds so amazing), I met up with Jennifer Daley, a talented TV writer whom I’d worked with on “Robson Arms,” and who’s now working on “Seed.” Over too many glasses of wine, Jen reminded me of another celebrity encounter we had together – so I’ll write that one up tomorrow.
Oh, Halifax. It was super-short, but super-fun. Oh, and if you ever get a chance, see the 24th Street Wailers – they’re Toronto-based but were playing at Bearly’s in Halifax over the weekend – and they were fantastic! Also, Bearly’s was fantastic – there were people rocking out there between the ages of 20 and 80, and the 80 year olds were the biggest partiers of all.
