Last Wednesday found me at Harbourfront Center in Toronto to hear three authors read from their latest books. I was there officially for Emma Forrest, who is in Canada promoting her memoir, Your Voice in My Head. But how could I help but be eager to hear all the authors on this bill? James Bartleman read from his first novel, As Long as the Rivers Flow. He read about Native teenage suicides on reserves in Northern Ontario in the late 80s. It was heartbreaking, powerful, moving. Joy Fielding read the first chapter from her 23rd book (amazing!!!) called Now You See Her. It was an inspired reading and I was competely swept up in it and by the time she was finished, I was a believer! I can’t wait to read the rest of the book.

MORE…

Recently Christopher Plummer was in our downtown office to sign 500 plus copies of his biography, In Spite of Myself, for an upcoming event. The signing was split into two sessions, and I was lucky enough to be part of the assisting team for both sessions. Yes, we were all thrilled and honoured to meet him. Yes, he was genial and affable. And, yes, his eyes are just as amazing in reality as they are in film.

MORE…

Publicists have very clean cars. This observation may score low on the profundity scale, but it did make me realize that I could never do what they do. Not only could I not keep my car that clean, but I also lack the grace, patience and persistence required to trot authors around all day.

I have just finished the first leg of the Moolala media tour and I loved it. It was like spending three weeks at Disney World, in large part thanks to these great publicists. All I had to do was show up and I was escorted around, fed, watered, entertained, introduced and protected. I’m usually a very independent traveller and didn’t think I’d appreciate that level of service. But I did. To a seasoned book tour veteran I’m sure I sound completely naive, even deluded. But for now I’ll relish in the newness of seeing the book in an airport, hearing its title mangled by TV hosts, and being chauffeured around in a nice clear car.

[editor's note: If you missed Bruce Sellery on tour, check out these great videos featuring tips from Moolala.]

British Columbia’s National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction - Canada’s largest non-fiction prize - was awarded in Vancouver yesterday to John Vaillant for his book, The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival. The jury cited The Tiger as as “a page-turner that in the end brings us to understand the tiger, probably the most intelligent super-predator in the world. Superbly written and highly enlightening, this is a gripping story about man in conflict with nature.”

MORE…

Last Monday I was on television for the first time in my life.

I’m a magazine editor by day, crafter by night, and I never in my wildest dreams imagined that one day I’d be sitting on the set of CityTV’s Breakfast Television, waiting to tell the world about the brand-new craft book I’d co-edited, Create, Update, Remake.

MORE…

Oh the life of a publicist. Booking hotel rooms, arranging flights, juggling media schedules, the early mornings, late nights… Not so glamorous. But when you’re asked to do these things for Hollywood royalty like Suzanne Somers, somehow it seems a little better. What’s not to love about Suzanne? She read poetry to Johnny Carson, sang on a Vegas stage with Frank Sinatra, and starred in one of the most loved TV shows of all time. She has done it all.

MORE…

Karen Armstrong, author of A History of God, was in Toronto recently to promote her newest book, Twelve Steps To a Compassionate Life. In the green room at Toronto Public Library’s Appel Salon, with 450 people waiting to hear her speak, we noticed that both she and CBC’s Mary Hines, who would do the onstage interview, were wearing purple. Then Karen’s literary agent, Anne McDermid, entered the room, also wearing purple. I looked down at myself, realizing that I too, was dressed in the “colour of royalty”. By the time Toronto Public Library Program Director Tina Srebotnjak entered the room, also in purple, we were in fits. Coincidence?

What are Andrew Pyper, Jane Johnson, Nicolas Dickner and Tom Rachman reading now that their books are finished? We asked them: What’s on your nightstand?

	A Field Guide to Demons. – Andrew Pyper, author of The Guardians.
	A bit of a tottering pile! I’m happily rereading A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin (which I published in 1994) ahead of the big Sky dramatization in spring 2011; a biography of Charles II; the diary of John Evelyn; and A New History of the Crusades by Christopher Tyerman. – Jane Johnson, author of The Salt Road
	Ill Fares the Land by Tony Judt and Silas Marner by George Eliot. – Tom Rachman, author of The Imperfectionists
	The imposing Mordecai: The Life & Times by Charles Foran. (My nightstand is actually leaning.) I’m also rereading A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle, before viewing the BBC redux. And Deep Café by Malcolm Reid, a book about Leonard Cohen and the counterculture in Montréal in the mid-sixties. – Nicolas Dickner, author of Apocalypse for Beginners.

Want to learn more about the reading and writing habits of our authors? Check out our
20 Writerly Questions feature!

The Publicity Department is responsible for getting early copies of books into the hands of the “talkers”: those people who will read a book in its early stages and then tell all their friends about how great it is. Our hope is that word of mouth will cause such excitement that people will be bursting at the seams wanting a copy of their very own as soon as books hit store shelves. When that happens, life is great.

MORE…