Broughttogetherbychance

{I love the review quoted here.}

My poor publicity assistant Kelsey Marshall and those who attended my reading/talk last night at A Novel Spot (a fantastic little bookstore in Etobicoke)—by the end of the day, I was in the truly ugly stage of a cold.

I thought of Caroline Leavitt, who recently got sick before an author event, but carried on—and so I carried on. Mostly I was worried about infecting others, so I elbow-bumped greetings and had the hand-wipe handy while signing.

It was my first full presentation for The Shadow Queen. I have a week before my next one (at the Toronto Public Library on the 24th), so I will have time to think about it. People seemed to enjoy the talk, but I usually try different selections, and notice which ones go over best. This particular reading evoked the memory of my father, which made me a little emotional. 

I saw the Canadian edition for the first time: it is the same cover design as the U.S. edition, but with very subtle differences. I love the matt cover and the blue-green inside cover and end-papers—beautiful touches.

Those of you who posted a review to Amazon and/or Goodreads: thank you so much! (And those of you who tried to post to Amazon, but couldn’t, I hope you persevere.)

I’m staying in a studio apartment not far from my daughter Carrie and her family. I don’t think I’ll ever forget little Kiki running to greet me, “Nana, Nana!” It’s cruel to be so close and now cooped up with a cold. 

It’s an amazingly busy time, this birthing of a book. Fortunately, a lot of it can be done from a bed. :-) 

(How did we ever manage before without smiley faces?)