UK & Ireland Domination Tour – Part 5

This has been a whirlwind 30 hours or so. Yesterday I said goodbye to my lovely British publicist, Sarah, when we arrived in Manchester from Lytham St. Anne’s.

She hopped off at Manchester central and I continued to the airport (that’s us, above, in Lytham St. Anne’s train station, including our cab driver’s shadow which I think lends the picture a certain je ne sais quoi). I flew from Manchester to Dublin, arriving late afternoon to find the equally wonderful publicist Cormac Kinsella awaiting me. (yes his name is really Cormac – you couldn’t ask for a better Irish name). He drove me to my hotel (Brooks), which is very charming and right in the heart of Dublin. I immediately went out wandering – it is a beautiful city and alive with pub and restaurant culture. I came back after a while and got dressed for dinner; Phil Twomey (a woman), Penguin Random House’s sales manager here, and Cormac, had arranged a meal for us with a whole pile of amazing bookish types: David O’Callaghan, Jacq Murphy and Elizabeth Blake from Easons; Caoilfhionn Fay (I dare you to try to figure out how her name is pronounced) from Dubray Books; Mary Brigid Turner from Hodges Figis book shop; Catriona Bennett from Argosy Wholesale; and Aoife Murray from Children’s Books Ireland (okay – her name is pronounced like Evie but with an F, and Caoilfhionn is pronounced Keelan).

Before we met them for dinner though, the three of us – Cormac, Phil and I – went to a gorgeous pub called The Long Hall and I had my first Guinness! ‘Twas delicious. Then it was on to Fallon & Byrne for dinner. Food was excellent, but even more excellent was the company. I had an absolute blast. We talked and laughed a lot (and drank a lot of wine).

David O’Callaghan and Catriona Bennett

David is the brains behind the entire DeptCon conference – the children’s/YA buyer for Easons, he is a real character, so lively and passionate about books, and movies, and TV series. It turns out he’s a huge fan of Orphan Black – so much so that he’s been to two fan conventions and lined up for hours to go to panels featuring the creators and stars of the show – so much so he even had this photo done: I also got to ask my burning question about something on my itinerary. It said I was having dinner tonight with the DeptCon dinks. “Dinner/DeptCon dinks.” I asked, what the hell is a dink? I thought it was like a group of YA Lit uber-fans or something. No one knew what the hell I was talking about, then Cormac looked at the itinerary (which he’d prepared) and said, “It’s a typo. It’s meant to say “drinks.” I don’t know why we all found it so funny, but we agreed we should have t-shirts made. The thing I find funniest is that it never, ever occurred to me that it was a typo.

We had a wonderful three and a half hour meal together. Here we all are together. And here I am with Cormac, who has been so kind to me (so far. We’ll see if he can keep it up after another full day of Nielsen). This morning I wasn’t meeting Cormac till eleven so I had a wander around the city. I wish I was here longer to see more. Then Cormac drove me to a school nearby, where I presented to about 150 kids. Great kids, a really fun event – and when I was done, the school gave me presents! Beautiful food items from Harvey Nichols, and two gorgeous books. I am going to have to do a very very good job when I try to repack my bag in a couple of days. Cormac brought me back to the center of town and we had a great lunch, then I did a stock signing at both Hodges and Figgis: And at Dubray’s: While I was at Dubray’s, we were talking to a lovely guy named Dave who works there, and I picked up a book of stories from “The Moth” podcast and commented on how much I love the podcast – and he gave me the book! Honestly … I may be forced to pay an added fee for the weight of my bag on the way home.

Now I’m having a wee rest in my room before wandering over to DeptCon for a bit. Cormac will meet me there and take me to dinner, then we’ll meet the other DeptConners for drinks when today’s panels are done. I have to be a good girl tonight because tomorrow is a full day, complete with a TV appearance (!?!), a radio interview, and of course my DeptCon panel, which David O’Callaghan is moderating (hooray). I’m appearing with Lisa Williamson, who wrote this amazing book: I can’t recommend it enough. It is a fabulous novel. Her characters, and story, are riveting. OK I will probably write my final post on Sunday, at Heathrow, where I have a five hour layover before heading back to Vancouver!