Part of the job of making art is getting out there and sharing it with your audience. Sharing/publicizing/pushing for sales. All that stuff is part of the deal. It's a part of the job in drastic contrast with the rest of working in the arts, which involves a consistent and steady aloneness, a you-and-your-computer type of existence.
This past week, with the release of (you) set me on fire, I did a little book promotion spree. Originally, as we started booking things (that is, me and my publisher), I had this notion that I would segment the day into four parts, which meant I could do at least 3 appearances or gigs a day, with one part of the day saved for rest and relaxation.
This, so you know, as I now know, is a nutty approach to book promotion.
In part this is because, as it turns out, I am a bit of a delicate flower in need of at least 2 parts of rest and relaxation for every one part of standing on stage.
I spent the better part of the week after my week of book promotion on the floor watching Home Movies on Netflix.
That said, all told. I had an awesome time. Below are some flashes/moments from (you) set me on fire, the tour.
1) Eden Mills
I've often said that the Eden Mills Writers Festival is the mecca of arts festivals. It's just so incredibly gorgeous there. So gorgeous it's almost suspicious. I mentioned to Clare Hitchens, organizer of the YA reading, my suspicion that the town was just a carefully staged false front that folded up when it wasn't hosting the festival. Like if you were to return a week later, it would all be gone. Just a crop circle several kilometers from Guelph. Maybe a few pamphlets scattered on the ground. I mentioned this to Clare and she said NOTHING. Suspicious to say the least. Seriously. How fucking cute is this place?
2) Private School Creative Writing Classes
This past week I taught four creative writing classes, one at St. Mildred Lightbourn School and three at Havergal College. This was my pilot run of my new "villains" class, where the class creates a villain together and then writes a love letter to said villain. I will say, asking high schoolers about villains is a very enlightening exercise. High schoolers, when pushed, can be deliciously gross. The St. Mildred's class gave their villain a job at a coffee shop and an excessively long pinky nail. The Havergal class, amongst other things, gave their villain one eye larger than the other and... Well it was kind of interesting actually. It was a very un-Disney villain. Intensely inspired by CSI/Criminal Minds, both shows I used to watch all the time until I realized how many of my dreams involved witnessing grisly murders.
In other news.
I am apparently part of Havergal College's old girl quiz, which would be cooler if it didn't involve this picture of me in a vest.
You cannot see the vest very clearly in this picture. But I am wearing one. Why is anyone's guess. WHY?! Why do I insist on buying and then wearing vests? I look RIDICULOUS in them. Honestly.
In other news, I feel compelled to tell you that at St. Mildred's school the students get a muffin break every day at 11 am. How amazing is that?! Not only that but they can request muffins.
And they're dairy and egg free. I plan to request a chocolate chip and pecan pumpkin muffin for my return.
Seeing this sign and chewing on my muffin I had a moment to reflect on how much private school life has changed significantly since I went to school. My only regret is that the students at St. Mildred's may not know the joy of the contraband Joe Louis snack, snuck into third period, eaten in layers, beginning with the slow de-skinning of the Joe Louis of its chocolate shell.
Hard times.
3) Edgy Panels
This year I read at the Toronto Word on the Street's This is Not The Shakespeare stage. Technically I would say every stage was not the Shakespeare stage, as no one was at WOTS reading Shakespeare. Because he's not really into promotion right now. This stage, however, was stocked with ladies who felt this fact to be a badge of distinction. Like, HELL NO we're not the Shakespeare stage. UHHH!
Left to right. Myself, Natalie Zina Walschots, Lesley Livingston, and Deborah Kerbel.
By some miracle, every time I sat down to a reading, it started raining. Which was perfectly timed for me, because it meant I/we had a captive audience, and a place to sit in the rain. At the time the above photo was taken, a woman had just entered the tent with two cats in a customized baby stroller. Natalie and I, as you can see, are gleefully capturing and tweeting the shit out of said phenomena.
I want to thank everyone who came out to visit. And I want to thank the lovely people of The Academy of the Impossible, Word on the Street and the Eden Mills Festival for being such fabulous hosts.
I want to thank everyone who came out to visit. And I want to thank the lovely people of The Academy of the Impossible, Word on the Street and the Eden Mills Festival for being such fabulous hosts.
Later this month I'll be in Ottawa and Montreal, doing 1 part a day of book promotion, and 1 part snacking, 1 part visiting friends.
Can't wait.
xoxo
mariko