UK & Ireland Domination Tour – The Finale

An addendum to this post: I wrote it in Heathrow during my layover but the internet was so shit that I couldn’t upload photos. So, I’m now back in Vancouver, safe, sound, jetlagged, and reveling in memories.

Here I am in Heathrow airport, with a longish layover till my flight to Vancouver. Flew in from Dublin early early this morning. It ain’t so bad though because I bought a lounge pass, so now I’m trying to eat my way through $25 worth of food ‘cos that’s how I roll.

Now that I finally have time to think, I’m starting to process this incredible trip. It has really been magical, and the last 36 hours were especially so. On Friday night, my Dublin publicist, Cormac Kinsella, took Phil (PRH rep) and I out for dinner at a fantastic steakhouse called The Bull and Castle. Cormac knows all the best places in town (and there are a ton of good places in Dublin). He’s also just a really great person – he took such good care of me while I was there. We feasted on oysters and steaks.I also bought a Galway hooker. Because, you know … how could I not? It was my first ever hooker! But hopefully not my last. (Okay, okay, silly Canadian will stop now).

We then walked over to the Deptcon drinks party (not the Deptcon dinks party as it had read on my itinerary and which had me guessing for a long, long time). It was really great, although Cormac kept a keen eye on me and made me leave at 10:30 sharp because I had a very early morning TV appearance on Saturday morning and he didn’t want me to look and feel like crap. The highlight of my night came when I said I wished I’d had a chance to meet David Levithan, an author whose work I greatly admire, and this lovely chap Steve said, “Oh he’s right over there, I’ll go get him.” And next thing I knew, I was talking to David. He was really lovely and kind, as was Juno Dawson – Juno and I have been following each other on Twitter for a while. On Saturday morning it was up at seven am. Cormac and I went to a TV studio, where I got hair and makeup (bonus) and did a ten minute interview on their breakfast TV show. The hosts, Lisa and Simon, were so great. They really put me at ease. Plus I think I figured no one I knew would ever see it, so I could relax. Here are two hilarious shots Cormac took – I think I’d just told them the book has been pulled from some schools in Canada because of Ambrose’s occasional mention of spontaneous erections. After that, I was whisked off to a radio station to talk to Alison Curtis, who happens to be a fellow Canadian! She’s from Kingston, Ontario originally, although she’s been living in Dublin for 17 years. We had a great radio chat about my books (and Degrassi. A lot of people loved Degrassi in Ireland!). Here’s the link if you’re dying to hear it:

http://www.todayfm.com/player/podcasts/Saturday_Breakfast_with_Alison_Curtis/Saturday_Breakfast_with_Alison_Curtis/61767/2/Award-winning_author_Susin_Nielson_chats_to_Alison

I had a little rest, then it was back to DeptCon to do my panel with Lisa Williamson, author of the gorgeous “The Art of Being Normal.” Lisa was amazing. So lovely! I told her onstage I felt like we were separated at birth, except she’s much younger than me so it would be an impossibility. Our panel went really well (at least based on the feedback we got) – we had the best interviewer possible, for one thing, the man behind the entire DeptCon operation, David O’Callaghan. And it turns out Lisa and I approach our work in very similar ways. AND she also wanted to star in musicals, in London’s West End (my dream was Broadway, except I couldn’t dance, sing, or really even act).

We had a great book signing after that. The fans at DeptCon are so awesome! They are all united by their love of reading. I met a girl who’d come all the way from Sweden for the event. Here I am with Cormac and Phil.By the way, this is the venue we were in:

When Cormac and I left, we saw another fabulous Irishman, David Maybury, working on his moderating questions at a nearby coffee shop. David works for Scholastic in London. Cormac took this shot. I had a bit of free time after that so I walked along the Liffey.I did a little bit of clothes shopping for myself, heh. And snapped a few more shots around Dublin. Then I dashed back to my room to get a head start on packing, before Cormac and his lovely wife Sinead picked me up for dinner. We went to a great Italian joint and had pasta and wine, then hurried back to the Tivoli theatre in time to see the final panel, an interview with Carnegie medal winning Sarah Crossan, and dare I say sexy Scotsman/author Brian Conaghan. (What IS it about that accent?? Am I right? He’s from Glasgow too, so it’s particularly delicious to hear him talk). They’ve co-written a book together, and it was really interesting to hear them talk about the process.

Then it was back over to the pub for the final drinks party. I didn’t mean to stay very long, but suddenly I was being introduced to Sarah (who’d been in Cardiff when I was there, but to be honest I was too shy to go over and introduce myself). And most amazingly, she knew who I was. Then I met Brian, and not only did he know who I was, he’d READ MOLECULES and loved it. I just about fell over. The three of us had a long conversation, and then they found out I’d written for Degrassi Junior High – I think that was the biggest feather in my cap!It was a really special last night in Dublin, being surrounded by all these other authors (gosh, I haven’t even told you all the people I met, and they were honestly all so great – Holly Bourne, Deirdre Sullivan, Lee Weatherly et al. I outlasted Cormac and Sinead, but when I left just before midnight the party was still raging, and would for hours and hours, because that’s how they do things in Dublin. I said bye to David O’Callaghan, whom I adore – and I can only hope I may get the chance to go back one day.

Walked back to my hotel through the HORDES of partiers … never seen anything like it, not even in Rekjavik … then got about four hours of sleep before having to get up in the dark to get my cab to the airport. It’s been a once in a lifetime experience, this trip. Well – I don’t want to say “once in a lifetime” because I really hope it’ll happen again!