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.
